Gay, straight: it makes no difference to God
by Jeremiah Bartram on 01/03/10 at 7:22 am
At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all the other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them – do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.” Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’” Luke 13, 1-9; reading for Sunday, March 7, 2010.
Commentators
NRSV: The incident of Galileans killed by Pilate while sacrificing in the temple is otherwise unattested. “According to common Jewish belief, painful experiences were signs of God’s judgments.” Respecting the unfruitful fig tree, compare Mt 21,18-19 and Mk 11,12-14.
Hardy concurs with the NRSV respecting contemporary Jewish views of calamity as a punishment from God. “Jesus did not altogether reject this explanation,” he says; “there were certainly occasions on which he seems to have regarded illness as a consequence of sin. But here he offers an explanation more typical of a prophet: these catastrophes are warnings of the fate which awaits you all – ‘unless you repent’.”
Regarding these two historical incidents, Hugues Cousin notes that the question is not the sin of the victims – we are all sinners – but rather readiness: it is necessary to do penance and welcome the kingdom of God before the disaster; “afterward, it’s too late.” He applies the same reasoning to the story of the fig tree, which is given more time to produce useful fruit: Jesus’ hearers must stop leaving what really matters to tomorrow, and choose God now.
Gospel for gays
Luke’s parable about the fig tree is completely different from the incident recorded in Matthew and Mark, where Jesus goes to a tree because he is hungry, finds no fruit, and curses it, causing it to wither and die. In Matthew’s version it dies immediately; in Mark’s, the disciples see it dead the next day, and remember his curse.
But in both accounts, there’s an important fact and an apparent injustice on Jesus’ part: the tree is in full leaf, which means that it’s not the season for it to produce fruit. Jesus shouldn’t have expected to find fruit on the tree – just as you don’t get apples in springtime. So why would he be so unreasonable as to curse the unoffending tree? It’s Jesus, not the tree, that is wrong in their stories. Indeed, Mark specifically mentions the fact that it was not the season for figs.
In their gospels, the tree stands for the temple religion of law, which by its nature cannot feed the hungry Jesus – or anyone else. Mark signals this meaning with one of his narrative “sandwiches”: Jesus looks for food, and curses the tree (the first slice of bread); then he goes into the city and drives the money changers out of the temple (the meat); and only then do we see the result of his curse: the tree is dead (the second slice of bread).
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Luke’s approach is completely different and here’s the point: it’s not about the law or the temple religion, and it’s not condemnatory. It’s about mercy. (Indeed, the landowner in this story does not merely give the unproductive tree more time: he invests resources in it, to nourish and encourage it.)
The first part of this reading speaks of repentance (in the NRSV, that is; the French translation that I also use refers to “conversion”), while the parable of the fig tree is all about productivity – bearing fruit – and the mercy of God.
What is the connection between the two ideas? Is repentance (or conversion) a necessary step that must be taken before we can bear fruit? And what do we repent of?
The answer is pretty logical. We repent of – or turn away from – the things that prevent us from bearing fruit.
And what, exactly, is this fruit?
Earlier in his gospel, Luke summarizes the behavior – and the reward – of those who follow the way of Jesus. “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.” (Luke 6, 37-38)
But what is the fruit – or result – of such behavior?
“No good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit; for each tree is known by its own fruit. Figs are not gathered from thorns, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.” (Luke 6, 43-45)
So the “fruit” is, first, internal and spiritual: peace, joy, wisdom and the overwhelming abundance of God’s gifts, which include forgiveness and a reciprocal relationship with him.
And good results flow from the heart of the person so blessed by God’s forgiveness and God’s bounty.
Conversely, evil results flow from the other kind of heart – the one that does not forgive, that does not share, that is therefore closed to the mercy of God.
Jesus does not define what the good or evil is. He leaves that to us, and to the experience of the ages.
So, to answer my question:
We repent for (or convert from) our habitual lack of generosity – by generosity.
We repent for (or covert from) our habitual lack of forgiveness, by putting aside all the negative shit in which we indulge, day by day – and forgiving.
Can it really be as simple as that?
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And where’s sex in all this?
I don’t hear Jesus saying, “Repent of your homosexual love-making” and certainly he never says, “Repent of your gayness”. Never. Sexual orientation doesn’t even enter the picture.
Instead, he asks, Do you think that those Galileans were worse sinners than yourselves, and that they therefore deserved punishment? Or that the people killed by a falling tower were worse sinners than yourselves?
Or that gay people are worse sinners than yourselves?
We’re all in this together, gay and straight.
What we are all called to do is turn again, repent of our meanness and pettiness and jealousies and vengeful spirits, of our lack of caring, our indifference, our selfish ways – by giving and forgiving.
The issue is not sexuality: it’s generosity of spirit and openness to God.
