March 6, 2016
Lent 4
2nd Corinthians
5:16-21
Luke 15:11-32
Amazing grace:
how sweet the sound
that saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost
but now I'm found;
was blind, but now I see.
//
(prayer)
//
When Jesus told stories, he
wanted the audience to see themselves in the story. He wanted them to be anticipating where the
story was going.
Sometimes, the story would
unfold as predicted... occasionally, Jesus would shock them with a surprise
ending... often, the story was the start of a conversation: What do
you think?
//
A Parable of Two Sons:
A
vineyard owner had two sons. He asked
the first one to go work in the vineyard.
The son refused. Then the father
asked the second son to go. He
agreed. But... After the father left,
both sons changed their minds. The first
son did go work in the vineyard and his brother did not.
"So", Jesus
asked, "which one of the sons did the will of the father?"
(Matthew 21)
What
do you think?
//
Another Parable of Two Sons
(Luke 15):
²
A
landowner had two sons. Some day, they
would take over the estate and inherit the family wealth.
²
As
a younger son in his culture, son number
two's eventual inheritance would have been reasonable, but nowhere near what
his older brother was due. He also would
bare far less responsibly.
²
The
younger son wanted to expore life beyond the home estate. He asked his father for money to go live his
own life on his own terms. Rather than a
loan or a gift, the money was provided by buying
out the younger son's claim to any future inheritance.
²
It
didn't take long for junior to burn
through his windfall. Very soon, he came
crawling home, with his tail between his legs.
//
The conversation starts:
·
What
do you think?
·
How
should people react?
·
If
you were the parent, how would you feel?
What would you do?
·
If
you were the older brother, how would you feel?
What would you do?
·
If
you were the younger son, how would you feel?
What would you do?
//
How do you think Jesus'
audience might have reacted to the story's ending?
//
The younger son had very
low expectations of any welcome at all.
Could the audience empathize?
What should have someone in the wayward son’s position do?
What
do you think?
//
The father welcomed the son
with the fullest compassion possible. A
lavish coming home party was held. Did
the audience think this was the right reaction?
What
do you think?
//
The wayward son was
welcomed home. The party was
underway. For some reason, no one had
bothered to tell the older brother what was going on and why. This son felt left out. Could the audience empathize?
What
do you think?
//
The father left the party
to go talk to his eldest son. The father
made the case for the welcoming home of the younger brother. What did the audience think of what the
father had to say? How might the older
son respond? [Jesus ended the parable
without telling us!]
What
do you think?
//
//
If your mind (even for a
moment) thinks that:
·
the
father was too soft;
·
the
younger son got off easy;
·
the
older son was wrongly ignored and is justifiably upset...
that is a fair reaction. These are the reactions that makes
sense. I think that it is exactly the
reaction that Jesus hoped you would have.
Choices have consequences.
When we make less-than-wise choices, part of the
learning process that leads to a wiser future, is for us to live with the
impacts of what we have done and said.
We evolve as people when we 'learn from our mistakes'.
//
//
In June 2013, when he was
16 years old, Couch and some friends stole two cases of beer from a store. After drinking, he drove his parent's pick up
truck with seven friends on board
(going 70mph in a 40 zone). He caused a
multi-car accident that resulted in four deaths in other vehicles and on the
side of the road (no one in the truck died).
Six months later, Ethan Couch was convicted of four counts of 'intoxication
homicide' but... he was not given any prison time (even though prosecutors had
asked for twenty years). Instead, Couch received
a sentence of a rehabilitation program and probation because his lawyers had
argued (successfully) that his parents had never taught him to be responsible
for his actions. Poor little Ethan was a
victim of affluenza.
A lot of people (watching
the news stories) felt that Ethan Couch had evaded justice and had gotten away
with his bad choices because (ironically) he had never learned that his choices
have consequences... and many people have recently felt a sense of satisfaction
now that he is now facing new charges for breaching his probation order (after
having been caught with his mother, hiding out in Mexico). //
Does anyone feel sorry for
Ethan Couch? Does anyone think that he
deserved/deserves to be treated leniently?
I don't!
//
//
Now, I know that the
prodigal son did not hurt anyone (other than himself) with his unwise
choices. That might make him a more
sympathetic character than the likes of the affluenza kid.
Do you think that the younger
son in Jesus’ story deserved the welcoming
reaction he got from his father?
By any version of natural justice, I suspect that most
people would say that he got more than he deserved.
//
Many (if not most) parents
would find it very hard to close their hearts to a wayward adult child - at
least if the wayardness was relatively new.
I suspect that there are a
few people in this room who have first hand experience with this issue.
Some of you may have been
able to rejoice in the reclamation of live's gone astray. Others are still feeling the pain of strained
relationships.
The reality is that, sometimes, the mercy we
have given seems to have been "for not" - the son or daughter made
further choices of estrangement.
//
Don't let anyone tell you
that forgiveness is easy.
Forgiveness is always
(initially) fueled by hope: hope that circumstances and lives can change. But when our efforts at forgiveness are not
appreciated, it can sap us of future hope.
Our hearts harden to try and protect us from
further heartache. That is never
easy. And it never feels completely
right - even when it is the only thing we could do.
Compassion is hard because
it comes from the heart. No amount of
logic can make us feel better, when it does not go well.
And, I'll add... that it is
seldom helpful when a noisy neighbor
heaps judgment on our choices (to reach out or to pull back) without
understanding the complexity of our lives.
Don’t
judge me until
you’ve
walked a mile in my shoes!
//
Forgiveness is hard because
it forces us to be vulnerable - with no guarantee that our forgiveness will
result in any change in the person that we are forgiving.
That is our normal motivation:
we want to see better lives on the
other side of forgiveness.
//
No one can (or should)
fault us for trying to harden our hearts when our forgiveness is not
appreciated.
We're only human, afterall.
//
//
Jesus wanted his audience’s
initial reaction to include all of the complexities of human
relationships. He wanted people to
identify with the older son in the story: the responsible one, who saw love
being doled out in an unjust way.
Jesus wanted people to
question the wisdom of the father’s lavish response.
Jesus wanted the crowd to
begin to make a case for when forgiveness is not appropriate - that it does not
help anyone - even the one being forgiven, who has some valuable life lessons
to learn by feeling the impact of the choices that were made.
And... when Jesus has the
crowd thinking about things in this way, he knows that they are ready to
receive the gospel, the good news.
Human forgiveness is
not
the same as Divine
forgiveness.
To protect our own
well-being, to refocus our energy on other people and things in our lives, we
sometimes have to accept that there are limits to how deeply we can forgive.
Jesus isn’t judging us
about this. He understands that this is
just a reality of being human. We have
limits. We have to set priorities and
focus our energy.
But... Jesus is saying, God
does not have these limitations. God’s
patience is without bound. God’s ego
cannot be bruised. God’s heart cannot be
broken or hardened.
I quoted the Apostle Paul
from his letter to the Romans last week, and I will do it again today:
“[I am sure that
nothing] in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God, in
Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:39)
//
God has the forgiving
capacity to run down the road to meet the wayward in their distress. Before we are able to ask for mercy, God
interrupts us with a warm welcome.
God has the forgiving
capacity to go beyond the joy to meet the self-isolated where they are. When we are feeling unloved or forgotten, God
comes to us and ensures us that we are welcomed into the joy too. That God’s love for others does not diminish
God’s love for us.
The father in the parable
went out to meet both his sons for different reasons, but with one goal... to
let them know that they were loved fully - and without reserve - and... that
they are invited to share in the joy.
//
It doesn’t really matter if
we think we could be as forgiving as the two son’s father. But... can we believe that our God has that
capacity?
Are we open to a faith that
God has capacities that we do not?
//
God’s love for us is not
something we earn. It just is.
We are the ones who are
invited to learn love: to model our
life and choices on Jesus’ Way; to be open to new points of view.
We have read a lot in
recent weeks from Paul’s on-going correspondence with the Christians in
Corinth. He has heard reports of their
inner squabbles and competitiveness. He
has been asked to arbitrate their disputes and settle questions about
leadership and spiritual gifts and practice.
But Paul doesn’t fall into
the traps of divisiveness. Where others
seek diversity as weakness, he sees strength and opportunity to be more
together than apart.
Paul works hard to share a
message that following Christ changes us.
There is nowhere that this is more clear than in the section we heard
from 2nd Corinthians today:
Anyone in Christ is
a new creation: everything old has passed away; everything has become new!
All this is from
God!
Paul writes about God’s
ability to get beyond our unwise choices (they are not held against us) and to
still be in deep relationship with us.
Paul’s hope for the church
is that we will pick up the example of the reconciliation we have received and
reach out to others in a ministry of reconciliation.
We are ambassadors
for Christ - entrusted with the message of reconciliation.
And that message is - that regardless
of how hard (or soft) our hearts may be [at any given moment in the complex
lives we live], the God of life and love
is already among us with open arms of reconciliation.
//
God’s welcome is such that
no one should be on the outside looking in.
Even in our own
self-isolation, even in our human estrangements, even before we can muster a
request for forgiveness, God is already loving us with the fullest possible
heart.
My favorite part of the
parable of the prodigal son is that the younger son has rehearsed his
speech. He has carefully crafted the
words to try and convince his father to show a minimal amount of mercy.
But... the father’s love is so deep and unconditional that the speech is
interrupted before the request is even made.
He is a son, not a servant. He is
treated as such.
SO ARE WE.
//
...'tis grace that brought me
safe thus far,
and grace will lead me home.
//
Let us pray:
God, meet us where we are. And welcome us into the joy you have prepared
for us. Amen.
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