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Sunday, March 25, 2007
Where Are You In The Story ~ PART 2
By Rev. Dr. Harvey C. Martz
Luke 15: 1-3; 11-32 ~ Good News Translation
1 One day when many tax collectors and other outcasts came to listen to Jesus, 2 the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law started grumbling, "This man welcomes outcasts and even eats with them!" 3 So Jesus told them this parable:
11 Jesus went on to say, "There was once a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to him, "Father, give me my share of the property now.' So the man divided his property between his two sons. 13 After a few days the younger son sold his part of the property and left home with the money. He went to a country far away, where he wasted his money in reckless living. 14 He spent everything he had. Then a severe famine spread over that country, and he was left without a thing. 15 So he went to work for one of the citizens of that country, who sent him out to his farm to take care of the pigs. 16 He wished he could fill himself with the bean pods the pigs ate, but no one gave him anything to eat. 17 At last he came to his senses and said, "All my father's hired workers have more than they can eat, and here I am about to starve! 18 I will get up and go to my father and say, "Father, I have sinned against God and against you. 19 I am no longer fit to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired workers." ' 20 So he got up and started back to his father. "He was still a long way from home when his father saw him; his heart was filled with compassion, and he ran, threw his arms around his son, and kissed him. 21 "Father,' the son said, "I have sinned against God and against you. I am no longer fit to be called your son.' Then go and get the prize calf and kill it, and let us celebrate with a feast! 24 For this son of mine was dead, but now he is alive; he was lost, but now he has been found.' And so the feasting began. 25 "In the meantime the older son was out in the field. On his way back, when he came close to the house, he heard the music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him, "What's going on?' 27 "Your brother has come back home,' the servant answered, "and your father has killed the prize calf, because he got him back safe and sound.' 28 The older brother was so angry that he would not go into the house; so his father came out and begged him to come in. 29 But he spoke back to his father, "Look, all these years I have worked for you like a slave, and I have never disobeyed your orders. What have you given me? Not even a goat for me to have a feast with my friends! 30 But this son of yours wasted all your property on prostitutes, and when he comes back home, you kill the prize calf for him!' 31 "My son,' the father answered, "you are always here with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be happy, because your brother was dead, but now he is alive; he was lost, but now he has been found.' "
Ann Lamott has a new book that has just come out this week. If you are not familiar with Ann Lamott, she is the most popular religious writer around after Pastor Rick Warren. She is a former drug addict and recovering alcoholic-now twenty years clean and sober. She has had life changing visions and experiences of meeting the risen Christ and it was her connection with a small Presbyterian church some twenty year ago that turned her life around. She still teaches Children’s Sunday School classes in that little congregation in northern California-named St Andrew Church, incidentally, and when Cindy Bates and I have talked with Ms. Lamott about coming to our congregation to speak, she has told us about how she just hates to be away from her own congregation on the weekends—it is so important to her.
If you have not read any of her books yet, we will always have them on our shelves here. I warn you, she sometimes uses blue language and is blunt in her assessments and evaluations and in telling her own journey and personal history. And I find her one of the most refreshingly honest voices of faith around today.
She tells in this recent book about how she dealt with her mother’s death four or five years ago. She had very mixed feelings about her mother and her father. Most of us have mixed feelings about our parents and that is normal as we will see as we look more closely at the story Jesus tells us about two sons.
Ann Lamott says it took her three years after her mother’s death before she could finally scatter her mother’s ashes in the way that had been requested. The urn sat on the top shelf of Lamott’s closet for all that time ‘til she could work through more of her feelings about how her mother had let her down.
She says in the current book: “I was finally able to ache for her, for all that had been impossible for her to bear, for the bad cards she had been dealt. Yet I could forgive her only about half the time. I was struggling to learn the little things she forgot to teach me—that I was beautiful and of value—regardless of how well or how poorly I was doing in the world.”
Most of us have mixed feelings about our parents and we perhaps can identify with her feelings and with the feelings of the two characters in this most famous story that Jesus tells about a father who had two sons. Think about this with me: Jesus tells about 30 parables or stories like this, and this may be the most important one about God and us and how God is with us. We looked at it a bit last week and I encourage you to get a copy or read it on the web site to complement this morning’s sermon.
If we only had this story and one other story that Jesus told, we would know all we need about God’s grace for us and about how we can respond. If we had this story and the story of the man who was robbed and beaten and left for dead and the two religious folks came by and ignored him—Billy Graham and Jerry Falwell passed him by—but the man who stopped to help him was his enemy, a Muslim cleric! (Really, it was a Samaritan—the equivalent of that cleric today). If we had only those stories, we would know God’s gracious love and how God hopes we will treat each other as well—like the Samaritan man who did not see an enemy but who saw a human being who needed help.
I suggested that people email me and let me know about whom you identified with most in the story of the father with two sons. Many of you did so and I thank you. Several of you said that you have been all three. One member talked about his journey through alcoholism and how when he was drinking, he was “clearly the reckless, wasteful, ungrateful, self centered *****.” Then, he said, “All of that was what I needed to go through to see God’s grace. I was blessed with the gift of hopelessness and desperation. Without those I probably would have continued to live a horribly destructive lifestyle.”
He wrote that since finding AA: “I have had a spiritual awakening as a result of the steps. (This is one of the reasons I am an advocate of twelve step groups and why I am so pleased that our church hosts several twelve step groups each week in our building. They work. They are a good example of what the original churches were like 1900 years ago, groups of support AND accountability, grace AND tough love. I recommend them.)
This man goes on after talking about having a spiritual awakening in his AA group and says, “I have spent a great deal of time being the good kid who follows the rules. It is a much more peaceful and enjoyable life.” He also tells about having the opportunity to sponsor several other guys in his AA group and how he is able to be the father figure like the father in Jesus’ story who welcomes back the errant wanderer and who offers a new chance for a healthier life.
I was very moved to hear this church member’s story and to see how it is so close a parallel to this 2000 year old parable we continue to study from Jesus.
Did you figure out since last Sunday where you are in the parable this week? Most of us have been all three of the characters at various times. I said last Sunday that I am often the dutiful, loyal, sometimes rigid older brother, and others of you said that also. We need lots of folks filling that role—being dependable, doing what is right, being responsible.
That kind of faithfulness is a great blessing, a great blessing, and at times, if we forget our own need for grace and forgiveness, that faithful and responsible life can be a barrier to others. We may forget our need for grace. We elder siblings need to see something that the older brother in the story misses also.
Did you notice, in his angry speech to his father, how the older brother characterizes himself? He is outraged at the grace the father shows to his irresponsible little brother, and he says, “What about me? I have worked for you like a slave!” Why would he characterize himself as a slave? Why not just as a loyal son? A slave?? Did he know the great deal he had going? He doesn’t have to see himself as a slave!!
The father says something very important after listening to the angry list of grievances: “Son, you have always been with me, and everything I have is yours.” What else could he want? Did he understand what he had? Did he know how well off he was?
Have you been in that place? You forgot how great life is and you complain and someone reminds you of the goodness of life and how fortunate we are and how we have just been blind? Many times we have to lose or come close to losing what we have to know how lucky we are. Joni Mitchell said, “We don’t know what we’ve got ‘til it’s gone.”
We could take a few more Sundays on just this one parable of the 30 that Jesus gives us. I want to look at a couple of other themes here and then end with a modern parable that has some of the same themes.
Jesus’ story is about who belongs in the family of God—who is in the family and who is an outsider. The religious folks are criticizing him because he is associating with outsiders, sinners; bad people. The shower of stoles is in our building because many elements of the worldwide church has decided that one group of people has to be outsiders because of their genetic predisposition. Jesus welcomes outsiders and he gets into trouble for it. This and his other expressions of grace for all people finally get him executed.
Can we be as welcoming; as gracious as Jesus? If we are followers of Jesus, can we practice the radical hospitality, the radical welcome for people who have been told they don’t belong, for whatever reasons?
Do you remember what poet Carl Sandburg said when someone asked him what the ugliest word is in English? He said the ugliest word in English is “Exclusive”. Some people just have to be excluded because—they are alcoholics or they have messed up their lives or, in Jesus time, they have broken the rules or they don’t fit into the purity code of first century Judaism or, or, or…And Jesus kept saying that God’s family includes everyone. God’s family is built on grace and not judgment and condemnation.
Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee is going to be one of the more interesting presidential candidates the next few months. He is a Baptist minister. He has lost 100 pounds the past few years and runs two marathons per year. He is an evangelist for healthy eating and regular exercise and has sworn off sugar and anything fried, which is a big thing for a southern man.
I have his recent book on my stack to get to shortly. In an interview a couple of weeks ago he was asked about his religion because so many people see fundamentalism and judgmentalism as one and the same. He said something very important. He said that his religion is based not on judgment but on grace. Grace: the notion that God accepts us right where we are and helps us move beyond where we are. The notion that God is gracious and welcoming; God who looks for us when we have wandered off and who welcomes us back and throws a party for us. Grace: the notion that God is more compassionate and accepting than most of us are. The notion that God’s family includes all of us, even people that we may not think should be included!
Let me end with the best contemporary story about grace and welcome and belonging that I have ever heard and it is one that we tell here about every three years. Someone asked me last month when we would hear it again, so here it is.