Short Sermon

I'm giving a sermon on Thursday for our St. Brigid Community Eucharist. The sermons generally don't go over five minutes.

The text I'm preaching from is Luke 13:1-9, which on first glance is pretty tough. Here is the rough draft.
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I can imagine the conversation revolving around why these things had happened. We still ask the same questions, don’t we?

Two tragedies had recently occurred; Pilate had desecrated bodies during a religious service, and a tower had fallen down, killing eighteen people.

Something interesting happens next. Something that goes against the grain for many people. The prevailing idea of the time was that the gruesomeness of the deaths must have been punishment for their sins. Does this sound familiar? Pat Robertson...blaming the Haitian earthquake on the supposed sins of the Haitians…Last week, a delegate from Virginia made a point that women who have abortions are subsequently punished with disabled children later on.

But Jesus confronts this claim. “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no!” Jesus says something similar in the Gospel of John when He is asked by His disciples why a man by the side of the road is blind. Jesus seems to be telling us that we are not afflicted by life as divine punishment.

God is not an abusive father, ready to mete out punishment once we step out of line. We aren’t killed for our sins.

Jesus rejects retribution and yet calls for us to repent, to turn to God, anyway. Why bother?

We are called to a harder Way. It is a mark of maturity to do what is right because it is right, not because we are afraid of the alternatives or punishment. Jesus calls us to follow God, to be lured to God...with love...not with flinching fear.
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Any thoughts?