Pastor's Place

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PASTOR’S CORNER "Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting, 'Hosanna!'" Mark 11:8-9 Christianity doesn’t regard any particular place or time as more holy than any other. While Christian pilgrims have referred to Palestine as “the Holy Land,” and Christian crusaders fought to establish kingdoms there in the Middle Ages, our Scriptures teach us Christ is present “wherever two or three are gathered in my name.” Yes, Galilee and Judea are historically places where Jesus lived and died, and where his empty tomb was found. But his final command to his disciples in Galilee was to “go” and make disciples of all nations. Wherever Christ’s people are is holy land. Similarly, while Christians traditionally have worshiped on Sunday, and have commemorated special events in Jesus’s life, again, our Scriptures teach us that no one day is holier than another. Yes, Sunday is historically the day Jesus rose from the dead. But his final worship instructions to his disciples was to “Do this in remembrance of me.” He didn’t say when. I mention these things as, at the end of March, we prepare to observe what we traditionally have called Holy Week. What is special about Holy Week is not the days themselves. Palm Sunday is no holier than any other Sunday of the year, nor is Good Friday any holier than any other Friday. What is important about these days are the events behind them. On a Sunday (probably) in April (likely) of perhaps the year 27 A.D. Jesus of Nazareth joined the annual Passover procession into Jerusalem riding a donkey. In this way, he was prophetically claiming to be God’s Messiah. On a Thursday of that week, he shared a final meal with his disciples, and later was arrested. The following day, Friday, he was crucified by the Romans. Early Sunday morning his tomb was discovered to be empty, and his disciples saw him alive, resurrected. It is that claim–that Jesus is God’s Messiah, which is holy to us. It is that meal, which we commemorate as the Lord’s Supper, which is holy to us. It is that death, which we understand as being for our redemption, which is holy to us. And finally it is that Resurrection, which we believe we also will experience, which is holy to us. We invite you to worship during Holy Week not because the week itself is special. Rather we invite you to worship that week so that you can hear again the stories of those events which changed your life forever.

Last Sunday's Sermon Lent 3.March 7.2010 I didn’t see that one coming. Tears you expect when you’re meeting with someone to plan a family member’s funeral, even when the family member was elderly,in failing health, and death came as a blessing. It’s still sad to lose, in this case, a parent. What I didn’t expect was the question, “Pastor, why is God punishing me?” And I asked, “Robert, what makes you think God’s punishing you?” And he looked at me like I was an idiot. “He let my dad die.” And I’m thinking–I didn’t say it quite this way–“Robert, your dad was 82. He died of emphysema after smoking two packs a day for 67 years.” A., his smoking habit killed him, not God, and B. if anything God gave him more time than most smokers get. But Robert was unconvinced. Now Mary’s question I understood. Mary was 32, recently abandoned by a husband who ran off with another woman, had just started a new job after ten years out of the work force, had two young children to support, and now was told by her doctor she had MS. She was devastated. “Pastor, why is this happening? What have I done wrong?” Well, nothing. Spouses are unfaithful for lots of reasons, usually selfish; we don’t know what causes MS, maybe something in the environment. Both of those statements are true, but neither satisfied Mary. And then, of course, there’s Pat Robertson’s answer to the question certainly Haitians must be asking, “Why did this terrible earthquake happen to us? Is God punishing us?” To which the Rev. Robertson said, essentially, “Yes, you made a pact with the devil back in the 18th century, and ever since you’ve been cursed.” Now, why would he say that? In fact, when tragedy happens, why people always look for someone to blame? Part of it is our nature, and not just human nature. We used to have a little dog Barney who years ago ran out into our fenced-in backyard to do his job, and somehow as he was running off the patio into the grass he blundered over the kind of floppy side of a child’s wading pool we’d set up there and got soaking, which he hated. So for as long as we lived there, once the snow melted, and grass reappeared, he refused to go into the back yard. We had to take him into the front. Because as far as he was concerned, it was that grass’s fault he gotwet. So I think it is hardwired into most creatures to blame something or someone when things go wrong. One of the reasons we blame God, or should I say, one of the reasons we think God is blaming us and punishing us accordingly comes from the Bible itself, Deuteronomy 11. God says if people keep God’s commandments, they’ll be blessed with health and wealth and lots of kids. If they don’t, they’ll be sick and poor, die young and childless. So it was natural for people in Jesus’s day to believe when worshipers in the Temple area were killed by Pilate’s soldiers for whatever, probably a disturbance, or when people died in the collapse of a Jerusalem building, they must have done something wrong. God was punishing them for being bad. So Robert, Mary, and Pat are in good company. But not good enough. Because Jesus says, “That’s nonsense. If God went around killing everybody who was bad, who would be left? None of us would even make it into adulthood. We’re all sinners. So when bad things happen, instead of looking at the past, and trying to figure out what you or somebody else might have done wrong, repent, from the Greek word, metanoia, literally, turn around, look at the future instead, look at what now you might do right. Years ago I knew a man who died of a heart attack. In fact, he died several times. Well, his heart stopped several times, but each time they managed to restart it. And he lived. A day or two later, when I was able to visit him in the coronary intensive care unit, he said, “Pastor, I don’t want to die like this. I don’t mean of a heart attack. I probably will die of a heart attack some day. I’ll certainly die of something. But I don’t want to die feeling like I’ve wasted my life.” Now he didn’t seem to me like a guy who’d wasted his life. He’d inherited a failing family business when he was young, and turned it into a real success. He had been married to the same woman for forty years, and they certainly seemed happy. His kids were grown up and established in their careers with families of their own. He owned a nice home and a winter time share in Arizona. He was a faithful churchgoer. “But,” he said, “when I woke up and realized I’d died, and could have stayed dead, I started to wonder, “Did I really made a difference? Is the world a better place because I lived? And I couldn’t really say ‘yes’.” In other words, he was feeling like the fig tree in Jesus’s parable. He had been planted in God’s vineyard, and he had flourished. He was a strong, sturdy (except for his heart), and successful tree. Except, at least as far as he was concerned, he hadn’t really born fruit. He’d benefitted himself and his family but not others. Bad things happen to all of us or will. That’s the nature of life, mostly good, but sometimes not. Like Jesus, I don’t think God makes those things happen. I don’t believe tragedy is God’s will. But I do believe Jesus uses such events, you might call them the manure of life, to fertilize us, to help us begin to think about our lives in different ways, to dig around what we thought were our roots, so that we begin to ask questions. “Am I really making a difference? Is the world a better place because of how I’m living?” My heart patient decided no. And eventually took a rather substantial portion of his hard-earned wealth, sold his time share in Arizona, downsized his living space, and established a foundation to teach young people in his rural area, age 18-25, from high school dropouts to people with advanced degrees, very basic skills for how to find work, for how to keep a job, for how to establish your own business. I couldn’t do that. I don’t have the money or the skills. Neither probably could most of you. You’re not fig trees. You might be pear trees or apple trees or cherry trees or orange trees or walnut trees or whatever. The fruit you produce to make a difference in the world will be completely different from his. You may be able to do it through your work. You may have to do it outside of work. It may not have anything to do with your work. But all of you, all of you have the capacity to bear fruit. So when bad things happen, don’t waste time blaming yourself or blaming somebody else. If you or someone else is at fault, and the fault is fixable, fix it, or try to, but then move on. Repent. Turn around. From the past to the future. Find out how Christ might be using that event to fertilize your life, and make you a more fruitful person.