‘… If it bears fruit next year, well and good;
but if not, you can cut it down...’ (Luke 13:9)
Luke 13:1-9 (Year C: Lent 3)
Once upon a time a teacher of theology asked ‘Does God
suffer?’ to which a student replied ‘Do people suffer?’.
That people suffer is plain to everyone. That some people
suffer enormously over all statistical averages is also plain to see. But, why?
I have wondered too.
After a lifetime of observation it seems to me that there is
no clear answer to this particular question (why people suffer as much as they
do). Sure enough, much human suffering is caused by selfishness, cruelty and
corruption. Sometimes those perpetrating violence that brings enormous
sufferings to others may deny or rationalise it. Even if the indiscriminate dropping of bombs
from the air on densely populated cities may be rationalised as ‘less worse’
than some alternative scenario (history is full of such examples) it must
surely be the case that at least some pilots, generals and other technical
staff involved in bombing missions or other acts of war were traumatised by
what they had done – quite apart from the unspeakable suffering of those on the
ground surviving or maimed or dead. And, closer to home, there are some who
have also perpetrated war in the name of a cause with terrible consequences for
others that we do not hear so much about these days.
Then there is suffering caused by life and all that goes
with it – getting sick, receiving a bad prognosis, seeing a loved one slip into
dementia or natural catastrophes that fall upon people – good people. Every so often some voice is raised ‘Why
would your God allow such terrible things to happen?’. Those of us who believe
in an infinitely compassionate and loving God, if we are honest, have no
convincing or logically water-tight answer to this question. What we do know
and can practice is compassion in a cruel world marked for the most part by people
who are generous, courageous and virtuous.
bad things happen to good people...
When Jesus was confronted with stories of what happened in
the massacre of the Galileans where the Roman soldiers ran amuck or ‘those
eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them’ he had to be
honest with those listening. Those
listening including not a few listening today in parts of the world and the
church will have notions of a fierce, vengeful and detached God who enforces
cruel justice and punishes those who sin.
For these folk, wars, epidemics and various sufferings were and are the
price of sin. We are reminded of the
question posed to Jesus in John
9:2 ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’. But, in the gospel of Luke we are not told
that Jesus assigned responsibility for this suffering on the victims who had
broken God’s law. We know enough from reading all of the gospels and not least
that of Luke that God, in Jesus Christ, came not to condemn, not to punish, not
to afflict but to save, to heal and to restore.
However, suffering is the reality for all human beings and some much
more than others. The point is that Jesus knew how to draw from his suffering
the very power that would not deliver us from suffering here and now but lead
us to a place of acceptance and conquest. ‘Bearing with it’ was not the message
for those who were poor, excluded and despised as a result but rather ‘woe to
you rich’ (Luke
6:24) who deprive others of goods, power and respect.
In other words we are responsible in our ways, whether we
like it or not, for needless suffering as a result of things we have said and
done and things we failed to say and do that we should have done. Put another
way, we are individually responsible for some degree of injustice and damage in
our personal relationships whether at home or at work or somewhere else. But, the story does not end there. There is
‘structural sin’ embedded in the way that societies and polities are
constructed and in the way that relationships of power and dominance operate in
this world. In a way, we can be part of,
and responsible for, that too. Perhaps the saddest aspect of this type of ‘structural
sin’ is that we may do it in the name of God or some other cause because we
have never engaged with an alternative story or possibility. We can sit in
armchairs observing the world and pontificating on how others should live not really
knowing anything of their sufferings or never having faced the difficult
question of how one would think or feel if this or that happened to oneself or
one’s family. The saying ‘don’t knock it unless you’ve tried it’ could be
rephrased ‘don’t knock it unless you have been through it yourself’. Indeed.
To say all of this is not to avoid one of the key messages
in this text and which is built on a separate question of ‘why do good people
suffer?’, namely: if we do not turn from lies, selfishness and cruelty towards
others then we, too, will experience huge suffering and destruction
(perishing). For ‘unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did’
Jesus tells us (verse 5). Life is short and eternity is long as one saying
goes. In this life we have a beautiful
opportunity to live by truth, goodness and beauty. The passing of years and the
experience of bereavement involving one’s parents or even the next generation –
our generation – brings home the reality that life is precious and to be
embraced in the here and now. The question of ‘life after death’ needs to be
matched with the question of ‘life before death’. On the latter question we can, hopefully,
agree with people who do not hope beyond death. Ours is not to force our values
and views on others but rather live in such a way that these same values and
beliefs we say we stand by are curious, attractive, meaningful and life-giving
for others – including those who given up believing and hoping a long time ago.
our time is precious...
In hearing this gospel we are reminded that our lives are precious, that there is no room for complacency and that time is constantly getting shorter. This is not a reason for gloom or neurotic anxiety about this sin or that sin, about this broken relationship or that broken relationship or about this omission and that omission. There are remedies for failure. These include a stubborn trusting in God’s mercy and help no matter what. They also include recourse to those means of grace that God puts in our way: a walk in the mountains, sharing a cup of tea with someone, a book, a project. Add to this times of grace spent in reflection, prayerful reading of the great poetry and stories of the Bible and confession. Confession? The Irish took the blame for inventing individual auricular confession but the practice has biblical roots. Leave it like this:
In hearing this gospel we are reminded that our lives are precious, that there is no room for complacency and that time is constantly getting shorter. This is not a reason for gloom or neurotic anxiety about this sin or that sin, about this broken relationship or that broken relationship or about this omission and that omission. There are remedies for failure. These include a stubborn trusting in God’s mercy and help no matter what. They also include recourse to those means of grace that God puts in our way: a walk in the mountains, sharing a cup of tea with someone, a book, a project. Add to this times of grace spent in reflection, prayerful reading of the great poetry and stories of the Bible and confession. Confession? The Irish took the blame for inventing individual auricular confession but the practice has biblical roots. Leave it like this:
- All may
- Some should
- None have to
Many are the regrets of some as they enter the final third
of their living years. But, one regret we will not have is that we loved too
much and lovingly gave away too much whether by virtue of time, money and our
very own lives. The question of human suffering is seen for what it is – a call
to compassion.
postscript
The story is told of someone who was about to quit a very
busy career at fifty something and said ‘I am burnt out, cynical and have nothing
further to contribute. Anyway look at my age’.
A kind friend two decades older than her said: ‘if only I was your age
again’.