Reflections...

A sermon preached at Kowloon Union Church on Third Sunday of Lent 20 March 2022, by Dr. Hope Antone.  The scripture readings that day were Isaiah 55:6-9; Luke 13:1-9; 1 Corinthians 10:13.

Shalom, sisters and brothers in Christ! Please join me in prayer:

God, you are our God, we seek you, our souls thirst for you [Ps 63:1a]. Through the written and spoken words, may we hear your living Word. Amen.

 

We will continue to reflect on “Grace through the Darkness,” our Lenten theme at Kowloon Union Church. And for this third Sunday of Lent, we will try to find “grace through the darkness” by focusing on Luke 13:1-9.

 

The passage tells of some people who cited an incident to Jesus of Pilate mingling the blood of Galileans with animal sacrifices. It sounded like Pilate had executed these Galileans during a religious ritual. Unique to Luke’s gospel, the narrative does not tell Pilate’s reason for doing so. However, Luke’s narration of the incident seems to foreshadow Pilate’s role in the mixing of the blood of Jesus, a Galilean, with Passover sacrifice during the Holy Week.

 

The passage does not say why the people told the incident to Jesus. Gleaning from his response, Jesus used it as a teaching moment. Instead of talking about Pilate’s penchant for brutality, or of the sinfulness of the people who died, Jesus pointed to what his fellow Galileans were thinking. He asked: "Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans?”

 

Then citing an incident where 18 people died when the tower of Siloam fell on them, he asked a similar question: “Do you think that they (those 18 people) were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem?”

 

People in ancient time believed that bad things happened for a reason; that terrible events were divine punishment (or retribution) for sin; and that punishment was proportionate to their sin or crime. Some believed that the punishment would even continue to their grandchildren.

 

It is now the fourth week of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It’s also been more than 13 months since the military takeover in Myanmar. I can almost hear Jesus, asking you and I the question: “Do you think that the people in Myanmar and Ukraine were worse offenders than all the others in the world?” Jesus’ big “No” to such a question reverberates in my mind as I find myself echoing it right now: No, No, No.    

 

Indeed, how can we take terrorism, genocide, militarization, or a country’s war against its people or those of another country, to be synonymous with God’s justice? The way of power-hungry, ego-tripping leaders is clearly not God’s way. And the innocent victims – families who lost their homes and livelihood – do not deserve such cruelty.  

 

Similarly, natural disasters, pandemics, or random accidents should not be seen as divine punishment for human iniquity. People affected by tragic events could very well be innocent, unsuspecting victims of the unforeseen incidents. Tragic events just happen and should not be equated with divine retribution or punishment.

 

The notion that “bad things happen as divine retribution” follows a very simplistic logic: that those who were not hit by the tragedy, those who were spared or who survived, must be the blessed or favored ones. We must guard against such a simplistic way of thinking for as Isaiah 55:8 reminds us, “God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, nor are God’s ways our ways.”

 

Jesus used the two incidents as teaching moment on the precariousness and fragility of life. The lesson was really repentance. Hence, he called the people to repentance, twice. After each narrated incident he said: “unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.”

 

Then Jesus told a parable. A vineyard owner felt very disappointed that the fig tree he planted three years ago, showed no sign of fruiting. Normally, a fig tree begins to fruit on the second year after planting. Since it’s been three years, the vineyard owner instructed the gardener to cut the fig tree down. But the gardener replied, 'Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’

 

If it bears fruit… The phrase speaks of grace through the darkness. It carries a note of hope for the fig tree, which was already marked to be cut down. 

 

If it bears fruit… It sounds like a reminder of the reason or purpose of the fig tree’s life. It’s been given a chance to fulfill the reason or purpose of its existence. 

 

If it bears fruit… It implies responsibility not only on the part of the fig tree, but of everyone and everything around it. There is the vineyard owner who agrees to giving the fig tree a new lease of life. There is the gardener who offers to dig around the tree so its roots can breathe and take in nutrients from the soil. And of course, there’s the soil, water, sunlight, and fertilizer from animal manure, which all contribute to the tree’s wellbeing. What a shared and interconnected responsibility it is to help the fig tree realize its purpose. It is grace through the darkness…      

 

In view of this shared/interconnected responsibility, I want to say that it is not always the tree/plant that wastes the soil, as the owner of the vineyard had said in the parable. Sometimes, something else can waste the plant/tree.

 

Recently, my sister (Phoebe Tan) in the Philippines, excitedly shared a photo of her newly harvested bananas. But when she cut open one banana, she found its color to be off-white and there was a long black streak through the middle of the fruit.    

 

Another sister (Dr. Merab Chan), the botanist in the family, explained that the discoloration and abnormality in the banana were symptoms of fungal infection. She was on a research team that conducted a study of this fungal disease in bananas. Since the fungus attacking the banana is soil-borne, she said that the cluster of bananas in that same location would most likely be infected as well. 

 

I shared this information to show that it is not only the plant/tree that wastes the soil; sometimes unhealthy or polluted soil, water, or air, can also waste the plant/tree. So to put it simply, it takes the whole ecosystem – of natural, material and human resources – to grow and fruit a tree successfully.

 

How interesting to note that the parable of the fig tree follows Jesus’ call for repentance: “unless you repent, you will all perish.” Bearing fruit therefore means repentance. Repentance is more than feeling sorry, more than confessing any wrongdoing. It is linked to real action, concrete change, and tangible result – of a life transformed from recklessness, apathy, or meaninglessness into having a sense of meaning and purpose. When we have a sense of meaning and purpose in life, we will naturally bear fruit. Human fruiting of course is not just procreation. It is having a life because one is grounded in purpose and meaning of one’s existence.  

 

The Rev. Mia M. McClain, a minister of the United Church of Christ USA, puts it this way:

“…when Jesus starts talking about fruit, I know he’s talking about change; about action and tangible results; about the kind of fruit that helps us meet the material needs of those who are without. When he talks about fruit, I imagine he’s dreaming of the kind of liberation that regenerates itself. The seeds of the positive produce we bear will become nourishment for the subsequent generations.”

 

My sisters and brothers in Christ, If it bears fruit… is a prayer for each one of us, that we may grow and fruit as we were always meant to. Affirming this is grace through the darkness. Amen.