Feasting through Lent: Forgiveness

Transcription

1 Rev. Joan Pell Sierra Pines United Methodist Church Sermon: 3/6/16 Series: Feasting through Lent Scripture: Luke 15:1-3,11-32 Feasting through Lent: Forgiveness NOTE: The congregation had each been given a purple piece of yarn/string about 3 length which they were wearing around their necks (like a stole). <Read Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32 (THE VOICE)> Narrator: 1 Jesus became increasingly popular among notorious sinners tax collectors and other social outcasts. 2 The Pharisees and religious scholars noticed this and were saying: This man welcomes immoral people and enjoys their company over a meal! 3 Jesus told them this parable: Jesus: 11 Once there was this man who had two sons. 12 One day the younger son came to his father and said, Younger Brother: Father, eventually I m going to inherit my share of your estate. Rather than waiting until you die, I want you to give me my share now. Jesus: And so the father liquidated assets and divided them. 13 A few days passed and this younger son gathered all his wealth and set off on a journey to a distant land. Once there he wasted everything he owned on wild living. 14 He was broke, a terrible famine struck that land, and he felt desperately hungry and in need. 15 He got a job with one of the locals, who sent him into the fields to feed the pigs. 16 The young man felt so miserably hungry that he wished he could eat the slop the pigs were eating. Nobody gave him anything. 17 So he had this moment of self-reflection: Younger Brother: What am I doing here? Back home, my father s hired servants have plenty of food. Why am I here starving to death? 18 I ll get up and return to my father, and I ll say, Father, I have done wrong wrong against God and against you. 19 I have forfeited any right to be treated like your son, but I m wondering if you d treat me as one of your hired servants? Jesus: 20 So he got up and returned to his father. The father looked off in the distance and saw the young man returning. He felt compassion for his son and ran out to him, enfolded him in an embrace, and kissed him. Younger Brother: 21 Father, I have done a terrible wrong in God s sight and in your sight too. I have forfeited any right to be treated as your son. -1-

2 Jesus: 22 But the father turned to his servants and said, Father: Quick! Bring the best robe we have and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and shoes on his feet. 23 Go get the fattest calf and butcher it. Let s have a feast and celebrate 24 because my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and has been found. Jesus: So they had this huge party. 25 Now the man s older son was still out in the fields working. He came home at the end of the day and heard music and dancing. 26 He called one of the servants and asked Older Brother: What is going on? Servant (Narrator): 27 Your brother has returned, and your father has butchered the fattest calf to celebrate his safe return. Jesus: 28 The older brother got really angry and refused to come inside, so his father came out and pleaded with him to join the celebration. 29 But he argued back, Older Brother: Listen, all these years I ve worked hard for you. I ve never disobeyed one of your orders. But how many times have you even given me a little goat to roast for a party with my friends? Not once! This is not fair! 30 So this son of yours comes, this wasteful delinquent who has spent your hard-earned wealth on loose women, and what do you do? You butcher the fattest calf from our herd! Father: 31 My son, you are always with me, and all I have is yours. 32 Isn t it right to join in the celebration and be happy? This is your brother we re talking about. He was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found again! Lent is a time to think about what separates us from God, about our sin, and repentance, and returning and being reconciled with God. It s about our baptismal covenant and the rejection of the spiritual forces of wickedness and the evil powers of this world. We started on Ash Wednesday, by reading Psalm 51 asking God to create in us a clean heart. And for that to happen, part of what is necessary is forgiveness, which is our word for today. Fasting from food is a traditional spiritual discipline through Lent to feel the hunger pangs as a call to prayer and a reminder of God s provision for us. And this year we ve been fasting from things that draw us away from God, and feasting on what draws us closer to God. Feasting on forgiveness requires the courage and compassion and patience that we have been talking about for the last three weeks. -2-

3 This week in our devotional book 1, we have read entries on making good choices and building up others and acting in ways that look risky and foolish and crazy to the world and focusing on optimism not cynicism and connecting with those who are isolated or lost. And isn t that just what the Father in our parable does with the welcome and feast that he lavishes on the younger son? He builds up his son, acts riskily, has optimism, and connects with the lost. Without forgiveness, there is no reconciliation, The Pharisees had been complaining about the company that Jesus kept and so Jesus told three stories about lost items. The first was about a coin, the second a sheep, and the third was this well-known parable of the Lost Son / the Prodigal Son. The younger son asks for his share of the inheritance that would normally come to him when his father died. In those days, when the father died, the ancestral land would be divided among the sons. For the younger son to ask for his inheritance it would mean the father giving him the land now In our story, the younger son must have not only received the land but then sold it and moved away. This would bring shame onto the whole family. The normal action of a shamed parent was to disown the son. But that s not what happens in our parable. Here the father does not shun his son. Instead the father forgives him and throws a feast to celebrate the return of the son that he thought was lost to him. The father s forgiveness has no strings attached; it is free of conditions. This is scandalous grace. Grace that defies all earthly rules and conventions. It offends us in its extravagance. The younger son was offered the royal treatment: wrapped in the finest robe, a ring on his finger, the fatted calf slaughtered and the town invited to a spectacular party. That s radical forgiveness! I was reading a blog this week written by United Methodist Pastor Rev. Steve Goodier and he said: 2 Ernest Hemingway wrote a poignant short story called The Capital of the World. In it he tells about a Spanish father who wants to reconcile with his son who has run away to Madrid. In order to locate the boy he takes out this ad in the El Liberal newspaper: "Paco, meet me at the Hotel Montana at noon on Tuesday. 1 Bruce Reyes-Chow, 40 Days, 40 Prayers, 40 Words: Reflections for Everyday Life (Westminster John Knox Press: Louisville, 2015). 2 Steve Goodier, No Strings Attached in Life Support Blog (August 28, 2012)

4 All is forgiven. Love, Papa." Paco is a common name in Spain, and when the father goes to the square he finds 800 young men named Paco waiting for their fathers. What drew them to the hotel? As Hemingway tells it, it was the words All is forgiven. I notice that the father did not say, All WILL BE forgiven IF you do this or that. Not, All WILL BE forgiven WHEN you do such and such. He simply says, All is forgiven. No strings attached. And that s the hard part un-attaching the strings. The father s actions offended the older son. The faithful son. The one who remained at home and worked so hard in his younger brother s absence, and who had also shared in the shame that was brought on the family. The older brother was angry and resentful. Did he not have a right to feel miffed? To feel that his father should have laid some conditions down and not been quite so quick to forgive and restore his little brother s dignity. The father explained his reasoning to his oldest son and issued an invitation. He did not force the older son to attend the party. The older son by shunning the party, was bringing yet more shame on the family. Sons owed their fathers loyalty and obedience. The father offered the same no strings attached grace to his older son. And then left the older son to come to his own decision. And we do not know what decision the older son made. How often are we the older son (or daughter) in this story? What decision will you make? Will you come to the feast? WIKTIONARY tells us that the origins of the phrase no strings attached comes from back in ancient times, when documents that were written on parchment had strings that were used to tie them shut, after they were rolled up. There is a tract in the Babylonian Talmud that mentions an example of a man who gives his wife a bill of divorce with a string attached, but holds on to the string, so that he can snatch it back apparently because he is unwilling to actually give her a divorce. According to Jewish law, this is not a valid divorce, because he will not give it freely. 3 Similarly forgiveness that is given with strings and conditions attached is a sham and not valid, since it can be snatched back at any time. Are we going to hold onto the string? There s another definition of the phrase too from the cloth industry, where a small flaw in a fabric would be marked by a string so it could easily be spotted. 4 This suggests that no strings attached also means "without flaws". Similarly forgiveness with no strings attached means untying all knots that mark the flaws in another. How many knots are we obsessing over? Ibid. -4-

5 We are called to be like the loving father, called to reach out to those whose actions we do not agree with. Yet, we are often tempted to withhold that forgiveness. Christian Author Jane Hatmaker, from Texas recently wrote this, and it really resonates with me. Listen to what she wrote: 5 I, like all of you, am going to an imperfect church this morning. I have failed it in innumerable ways, and I've felt the sting of disappointment there too. Church is hard. But every single Sunday, every one, I find Jesus there. I am renewed in tiny or even enormous ways. But largely, when I look around the room, I see the faces of people that are so good, so courageous, so committed and loving, I cannot imagine doing life without them. Folks, my prayer for you this morning is that you find your church where Jesus is lifted high and people are loved, and plant there with all your might. Your church will be so imperfect. SO. People will let you down (and you them). Stuff will go sideways and have to be righted. There will be hard conversations and honest confessions and apologies and lots of forgiveness, but the presence of these things doesn't mean you are doing it wrong. It means you are building a church with human people and you love them too much to let it all slip through your fingers without fighting for unity. May you find grace for your church today. [and be] grateful that you get to love God and love each other and love people together, imperfectly. Sometimes we are the older son withholding forgiveness as we are so caught up in our own self-righteous positions and full of hurt and pain. Sometimes we are like the younger brother who has made an incredible mess of things and missed the mark, and wondering if we can ever find our way back. But when we are at our best, we are like the father offering forgiveness to others with a lavish grace, and it is then that we will truly find healing. And the good news is that we can always be the recipient of undeserved grace. How awesome is that! What a wonderful feeling to know that as we return seeking Christ, that we are the beloved son or daughter whose guilt and pain can be healed with no strings attached; no conditions placed on us, and our flaws no longer marked up for all to see. Our families are imperfect families. This church is an imperfect church. And our local community is not perfect either. And this country is certainly not! We live in an imperfect world. So let s go to the feast with the fatted calf and pick forgiveness from the menu this week. Ask for forgiveness. And freely give forgiveness, unknotting all the strings that have us bound together in pain and bitterness. May we all experience God s healing peace. AMEN. 5 Jen Hatmaker, Facebook post on February 28 at 7:28am from Buda, TX

6 Meditation Take the purple string, look at it, and hold it tightly. It s purple to represent the season of Lent. Lent, a time of returning, repentance, and reconciliation. A time to reject and not hold onto the spiritual forces of wickedness and the evil powers of this world. Can you feel the tension in the string as you hold it tightly? Feel your muscles and how tense you are. We are an imperfect church family as are your families at home. Over the years, we have had many a hard conversation saying many a cross word. We have made decisions where we do not agree with each other and have not been gracious to those who disagree. Sometimes our words have brought pain to another. Our hasty actions and gossip have harmed others. We have held onto grudges Are we going to keep holding on tight? Or can we open our hands and release their grip and let the tension go, so the string goes slack? Do it now. Release your grip on the string. What s it feel like now? Who in this church do you need to forgive? Or which of your relatives or friends? Take the string and tie a loose knot somewhere in its length. Let the knot represent that person you just thought of. The person here that you need to forgive. Jesus said, But I say to you who are willing to hear: Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who mistreat you. (Luke 6:27-28) Hold that knot in the palm of your hand and pray a blessing for the person whose name it represents. Who else do you need to forgive? Tie another knot in your string. Not too tight. Hold that knot in the palm of your hand and pray a blessing for the person whose name it represents. Is there anyone else you need to forgive? Tie another knot in your string. Hold that knot in the palm of your hand and pray a blessing for the person whose name it represents. Now untie the knots you have in your string. As you do so allow God to take away the grudge in your heart that you have towards that person. Offer them your forgiveness. And if you tied the knots too tightly and can t undo a knot right now, it s okay. Let that be the place that God is going to work in your heart in the week ahead. Do the same for each of the knots. Feel God lifting your burden from you. So look at your string now. Feel that place of healing. Feel the peace that comes with the letting go. Now, that forgiveness that you just offered others, it s for you too. Place the string back around your neck. Feel Gods arms around you. You are loved. You are forgiven with no strings attached. Shalom to you. AMEN. -6-

7 Resources Bartlett, David L. & Barbara Brown Taylor, Eds. Feasting on the Word. Year C, Vol. 2. Louisville: Westminster John Press, Goodier, Steve. No Strings Attached in Life Support Blog. August 28,