What does God appearing to Moses, Paul retelling
the Exodus story, and the parable of the fig tree have in common? For each
of us, it is probably something different. But this week I was skimming
Earnest Hemingway's novella, “To Have and Have Not.” He
wrote, “...alone ain’t got no chance.”
I say AMEN. That’s it. No man, woman, or child
has a chance alone. By alone, I mean without God. God
called out to him from the bush, “Moses! Moses!” He answered “Here I am.”
We can live in a crowd and still be alone. We’re
alone when we’re without God. A relationship with God is the desire written on
our hearts by our creator. It’s the love we have; a crown of kindness and compassion we wear. God
expresses that desire in all of creation.
It is in the name that identifies God. “I am who am” The “I
am” is real. God is not a golden statue, or a rock, or the sea. God
“I am” is “to be;” “to be” at the beginning, “to
be” now and “to be” always. Eternal, God seeks “to be” with us always. Tell
them “I am has sent me to you.”
Somehow, we’ve decided God has to be
complicated. That’s the way our minds work. The reality of God is not
complicated, “The Lord is kind and merciful,” unwarranted
and unmerited love and charity. If you want to find God in this world, find His
love.
In the gospel, Jesus talks on two disasters; the
murder of innocent Galileans at the hands of Pilate and the death of 18 people when
the tower of Siloam fell.
They weren’t killed because of sin by a vengeful
God. They died because the circumstances of life where evil and calamities exists.
People are subject to these bad things. Our only promised of better things is
to “repent.”
Jesus continues by telling the parable of a fig
tree. Guess what that fig tree represents. It’s us, me and you. If we are in
this world alone, without the grace of God and (surprise to many) without the cultivation
of Church and community, we are like that fig tree. We simply exist.
Pope Francis said, “Christians are not made in a
laboratory, but in a community called the church.” Like the fig tree it is hard
to exist alone without the nurturing of the Church and the love, care, and
mercy of God.
Jesus said on this rock I will build my Church.
God has always built on rocks of faith through the word of God. “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob” and
the God of Moses. Paul tells what made those rocks so strong, “they all drank from a spiritual rock and that rock was
Christ.”
We have a fig tree in our yard. The fruit has
always been sparse and small. For 18 years it’s grown in the shade of two pine
trees. It had been alone in the middle of those trees for all those years. My
wife replanted that fig tree earlier this month.
In the novella, Hemingway’s protagonist, Harry
Morgan, lay dying. “A man, one man… alone ain’t got no bloody (expletive)
chance.” He shut his eyes. It had taken him a long time to get it out and it
had taken him all of his life to learn it.
My brothers and sisters, alone we ain’t got no
chance. But, God, “I am” is always with us.
Our faith is the rock of Christ. There stands our Church and community. Our Lord is kind and merciful. He is a patient
gardener, always with us; we just don’t need to take a life time to learn it.
“Y’all be good, y’all be holy. Preach the gospel
by the way you live and love.” Amen
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