Rev. Dr. Rebecca L. Kiser
Lost and
Found OR Just Who Is Lost?
3/31/2019 Lent 4C Luke 15
When I was in junior high Sunday School, this girl started attending by herself, no parents with her - she was kind of different
from us, wore dresses we wouldn’t wear, and she didn’t know that you were
supposed to brush your hair out after letting it dry in pin curls - her hair
looked like she just took the bobby pins out and left it at that. I didn’t want her to sit next to me, although
in my heart I knew she was probably someone God loved, and probably needed the
support of us at church. But she was
just too different for my comfort. So I didn’t make the effort I wish I did. She didn’t know
our songs, she wasn’t there with her family, her voice was louder, she didn’t
know the culture there at Sunday School.
I felt guilty about it, but not guilty enough to put myself out for
her. I was partly afraid the other kids
would think I was weird, too.
Another time, my mom went with me to a musical put on by the high school,
where the lead young man had this absolutely gorgeous voice to swoon for, even for my
mom. I clearly remember my mom
exclaiming, “Oh, if only God would save him, what a great witness he could make
with that voice!” We were very fundamentalist
Baptist, of course, and no other church folks but us were really saved, according to
us. I knew what mom meant, but as I was
teenager, I had to be critical of her…so I argued with her that it was
wonderful when God saved people even with bad voices… I knew quite a few odd
Christians by then, different backgrounds, different ways of acting - some with
rather tough childhoods, different from mine.
I welcomed them, although I had trouble being gracious with my mom… I looked down on her for wanting this guy
saved just because he had a nice voice.
That’s all just so human, isn’t it? I didn’t read the 2 Corinthians text for
today, as the Luke story was rather long.
But the 2 Cor text starts out, “From now on,
therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view;...” because we are all
new creations in Christ. And we are all
in Christ. The ‘human point of view’
doesn’t make it when we are in the kindom of God.
Making distinctions, for example "like and not
alike," starts in the early grades in school - we learn to notice differences -
its part of learning to think, to see where things diverge, to see what fits
together. We’ll need that ability to
discriminate when we get to higher level thinking. Intelligence tests including the later SATs
and ACTS for college include sections about what words fit together, and which
word isn’t connected - its testing vocabulary as well as the ability to see
connections. Its important in our faith lives, too, to judge what God would
guide us to do or not do, how certain principles of faith are applied to
different situations.
Yet one place a larger principle is in place - if we are in the realm of God, its important to know that the love of God sees
people as people - people for whom Christ came and died and was raised. God does not see according to a 'human point
of view,' and when we are of God, we see that way, too. . Not that we don’t remark differences - we
notice, of course, who dresses like money and who doesn’t; who is of European
ancestry and who is of African… or Jewish, or Arab, or Korean, or Mexican, and
so on. We notice who is attractive and
who isn’t; we notice who smells clean and who doesn’t. We notice who smokes, who is married to whom,
who one dates, what one’s career is. We notice what accents people have,
whether they wear a hijab, whether they buy beer, whether they celebrate the
same holidays as we do, whether they go to church - or what church.
Yet we see the differences without discriminating - we do NOT use this human
ability to see outer differences for keeping people out. There’s a larger principle in operation here
- all are loved by God and sought by God, and the angels rejoice when one who
has been “lost” turns to Christ. In
considering who God loves, all people count. Even the ones we fear; even the
ones we hate; even the ones we disagree with; even the ones we’d rather not sit
by us; even the ones who worship differently.
These distinctions disappear in knowing who God loves, and who Christ
died for. Because God so loved the
WORLD, and Christ desires that ALL come into the kindom and be made whole.
This whole chapter of Luke has Jesus telling stories of lost things that are sought and found, which makes the
angels rejoice. The first story was the
shepherd seeking and finding the sheep that either wandered off or fell
somewhere - anyway, it wasn’t there in the pen at nightfall. The next story is about how a woman scoured
her house to find a valuable coin that fell off or fell out of where she kept
them. She’s so happy that she throws a
party that probably cost a good bit of that coin’s value itself! And, Jesus adds, just so do the angels
rejoice over one who is found by God, or comes to God, or returns to God.
This chapter setting is given in the first
verse: “Now all the tax collectors and sinners were
coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were
grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” So the context of these stories is how bent out
of shape people got because Jesus welcomed people who, seen from a 'human point
of view,' didn’t make the grade socially.
He even ate with them, like they were okay folks, and important enough
to be noticed. This bothered folks who
were making those distinctions to discriminate between people, deciding who was
okay and who was not.
The longer story we call the Prodigal Son is
told as the third of three stories with the same context. Jesus hooks us because the story of a good
son and a bad son is so human - even these days, its often a theme in a
movie - almost a stereotype. We project our own values on them - to me, the
good son pleases his parents, makes the accepted choices, chooses a good
career. He probably colored inside the
lines, was quiet in the lunchroom, made good grades and joined the right
clubs. And he got a lot of kudos for
that, the praise and recognition of the adults.
He probably had a good voice and used it in the church choir. He was neat and clean, and did the right
things. Held the right opinions. Anyone
would be proud of such a child!
The bad son in this story - I picture
him as the class cut-up, mediocre grades, doesn’t try hard except at having
fun, cuts class, gets drunk or high at parties, stays out too late, maybe even
has gotten in trouble with the police a few times. If he sings, he sings
raunchy songs when he’s under the influence. His mom and dad worry about what
kind of person he’s going to turn out to be, as he seems to flaunt them at
every chance he gets. We can describe the stereotypes with
no problem.
Now my dad loved this story - not that he was a bad son, but
he picked up some bad habits in the Navy during WW2, even though he was a good sailor, followed the rules, and even sent $$ home to his mom for the rest of the family. But he considered himself a sinner, and loved
the picture of the Dad running out to greet him in total forgiveness and
welcome. It IS a beautiful picture of restoration and reinstatement of one who removed himself or herself from the
conventional fold, had some wild years, one who has not been pleasing but has
never been given up on, never forgotten.
In a way, this is a picture of all of us who have come to faith in God -
we have acknowledged our distance from God, or to use a Bible word, our sinfulness. We have realized our need for God,
and God has forgiven us, welcomed us and restored us. And still forgives us when we fall again, as
we continue to do, being imperfect as we are.
So we are all the prodigal.
Somewhere in our story with God, however, we turn into the
one who has been here longer, pictured by the older brother. WE have
done right, WE have followed the rules, WE have adapted to the church culture,
WE have curtailed our partying, WE have not thrown away money, WE have not run
after loose men or women, WE have never had to feed pigs to live (except maybe those who have been farmers!). HE could have done it too, HE could have made
himself behave right - HE got to do all the bad stuff and still get away with
it, get his inheritance, have Dad pleased - even more pleased than he’s been
with ME, who has been here being good all these years!!! NOT FAIR!!!
Now I’m an elder sister, and I did my best to do everything
right and please everybody around me. I
didn’t scatter any wild oats or run with wild boys - I practiced my piano and
never sassed back. I did manage to scare my parents, though, by almost being
fanatical about religion...And I could argue real well. My sister was more normal, mostly good most
of the time - we didn’t have a bad child
in our family. I admit I had some envy
of folks who had gotten in trouble earlier in life, because they had such great
testimonies about coming back to God and giving up their debauchery. My testimony was pretty boring - I’d always
been in church, always loved God and always tried to do my best and obey my
parents. Sometimes I wished I’d had
those experiences, kind of….tried some of those things - as long as there had
been no consequences, of course. So I understood the elder brother a bit - my sister and I
were as jealous of each other as other siblings are - getting our feelings hurt
over who got the most praise, who got the best grades, who got the biggest
piece of cake, who mom and dad seemed to like the best.
As I grew older and wiser, though, I learned that there's a down side to being the adaptive child - my
behavior was almost totally oriented to outward praise and outward authorities
- I had a difficult time knowing what I wanted to do, because I was not used to
asking what it was I wanted for my life.
Outer authorities have had power over me for a long time; my behaviors
only pleased me because they won me favor, not because I valued those things in
myself. I was proud of how disciplined I
was - it made me feel superior - it wasn’t all just for love of God. Like that older bro, it never occurred to me
to throw parties for myself, or ask myself what I wanted, or celebrate and
enjoy being with God. My view of God was that of a score-keeper of wrong decisions
versus right decisions, of when I sinned and when I resisted; and who only
loved me when I was good - of course God loved me when I was bad, too, but
would punish me until I was good again.
That God would kill a fatted calf for me in joy with my presence, or
give me extravagant gifts - that was not my inner experience of God. I’d have stood outside with that elder bro
while the younger, bad son was feted.
******
You notice that Jesus doesn’t resolve this story about the
elder son, nor show a healing of the elder son towards his father, nor his
brother. (And there’s no mom in the
story, which is weird, although at least there was a female presence in that
story of that woman scouring her house for the lost coin.) But Jesus
leaves us to work things out for ourselves, those of us who resent and resist the welcome of those we’ve
deemed ineligible and unworthy. God rejoices -
how about us? God welcomes - what about us?
Jesus is obviously telling those folks who criticized him
for eating with tax collectors and sinners, that they are the elder brothers in
this story - like him, they are standing outside the party and totally upset
that those misbehaving sinners were welcomed.
Even though dad comes out to urge him to come in, he can’t do it -
his judgmentalism is too great, his perceptions of the sins of his brother are
skewed, his view that he has earned his own righteousness is wrong, and his
desire is to see the brother ‘get his’ has overridden his joy that the
youngster is returned. He does not
rejoice like the angels.
Now I don’t particularly like the Prodigal son - I don’t
think his repentance is sincere - it sounds calculated to me, like a con, to
pull the wool over old dad’s eyes and get back in favor, looking out for
#1. He sounds rehearsed and not
authentic to me. Of course that’s my
projection on him - once a scoundrel, always a scoundrel, always working an
angle. And I also think that the dad
knows it, and will continue to accept him and work with him. Dad isn’t taken in - and Dad celebrates anyway. In my take on the story, this is another
thing the elder bro is upset about.
And yet the elder bro is wrong, in the kindom of God. As the dad says, he’s not been rejected, he’s
not been treated poorly. The elder bro also has his unacknowledged prodigal side, he also has his sins - maybe not as flagrantly visible on the
outside, from a 'human point of view.' But since he’s not at the party, there’s something wrong going on IN him as well. And yet ...and yet...Dad is working with him, too, with his faults of pride and his need
to be perfect that interferes with his ability to love and rejoice. He’s actually the one who’s still outside,
after all - as this story ends, he’s the one who’s lost.
This is a message to those of us who have grown up in
church, doing it right, accepting church culture and looking down on those
outside. This is a message to those of
us who think we deserve God’s favor because we’ve worked hard, curbed
ourselves, controlled our desires to at least a public view, and looked good to
our peers. This is a message to those of
us who’ve lived right, according to our culture and church, and think we’re
better than those others who’ve not done as we’ve done. THOSE are the sinners - those who have loved a
lot of partners, or the wrong partners; those who have lied or stolen or been
underhanded or never come to church or partied too hearty - whatever it is that
makes us feel superior to them, whatever it is that creates this us and them
thing anyway.
Well, if we're not at the party, we’re in the wrong. God delights and rejoices when people who
have not turned to God finally accept that grace. Even if their turning to grace is not perfect
the very first moment - and it won’t be, of course. God welcomes those who have not followed the
way of Christ when they do begin to turn and follow the way of Christ. When, as the scripture puts it, the lost are
found. How can we, who have known God’s
grace already, be upset that others are finally responding to it? That’s God’s point of view. All the riches of grace and heaven are been
ours.
Of course, if we’ve been doing these good things just for
the reward or the recognition, or because we think we are unworthy unless we
do, or out of fear that God will hate us if we do anything wrong, then we’ve
not experienced the joy of faith to start with - we haven’t understood fully at
all. If we’d rather see those who don’t act like us be punished, and not share
the kindom of God with them, we need to rethink. This parable will make us do that, as we stop
to feel the emotions and admit what they really are.
And once we see it, what do we do? How is this story concluded in a good way for
us? How do we “elder brothers” get in to
the party, and enjoy own status as a child of God? Naming what’s going on in our hearts is an important
start. Realizing those strands of envy, our accommodation to outer authorities, then finding our own centers in God,
realizing the sin of feeling superior, the wanting for others to be punished
for being ‘bad’, thinking our need for forgiveness and grace is not the same as
THAT person’s need for forgiveness and grace.
God’s kindom is radically welcoming, no exceptions - the
only requirement is turning to God for grace, with love and gratitude. That desire of the heart to seek - which is
actually a response to God seeking us first - that’s what counts. Nobody gets
it totally perfect, even those of us raised in church. Hopefully we have grown in our faith, but
there are always blank spots, attitudes and prejudices, wounds unhealed as yet,
lessons we haven’t got to as yet.
Its not for us to tell God who to love and who to welcome;
our gate-keeping is not necessary. Do we
really want to keep someone OUT of the realm of God? Maybe our discomfort with having different
folks around is good for us - actually an invitation to learn how to celebrate
better. When we celebrate the Lord’s
supper, we always remind ourselves that it is God’s table, and God is the host,
God invites. The call is to adjust our
sight to God’s, not visa versa. The
church is not a sorority or fraternity, it is not a club where one has to be a
certain way; the church’s motto is “whosoever will may come,” and God rejoices
every time one does. AMEN!
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