Sermon for March 10, 2013 4 Lent Joshua 5:9-12; Psalm 32; 2 Corinthians 5:16-21; Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32 by Kim McNamara This morning we find ourselves in the very middle of Lent. How are you doing on your Lent commitments? For some reason, this year I have met an unusual number of people who just happened to tell me what they have decided to give up for Lent. For example, a colleague of mine has given up cereal because he loves it so much but knows his diet is out of balance because of it. Another acquaintance has given up dairy products for similar reasons. In years past, I don t recall having these kinds of conversations about Lent with people outside of my church community. I wonder what to make of this. Perhaps my own Lenten commitment has taken over my life so much that people need to tell me what they have given up to make me feel better. You may know that I had a heart attack on January 21. Actually, I was participating in Terry Hershey s seminar about the Power of Pause and Becoming More by Doing Less, when I realized that something was not right with my body. I thought I had the flu. Generally, I have a pretty healthy life style I eat right, exercise daily, and practice relaxation techniques so the idea that I might be having a heart attack never occurred to me. As it turns out, I really needed Terry s workshop. Those who know me would most probably describe me as a very busy person. Between my family, work, horses, housework, hobbies, and preparing to become a priest, I am usually running full steam ahead most of the time. I consider myself a hard worker and pride myself on getting stuff done. I value using every minute of my day to improve upon, invest in, or accomplish something I consider important. In fact, my busyness is a problem. My medical care team has confirmed that fatigue and stress caused my heart attack. So, I am attempting to give up my busyness for Lent. Even though my Lent commitment may ultimately become a life or death matter for me, I am struggling with the changes I must make. It is difficult to take it easy! I still have my daily responsibilities, but now I have to add cardiac rehabilitation to my schedule. I like to joke around and tell people my new schedule is going to give me a heart attack. Sadly, no one else laughs. When we decide to make a life change, it is really challenging to catch ourselves when we start slipping back into our old ways and then retrain ourselves to give up the behaviors that have long become deeply engrained habits. When we slip or fall short of our commitment to be better, we feel guilty about our shortcomings. A couple of weeks ago, Garby talked about the guilt often associated with Lent. Because of this guilt, many people do not like the season of Lent. Or even worse, because of this guilt, we may not like ourselves during this season of Lent.
2 Today s readings offer timely and relevant wisdom and advice. Our readings this morning are all about people who have not been the best behaved, obedient, or law abiding. These are stories about people who have not followed the laws of their culture, of their church, or of their elders. Interestingly enough, rather than being about guilt and the negative consequences of disobedience, this morning s lessons are about love and forgiveness, despite our trespasses. Right here in the middle of Lent, just about the time we are having to acknowledge how humanly imperfect we are, we are given a glorious glimpse of the depth and constancy of God s love for us. Let s begin with our reading from Joshua. The context for this reading is the very last day of the 40-year journey started by Moses. God s promise to the people has been fulfilled. After years of wandering in the wilderness the people have arrived in the Promised Land; the land flowing with milk and honey. Despite all of their complaining, their failure to consistently obey the Ten Commandments, and their stubborn and misguided tendencies to slip back into the worshiping of idols, God has kept his promise to the Israelites. God has forgiven them their many trespasses. God has even rolled away the disgrace of being slaves in Egypt. As the Israelites celebrated Passover and their new life in their new land, they must have been very excited. Their new life is full of promise and opportunity, but it is also full of potential hardships as they must settle the land, build homes and farms, and begin to produce food. In this new land, there will be no more manna from God. Future food, shelter, and prosperity will come from their own hard work. Thus, the first temptation they will be challenged by is their perceived independence from God. As biblical scholar Darryl Trimiew observes, It is wonderful to live in a land flowing with milk and honey, but it is also easy to rely more on the land than on the Giver of the land. Our riches can lure us to celebrate ourselves rather than the Holy One who provides for us. It is this very temptation the temptation to work hard to gather riches here on earth and to believe that we are the ones who provide for ourselves that continues to lure us away from God. (This certainly puts my busyness in context!) Our Psalm this morning is filled with very good news happy are those whose transgressions are forgiven. Biblical scholar Lindsay Armstrong reminds us that happiness does not come from being important, accomplished, organized, optimistic, or busy. Instead being happy is a matter of being righteous, and according to Psalm 32, righteousness is not a matter of being sinless. Our Psalm seems to acknowledge that we are going to get ourselves into trouble because we are human. We are warned that the tribulations of the wicked are great, so we are not being given permission to be sinful. Instead, we are encouraged to pray to God when we are troubled and to seek God s guidance as we attempt to find our
way in the world. We should not be stubbornly resistant or blind to our shortcomings. We should not try to conceal our guilt because the effort will ultimately consume us. Rather, we are told to acknowledge and confess our sins to the Lord. True joy will come by being open, honest, and trusting; by acknowledging and confessing our shortcomings; by being forgiven and freed from guilt; and by truly experiencing and believing in God s mercy and love. In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul expands on this message of forgiveness and asks us to move to another level of understanding, as well as responsibility. Those of us who call ourselves Christians are called to be ambassadors for Christ. Following Christ s example, Paul asks us to cease focusing on the humanness of others and to start looking for the Christ in others, as well as in ourselves. According to Paul, when we look for the Christ in others, when we look to the Christ in ourselves, we experience a new creation. Everything old passes away. This means that we no longer focus on trespasses done in the past. We are to stop counting those trespasses against ourselves and others. In fact, Paul does not even mention the act of forgiveness because that would mean we were still focused on past transgressions. Instead, Paul tells us to focus on reconciliation. God reconciled himself to the world through Christ. Our goal is to reconcile ourselves to God by seeing the person Christ would have seen and would have loved. We stop looking at the shortcomings and look, instead, for ways to love this person as Christ would have loved. Whew! Paul expects a lot from us! As we will see from the Gospel reading about the Prodigal Son, Jesus Christ has even higher hopes for us. As we reflect upon our Gospel reading from Luke, it is important to keep in mind that Jesus is surrounded by tax collectors and sinners, who are listening to his teachings. At the same time, he is also being observed by Pharisees and scribes, who are grumbling about the poor choice of company Jesus is keeping. Jesus, who is himself violating long held traditions and rules, uses this opportunity to share three parables, each with an important lesson for all of his listeners, as well as for us. You might have noticed that our reading this morning skips verses 4 through 10, which consist of the first and second parables. In the first parable, Jesus tells the story of a shepherd who loses one of his 100 sheep and leaves the 99 sheep to go looking for the lost one. The second parable is the story of a woman who loses one of her ten silver coins and relentlessly searches her entire house until she finds the lost coin. In both parables, Jesus emphasizes the joy each seeker experiences when what was lost is found. He also explains that there is great joy in heaven when the lost one is found. In fact, he tells his listeners that there is greater joy in heaven when the lost one is found than when all the others are in their right places. 3
4 In the parable of the Prodigal Son, there are three primary characters. Biblical scholars provide us with an analysis of the three characters and the cultural context of the story that helps us understand and relate to the parable. As we look at the three characters, be thinking about whom you relate to and in what ways. The Prodigal Son, the youngest of two sons, asks for and receives an early distribution of his father s wealth. In the time and community of Jesus, this request would have been unheard of and terribly insulting to the father. The fact that the son then squanders this extremely generous gift through a lifestyle of lust and greed would have been intolerable in its lack of respect for the father, and unethical as well as downright stupid on the part of the son. While the son earns a small degree of redemption in his demonstration of remorseful and even logical self-reflection, Jesus colleagues would have found it unthinkable to return home to their father and admit such gross errors. Better to retain one s pride than to come crawling home in such a despicable manner. Within the context of the parable, the Prodigal Son represents the tax collectors and sinners. The Father s behavior, as interpreted through the cultural norms of Jesus community, breaks all the rules that bound family relationships in those days. The fact that the father distributes a portion of his wealth to his youngest son before death is shocking. His lasting hope that his youngest son would return would have been seen as terribly naïve. No respectable father would run out to greet any of his children, much less a son whose behavior had been so intolerable. Of course, celebrating his errant son s return is completely contrary to the expected reaction of a traditional father. In those days, most fathers would have chosen to keep the disgraceful and shameful return a secret. The father s loving patience with the bad attitudes of both his sons is unfathomable. As you may already have guessed, the Father in the parable represents God, our Father in Heaven. The older son has been obedient and worked hard for his father. His role has been that of the traditional oldest son in his culture. Unfortunately, although he has been a good son, it appears that he is joyless, bitter, resentful, jealous, and now, angry. Living with the father, working like a slave, has apparently been difficult. Despite the fact that he has always been with his father and everything that belongs to his father also belongs to him, the oldest son resents his father s joyful celebration when the youngest son returns home. According to biblical scholars, the oldest son represents the Pharisees and scribes. Our readings this morning offer profound and important messages. One message is for those of us who have lost our way. Despite how bad we think our shortcomings are, we should never let guilt or pride keep us from returning to God. Another message is about the strength, depth, and constancy of God s love for us.
God is always waiting for us and will run to greet us and celebrate our return when we choose to make the journey home. We are loved and our transgressions forgiven. There is even a message for those of us who consider ourselves obedient and faithful Christians. The moment we let our judgment of another prevent us from seeing how much God loves that person, the moment we decide that we deserve God s love more than that person does, or the moment we decide we are not worthy of being loved, we are no longer reconciled with God. Yes, right here in the middle of Lent, just as we may be struggling with the limitations of our best efforts to become a better person, we are given a wonderful gift of love and acceptance. We do not have to be perfect. We do not have to work terribly hard. We do not have to live our lives burdened with guilt and joylessness. Happiness comes to us when we are honest with ourselves, confess our shortcomings, and ask God for guidance. When we look for and love the Christ in ourselves, as well as in others, we receive God s gift of joyful reconciliation. Be glad and rejoice! Amen! 5