There was another tragedy described in the gospel where the tower of Siloam, part of the old wall of ancient Jerusalem, fell on eighteen construction workers. A terrible accident, a horrible scene the equivalent of a car accident or an earthquake or a tornado or skiers caught in an avalanche or refugees killed on their way to a new life or… well you know the scenes we hear about them often enough.
As Christians, what do we do with these tragic tales of the gospel or the stories we encounter as we open a newspaper or turn on the news? We can try to tune them out or we become so saturated with them that their impact is often lessened. A shooting incident in the States, a stabbing in a part of Vancouver, an earthquake in Japan, a hurricane in Fiji. The same news, sadly that Jesus encountered. But this gospel story contains something incredibly important for those of us who seek to live with a deep and devout faith in 2016. For really the question being asked of Jesus is the question that we still ask today. Where is God in this? Or how can you believe in a loving God if things like this take place?
They are important questions to ask and make up the lament of humanity since the beginning of time. And we must not ignore them or accept simple, pat answers. Rather wrestle with where God might be seen and known in those scenes of long ago in the gospel or even for us today.
This is what Jesus said, and the words are very important, very important for those of us not content to live with simple answers. He said: “Do you think that those who died when the tower of Siloam collapsed on them were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem?” You see it is easier and very common to assume that if something terrible happens to someone that in some way they deserve it. We don’t like to say it in so many words but we act like we believe this.
Prisoners deserve the fate that is handed to them even though we may know very well that many were abused as children. Drug addicts have it coming to them even though we know that there is often a deep pain within each one. Homeless people deserve their lot in life even though we know there is so much more to the story: perhaps abuse, perhaps illness, perhaps addictions, perhaps a lack of compassion. Those suffering from AIDS in Africa, or anywhere really, somehow are not victims but to blame for what is happening to them. Even people who are depressed or have cancer or have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or have an undiagnosed illness all get looked at a little strangely at times, perhaps they are not really ill or they did something wrong or they deserve this.
No, Jesus says, that is not how it works.
Recently I read an article by Kate Bowler who did a lot of investigation into the Prosperity Gospel. The Prosperity Gospel is a very poorly thought through theology that implies that God gives health and wealth to those who have the correct kind of faith. As long as you follow a set, and usually a locally designed set, of beliefs then God will be on your side and all will go well for you and you will prosper. It does not work this way Jesus says.
Kate Bowler began her article: “On a Thursday morning a few months ago, I got a call from my doctor’s assistant telling me that I have Stage 4 cancer. The stomach cramps I was suffering from were not caused by a faulty gallbladder, but by a massive tumour. I am 35. I did the things you might expect of someone whose world has suddenly become very small. I sank to my knees and cried. I called my husband at our home nearby. I waited until he arrived so we could wrap our arms around each other and say the things that must be said. I have loved you forever. I am so grateful for our life together. Please take care of our son.”
Later in the article she described that many people think of tragedy as a test of character. She wrote: “It is the reason a neighbour knocked on our door to tell my husband that everything happens for a reason. ‘I’d love to hear it,’ my husband said. ‘Pardon?’ she said, startled. ‘I’d love to hear the reason my wife is dying,’ he said, in that sweet and sour way he has.
My neighbour wasn’t trying to sell him a spiritual guarantee. But there was a reason she wanted to fill that silence around why some people die young and others grow old and fussy about their lawns. She wanted some kind of order behind this chaos. Because the opposite of that order is leaving a husband and a toddler behind, and people can’t quite let themselves say it: ‘Wow, that’s awful.’ There has to be a reason because without one we are left as helpless and possibly as unlucky as everyone else.”
I think this was Jesus point as well. He did not offer the prosperity gospel as an answer, he offered the love of God. The same God who gave us life and has promised to be with us always. The same God who wants us to bear fruit and will always walk our path along with us. The same God who showers grace upon us and all people. The same God who brings life from death, hope from hatred, justice from division, new fruit from a forgotten fig tree. That is the promise: God will be with us always no matter what.
Isaiah phrased it this way in the passage we heard today: “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which does not satisfy?” In other words that deep craving that is inside all of us is about drawing nearer to God, to know God more clearly, to touch God amongst us, that craving needs to be fed. God is not waiting punish us and destroy us, God is waiting for us to turn closer to God’s presence and see that God walks with us no matter what we must endure or face.
Let me just change gears here for a moment. Today is our Vestry Sunday, the day of our annual meeting. Now often the annual meeting is about looking back over the previous year and then setting a few priorities for the coming year. But this year is different now that I have announced that I will be leaving in mid-April.
We look back on 2015 that much is true. It was a very good year in many ways for St. Philip’s. We celebrated our 90th Anniversary in a quite delightful fashion. But one of the key parts for me, especially now, is that we started to look toward the 100th Anniversary in 2025. We start to think quite carefully about what we want to look like here at St. Philip’s in now nine years’ time. There will be more conversation about that in the days, weeks and months ahead. But for now I do want to say that our role as a church is so vital here in this part of Vancouver. We have so much to offer and sometimes we lose sight of that. We might just think that we are simply a church that worships each week and has some programs at other times to help support people in faith. But we offer something so much more valuable than that. And we heard it and knew it in that gospel passage. We offer a perspective of faith that is broader and more connected to the world of this day and we might not realize how important that is. The image of Christianity for many people is something that is very narrow and only for a small few. It is judgemental and condemning of others. But the message of Jesus I hear over and over in the Bible is one of grace: that God loves us and walks with us no matter what. No matter what. We preach that message loudly and clearly here in our Outreach, our Worship, our Music, our Christian Formation, our building. But mostly in our community. And this is a word that seems to be disappearing too much in Vancouver at the moment: community. We are an intergenerational, interconnected, interwoven, community with a variety of people, ages, backgrounds, theologies and we acknowledge and live out our faith as such. There are many in the world around us who are actually craving, thirsting for what we experience here so often. We have much to offer and are called by God to offer it and live out this love of God for all people in all situations: tragedies and joys, peaks and valleys, in all places God is with us and for us. May we see that and live that here at St. Philip’s now and always.