Sermon on March 14, 2010
Sermon for the Episcopal Church of St John the Baptist, Capitola,
given by Rev. Steve Ellis
The Episcopal Church of Saint John the Baptist welcomes all to worship God and to share Christ's love in the world. We are a parish family committed to provide liturgy, Bible study, music, counseling, and Christian education for children, youth, and adults, and to equip all our members for life and for service to others.
Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Old Testament Lesson
The LORD said to Joshua, "Today I have rolled away from you the disgrace of Egypt." And so that place is called Gilgal to this day.
While the Israelites were camped in Gilgal they kept the passover in the evening on the fourteenth day of the month in the plains of Jericho. On the day after the passover, on that very day, they ate the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. The manna ceased on the day they ate the produce of the land, and the Israelites no longer had manna; they ate the crops of the land of Canaan that year.Joshua 5:9-12
Psalm
Psalm 32 Page 624, BCP
New Testament Lesson
From now on, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God..
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
Gospel
All the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them."
So Jesus told them this parable:
"There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.' So he divided his property between them. A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself he said, 'How many of my father's hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands."' So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. Then the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the father said to his slaves, 'Quickly, bring out a robe--the best one--and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!' And they began to celebrate.
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
Sermon: From Beyond Us
Picture: Snoopy as vulture. Remember? Hold the image while we talk about the Father and younger brother, the prodigal, and the elder brother, the hard worker, the good example.
When the prodigal returns the Father has to ask, “Is this man my son?” The brother has to ask: “Is this man my brother?” Both must say: “After the way he has treated me?” Elder brother: “Even though I’m faithful, he is rotten, and Dad likes him best anyway?” They have to decide on the stance they are going to take.
The righteous people around Jesus are confused. They ask Jesus what he’s up to. They are wondering, “What is God up to in Jesus, who welcomes sinners and eats with them? Has God no pride? Why don’t you ignore the sinners and spend all your time with us, the good people? Doesn’t God like us best, who have been faithful for many years? If I do well, shouldn’t God like me better? Shouldn’t I have more honor? Why do sinners get a free pass after all they’ve done to cause misery?”
Let’s start from the Father’s point of view. His younger son came to him and said, “I want my inheritance now. I want to get out of here, to take your money, get away from you, live my life by my values, not yours, do as I please, and I don’t want to hear any more from you about it.”
Why would Jesus tell such a tale? Isn’t the father foolishly indulgent? Should he give this resentful, immature child anything at all when he is in this rebellious mode? For years that sounded so wrong that I wondered why Jesus put it this way at all, and then I realized – I’m a slow learner, and these stories only reveal themselves to me over time, you see? – I realized that Jesus posed the question this way because God has done this with all of us. God has given us such gifts, such riches, such good opportunities, and we say to God just what this son said to the father in the story, “Give me everything, and then get out of my way and let me live my own life! I don’t need you!
To protect his own honor he has to reject this child, who is dead to him, and honor only the son who has never betrayed him. The one who stayed and consoled him when the younger son said that his father was dead to him, and left with his premature inheritance. Because this younger brother utterly squandered that extraordinary trust. All the father can reasonably do is treat this faithless son as dead to him, or, maybe, in bountiful compassion, let him have temporary work as a hired hand and live out his well-deserved humiliation in the worker’s bunk room while he gets back on his feet, and then go.
Yet to this father, this is not a chance for revenge, or for “I told you so.” He has grieved for his dead son, and he is hoping that his son will be changed enough to be restored to him, not as a scoundrel, not as the pariah who wasted so much of what he worked hard all his life to earn, not as a hired hand, but as a son. He’s going to pay for this in the village. The other men are going to call him weak, sentimental, foolish, an old woman, and say he is destroying community standards. He has chosen a difficult stance in a culture that shames people who don’t keep up standards. He’s got courage.
The elder brother is sulking. He is entirely justified, especially in his honor-based, it is the father who is out of line and unexpected. Naturally the elder brother feels entirely unappreciated, as if the rug were pulled out from under him. Has he not, indeed, done the right thing all these years? And he deserves the fruits of that.
Jesus confronts us with a this: Is forgiveness possible? Does right living matter if you can just be forgiven anyway? Is there any point in being open to a new relationship with someone who’s wronged you if they aren’t going to be honorable this time? And maybe the question here is really whether the prodigal, a wealthy young man who has fallen so low that he envys the pigs he serves, whether he has, in fact, “come to himself.” That’s quite a phrase, “He came to himself.” What would that mean?
If, in fact, it has happened, what would forgiveness mean? Is it even possible? When I resent the way someone has treated me, wounded me, should I give them another chance? If they have had a “coming to themselves” is it my responsibility to give them another chance? What makes it possible? Is forgiveness about the change in them or a change in me?
And to vex this question even more, we have Paul reminding us that “if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation.” We are not the people we were before we knew Christ. We have a new place to stand, in God’s forgiveness for us, in a peace and love that is so steady we will never be beyond its reach. Can we stand there and not let it reach out from us to others? Perhaps that is what Paul means when he says we are ambassadors for Christ. Not that we are good at forgiveness, but that we are pretty good advertisements for what forgiveness can do, because we need it, we receive it. It humbles us to know we stand in grace and not in our accomplishments, our righteousness, our perfection. We stand in grace, and so we are a little less condemning of others who need some grace.
Is forgiveness a good thing? Does it just encourage the scoundrel to do wrong again and again? The question changes a bit when I realize that I stand in, that I need, that I count on the grace and mercy of God. . . and that it is relationship to God, not some bare statement of truth, but a relationship that restores me, and if forgiveness happens between me and someone it will be a relational thing.
When I’m being the elder brother, saying that someone doesn’t deserve my forgiveness, maybe the reason I’m jealous of the prodigal is that I am not sure my Father loves me, just loves me, not for what I do right, but just because I am. Maybe I’m not doing right because I love my Father. Maybe I’m doing it so my Father will love me, which keeps me from feeling his love as love. Maybe.
I wonder if the addict getting out of jail, or the thief who hopes to go straight or the sibling with whom I’d like to be reconciled have a better change of reforming if I wait for them to shape up and come to themselves or if I hope, and watch a bit, not glaring at them, just hoping quietly out of the corner of my eye? I know that I don’t perform my best when people who think I’m hopeless watch my every move, like Snoopy, standing on his doghouse in his vulture pose, ready to pounce mercilessly on his prey!
I’m not going to tell you you ought to be more forgiving. I think forgiveness ought to have some teeth in it, that it shouldn’t be just sentimentality and an invitation for further abuse. I think it should come from strength, and be an offer that the other can accept or reject, and it should be offered, gently, in that spirit. And I think you and I have to decide what stance we are ready to take, and whether we have the faith, the courage in Christ, the relationship with God we need to be able to offer forgiveness, because, God knows, it has to come from beyond us.