Year C
\u00a0Exodus 3:1-15
\u00a0Psalm 63:1-8
\u00a01 Corinthians 10:1-13
\u00a0Luke 13:1-9<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May the words of my mouth O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The story of Moses and the Burning Bush\u2026 fascinated me as a child\u2026 it was one of the Bible stories we came back to again and again in Hebrew and Sunday School\u2026 the idea that something could be on fire\u2026 but not be consumed was beyond understanding\u2026 a miracle\u2026 almost magical\u2026 and so many of us have a fixed image of it\u2026 from the movie The Ten Commandments\u2026 that’s been almost burned into our collective consciousness\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And now\u2026 as an adult\u2026 I think about some of the qualities of fire\u2026 and wonder what it might have meant\u2026 how life-giving it must have been for the ancient Israelites\u2026 warmth on a cold desert night\u2026 the ability to cook food\u2026 and both literally\u2026 and maybe especially figuratively\u2026 its ability to shine light in all kinds of darkness\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And in today’s reading from Exodus\u2026 we’re all familiar with God identifying Godself as I AM\u2026 God tells Moses to tell the Israelites that\u2026 I AM has sent me to you\u2026 or we may sometimes hear God’s name as I AM Who I AM\u2026 though Fr. John Meulendyk\u2026 a Franciscan with the Order of the Holy Cross\u2026 tells us that a more precise translation from the Hebrew\u2026 which uses the simplest form of the verb to be\u2026 renders God’s name as\u2026 I AM becoming who I AM becoming\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And to help us understand this becoming\u2026 Fr. Meulendyk asks us to imagine three people dancing in a circle\u2026 the dance is performed by the people\u2026 they are participants in it\u2026 but they are not the dance itself\u2026 and so it is with God\u2026 who is found in the motion\u2026 the surprise\u2026 the music\u2026 and the relationship between the dancers\u2026 and since God is able to say\u2026 I AM becoming who I AM becoming\u2026 that means that God has no fixed or frozen image\u2026 but grows and changes as our collective state of being\u2026 grows and changes too\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But we prefer fixed images\u2026 we rely on them to navigate our way in the world\u2026 and so for us\u2026 it may mean that we need to give up an image of God that we have been carrying for years\u2026 and while God is constantly and ever with us\u2026 a God beyond our understanding prevents us from grabbing onto God\u2026 from capturing and putting God in a box\u2026 but it does allow God to grab onto us… and the early church Fathers would call that act of grabbing\u2026 grace\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But nevertheless\u2026 we try to grab on to certainty\u2026 grabbing on to knowing what we cannot know\u2026 to try to know cause and effect\u2026 we have inherited the mindset of Job’s friends\u2026 who wonder what he must have done\u2026 to reap such dire punishment from God\u2026 but we know\u2026 that the calamity which befell Job\u2026 was not of God\u2026 but of the Satan\u2026 the accuser\u2026 and the same kind of mindset found expression almost two thousand years later\u2026 when\u2026 in the Gospel of John 9:2-3\u2026 Jesus’ disciples asked him\u2026 Rabbi\u2026 who sinned\u2026 this man or his parents\u2026 that he was born blind<\/em>\u2026 and Jesus answered\u2026 nope\u2026 not going there\u2026 not going to play that game\u2026 it doesn’t work like that\u2026 the kind of judgment you’re quick to use in other people\u2019s situations\u2026 doesn’t reflect God’s logic<\/em>\u2026 and so Jesus obliterates our internal ledgers\u2026 and points us to metanoia<\/em>\u2026 to turning back to God\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Physics tells us that there is cause and effect\u2026 Galatians 6:7 tells us\u2026 you reap whatever you sow\u2026 although it’s possible to reap more than what we sow\u2026 because the law of sowing and reaping is related to the law of multiplication\u2026 Jesus spoke in Matthew 13:8\u2026 of seed that brought forth\u2026 a hundred\u2026 sixty\u2026 or thirty times what was sown\u2026 and Luke 6:43-44 tells us that\u2026 each tree is known by its own fruit\u2026 figs are not gathered from thorns\u2026 nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n But sometimes there’s an effect without a known cause\u2026 Jesus clarifies in today’s Gospel\u2026 that the Galileans whose blood Pilate mingled with their sacrifices were no worse sinners than all other Galileans\u2026 and that those eighteen on whom the tower of Siloam fell were not worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem\u2026 so two things are true\u2026 there is both cause and effect\u2026 for the things we both say and do\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n And there is some kind of randomness\u2026 which rises up out of our free will\u2026 when it’s not aligned with God’s will\u2026 or with God’s becoming\u2026 and we wonder why bad things happen to good people\u2026 it would be like us asking today\u2026 what have the Ukrainians done to deserve Putin’s unmitigated wrath\u2026 and while some of us might offer up explanations\u2026 as Job’s friends did\u2026 none of them would reflect God’s logic\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And so after Jesus responds to what he was told about the Galileans\u2026 and what he knew about those in Jerusalem\u2026 he said\u2026 unless you repent\u2026 you will all perish just as they did<\/em>\u2026 and he didn’t mean in the same ways that they did\u2026 but just that they would perish without the eternal life that repentance brings\u2026 and he tells a parable to explain the urgency of repentance\u2026 and about how it is a matter of life and death\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n A gardener pleads with a vineyard owner not to make him cut down a barren fig tree\u2026 The gardener\u2019s word translated as let it alone\u2026 is also the root word\u2026 from which we get the word forgiveness\u2026 it also appears two chapters earlier\u2026 in Luke\u2019s version of the Lord\u2019s Prayer in Ch. 11:4\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And Jesus makes a surprising connection between his call for us to turn back to God and this parable\u2026 the fig tree doesn\u2019t produce\u2026 and so based on the metrics of any farm\u2026 it makes sense to cut it down and use its resources for those trees that are thriving and growing\u2026 but the servant\u2026 whose hope is based on the time and attention he can give the tree\u2026 asks for forgiveness\u2026 for grace\u2026 for the time and space to try\u2026 he\u2019ll treat it as though it’s one of the thriving trees\u2026 watering it and fertilizing the soil\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n And when we first read this Gospel\u2026 it may be easy to think that the owner of the vineyard is God\u2026 and that we’re the fig tree\u2026 perhaps afraid of being cut down\u2026 or that maybe we’re the gardener\u2026 wanting to do good works\u2026 but I wonder if maybe we are the vineyard owners\u2026 and the fig tree is our religion\u2026 which is not helping us bear enough fruit\u2026 and Jesus is the gardener\u2026 who beseeches us\u2026 for more time\u2026 to turn back\u2026 and to become\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And the kind of fruit Jesus is talking about is described in Galatians 5:22-23\u2026 where we read that the fruit of the Spirit is love\u2026 joy\u2026 peace\u2026 patience\u2026 kindness\u2026 generosity\u2026 faithfulness\u2026 gentleness\u2026 and self-control\u2026 and just as one little fib can produce an out-of-control frenzy of falsehoods\u2026 fallacies\u2026 and fictions\u2026 so one small kind deed can result in a blessing which lasts a lifetime\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the inseparable interconnectedness of the motion\u2026 surprise\u2026 music\u2026 and relationship between we the dancers\u2026 and God\u2026 we’re all growing into mutual fulfillment\u2026 and this parable ends with the gardener\u2026 with Jesus\u2026 suggesting a proposition\u2026 before we cut down our religion\u2026 let Jesus tend to us\u2026 nourish us\u2026 give us more time\u2026 the gardener asks for just one more year\u2026 and since 2Peter 3:8 reminds us that for God\u2026 one day is like a thousand years\u2026 and a thousand years are like one day\u2026 that God is not slow as some think of slowness\u2026 but is patient\u2026 not wanting any to perish\u2026 but all to come to repentance<\/em>\u2026 so there’s time\u2026 and the parable ends like our favorite show’s final episode of season one\u2026 with us wanting to know more\u2026 what will the people of God do\u2026 how will they receive Jesus’ ministrations\u2026 will we let Jesus nourish our religion\u2026 and what fruit will we bear\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Year C\u00a0Exodus 3:1-15\u00a0Psalm 63:1-8\u00a01 Corinthians 10:1-13\u00a0Luke 13:1-9 May the words of my mouth O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026 The story of Moses and the Burning Bush\u2026 fascinated me as a child\u2026 it was one of the Bible stories we came back to again and again in Hebrew and Sunday School\u2026 the idea that something could be on fire\u2026 but not be consumed was beyond understanding\u2026 a miracle\u2026 almost magical\u2026 and so many of us have a fixed image of it\u2026 from the movie The Ten Commandments\u2026 that’s been almost burned into our collective consciousness\u2026 And now\u2026 as an adult\u2026 I think about some of the qualities of fire\u2026 and wonder what it might have meant\u2026 how life-giving it must have been for the ancient Israelites\u2026 warmth on a cold desert night\u2026 the ability to cook food\u2026 and both literally\u2026 and maybe especially figuratively\u2026 its ability to shine light in all kinds of darkness\u2026 And in today’s reading from Exodus\u2026 we’re all familiar with God identifying Godself as I AM\u2026 God tells Moses to tell the Israelites that\u2026 I AM has sent me to you\u2026 or we may sometimes hear God’s name as I AM Who I AM\u2026 though Fr. John Meulendyk\u2026 a Franciscan with the Order of the Holy Cross\u2026 tells us that a more precise translation from the Hebrew\u2026 which uses the simplest form of the verb to be\u2026 renders God’s name as\u2026 I AM becoming who I AM becoming\u2026 And to help us understand this becoming\u2026 Fr. Meulendyk asks us to imagine three people dancing in a circle\u2026 the dance is performed by the people\u2026 they are participants in it\u2026 but they are not the dance itself\u2026 and so it is with God\u2026 who is found in the motion\u2026 the surprise\u2026 the music\u2026 and the relationship between the dancers\u2026 and since God is able to say\u2026 I AM becoming who I AM becoming\u2026 that means that God has no fixed or frozen image\u2026 but grows and changes as our collective state of being\u2026 grows and changes too\u2026 But we prefer fixed images\u2026 we rely on them to navigate our way in the world\u2026 and so for us\u2026 it may mean that we need to give up an image of God that we have been carrying for years\u2026 and while God is constantly and ever with us\u2026 a God beyond our understanding prevents us from grabbing onto God\u2026 from capturing and putting God in a box\u2026 but it does allow God to grab onto us… and the early church Fathers would call that act of grabbing\u2026 grace\u2026 But nevertheless\u2026 we try to grab on to certainty\u2026 grabbing on to knowing what we cannot know\u2026 to try to know cause and effect\u2026 we have inherited the mindset of Job’s friends\u2026 who wonder what he must have done\u2026 to reap such dire punishment from God\u2026 but we know\u2026 that the calamity which befell Job\u2026 was not of God\u2026 but of the Satan\u2026 the accuser\u2026 and the same kind of mindset found expression almost two thousand years later\u2026 when\u2026 in the Gospel of John 9:2-3\u2026 Jesus’ disciples asked him\u2026 Rabbi\u2026 who sinned\u2026 this man or his parents\u2026 that he was born blind\u2026 and Jesus answered\u2026 nope\u2026 not going there\u2026 not going to play that game\u2026 it doesn’t work like that\u2026 the kind of judgment you’re quick to use in other people\u2019s situations\u2026 doesn’t reflect God’s logic\u2026 and so Jesus obliterates our internal ledgers\u2026 and points us to metanoia\u2026 to turning back to God\u2026 Physics tells us that there is cause and effect\u2026 Galatians 6:7 tells us\u2026 you reap whatever you sow\u2026 although it’s possible to reap more than what we sow\u2026 because the law of sowing and reaping is related to the law of multiplication\u2026 Jesus spoke in Matthew 13:8\u2026 of seed that brought forth\u2026 a hundred\u2026 sixty\u2026 or thirty times what was sown\u2026 and Luke 6:43-44 tells us that\u2026 each tree is known by its own fruit\u2026 figs are not gathered from thorns\u2026 nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush\u2026 But sometimes there’s an effect without a known cause\u2026 Jesus clarifies in today’s Gospel\u2026 that the Galileans whose blood Pilate mingled with their sacrifices were no worse sinners than all other Galileans\u2026 and that those eighteen on whom the tower of Siloam fell were not worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem\u2026 so two things are true\u2026 there is both cause and effect\u2026 for the things we both say and do\u2026 And there is some kind of randomness\u2026 which rises up out of our free will\u2026 when it’s not aligned with God’s will\u2026 or with God’s becoming\u2026 and we wonder why bad things happen to good people\u2026 it would be like us asking today\u2026 what have the Ukrainians done to deserve Putin’s unmitigated wrath\u2026 and while some of us might offer up explanations\u2026 as Job’s friends did\u2026 none of them would reflect God’s logic\u2026 And so after Jesus responds to what he was told about the Galileans\u2026 and what he knew about those in Jerusalem\u2026 he said\u2026 unless you repent\u2026 you will all perish just as they did\u2026 and he didn’t mean in the same ways that they did\u2026 but just that they would perish without the eternal life that repentance brings\u2026 and he tells a parable to explain the urgency of repentance\u2026 and about how it is a matter of life and death\u2026 A gardener pleads with a vineyard owner not to make him cut down a barren fig tree\u2026 The gardener\u2019s word translated as let it alone\u2026 is also the root word\u2026 from which we get the word forgiveness\u2026 it also appears two chapters earlier\u2026 in Luke\u2019s version of the Lord\u2019s Prayer in Ch. 11:4\u2026 And Jesus makes a surprising connection between his call for us to turn back to God and this parable\u2026 the fig tree doesn\u2019t produce\u2026 and so based on the metrics of any farm\u2026 it makes sense to cut it down and use its resources for those trees that are thriving and growing\u2026 but the servant\u2026 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[101,90,40,102],"class_list":["post-1554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons","tag-fruit-of-the-spirit","tag-lent","tag-repentance","tag-turn-back-to-god"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1554"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1555,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1554\/revisions\/1555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}