March 23, 2025 "Just needs a little manure"

Third Sunday in Lent

Isaiah 55:1-9

Psalm 63:1-8

1 Corinthians 10:1-13

Luke 13:1-9

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,

grace and peace to you from our graceful gardener. Amen

I must confess to you all

that I was very tempted to stand up

 and give a one sentence sermon today

as I contemplated our texts,

which deal with that perennial favorite topic:

suffering and what role God plays in it

- theodicy is the fancy theological term- 

 our texts seemed to be able to be summed up in the following way:

Excrement happens to everyone, God turns it into manure.

Of course such a broad topic

demands a more nuanced discussion

but I do still think that is a nice concise summary

 of the meaning of our texts.

The topic is broached in the gospel

 by some people who tell Jesus a story

 about some people who died at the hands of the Romans

who added insult to death

 by mixing their blood with the blood used for sacrifices.

We don’t know why they bring this up to Jesus

but there must have been some sense of

“what awful sins did those people commit that they deserved such a death?”

because that is what Jesus responds to

“Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you.”

and lest they think he’s only referring to this one example

 he gives them another example from current events,

one that indicates people were killed in an accident

- were they worse than everyone else in Jerusalem? Jesus asks

 addressing the prevailing notion

that suffering is caused by sin.

 “No” Jesus tells the listening crowd,

 and in fact you have as much reason to repent of your own sin as those who died. 

Jesus is saying extreme suffering is not a sign of judgment from God,

 now he doesn’t let them off the hook for their own sins,

 they still need to repent

- sins after all are breaks in relationships

that need to be repaired-

but sometimes suffering is just random

 due to the brokenness of the world.

Paul, on the other hand

is warning the Corinthians

about the consequences of sin

 that does lead to suffering.

Perhaps he feels that the Corinthians have become too complacent in their faith,

 that they feel that they can do no wrong

now that they are Christians.

Wrong, Paul says,

and gives them several examples from the Israelite’s time in the wilderness,

 a time where they were literally following God

who by day went before them as a pillar of cloud

 and at night as a pillar of fire.

God who provided them food and water

 and gave them the gift of the law,

 showing them how to live with God and one another.

You’d think, of all the people

 they would be able to live lives free of sin,

 and yet time and again

 they turned from God

 and suffered the consequences from God,

 a plague, poisonous serpents, extra long time in the wilderness.

“So if you are standing, watch out that you do not fall.” Paul warns the Corinthians,

 they will still encounter temptations,

the same kind of temptations as their ancestors

(these tests aren’t personal, a

gain they are part of living in the world

and trying to follow God at the same time),

 and if they are not careful

they too will fall

 and suffer because of their fall.

So suffering is sometimes random,

 not caused by sin or judgment from God

But sometimes suffering is the consequence of sin

And sometimes God does place people in situations

where temptation is present,

sometimes it is even to test them.

But is all suffering a test from God?

 no,

again these instances of testing

are universal rather than particular.

So where is God in all of this?

God is the one calling out

 “Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat!...Let [the people] return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.”

The people God is calling out to in Isaiah

 are returning from exile in Babylon,

 exile that was part judgement,

part consequence of their sin,

and here God is calling them back into loving relationship,

even as God was with the people in exile.

Because while it is true that God is the ultimate judge,

God is not a judge who jumps straight to punishment.

 Jesus finishes up his teaching with a parable,

a vineyard owner expecting figs from the tree he had planted three years ago,

a reasonable time to wait for a tree to mature,

 and he is disappointed to find no figs,

 he feels he has waited long enough

and that the tree is now wasting soil

 and so orders the gardener to chop it down,

but the gardener intervenes,

 asking for one more year

one more year to tend to the tree,

one more chance for the tree to produce figs,

if after the year of careful tending the tree still hasn’t produced fruit

 then sure cut it down,

but right now, give it another chance.

 God is the gardener that intervenes for another year

 and promises to loosen the soil around the roots

and feed them with manure,

using the waste of one creature to nurture another,

seeking abundant life out of the stuff of the earth.

And yes sometimes it feels like God is testing us,

but the testing is something that everyone experiences

 “No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.”

as one commentator said this week:

“In Paul’s theology, when Christ died on the cross, God provided a way for resurrection through Christ’s faith in God’s love and justice (Romans 3:22). This is not the same as God providing a magical way down from the cross or God keeping the Roman guards from testing Jesus beyond his human strength. Similarly, Christians are not called to passively remain in suffering or hardship, but to faithfully look for the ways out that God will provide. God is faithful and will remain faithful in the midst of our temptations and our suffering, providing new life through radical love. Christians are called to do the same: to love others into new life.” (https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/third-sunday-in-lent-3/commentary-on-1-corinthians-101-13-6) 

Because of the cross

we know where God is in suffering:

right there with us

and even as God is alongside us in the suffering

God is there finding a way to turn it into new life.

The stuff that we would rather get rid of,

 that we find smelly and useless,

that it what God puts to work for the sake of life.

Suffering-excrement happens to everyone.

Our God turns what feel like waste into manure,

 and continues to care for us

coaxing us back to life. Amen