Brief synopsis of the readings: In Exodus we see Moses tending the flock of his father in law. There an angel appeared in the form of a bush that burned but was not consumed by the flames. As Moses approached he heard the voice of God instructing him to proceed no farther and remove his shoes as “the place on which you stand is holy ground.” When God told him he was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob Moses covered his face, afraid to look at God. Moses was then told that God had heard the cry of freedom from the Egyptian slaves and intended to free them from bondage and bring them “to a land rich and broad, a land where milk and honey flow.” Understanding that he was called to lead his people Moses asked God’s name. “And God said to Moses I Am who I Am. This he added “is what you just say to the sons of Israel: The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. In Luke’s Gospel Jesus is approached by people who complained that Pilate mixed the blood of executed Galileans with animal blood from sacrifices. Jesus then told them that those executed Galileans were no greater sinners than anyone else. He then spoke of those killed when a tower fell who were also no more guilty. He then spoke a parable of a man who had a fig tree that produced no fruit. He told his servant to cut down the tree and stop if from wasting the ground. The servant than asked that he be allowed to nurse the tree for a year, and cut down the tree if if it bore no fruit after that.

We say that “Gospel” means “good news” but there are days where the news hardly sounds good. The first reading from Exodus does sound good. Brief background: Moses was born a Hebrew slave but was raised in Pharaoh’s house. When the grown up Moses saw an Egyptian abusing a slave. Moses killed the Egyptian and fled to the wilderness where he married Zipporah, Jethro’s daughter.

When Moses fled he probably felt relief at his escape, but also believed his life from then on would be pretty simple and uneventful. I think God loves that. Much as Abram in last week’s Gospel I can’t imagine how overwhelming Moses must have felt. But here’s the problem: Moses knew that if he went back to Egypt he might be executed on Pharaoh’s orders. He can hardly sneak back in as God called him to proclaim himself to all the slaves. Since we know how the story ends, it’s a good and uplifting reading.

Luke’s Gospel, on the other hand…

When the people first approached Jesus, they came with a certain amount of smugness. We don’t know much about what happened here but it appears Pilate executed some Galileans and mixed their blood with the blood of sacrificed animals. Jews and Galileans hated each other and they told Jesus about mixing blood they expected Jesus to let loose on those awful Galileans because they deserved it. Instead he turned on those gathered and said that the Galileans were no more or less or guilty than others. He then commanded them to repentance. Sounds harsh, doesn’t it?

I’ve spoken about this before but many years ago I volunteered as a chaplain at the maximum security prison in Massachusetts. I don’t need to tell you it was a rough place and most of the inmates focused on their own survival and had little time for God. But shortly before I arrived one inmate decided to give Christianity a try. He was given a Bible and began to read it. We had some good conversations.

But one day I went to see him and he was really depressed. He told me that he had had a bad few days and a few decisions didn’t go his way. He felt betrayed and abandoned by God. “I gave my life to the Lord and I thought he would protect me. Was I wrong?” As you can imagine this led to a much longer conversation than I anticipated. He was led to believe that his profession of faith would lead him to a life free of suffering; he expected to believe he “would live happily ever after.”

In fairness if that happened it would make evangelization much, much easier. But that’s not the case. Rabbi Harold Kushner describes the decision to believe in God means putting on eyeglasses that brings the world into focus. It doesn’t change the world, it only makes us better able to understand it. In other words, we need to see faith as a pair of eyeglasses, not virtual reality glasses.

Jesus’ call to repentance isn’t meant to shame us. It’s meant to remind us that no matter who we are, no matter what we do, we will never be exempt of the need of God’s love, mercy and forgiveness. We say we believe this but our actions often belay something different.

And sometimes we see events in our lives against a backdrop of whether God exists or cares for us. The 1988 movie Mystic Pizza one of the characters finds cold beer in her boyfriend’s fishing boat and exclaims: “Yes, there is a God.” I remember amusement thinking that proof of God depended on the existence of a few beers.

I write this against the backdrop of war in Eastern Europe and the fear that it may lead to World War III. We are not called to believe in world peace but we are called to understand that peace will not occur without a recognition of our need for God. There is no easy path for us to follow but when I see nations like Poland accepting refugees, when I see international aid organizations running into harm’s way, I am heartened that we are listening to God and acting in his stead.

At the end of the day I’m asking that we not despair of this situation no matter what we see and hear. At the end of the day God is still present even in darkness.

And God would still exist even if there was no beer on the fishing boat.