Sermon for March 18, 2007

WHERE ARE YOU IN THE STORY  ~  PART 1

by

Rev. Dr. Harvey C. Martz

Scripture: 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.' ²² But the father called to his servants. "Hurry!' he said. "Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and shoes on his feet. ²³ 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.' "

Last week we had in your bulletin a true false survey with some questions about Jesus—we still have it available on our web site—and if you looked at it carefully, you may have seen some surprises about Jesus. Jesus got into trouble with the most “religious” folks. He was not “religious” enough by their definition. What he did was so upsetting to them that they arranged for his execution. They had to involve the Roman leaders to do that, but that was not hard because the religious leaders and the political leaders were in cahoots with each other. The high priest served at the pleasure of the emperor.

So Jesus was killed because he was so subversive and so threatening to the powers that be. Remember, you and I belong to the only religion on the planet where the two most prominent figures—Jesus and Paul—were executed by the government because they were a danger, a threat.

One of the reasons Jesus was seen to be so dangerous, so subversive of the religious folks, is in this very familiar story. It has been the subject of so much art over the centuries and we have some examples for you. In fact, the story is too familiar to us, so routine for us, that we usually fail to see how shocking it would be when he told it.

That is the first thing to say not only about this parable but other parables Jesus told. They contained a reversal, a surprise, a shock that would cause those who heard it to gasp in astonishment. Jesus tells about workers in a vineyard where those who come to work at 3 PM are paid the same as those who came a 6 AM. He tells about a man going from Jerusalem to Jericho being mugged and beaten and left for dead, and the priest and Levite who come by refuse to help him, but the man who does stop and help him is—gasp, his enemy, a Samaritan. We yawn when we hear about a “good Samaritan” but those two words were never used together in Jesus’ time. It would be like the phrase a “good terrorist”, making someone a hero who the audience knows is not a hero.

This morning’s story has several surprising elements in it, but we need first to look at why Jesus tells this familiar story. He is teaching, and many members of his audience are the “wrong” kind of people—tax collectors (Jews who have sold out to the Roman oppressors and do their bidding) and outcasts or sinners. Religious folks were not to associate with outcasts and impure people—they were to segregate themselves, keep themselves “pure”. And the worst possible thing a truly religious person could do is to eat with outcasts. To share a meal was to bind yourself together. That is why the most damaging charge the leaders could bring against Jesus was that he ATE WITH OUTCASTS AND SINNERS!!

I wonder who Jesus would be hanging out with today.  We are privileged to host in our building for a few days the Shower of Stoles project, a collection of liturgical vestments from gay and lesbian clergy, many of whom have had to remain anonymous because their churches will not allow them to serve if they are not anonymous. So many churches have failed to recognize what the mental health community has been telling us for thirty years—that we do not choose our sexual orientation, our sexual identity, that is a given; what we can choose, whether we are heterosexual or homosexual, is our actions. And some churches continue to misuse and misquote scripture as though sexual orientation were a major concern in the Bible, which it is not. The acceptance or rejection of gay and lesbian persons continues to be a highly emotional issue in our culture and now, recently in our military, and I have made copies for you of an article by former Senator Alan Simpson of Wyoming, a US Army veteran himself, about how the bigotry toward gay persons in the military is hurting our military and our country and even our war efforts as we have been firing language experts including fifty Arabic translators who happen to be gay. Simpson represents a common sense moral and political position that I admire, and his openness would be right in line with the openness of Jesus in this story. 

Jesus is being criticized and judged because he associates with and eats with everyone, Pharisees and outcast alike. SO, he tells three stories in the fifteenth chapter of Luke, stories that make this chapter one of the five most important chapters in the Bible!!

All the stories have to do with being lost or being welcomed or who belongs in the family of God. They also have to do with the character of God. We just finished a series of sermons on character that many of you expressed appreciation for, this story is about the character of God.

The first story Jesus tells is about a man who had 100 sheep. One of them is lost and the man leaves the other ninety nine at risk and looks for the one who was lost; it wasn’t a bad sheep, it just got lost. Can you identify with that—have you ever been lost for a while? Then he invites his friends to a party because the one that was lost has been found.

The next story is in our call to worship: a woman has ten silver coins—valuable coins. She loses one and turns her house upside down until she finds it, and then she invites her friends over for a party because the lost has been found.

Then there is the story we just read about a lost son. One scholar calls it the story of the lost son and the dutiful son. We know it by a title that Jesus does not give it, The Prodigal Son. Do you know what “prodigal” means? It means wasteful, reckless, and overly generous! The son wastes his money in reckless or riotous living. It would better be called the story of the prodigal father—the reckless or overly generous father. The extravagant father!

Let’s look at the beginning. I think when Jesus started talking about a man with two sons, he really got people’s attention. What is dearer to us than our families? What can pull at us; affect our hearts more than stories about our families? We were talking with our 29 year old daughter this week about an article on adoption in the current Oprah magazine. Most of you know that Meredith is adopted and we have talked with her about that since she was very small, and her adoption has been an incredible gift for all of us. We have also told her for many years that if she ever wants to try and locate her birth parents we will be supportive of that and will not feel threatened, and we have said there are advantages and disadvantages to that sort of search.

The point of all this is that when we begin to talk about our families, the emotions are right there on the surface and they are very strong.

Jesus tells about a father with two sons, and the youngest son asked for his share of the money so he could get away and have a really good time away from his boring father and his loyal, dutiful, obedient, boring, older brother.

Because we live twenty centuries later than this story, we miss the scandal of this second line in the story. The son was saying to his father, “I wish you were dead. I am ready for you to die; can I just get my share now and get the heck out of here?” The father does not have to, but he does give the son his share—a lesser share than his older brother because the oldest always got a larger inheritance in this culture. He goes and throws his money away and when he runs out of money, he runs out of friends and finds himself doing the most disgusting, humiliating thing a Jewish boy could do—feeding the pigs, and even wanting to eat what the pigs are eating because he is starving.

He finally realizes where he is, he comes to his senses, repents of what he has done, decides to go back to his family, to confess his stupidity, and to ask his father if he can just come back as a slave or a hired hand. He practices his speech all the way back home: “Father, I have sinned against you and against God and I am not worthy to be called your son—can you just take me back as a servant—not as a son but a servant?”

What happens? He gets close to his home and his father sees him coming from a long way off. Why? Because he has been looking for him every day, hoping he will come to himself, realize what he has done, start a new life. And then, here is the other shocker in the story: the father does not wait patiently on the porch and let the son come to him begging and humiliated and on his knees. The father does something no self respecting oriental father would ever, ever do: he runs to meet the boy, only lets him get a few words out, then orders for the best calf to be killed, requires that a ring and a robe and shoes be brought to him and puts on a party because the son who was lost is now found. He was dead, but now he is alive again.

And everybody is having a great time—except for the loyal, dutiful, faithful older brother who of course is furious when he learns this scum bag of a brother has come back after throwing away his life; not only that, Dad is throwing a party for this piece of trash who has wasted part of the family fortune and he refuses to go to the party so his father comes out to him to tell him why the party is going on. Does he ever go inside?  We don’t know. Jesus ends the story right there!

Most of us can identify with each of those persons in the story. Most of us know what it is to think we know better about how to be happy and we take directions in life that turn out to be foolish or wrong for us and, if we are lucky, we come to ourselves and take a new path. Most of us know what it is to be loyal and faithful and then to see someone else honored even after they have been foolish and unfaithful.

And many of us can identify with the parent because we have been in that role of seeing a son or daughter go off in a direction we felt was bad for them and we felt so helpless to do anything but pray for them and wait for them and keep loving them and hope someday they will see what we think is a better way. Where are you in the story this morning?  I am usually the loyal, law abiding elder brother who goes by the book, stops at every stop sign, follows all the rules. But I have been each of those persons and most of you have too. Will you email me this week about which person you identify with? We will look at the story more fully next Sunday as well.

One more thing about the father. What the father did in welcoming the errant son was a scandal. Dr. John Indermark, in his book on the parables, says that the other people in the village would have been outraged at this father! He was being too permissive! This kid should have learned a hard lesson about humility! And who should be in charge of hard lessons but a good parent?? How else can we make sure our kids understand the gravity of their mistakes???  We would understand if the father stood behind the locked gate and listened to every word of the son’s confession and made him get down and grovel. And spend some time then as a slave so he could learn his lesson.

That might be what I would have done. But that is not what the father in this story does because the father in this story first of all has compassion and runs to meet the boy and welcomes him home and celebrates because the father in this story represents God, and that is how God relates to you and me. Thanks be to God.

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