Being Ready For Anything
From Luke's Gospel, chapter 13:

1Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2Jesus answered, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. 4Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish."

6Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. 7So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, 'For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?'

8" 'Sir,' the man replied, 'leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it. 9If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.' "

Jesus is always confounding us when we think we have a good handle on what is happening. Then we begin to do things like mental juggling of His words to make them easy to take. These from Luke 13 are among those that I have often found difficult.

Sarah over at Dylan's Lectionary Blog had this to say about this passage:

[I]n Luke, when some of God's people come to Jesus with a news report -- that the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, had murdered Galilean pilgrims to Jerusalem -- that boils down to a statement -- that this is too painful to bear, and perhaps even to name -- and therefore comes out also as something like a question: "How could God allow this?"

There are at least a thousand clichéd answers to a question like that. God needed some more angels for the heavenly choir. These clearly were pilgrims who forgot to pray (or behave in the prescribed way -- usually meaning the way that the speaker wants people to behave). Or the last resort of someone desperate for an explanation: "everything happens for a reason, and God allowed this to happen because something better will come of it."

That last answer is less awful than the first ones I listed, but it isn't the one that Jesus gave. To the smug who are convinced that God arranges all suffering as well as all joy, and delegates each according to the human values of the smug, Jesus offers a word of warning; he says, in effect, "you are no better than these people, you're no less mortal than they, and if anyone figuring in this conversation is courting disaster from God, it's you."

Ah, how simple it is. No trying to make up deep or convoluted understandings. It all boils down to a simple, Who are you to think you are any different than anyone else? That thought reminded me of a time when God used something I said in a way that 1) I don't think I said it and 2) yet helped someone deal with what he was going through.

One of my parishoners in my church many years ago had just gone through a fairly routine surgery and had been doing well. Unfortunately, a couple days after he went home he had one of those unexpected post-surgical complications that get you back to the hospital real quick where he had to have another emergency surgery. Two days later, in pain and feeling sorry for himself, he confronted me when I came to visit. It was the simple statement almost any of us make in that kind of moment. Two words:

Why me?

I have never remembered what I said next, at least not my exact words. George, who was an Elder and soon became a supportive friend of mine remembers what he heard me say:

Why not you?

I am sure I wasn't that blunt. I was still relatively young and uncertain and wouldn't have been so confrontational. I probably said something like, "Well, you know, uh, all kinds of, uh, different types of things happen to all of us."

From then to the end of my ministry there as he went though a number of physical issues, he would often tell that story, smile, and then thank me for opening his faith to see that he really wasn't any different than anyone else. It truly was a turning point in his life of faith and saw it as a new and deeper way to trust Jesus.

That's really what Jesus us saying to those with the questions. We always want to look for reasons, for punishment, for anything that could possibly keep the pain and uncertainty away from our lives. Unfortunately we cannot. Life is life is life. Rain, and just about everything else, falls on the just and unjust alike. The trick is in being willing to work with it, live with it, and trust that the grace of God will not forsake us.

That can be a tough road to walk. I know. But it can lead us to repent. No, not because we have done something wrong and will prevent the bad stuff from happening. It still happens. No, repentance, brings us around to God's path, walking with him, trusting that we are doing what we can do on any given day.

It will not be a magic shield of protection, but an umbrella that will keep the rain from soaking into us and turning us against God. It will remind us who we are- and whose we are.