Sermon Illustrations for Lent 4 (2016)
Illustration
Object:
Joshua 5:9-12
As the Hebrew people ate what was produced in the land of Canaan, I wonder if they stopped thanking God for those provisions. After all, they had been eating manna from heaven, a gift for which their only work was following the prophet Moses and now the prophet Joshua. Now they would have to plant and grow and harvest and prepare. There was work for them to do, work of their own hands. It would be easy to forget that even what we work hard for is still a gift from God, that God still deserves gratitude for what we have.
Perhaps one of our idols is our self-sufficiency, the belief that everything we have comes from our own efforts. But my friends, what about those living in our communities who would be willing to work just as hard given the opportunity? They too are working hard, but their lives are different from ours. What about the circumstance of our birth, which allows us to live in freedom in the United States? Can we claim that those “accidents” are of our own making? Can we forget that everything created comes from a loving and merciful God? Maybe this is a time for gratitude, rather than idolatry or judgment. Shall we work together to share the love of God and make others aware of the grace with which we have been blessed? Shall we bless others from our own good fortune? Shall we be people of generosity?
Bonnie B.
Joshua 5:9-12
A part of my current job responsibilities is to work with the ladies that direct the Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) program. I am by no means an expert in raising children, and to be honest, if someone said they were I’d probably dismiss their advice. No one really knows all there is to know about that. However, I think we can learn from each other. Not long ago I overheard a discussion some of the moms were having while I was putting away tables and chairs. They were talking about the “right” time to move a child from baby food to “table” food. As I recall it, the idea was that once a child has eaten table food and can do so regularly, h/she doesn’t want to or need to go back to baby food again. It is a transition of life.
Israel had a transition of sorts, too, in this text. They’d been wandering a long time. God had provided for them with manna and quail. Now at Gilgal, Joshua and the people celebrate Passover. On the day they do this, they eat of the produce of the land: the Promised Land. They would no longer need the manna and quail: those had been God’s special provision for a special time. They were transitioning into the promise, and life would never be the same.
Bill T.
Joshua 5:9-12
This short passage follows a special moment when the people of God, entering the Promised Land, claim the covenant and the story for themselves. Because God has rolled away the shame of their status as slaves and the children of slaves, they name this place Gilgal, or Circle, because their shame has been wheeled away.
The result is that the people are able to become adults in their faith. They celebrate Passover, and they do more than celebrate. They re-create the event. This leads to taking hold of the food that sustains them, and no longer relying on the manna in the desert. They eat the produce of the land, and come into their own. It is time -- and time is woven throughout this short account, with several references to the sequences of days in which these events take place.
Our rites of communion, and the journey of reliving Christ’s death and resurrection during this Lenten and Easter season, are key moments in which we re-create the key events of Christianity. Like slapping a “You Are There” sticker on these stories, the first communion and Last Supper shared by the disciples with Jesus, the agony in the garden, the trial and crucifixion, as well as the resurrection, come to life because we’re in the picture. These are not things we read about or hear about. We live them.
The status of slave is rolled away from the people of God. I wonder if we put up barriers that prevent others from becoming full adults as Christians. Do we allow them to roll away their former identities? It is interesting to note that in the Acts of the Apostles, the first martyr Stephen encounters some opposition from the Synagogue of the Freedmen (Acts 6:9). Evidently there were believers who were freed slaves who did not find acceptance despite their changed economic status, and who believed it was necessary for them to create their own religious association because evidently they were not accepted at some of the churches. How many people are we keeping in boxes based on their past status or association, rather than letting them become truly transformed in Christ?
Frank R.
Joshua 5:9-12
The Israelites had trouble with Egypt until they got to the land of Canaan -- so now that was over! They had made it! Now they could celebrate the Passover with joy. Don’t we have to put the problems of life behind us before we can celebrate anything?
One fellow in New York had a job that he hated because his boss was always after him. It had been quite a while, even after the boss paid a heavy price for hurting him. That boss even lost his own son because of his hatefulness. But then the poor employee had gotten another job where he found peace. He could even celebrate what had been a disaster for his former boss, but was a blessing for him. He and his family celebrated his “freedom” every year as he thought what the Lord had delivered him from.
Sometimes the term “Passover” is used is used for the lamb that was sacrificed on that special day. Today we think of the Lamb who was Christ who was sacrificed for us. Lent reminds us to look ahead to the sacrifice made for us on the cross.
The name “Passover” comes from that experience in Egypt when the firstborn of every Egyptian family died, but the angel of death “passed over” the people of God and their children were spared.
Don’t we pray in this age that the angel of death will strike ISIS, but pass over us? We would like to see our enemy hurt! I’m sure some of them had lost children in the bombing raids, but then so have some who were not jihadists. So we are not ready to celebrate yet. The righteous and the unrighteous may suffer. Sometimes a whole country can suffer for what the leader or some other people have done.
When the hand of the Lord comes down on any country, some of the innocent suffer as well as the guilty. It was hard for those whose children survived those tragedies to celebrate when others were suffering a loss.
Some can even pray for the Muslim children who were killed. All children are loved by God, even those whose families deserved pain. We should remember that God said that he would repay those who deserved to suffer. It is not our job to seek revenge. We can only rejoice that we have survived.
Millions died in our Civil War, but we rejoice that our nation was saved.
Bob O.
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
In this passage Paul reminds us that because of what God has done in Jesus Christ, we are to jettison our human perspective on the world around us and to see things from God’s perspective. Then, because people of faith are to have this otherworldly point of view, we are to live differently.
There is a sense in which we can say that faith is a like a set of spectacles through which we see the world as God intends it to be. For instance, through the lens of faith we see clearly that it is better to love than to hate and better to forgive than to seek revenge. By faith, it becomes clear to us that the greatest joy comes to those who strive to be peacemakers and not to those who content themselves with discussing peace.
To see the world through the lens of the gospel is to have our world turned upside-down. It is to see that God intends that we value people and use things rather than use people and love things. It is to so yearn for peace and justice that we commit ourselves to working for peace and justice. After all, by faith we see the world as God intends it to be seen.
R. Robert C.
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
After a lengthy debate, a British court ruled in December 2013 that Scientology is a religion. This was a significant decision because of the tax-exempt status the organization receives, as well as an exemption from many national laws. The case derived from a couple who desired to be married in the church’s headquarters in London. In his ruling, Supreme Court Justice Lord Roger Toulson wrote that religions should not be confined to those with belief in a supreme deity. He wrote, “To do so would be a form of religious discrimination unacceptable in today’s society.”
Application: As instructed by Paul, we should not see things from a human point of view but from that which is instilled in us by Christ. One must ask, what view does a religion have if it is not the view of Christ?
Ron L.
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
This is a lesson about new beginnings. We are not very good at appreciating new things in the present. We have what noted futurologist Alvin Toffler once called “Future Shock.” We are so shocked about what might lie ahead that we fail to see that the future is now, fail to appreciate the present moment and how new it is. Seventeenth-century French scholar Blaise Pascal noted well how we are in bondage to the past and the future: “We never keep to the present. We recall the past; we anticipate the future as if we found it too slow in coming and were trying to hurry it up, or we recall the past as if to stay its too rapid flight.... We almost never think of the present, and if we do think of it, it is only to see what light it throws on our plans for the future. The present is never our end. The past and the present are our means, the future alone our end. Thus we never actually live, but hope to live, and since we are always planning how to be happy, it is inevitable that we should never be so” (Pensees, p. 43).
But God’s style is to make us new here and now in the present, to create something new out of us, so that the future is already realized in the present and we don’t need to spend so much time and energy worrying about it. God does not look at our present reality from a human point of view, Martin Luther reminds us. The nature of God’s love is that it “does not find, but creates that which is pleasing to it” (Luther’s Works, Vol. 31, p. 41). There’s no need to get so worried about the future so we can become more pleasing, valuable, and loving. God has taken care of that. It is like John Wesley once said about the Christian life and its newness: “He [the Christian] has new life, new senses, new faculties, new affections, new appetites, new ideas and conceptions. His whole tenor of action and conversation is new, and he lives, as it were, in a new world. God, men, and the whole creation, heaven and earth, and all therein appear in a new light and stand related to him in a new manner since he was created anew in Christ Jesus” (Commentary on the Bible, p. 525).
Mark E.
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
That’s not fair! If you’ve had kids or dealt with kids very much, you have no doubt heard that expression. There seems to be something about us as human beings that cries out for “exactness” or “sameness.” We call it “being fair.” If one child gets two cookies, then every child should have two cookies. If one kid gets to ride his bike, then all the kids should be able to ride their bikes too. On some level, that makes sense to us. It seems right. It’s fair. Grace, however, is not fair. Maybe that’s why it’s so hard to grasp and receive.
The story is familiar. The younger son foolishly wants his inheritance, and goes off to “live the good life.” Then he runs out of money, friends, and luck. He’s down and out, a good Jewish boy feeding pigs. He comes to his senses, realizes that it wasn’t so bad at home, and plans his return. He hopes to be a servant. His father, though, has other plans. He excitedly welcomes him back home and plans a “Homecoming Party.” That’s grace. Getting the party and place you don’t deserve. That’s a nice picture, but there’s somebody in the background who’s not having a good time. The older son sees what’s going on. He’s angry. “It’s not fair” drips from his words and attitudes. He’s not done the “foolish” things, and yet he doesn’t get a party. It just isn’t fair. The father tries to reassure him that he’s lost nothing and has actually gained back a brother. The brother could see it and maybe enjoy the party if he could just understand that idea that grace isn’t fair. It couldn’t be. If it was, it wouldn’t be grace.
Bill T.
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
I once preached a sermon on this gospel passage in which I portrayed the female neighbor of this family. I asked all the questions nosy neighbors might ask. How could this son have been so foolish? Why wasn’t the father paying as much attention to the elder son? How could the father forgive this wayward child? To what expense was the father willing to go to celebrate the return of the wayward son? The response was positive as the woman moved toward an understanding that we are all wayward sometimes and maybe forgiveness is the best we can offer to one another.
As a mother I have experienced waywardness in my own life, and sometimes it was the waywardness of my children and sometimes it was my own waywardness. I am grateful that God is a God of mercy and forgiveness -- that God rejoices when we turn from our waywardness, and love God with our whole person and love our neighbors as ourselves. I would not abandon my child, and I am truly blessed that God will not either.
Bonnie B.
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
There are literally shelves of books about this familiar parable. The problem for preachers may be that there is too much available rather than too little when it comes to study. No parishioner should be subjected to a history of the many interpretations of this passage. Another problem is that this is so familiar that some will tune it out.
By including the first three verses of this chapter as part of the lesson, the lectionary allows us to provide important context -- the occasion for this parable is the criticism that accompanies Jesus’ presence among those who need him most: the lost. Jesus follows this criticism by initially telling the stories of the lost coin and the lost sheep.
It may be too easy to focus on the lost son -- and too obvious. The fact is that everyone in this parable is lost. The son has lost respect for the father, claims no responsibilities, and with no sense of the time that stretches ahead wastes a fortune which cannot be reclaimed. The father is lost (yes, I know that we want to identify with the father with God, which is acceptable, but it doesn't allow this father to be human as well) -- unable to provide discipline, giving in to unreasonable demands, and enabling his youngest son’s prodigal lifestyle. The older brother is lost -- he can’t even allow himself time off, or an occasional fatted calf to share with his friends, or the enjoyment of his station as the sole inheritor of all that is left.
Jorge Maldonado, in his little book Even in the Best of Families, opens our eyes to a fourth lost person -- the mother, who may have died, leaving the family unbalanced. That’s a special lostness we all experience in different ways.
I just warned you against trying to do it all, but you could actually circle the bases and touch on all four persons, inviting listeners to find themselves in one, two, or all of the above. This is our story. The reason it has lasted is because it can be told again and again, and we see ourselves and the parable in a whole different light. That’s why it’s called the Living Word.
Frank R.
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
One of my members once asked me why I was spending time at the jail when there were so many people in our congregation who wanted me to visit them. I told him that I was visiting prisoners who had left their faith and wandered away until they got into trouble. My job was to tell them that God still loved them, even though their sins were illegal. I was celebrating with them when they turned back to the Lord and confessed their sins. They found out that we have a God who forgives even the worst sinners if they confess their evil ways and want to return to him. I invited one or two of these prisoners to speak at a church service, to see if that would help the members understand. There were still some who thought they had to be bad before we could celebrate. I had to remind my people that no one in the church is sinless (including the pastor). That is one reason we all take the communion!
My members sometimes resented the joy I seemed to exude when I returned from my time in the jail.
My other example strikes close to home, but there have been examples like this in every congregation. I have served.
My wife and I have seven children, but one of them, Matt, suddenly turned to the bottle when his wife died. I thought he was a goner, but I kept praying for him. Then one day he told me that he had quit drinking when he found a job as a counselor for alcoholics. When I visited him once, he introduced me to one of his clients. The client was very enthusiastic and told me that my Matt knew what it was like to have trouble with booze. I was very proud of him for his turnaround, but when my other kids came to a party for my 80th birthday they shied away from Matt, saying that he would always be an alcoholic. I love all of my kids, but he is now my favorite. This puzzles some of the others. They might not have been as bad, but they had to realize that we are all sinners saved by grace!
After that, I was better able to sympathize with those who had been through it. I am always happy when some of my “goodies” who have never gone (far) astray receive the reformed ones as brothers and sisters.
So many people are ready to point up that they are not as bad as some others who may be blatant sinners.
I even have to look in my soul and see if I have sinned -- maybe in pride over my office as pastor. Our Lord asks to be humble and not boastful. It is so easy to look around our church and spot some who are worse sinners than we are!
Bob O.
As the Hebrew people ate what was produced in the land of Canaan, I wonder if they stopped thanking God for those provisions. After all, they had been eating manna from heaven, a gift for which their only work was following the prophet Moses and now the prophet Joshua. Now they would have to plant and grow and harvest and prepare. There was work for them to do, work of their own hands. It would be easy to forget that even what we work hard for is still a gift from God, that God still deserves gratitude for what we have.
Perhaps one of our idols is our self-sufficiency, the belief that everything we have comes from our own efforts. But my friends, what about those living in our communities who would be willing to work just as hard given the opportunity? They too are working hard, but their lives are different from ours. What about the circumstance of our birth, which allows us to live in freedom in the United States? Can we claim that those “accidents” are of our own making? Can we forget that everything created comes from a loving and merciful God? Maybe this is a time for gratitude, rather than idolatry or judgment. Shall we work together to share the love of God and make others aware of the grace with which we have been blessed? Shall we bless others from our own good fortune? Shall we be people of generosity?
Bonnie B.
Joshua 5:9-12
A part of my current job responsibilities is to work with the ladies that direct the Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) program. I am by no means an expert in raising children, and to be honest, if someone said they were I’d probably dismiss their advice. No one really knows all there is to know about that. However, I think we can learn from each other. Not long ago I overheard a discussion some of the moms were having while I was putting away tables and chairs. They were talking about the “right” time to move a child from baby food to “table” food. As I recall it, the idea was that once a child has eaten table food and can do so regularly, h/she doesn’t want to or need to go back to baby food again. It is a transition of life.
Israel had a transition of sorts, too, in this text. They’d been wandering a long time. God had provided for them with manna and quail. Now at Gilgal, Joshua and the people celebrate Passover. On the day they do this, they eat of the produce of the land: the Promised Land. They would no longer need the manna and quail: those had been God’s special provision for a special time. They were transitioning into the promise, and life would never be the same.
Bill T.
Joshua 5:9-12
This short passage follows a special moment when the people of God, entering the Promised Land, claim the covenant and the story for themselves. Because God has rolled away the shame of their status as slaves and the children of slaves, they name this place Gilgal, or Circle, because their shame has been wheeled away.
The result is that the people are able to become adults in their faith. They celebrate Passover, and they do more than celebrate. They re-create the event. This leads to taking hold of the food that sustains them, and no longer relying on the manna in the desert. They eat the produce of the land, and come into their own. It is time -- and time is woven throughout this short account, with several references to the sequences of days in which these events take place.
Our rites of communion, and the journey of reliving Christ’s death and resurrection during this Lenten and Easter season, are key moments in which we re-create the key events of Christianity. Like slapping a “You Are There” sticker on these stories, the first communion and Last Supper shared by the disciples with Jesus, the agony in the garden, the trial and crucifixion, as well as the resurrection, come to life because we’re in the picture. These are not things we read about or hear about. We live them.
The status of slave is rolled away from the people of God. I wonder if we put up barriers that prevent others from becoming full adults as Christians. Do we allow them to roll away their former identities? It is interesting to note that in the Acts of the Apostles, the first martyr Stephen encounters some opposition from the Synagogue of the Freedmen (Acts 6:9). Evidently there were believers who were freed slaves who did not find acceptance despite their changed economic status, and who believed it was necessary for them to create their own religious association because evidently they were not accepted at some of the churches. How many people are we keeping in boxes based on their past status or association, rather than letting them become truly transformed in Christ?
Frank R.
Joshua 5:9-12
The Israelites had trouble with Egypt until they got to the land of Canaan -- so now that was over! They had made it! Now they could celebrate the Passover with joy. Don’t we have to put the problems of life behind us before we can celebrate anything?
One fellow in New York had a job that he hated because his boss was always after him. It had been quite a while, even after the boss paid a heavy price for hurting him. That boss even lost his own son because of his hatefulness. But then the poor employee had gotten another job where he found peace. He could even celebrate what had been a disaster for his former boss, but was a blessing for him. He and his family celebrated his “freedom” every year as he thought what the Lord had delivered him from.
Sometimes the term “Passover” is used is used for the lamb that was sacrificed on that special day. Today we think of the Lamb who was Christ who was sacrificed for us. Lent reminds us to look ahead to the sacrifice made for us on the cross.
The name “Passover” comes from that experience in Egypt when the firstborn of every Egyptian family died, but the angel of death “passed over” the people of God and their children were spared.
Don’t we pray in this age that the angel of death will strike ISIS, but pass over us? We would like to see our enemy hurt! I’m sure some of them had lost children in the bombing raids, but then so have some who were not jihadists. So we are not ready to celebrate yet. The righteous and the unrighteous may suffer. Sometimes a whole country can suffer for what the leader or some other people have done.
When the hand of the Lord comes down on any country, some of the innocent suffer as well as the guilty. It was hard for those whose children survived those tragedies to celebrate when others were suffering a loss.
Some can even pray for the Muslim children who were killed. All children are loved by God, even those whose families deserved pain. We should remember that God said that he would repay those who deserved to suffer. It is not our job to seek revenge. We can only rejoice that we have survived.
Millions died in our Civil War, but we rejoice that our nation was saved.
Bob O.
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
In this passage Paul reminds us that because of what God has done in Jesus Christ, we are to jettison our human perspective on the world around us and to see things from God’s perspective. Then, because people of faith are to have this otherworldly point of view, we are to live differently.
There is a sense in which we can say that faith is a like a set of spectacles through which we see the world as God intends it to be. For instance, through the lens of faith we see clearly that it is better to love than to hate and better to forgive than to seek revenge. By faith, it becomes clear to us that the greatest joy comes to those who strive to be peacemakers and not to those who content themselves with discussing peace.
To see the world through the lens of the gospel is to have our world turned upside-down. It is to see that God intends that we value people and use things rather than use people and love things. It is to so yearn for peace and justice that we commit ourselves to working for peace and justice. After all, by faith we see the world as God intends it to be seen.
R. Robert C.
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
After a lengthy debate, a British court ruled in December 2013 that Scientology is a religion. This was a significant decision because of the tax-exempt status the organization receives, as well as an exemption from many national laws. The case derived from a couple who desired to be married in the church’s headquarters in London. In his ruling, Supreme Court Justice Lord Roger Toulson wrote that religions should not be confined to those with belief in a supreme deity. He wrote, “To do so would be a form of religious discrimination unacceptable in today’s society.”
Application: As instructed by Paul, we should not see things from a human point of view but from that which is instilled in us by Christ. One must ask, what view does a religion have if it is not the view of Christ?
Ron L.
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
This is a lesson about new beginnings. We are not very good at appreciating new things in the present. We have what noted futurologist Alvin Toffler once called “Future Shock.” We are so shocked about what might lie ahead that we fail to see that the future is now, fail to appreciate the present moment and how new it is. Seventeenth-century French scholar Blaise Pascal noted well how we are in bondage to the past and the future: “We never keep to the present. We recall the past; we anticipate the future as if we found it too slow in coming and were trying to hurry it up, or we recall the past as if to stay its too rapid flight.... We almost never think of the present, and if we do think of it, it is only to see what light it throws on our plans for the future. The present is never our end. The past and the present are our means, the future alone our end. Thus we never actually live, but hope to live, and since we are always planning how to be happy, it is inevitable that we should never be so” (Pensees, p. 43).
But God’s style is to make us new here and now in the present, to create something new out of us, so that the future is already realized in the present and we don’t need to spend so much time and energy worrying about it. God does not look at our present reality from a human point of view, Martin Luther reminds us. The nature of God’s love is that it “does not find, but creates that which is pleasing to it” (Luther’s Works, Vol. 31, p. 41). There’s no need to get so worried about the future so we can become more pleasing, valuable, and loving. God has taken care of that. It is like John Wesley once said about the Christian life and its newness: “He [the Christian] has new life, new senses, new faculties, new affections, new appetites, new ideas and conceptions. His whole tenor of action and conversation is new, and he lives, as it were, in a new world. God, men, and the whole creation, heaven and earth, and all therein appear in a new light and stand related to him in a new manner since he was created anew in Christ Jesus” (Commentary on the Bible, p. 525).
Mark E.
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
That’s not fair! If you’ve had kids or dealt with kids very much, you have no doubt heard that expression. There seems to be something about us as human beings that cries out for “exactness” or “sameness.” We call it “being fair.” If one child gets two cookies, then every child should have two cookies. If one kid gets to ride his bike, then all the kids should be able to ride their bikes too. On some level, that makes sense to us. It seems right. It’s fair. Grace, however, is not fair. Maybe that’s why it’s so hard to grasp and receive.
The story is familiar. The younger son foolishly wants his inheritance, and goes off to “live the good life.” Then he runs out of money, friends, and luck. He’s down and out, a good Jewish boy feeding pigs. He comes to his senses, realizes that it wasn’t so bad at home, and plans his return. He hopes to be a servant. His father, though, has other plans. He excitedly welcomes him back home and plans a “Homecoming Party.” That’s grace. Getting the party and place you don’t deserve. That’s a nice picture, but there’s somebody in the background who’s not having a good time. The older son sees what’s going on. He’s angry. “It’s not fair” drips from his words and attitudes. He’s not done the “foolish” things, and yet he doesn’t get a party. It just isn’t fair. The father tries to reassure him that he’s lost nothing and has actually gained back a brother. The brother could see it and maybe enjoy the party if he could just understand that idea that grace isn’t fair. It couldn’t be. If it was, it wouldn’t be grace.
Bill T.
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
I once preached a sermon on this gospel passage in which I portrayed the female neighbor of this family. I asked all the questions nosy neighbors might ask. How could this son have been so foolish? Why wasn’t the father paying as much attention to the elder son? How could the father forgive this wayward child? To what expense was the father willing to go to celebrate the return of the wayward son? The response was positive as the woman moved toward an understanding that we are all wayward sometimes and maybe forgiveness is the best we can offer to one another.
As a mother I have experienced waywardness in my own life, and sometimes it was the waywardness of my children and sometimes it was my own waywardness. I am grateful that God is a God of mercy and forgiveness -- that God rejoices when we turn from our waywardness, and love God with our whole person and love our neighbors as ourselves. I would not abandon my child, and I am truly blessed that God will not either.
Bonnie B.
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
There are literally shelves of books about this familiar parable. The problem for preachers may be that there is too much available rather than too little when it comes to study. No parishioner should be subjected to a history of the many interpretations of this passage. Another problem is that this is so familiar that some will tune it out.
By including the first three verses of this chapter as part of the lesson, the lectionary allows us to provide important context -- the occasion for this parable is the criticism that accompanies Jesus’ presence among those who need him most: the lost. Jesus follows this criticism by initially telling the stories of the lost coin and the lost sheep.
It may be too easy to focus on the lost son -- and too obvious. The fact is that everyone in this parable is lost. The son has lost respect for the father, claims no responsibilities, and with no sense of the time that stretches ahead wastes a fortune which cannot be reclaimed. The father is lost (yes, I know that we want to identify with the father with God, which is acceptable, but it doesn't allow this father to be human as well) -- unable to provide discipline, giving in to unreasonable demands, and enabling his youngest son’s prodigal lifestyle. The older brother is lost -- he can’t even allow himself time off, or an occasional fatted calf to share with his friends, or the enjoyment of his station as the sole inheritor of all that is left.
Jorge Maldonado, in his little book Even in the Best of Families, opens our eyes to a fourth lost person -- the mother, who may have died, leaving the family unbalanced. That’s a special lostness we all experience in different ways.
I just warned you against trying to do it all, but you could actually circle the bases and touch on all four persons, inviting listeners to find themselves in one, two, or all of the above. This is our story. The reason it has lasted is because it can be told again and again, and we see ourselves and the parable in a whole different light. That’s why it’s called the Living Word.
Frank R.
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
One of my members once asked me why I was spending time at the jail when there were so many people in our congregation who wanted me to visit them. I told him that I was visiting prisoners who had left their faith and wandered away until they got into trouble. My job was to tell them that God still loved them, even though their sins were illegal. I was celebrating with them when they turned back to the Lord and confessed their sins. They found out that we have a God who forgives even the worst sinners if they confess their evil ways and want to return to him. I invited one or two of these prisoners to speak at a church service, to see if that would help the members understand. There were still some who thought they had to be bad before we could celebrate. I had to remind my people that no one in the church is sinless (including the pastor). That is one reason we all take the communion!
My members sometimes resented the joy I seemed to exude when I returned from my time in the jail.
My other example strikes close to home, but there have been examples like this in every congregation. I have served.
My wife and I have seven children, but one of them, Matt, suddenly turned to the bottle when his wife died. I thought he was a goner, but I kept praying for him. Then one day he told me that he had quit drinking when he found a job as a counselor for alcoholics. When I visited him once, he introduced me to one of his clients. The client was very enthusiastic and told me that my Matt knew what it was like to have trouble with booze. I was very proud of him for his turnaround, but when my other kids came to a party for my 80th birthday they shied away from Matt, saying that he would always be an alcoholic. I love all of my kids, but he is now my favorite. This puzzles some of the others. They might not have been as bad, but they had to realize that we are all sinners saved by grace!
After that, I was better able to sympathize with those who had been through it. I am always happy when some of my “goodies” who have never gone (far) astray receive the reformed ones as brothers and sisters.
So many people are ready to point up that they are not as bad as some others who may be blatant sinners.
I even have to look in my soul and see if I have sinned -- maybe in pride over my office as pastor. Our Lord asks to be humble and not boastful. It is so easy to look around our church and spot some who are worse sinners than we are!
Bob O.
