Oh I so very much wanted to preach on the story of Moses and the Burning Bush… and yet the daily horrors of Russian destruction of Ukraine compelled me to preach on today’s Gospel that deals, in the beautifully oblique way of Jesus, with judgment.

The sermon text is below the sermon video.

Sermon preached at Zion Episcopal Church, Washington NC
Sunday March 20th 2022
The Reverend Alan Neale
“Ah… Judgement?”

In 1785, the Scottish poet Robbie Burns wrote a poem entitled “To a Louse, in a Woman’s Hat, in Church”. It contains the priceless words, (here’s my best attempt at ancient Scottish):

O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae mony a blunder free us.

Well, a new survey (sponsored by the Episcopal Church) suggests that non-believers think that Christians are hypocritical and judgmental — in stark contrast to Christians, who describe themselves as compassionate and loving. 50% who described themselves as non-religious considered American Christians to be “self-righteous”, 55 per cent “hypocritical”, and 54 per cent “judgmental”. By the way, surprise surprise, this is in stark contrast to Christians, who describe themselves as compassionate and loving.

Episcopalians tend to gambol more in the fields of grace, compassion and forgiveness than march in the soil of judgement, punishment, retribution.

I must have an Episcopal spell-checker on the cell ‘phone… yesterday when I wanted to write the word “hell” (as in “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”), the spell check insisted that it be spelled “he’ll”. I won… in the end.

For us, alien though it may be for some, we are now inhabiting a world in which concepts of judgement and punishment, war criminal and genocide are all part of our daily intake.

Today’s Gospel (Luke 13:1-9) speaks, I think, to the matter of judgement.

In the Gospel today, we find ourselves with Jesus as he turns towards Jerusalem. In this large section of Luke, we get a plethora of miracles as well as the bulk of the familiar parables. For Lent, however, we bounce around and land at this moment in chapter 13.

Today’s Gospel speaks to the why, the when and the how of punishment.

First, the why? The crowd, it seems without animosity or ill-intent, the crowd ask Jesus to comment on the event when Pilate mixed the blood of Galileans with their sacrifice. The historian Josephus describes the Galileans as the most seditious people in the land. They kept the great feasts at Jerusalem and probably, by their tumultuous behavior gave Pilate a pretext to fall upon and slay many of them. and thus, perhaps, sacrifice the people to the resentment he had against the prince. Josephus reckons some 3000 were slaughtered.

Why did this happen? And to compound their confusion, Jesus adds to the conversation the story of the Tower of Siloam that collapsed and killed eighteen people? Siloam was an area just outside the walls of Jerusalem on the southeast side of the city. A spring-fed pool was there, which was the scene of one of Christ’s miracles (John 9). Why did this happen?

Jesus warns the crowd not to draw ready connections between wrong-doing and punishment; in other words, victims abound. Though maybe the Samaritans should have been more circumspect in their political murmurings; and maybe the Siloam Construction company should have been more careful in building on wetlands but still… the why remains?

And friends as Christians, in the line of Hebrew prophets, it is our charge, our responsibility, our care to ask why… when we see evil flourish, good people destroyed and God… apparently inert.

Why is the Lord’s arm shortened so that it cannot save; the Lord’s ear blocked so they cannot hear (Isaiah 59:1). Or listen to Habakkuk “O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you ‘Violence’ and you will not save?… Look at the nations and see! Be astonished! Be astounded!” (Habakkuk 1:2,5).

WHY? This question will save us from being numbed, anesthetized, deadened by the constant torrent of pictures showing evil at work in Ukraine… and some will weep.

And then… WHEN? In the second half of today’s Gospel, Jesus allows us a gentler insight, a more serene reflection on justice and punishment. The owner finds no fruit on his fig tree and commands the gardener to “cut it down” (the Greek word ekkopto is strong… cut it down, cut it out cut it off; such is the punishment for fruitless labors. But the gardener pleads for one more year, promises to tend the tree well (with plentiful manure [I don’t get to say that word often in sermons]. The owner relents but the prospect of removal and burning hangs in the air… I find it interesting that the gardener’s request “Let it alone…”is the root word from which we get “forgiveness” but that’s for another time.

Like many another Gospel story, we are left hanging… wondering… conjecturing the next stage of the story. But this we know, the master’s commitment to punish and remove is definitive. “I will appoint a time, says God, I will judge with equity. For judgement is neither from the east nor from the west… It is God who judges” (Psalm 75:2, 6-7).

And HOW? Well, for us this is largely a closed book and maybe just as well. Though we know that those who hurt and damage others will often suffer the terrible mental punishment of remorse. Though we know that those who hurt and damage themselves become bitter, isolated, crippled. Though we know that those who hurt and damage this precious world view ice-caps melting, forest fires in abundance and storms of terrible magnitude and fearful regularity.

I finish with words of Eric Barreto, a Baptist Minister and Associate Professor of Theology at Princeton University.

This is a parable I may not love yet may need to hear. When it comes to injustice and complicity in oppression, God’s patience runs short. When it comes to the harms we inflict, God’s timing is brief.

Many churches have a hard time holding on to this tension of a God of both judgement and grace… in some, God’s grace proves distant or secondary; in others… a friendly God seems to comfort the comfortable without being bothered by those crying out for justice.

The same God who waits one more year will one day judge. The same God who judges injustice and oppression is stretching God’s arms eternally to those who flee from righteousness.

Oh and just a little note for daily living from our Epistle, to help us avoid being destroyed…

I Corinthians 10:10 “And do not grumble… it only leads to destruction.”

AMEN