Untwisted Perspective

A sermon preached by Rev. Ginger E. Gaines-Cirelli at Foundry UMC March 20, 2022, Third Sunday in Lent. “Roots of Resistance” series.

        Texts: Luke 13:1-9

From a recent article in the New York Times highlighted the news that people in Russia are receiving about the war in Ukraine. “The narrative disseminated online through state-run and unofficial channels has helped create an alternate reality where the invasion is justified and Ukrainians are to blame for violence.” For many in Russia, this is the only story they receive, the only perspective given for what is happening. In our own context, we have more perspectives to sort through than we can manage. If we’re wise, we are careful about the mix of our sources for news of the day, finding some semblance of balance about what’s really going on. 

But a balanced diet of perspectives doesn’t keep us from losing the most important one. As people of faith, there is always a larger perspective, a more profound frame through which to read the headlines. And it’s easy to lose that larger vision and “get twisted” in our perspective. I believe that keeping a nuanced faith perspective in times of crisis and challenge is among the most important spiritual practices we can nurture. Without it, we become unmoored from the story of God’s mercy, compassion, justice, and love. We lose the assurance that we are part of a great cloud of witnesses who continue to participate with God who is always at work for good in the world. We forget that we have a responsibility to participate in God’s good work. And that, as in every other time of crisis, from the beginning of all things, God will help us.

The classic liberal protestant notion is that we should read the newspaper in one hand and the Bible in the other; that is, read the headlines of our lives and of our day with a Spirit-led, Jesus-focused lens so that we might find some guidance about how we are called to respond. 

Today our Gospel gives us an example of how Jesus reads the news. Jesus responds to two headlines of disaster:  both were news stories of people who died unjustly and tragically, one in a political massacre and the other through a tower collapsing. One way our ancestors—and many in our modern world—try to make sense of these painful and confusing events is by assigning cause and effect. For example, those folks who were brutally killed by Pilate must have been worse sinners than others or must have done something to deserve that kind of punishment. According to this way of thinking, if you are killed unjustly or randomly or tragically, it’s your fault.  God is punishing you.  

Jesus reads it differently, saying, “do you really think these people were being singled out because of their sins, or that they died because they’re worse than anyone else?  Of course not!” With both examples, Jesus unequivocally denies the cause-effect nature of the deaths. But there is also a “but…” But if you don’t repent, if you don’t change, then you can expect consequences. When Jesus says that unless we repent, we will perish just as those in the Biblical examples did, he is not saying that God is out to get you and is going to make you a victim of some awful tragedy if you don’t shape up. After all, he has just rejected that kind of response. So what is Jesus talking about? 

Just before what we receive today in Luke, Jesus teaches about the need to trust God and to live a life according to the love, care, mercy, justice, and humility of the Kin-dom of God (Luke 12:13-48). Jesus tells the story of a rich man building bigger barns to store his crops and then dying with no “treasure stored in heaven.”  Jesus teaches about attendants who need to be ready, keeping their lamps lit, as they await the bridegroom’s return. Jesus teaches about the servants who have been given responsibility for their master’s possessions, but who are cruel and frivolous and thoughtless; the master will show up when they lea