7 March 2010

Isaiah 55:1-9
Psalm 63:1-8
1 Corinthians 10:1-13
Luke 13:1-9

I have a friend -- a good Lutheran friend -- with whom I often play golf.  I am not a good golfer; I need to tell you that up front.  But he is such a horrible golfer, that his wife told my wife she is amazed I continue to golf with him, when so many others have long ago refused to do so.  My golfing partner takes lessons, buys the latest equipment, reads golf magazines, but in the years I have played with him I have not seen one bit of improvement in his game.  What I have seen is that he always finds something or someone to blame for playing poorly.  Sometimes its because he did not get to the course early enough to warm up; sometimes its the weather -- too windy, too warm, too cold; often it is because someone is running a mower that he can hear -- or someone in our group coughs or speaks in the midst of his back-swing or just as he is lining up a putt.

I tell you this, not to make myself out as a saint for being his golfing partner (referring to him in a sermon like this proves I am not) but because it seems to be an example of how often we seek to place blame when things go wrong or when bad things happen to us or to others.  In the past few weeks, we’ve seen a number of bad things happen.  Two teenagers were shot in a local school, bringing back memories of the horrific events at Columbine just weeks before we will relive those events once more as the anniversary of that day rolls around. An earthquake created massive damage and widespread death in Chile, just weeks after an earthquake devastated Haiti.

When things like this happen -- or worse, when terrible things happen to us -- we inevitably want to place blame, hoping that might make it easier to understand; easier to accept; and maybe to find clues that will make it possible to keep it from happening again in the future.

That’s what’s going on in today’s Gospel Lesson.  We listen in on a conversation between Jesus and some folks who tell him a story about a mass murder ordered by Pontius Pilate of a group of visitors from Galilee.  They traveled to Jerusalem to make blood sacrifices in the Temple, and in the midst their worship, the unthinkable took place.  Pilate sent Roman Soldiers with swords drawn to cut them down, mixing their blood with that of the sacrificed animals.  To this story, Jesus add another; one about eighteen people living in Jerusalem, who were killed when a tower collapsed on top of them.  In the light these two events, Jesus asks two similar question:  were the Galileans who were killed worse sinners than all other Galileans?  Were the people killed when the Tower of Siloam fell on them worse sinners than others who lived in Jerusalem?

Notice that nothing is said about placing blame on Pilate who ordered the massacre or on the contractors who built that tower.  Instead, Jesus puts his audience on the spot, asking whether those who were killed in both cases deserved what happened to them by being greater sinners than others who were not killed.