Friday, March 1, 2013

Today’s text

Luke 13:1-5

It was just about this time that some people arrived and told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with that of their sacrifices. At this he said to them, 'Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than any others that this should have happened to them? They were not, I tell you. No; but unless you repent you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen on whom the tower at Siloam fell, killing them all? Do you suppose that they were more guilty than all the other people living in Jerusalem? They were not, I tell you. No; but unless you repent you will all perish as they did.' 

Reflection

An ancient view of the universe plays at the back of mind. The good thrive; the evil come to ruin. We reap what sow.

It’s a neat formula except it doesn’t always fit the facts. Someone steals at work. He gets caught and gets fired. He had it coming. A man abuses his body with too much food and heavy drinking, and his organs fail from excess. What goes around comes around.

But there are so many other times when this neat formula doesn’t apply. The careful and virtuous suffer outrageous fates, die young, fall victim to sudden disease, abuse, accidents or financial downturns not of their own making. They didn’t deserve it.

For some, this undermines faith in God. The good should be rewarded. Those who are less good … not so much. The mean and nasty … let them get what they gave. Divine justice seems to require at least this much.

And when evil times and grief fall heavily on those who “don’t deserve it,” this means God isn’t just, doesn’t care … or isn’t there. The faith of more than a few has foundered on this point.

But life cannot be reduced to formulas. It must be lived in all its wild unpredictability. And God cannot be boxed in by our logic. Both life and God remain wonderfully, terribly and wildly free from us and our formulas about the way things should be.

Sounds like bad news, threatening news. But it’s the best news of all, though challenging. 

You, Holy One, invite us to throw our formulas to the wind and see life as you see it.

Get over yourself and your need to force everything to make sense. Receive life as a great mystery and adventure you can neither predict nor much control.

Instead of judging who is deserving and who isn’t, instead of seeing through your shoulds and oughts, see the grace of each day, the need and humanity even of those you consider undeserving.

See without the need to make things fit the way things should be. See people in their imperfection and peculiarities without judging or blaming.

See the unpredictability of life, the surprises pleasant and painful. See it all as an arena where love plays and invites you to dance to its music so you might be as free as God and as gracious.

When for a moment you see this way, you will have begun to live.

Pr. David L. Miller

Wednesday February 27, 2013

Today’s text

Luke 13:1-5

It was just about this time that some people arrived and told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with that of their sacrifices. At this he said to them, 'Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than any others that this should have happened to them? They were not, I tell you. No; but unless you repent you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen on whom the tower at Siloam fell, killing them all? Do you suppose that they were more guilty than all the other people living in Jerusalem? They were not, I tell you. No; but unless you repent you will all perish as they did.' 

Reflection

How shall I live? As I grow older the question becomes more urgent.

What shall I do with my precious, unpredictable life? How shall I spend the irreplaceable resource of time, which is always shorter than we want it to be?

Two tragedies focused the attention of people who came to Jesus. One was an act of brutality, a murder, the other an accident that killed hapless victims. Both incidents prove the fragility and unpredictability of our lives. We never know what might happen.

Never, which gives urgency to every decision, every action, every day.

Each one must count for something, each must express the wonder of our particular lives, the graces we have to beautify and bless this world while we can, doing the will of the Grace who made and loves us. Time must not be lost.

This urgency seldom sets in on modern souls until sudden threat or evil happens.

We fill our lives with commitments and activities, little questioning: Which is best, which express our deepest convictions and faith, which would we do if we knew this was our last day on God’s good earth?

You can live for decades like this until something unexpected happens. Someone we love gets dangerously sick, our diagnosis is what we feared or an accident touches our lives.

Urgency then enters the mind, and we ask what we want our lives to be. We repent, finally seeing life as a precious and fragile gift that must not be wasted or taken for granted.

Each moment must be lived as much as possible from our depths that we might be and share whatever wonder and beauty, grace and care that is in us--being the soul that the Soul of Grace always knew we could be.

Such repentance of life need and must not wait the day when we realize life is not under our control. It starts today, every day.

We wake and receive one more day, a joyous gift of grace from the Soul of Grace who wants only that we should live, truly live.

Pr. David L. Miller

Tuesday February 26, 2013

Today’s text

Luke 13:1-5

It was just about this time that some people arrived and told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with that of their sacrifices. At this he said to them, 'Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than any others that this should have happened to them? They were not, I tell you. No; but unless you repent you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen on whom the tower at Siloam fell, killing them all? Do you suppose that they were more guilty than all the other people living in Jerusalem? They were not, I tell you. No; but unless you repent you will all perish as they did.' 

Reflection

Tragedy strikes, evil happens to a person, and someone watching will assuredly come up with a reason why they deserved it. It’s called the just world hypothesis.

The human mind is hard-wired to seek explanations, and we want the world to be fair. We want to think people get what they deserve.

When something painful or tragic happens, the mind looks for reasons why they deserved it. They must have done something wrong. They must have brought this on themselves … somehow.

By blaming them we protect ourselves from the thought that such tragedy can happen to us.

Pointing fingers is an effective defense mechanism. Finding a reason, even connecting the fate of others with God’s will, keeps us from having to look at ourselves, at our faults and vulnerabilities as mortal human beings.

All this backfires when something evil or tragic happens to us or someone close to us. Unhelpful and uncomfortable questions quickly disturb when we are accustomed to thinking everything happens for a reason, that God’s will is somehow in what is happening.

“What have I done … what have we done to deserve this?”

Jesus has no time for any of this. He doesn’t appeal to some idea that God’s permissive will allows bad things to happen. He doesn’t point to some higher wisdom or hidden plan at work behind events that would explain everything … if we only knew what it was.

Nor does he say people suffer because they are worse sinners than everyone else.

He turns them … and us … back to ourselves and tells us to repent. Change your mind; change the way you see.

Don’t see people who deserve what is happening to them. See people who need the love and mercy of God. See people whom God treasures.

Look at yourselves, and see that you need God’s mercy and grace as anyone else.

Pr. David L. Miller