To Bear or Not to Bear

Text: Luke 13:6-9
March 14, 2004
Aldersgate UMC

There’s an old story about a debate in a pub where three professionals are arguing about whose is the oldest profession. The doctor says that his is the oldest because in Genesis it states that God took a rib (actually it is better translated as a side) from Adam to make Eve and this was a medical procedure.

"Well actually," the architect argued, "before that Genesis states that God made order out of chaos and that’s an architectural operation."

"Well," said the Computer Programmer "Where do you think the chaos came from?"

That’s a really good question isn’t it? Where does the chaos come from?

Have you ever felt like your life was in chaos? How about when your rushing to get the kids of to school, trying to get yourself ready for the day, and figuring out what your going to have for dinner all at the same time? Sometimes my life feels chaotic, how about yours? Maybe you live other circumstances, but was there ever a time when you experienced chaos. Chaos is another way of saying that life doesn’t make sense anymore.

Well, we’re in the right place! We’ve been taking some time to look at the purpose of our lives and this feeling of chaos it certainly about a lack of purpose. When I’ve had this feeling it has usually been when my life was kind of messy. Another way to talk about it in polite company is to say that I felt like I was standing in manure.

Now the good news is that some people refer to this Sunday with this particular gospel message as manure Sunday. I think today’s gospel lesson can help move us beyond feeling as though our lives were chaotic and toward the role of discipleship.

Let’s review a little the lesson; Jesus is referring to two tragic episodes that the people of Jerusalem would remember; some people who were killed by Pilate while making a sacrifice at the Temple and some others who died when the tower of Siloam fell over. If Jesus were speaking to us today, he might refer to the people who died in the trade center bombing, or the Rhode Island nightclub fire, or the more recent terrorist attack in Spain. These were all tragic accidents that seem to make no sense. And the logical explanations for why they happened do not diminish the pain of the suffering and death.

Now those questioning Jesus are suggesting that people who die in tragic accidents are somehow different from the rest of us and deserve what happened. They set up an us and them situation; this happened to them, but it certainly won’t happen to me. It’s curious, this human habit of wanting to divide humanity into us and them categories. We see something bad happen to people and the natural desire is to think that they brought it on themselves. It’s easier to have an explanation for the tragic things that happen. It’s all about trying to hope it does not happen to us.

Yet, every person is a child of God. John Wesley preached that all people have a spark of the divine within them. He let God lead him to preach in the open fields to the working class so that they might recognize that spark in their own lives. Perhaps, part of Jesus’ message in these verses is to remind us that we cannot divide the world into us and them.

After each of the two references to these tragic experiences, Jesus answers his own question about these people being worse sinners than others. He says, "No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did."

Now just what does he mean? It would be naïve to assume that an act of repentance somehow keeps one free from accidental death. My experiences tell me that that is not the case. Good people die in accidents. Is it possible, however, that Jesus means that if we don’t turn to God and grow in understanding our purpose, we too will die with an unfulfilled life. He’s not saying that repenting will keep us from dying; dying is a natural course of life. He’s saying that if we live our lives according to God’s purposes, we will live fulfilled lives no matter when we die.

In other words the chaos that seems to surround our lives will be brought to order and the manure that we seem to be standing in will be used for good purpose to help us grow and bear fruit just as the fig tree in his parable. Jesus goes on to tell a story about a fig tree that does not bear fruit. The gardener proposes digging around the base of the tree and putting in some manure to encourage the tree to bear fruit.

Jesus is suggesting that the result of a little fertilizer is unexpected growth. The question we need to answer this morning might have been made famous by Shakespeare, "To bear or not to bear." Will you bear fruit and follow in the journey of discipleship?

Several years ago, I heard a lecture at one of the spring flower shows on growing fruit trees. At the end there was a question and answer time and one gentleman in the audience asked how he might get his fruit bearing trees to blossom more. The lecturer responded that if one wanted to see more blossoms or produce more fruit you should make sure you were using the right fertilizer, pulling the grass away from the root ball and if all else fails go out and hit the tree around its roots as if you might be chopping it down.

We all gasped at the thought of chopping done a tree even if you don’t mean it and the lecturer explained. A tree is organic, thus when you threaten it by pretending to chop it down it wants to go on living so it will produce more flowers and then more fruit. Shake it up a little but; disrupt the comfort level and that will cause more fruit to bear. I wonder if this same philosophy works in our human lives?

Perhaps Jesus is telling us in these verses that we need to look more closely at how God wants to dig up and fertilize the hardened ground of our own theological systems. When we get to a place where life isn’t working for us, where we need to make a change to bear more fruit, then God gives us a second chance.

Where do you see God in this parable? Some hear the word "Lord" and assume that the one who wants to cut down the tree is God. What if the gardener is God; the one who offers a second chance?

For the last several years, I have been expanding my interests as a gardener. I am primarily involved in flower gardens and I often experience the sense that in this gardening work I am joining God in the creative act of bringing order out of chaos.

I came to this gardening role several years ago when I felt like my life was chaos. I was wondering what role God played in my life and why my family kept experiencing tragic death of very good people. My foundations were shaken, yet I found new sure footing when I realized that God was right beside me working with the soil and manure of my life.

That’s what one aspect of discipleship is all about, being willing to get down with God on your knees and be with people in the difficult situations.

Rick Warren in Purpose Driven says that discipleship is about becoming Christ- like. He goes on to title chapters in this section "How We Grow," "Transformed by Truth," " Transformed by Trouble," "Growing through Temptation," "Defeating Temptation," and "It Takes Time."

When we allow ourselves to be transformed and changed by our troubles, we, in a sense, join Jesus on the cross. I have seen this kind of transformation so many times. One example is Wayne Brady, President Reagan’s Press Secretary. He and his wife became advocates for gun control because of the shooting that changed his life dramatically.

Another example is Brian T. Hart from Bedford is attempting to find meaning in his son’s death in Iraq. Private First Class John D. Hart called his father just days before his death to tell him how unsafe he felt riding around Iraq in a Humvee that lacked bulletproof shielding or even metal doors. It was his last conversation with his father before being shot on Oct. 18th near Kirkuk. So father, Brian Hart is lobbying the government to put armor on the thousands of Humvees that are patrolling those streets. His efforts, I suspect, help him to move beyond his own son’s death

And finally, my friend Adrienne whom some of you met allowed God to transform the death of her only son into an opportunity to become a Hospice pastor. She could have chosen to bury her feelings about his death in a wealthy life style. Instead, she chose to let God lead her to the purpose of her life.

Because of the multiple experiences of accidental death in my family and because I believe in a loving God, I have struggled with the theology that God has a plan for everything that happens. I do not believe that a loving God plans accidents that take life and cause pain. Rather, God is with us in these most difficult of circumstances helping us to find ways to grow through them. One of the benefits for me in reading Purpose Driven Life has been to affirm that God has a purpose for our lives and that the plan sometimes changes as a result of these accidents and human interference with that plan.

Sometimes, one’s journey to discipleship is through these very difficult experiences. Other times, the journey to discipleship leads one to a place that is more than beneath the cross, but willing to risk life and security and join Jesus on the cross.

Somewhere in the late thirties or early forties two brothers, Clarence and Robert stood as boys at an altar railing where the preacher asked, "Do you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior?" Both said yes, but years later Robert admitted that he would only follow Jesus up to a point.

In the 1950’s Clarence Jordan, author of the Cotton Patch Version of the Gospels and founder of the interracial Christian cooperative in south Georgia known as Koinonia Farm came to his brother looking for legal assistance with the controversial farm. Robert Jordan, his brother, declined:

"Clarence, I can’t do that. You know my political aspirations. Why, if I represented you, I might lose my job, my house, everything I’ve got. … It’s different for you. … I follow [Jesus] to the cross, but not on the cross. I’m not getting myself crucified."

Clarence Jordan went on to found a community that showed how people of all races could live together. To the best of my knowledge, his brother never fulfilled his political aspirations.

Is it necessary to take a life threatening stance to be a disciple of Christ? Just how Christ-like do we have to be? When we speak out on behalf of those who are denied basic human rights risking our livelihood, then we also become disciples along side of Jesus Christ. Jesus calls us to be his disciples in a world that has created many us and them groupings. We are called to recognize and affirm that all people are children of God. May we respond to that call and bear fruit in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.