Beyond Judgement and Into Salvation

Isaiah 55:1-9; Psalm 63:1-8; 1 Corinthians 10:1-13; and Luke 13:1-9

A God beyond all comprehension; that is my first reaction when I read these passages. Some people have suggested that the New Testament readings for the Third Sunday in Lent perhaps offer insight to “judgement theology.” Does God punish us for the wickedness of our actions? Was the earthquake in Haiti God’s punishment on the impoverished nation for sinning? The short actions of the second “question” is, of course, absolutely not. And yet, it is amazing how judgement theology has been used to scapegoat “the others” of society. For centuries, Europeans used Matthew 27:25 as justification for anti-Semitic violence. Today, people like Fred Phelps blame LGBTQ persons for bad things happening in today’s world.
Jesus uses the two tragic events as an opportunity to undermine judgement theology. The misfortunes that strike others, or even us, is in no way due to previous sins. I cannot help but think of when HIV/AIDS first became known to the public. Religious leaders had a field day with it, calling the illness “God’s wrath on homosexuality.” So many young men died from what became known as “the gay disease” and so called religious persons saw this as a fit punishment from God for living an “abomination.” So then is lung cancer God’s wrath for smoking? Is breast cancer God’s punishment for being a woman? Of course not.
The question of why do bad things happen to good people is one that has dumbfounded every human since the dawn of creation. But Jesus challenges us to move beyond that question in this Gospel. Blaming the victim or trying to explain the ‘why’ of misfortune does no one any good; it simply provides us with empty excuses to withhold compassion for those who suffer. As usual, Jesus uses these experiences of misfortune as a call to us to turn away from a culture of death and violence, retribution and scapegoating. We are to transcend all of that and be peace bearers to the world.
The whole Book of Isaiah reminds me of my coming to accept my own sexuality. The people to whom the prophet was speaking were a people in exile, forcibly detached from what culturally identified them as God’s chosen- The Promised Land. For many LGBTQ people, we live much of our lives in a sort of internal exile where we are not free to be the persons God created us to be. The prophet in Isaiah calls the exiled Jews out of Babylon and back to Judah, a journey that would not have been very appealing at times. The Jews to whom the prophet was speaking must have felt lost and confused about what God has in store for them. But Isaiah 55:1-9 reassures them that God’s salvation is abundantly extended to all people. It is through our own queerness that we are called to witness God’s radical love, as the prophet mentions in verse 4. What can we reveal to others because of our otherness?
Psalm 63:1-8 shares in that invitation to God’s grace. The psalmist longs so passionately for union with God. For many LGBTQ persons, this ardent yearning is nothing new. Religious fundamentalists make many queer persons feel so isolated from life in God because of our sexuality. Yet, we are not separated from God at all. God lifts us up when we, like the psalmist, are in the wilderness.
Truly, our God is beyond all comprehension. To create us as “others” in the eyes of society not to punish us, but to witness to God’s unwavering love and salvation.