The Empire Of Martha And The Kingdom Of God
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
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Like the music of J. S. Bach, Jesus' parables can reveal new insights and can captivate and move us no matter how many times we hear them. This is true of the parables especially if we share with one another our different readings of the same text. Contributors to this issue of The Immediate Word offer more than a few entrances into the meaning of Jesus' parable of the prodigals, the Gospel lection assigned for March 21.
Lead writer George Murphy brings the strange and somewhat tragic case of Martha Stewart to bear on our reading of the text. He then uncovers not two but three sons in the parable, and finds in the story a specific message for each. All of us probably can resonate with the situation of at least one of these sons.
Team members add their own reflections on the story of the prodigals and on the parables of Jesus as a whole. As usual, illustrations, worship resources, and a children's sermon complete this issue.
THE EMPIRE OF MARTHA AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
by George L. Murphy
A few years ago many people were sure that God smiled upon Martha Stewart. That belief had nothing to do with knowledge of her religious beliefs or, indeed, much of anything to do with knowledge of God. But Ms. Stewart was successful. She was regarded as an expert on entertaining, decorating, gardening, and other areas, and had become a multi-millionaire. Whether you liked her or not, you had to admit that it seemed, in the popular phrase, that "somebody up there liked her." But now she's wasted much of what she'd achieved over the years by what appear to have been questionable stock dealings and attempts to cover up wrongdoing. (It's just been announced that she has resigned as CEO of her company.) What is God's attitude toward her now?
That's an interesting question but perhaps not the one that strikes closest to home for our hearers this week. The Gospel for this Fourth Sunday of Lent seems to say, rather surprisingly, that God cares not only about those who have gone astray but also about our attitude -- that of the good church going folks -- toward those who have gotten themselves lost. How do we feel about the local schoolteacher who had an affair or the member of church council who got caught cheating on taxes?
Martha Stewart hasn't done anything wrong. At least that's her side of the story. (In her announcement that she is resigning as CEO she says that she is sorry for the pain and difficulties that her legal situation has caused for the company's employees. It is an expression of concern for those who have been affected, but it is not an admission of guilt.) The government disagrees, saying that she at least lied to those who were investigating her stock transactions. She refused any plea bargain, maintaining her innocence and hoping to be exonerated in court. A jury agreed with the charges and now Ms. Stewart is facing perhaps a year in a federal prison. (Her sentence could in theory be longer, but about a year is what most experts expect.)
We're now in the season of Lent, in which Christians are called to give special attention to repentance and renewing their commitments to faithful and obedient discipleship. This week's Gospel, Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32, Jesus' parable of the prodigal son, his resentful brother, and their father, has repentance and returning home as a major theme. The younger son, starving in a pigsty in the far country, "came to himself" and said "I will get up and go to my father."
It's easy for us to tell people to repent, and even for us and for them to go through the formal words of a confession of sin. But we find it very hard to admit really serious wrongdoing, to say, "I'm sorry," and to accept the consequences. Do we have to hit rock bottom, like the prodigal, before we can turn around?
Perhaps we do have to be reduced to zero before the gospel can really get through to us. The biblical message of salvation, after all, isn't one of God simply finishing a clean-up job on people who are already in pretty good shape. In Romans 5 Paul speaks of Christ dying for the ungodly and reconciling enemies of God, and Ephesians 2:1 describes the pre-Christian state of people as one of being "dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once lived." As long as we think we've got other resources available, we can avoid having to say, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you." Is Martha Stewart unrepentant because she still has her business empire and a lot of supporters?
But being reduced to zero is no guarantee that a person will repent and seek forgiveness. Sometimes those who hit rock bottom just stay there. John Muhammad, sentenced to death for one of the Washington "sniper" murders on the basis of overwhelming evidence, continues to maintain his innocence. He's probably sorry that he got caught, but not for what he did.
And in any case, the current story isn't just about Martha Stewart or John Muhammad, any more than Jesus' story was only about the younger son. We've come to realize that we miss the point of this story if we call it simply "The Prodigal Son" and focus on that one figure in the story. In order really to appreciate what's going on in the story we have to pay attention not only to the whole narrative but also to the context in which it's placed in the Gospel of Luke.
The Gospel lection for this week begins with the first two verses of Luke 15. Notorious sinners are coming to listen to Jesus and the pious people complain about the fact that Jesus welcomes them. In response, we then have three of Jesus' parables. These were probably not told by him bang -- bang -- bang one after another all at one time, but they are put here by Luke because they answer that challenge which seems to have been so common in Jesus' ministry: Why does he consort with tax collectors and other sinful people?
The first two parables, those of the lost sheep and the lost coin, are omitted in our reading. We'll get back to them in a few minutes. Then we come to the story of "the prodigal son." And the younger son certainly is "prodigal" -- that is, wasteful. He doesn't just passively get lost, like a coin, but deliberately takes his share of the inheritance, goes off to the far country and parties it away. It's easy to categorize him as one of those notorious sinners.
But the virtuous older son, who refuses to accept the prodigal on his return, is equally important. He obviously represents the scribes and the Pharisees mentioned in verse 2, the people whose complaints prompt these three parables. But he also may represent us! A lot of people resented Ms. Stewart and were happy to see her downfall. (You can hear a lot of jokes about Martha Stewart in an orange jumpsuit decorating her cell.) If she had taken the stand and said "Yes, I lied and I'm very sorry," would we have been satisfied to see her get a suspended sentence or would be still be demanding jail time for her?
And in fact the Gospel parable isn't just about the two brothers. Think first about the structure of the whole chapter. To begin with, the scribes and Pharisees criticize Jesus because he associates with sinners, and in response there is a story about a shepherd who leaves ninety-nine sheep at home and goes out to hunt for the one that got lost. We're so used to the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd that we may automatically think that the shepherd in this parable represents him. But then Jesus would just be saying, "That's right, I am concerned about sinners and seek them out," which is true but not a very effective answer to the initial criticism.
The shepherd in fact is the God of Israel, the one who says, "Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so will I seek out my sheep; I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness" (Ezekiel 34:11-12). Jesus is then represented as saying, in answer to his critics, "I am doing the same thing that God does." And as those who have been brought to know who Jesus is, we can see that he is in fact the one through whom God is seeking out the lost.
The similar structure of the next parable, about the lost coin, then indicates that the woman (interestingly) who searches for the coin till she finds it is God. The point of both of these parables is God's desire to find and bring home sinners, and the rejoicing when that takes place. Then when we come to the much longer parable in this Sunday's reading, we can see not only that the father represents God (which may be obvious) but could make the case that he is really the main character. In a collection of sermons on the parables of Jesus, Helmut Thielicke began with two sermons on this parable, one for each son, but the English title of whole book, The Waiting Father (New York: Harper & Row, 1959), is an accurate description of the story. (In spite of the fact that these sermons address people in postwar West Germany fifty years ago, you could do a lot worse than consulting them as resources for preaching on this text.)
So we have three characters in the story, the two sons and the father. Which of them are you going to preach to this Sunday? Clearly not the father, i.e., God. You are supposed to speak for God, bringing Jesus' story into living contact with the situations people find themselves in today.
Will you be preaching to the prodigals, the younger children who have wandered away from home? Perhaps, for the confession that we are all sinners means that we have all been, in some degree or other, wastrels who have ignored or squandered the gifts of God. But while all Christians are sinners as well as saints, little is gained by picturing a faithful church member as a type of sinner that he or she really is not, i.e., one who has left the father's house and "wasted his substance with riotous living" (as KJV so nicely puts it). Most of the prodigals in that sense won't be in church this week. Of course that doesn't mean that we're to have no concern for them, but we probably won't reach them with a Sunday morning sermon. Some other type of outreach may be called for.
In that connection, since I've used Martha Stewart as an illustration, we ought to remember that we don't know her state of mind or much of anything about her religious beliefs or relationship with God. If she -- or people in a similar situation -- are likely to be in your congregation, by all means emphasize the role of the prodigal and the father's unqualified acceptance of him. But if not, you may want to go in another direction.
It's likely that there will be some older brothers in the congregation. In fact, those of us in the preaching business often have more affinity with the scribes and Pharisees than we may like to admit, so we may be older brothers or sisters. How does the view of God that we've seen represented in these parables affect not only our willingness to repent but also our readiness to accept the repentance of others? Almost all Christians will say that certainly, if Ms. Stewart is genuinely contrite about what she's done wrong, God will forgive and accept her. Some Christians may find it a little harder to say that about the murderer John Muhammad.
(When the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was murdered in prison a few years ago, it was reported that he had been converted to Christianity shortly before his death. One correspondent to my local paper wrote that she wasn't interested in anything like that; she hoped that Dahmer would burn in hell. I don't know if this person claimed to be a Christian or not, and that attitude may not be common in the church, but it can certainly be heard from virtuous people in the larger society.)
We could analyze the reasons why the older brother was unable to rejoice with his father and the rest of the household when the prodigal returned, but the basic truth is that he was out of touch with his father, and therefore unable to share his love and his joy. And if we are unable to welcome the prodigals -- whether respectable or not -- of our society, we need to consider whether we're really in touch with God and willing to let our attitudes be conformed to what is shown to us in Christ.
Many congregations face aging memberships, declines in numbers and changing neighborhoods, and would like -- in theory -- to figure out some way to "grow." Too often what members of the church actually mean by that is that they'd like to get young families with children of pretty much the same ethnic background and socioeconomic status that the present membership had thirty or forty years ago. But the church should be a welcoming community among the people where it actually exists -- and not simply for the sake of numerical or financial growth. It is to seek out and to welcome those who have gone into the far country simply because God seeks them out and welcomes them.
Finally, let me suggest another approach in the form of a brief homily that I preached a few years ago. The opening paragraphs repeat some things I've already said, but I include them here for the sake of completeness. (I should acknowledge the influence of the title of a chapter of Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics (IV.1, 59.1), "The Way of the Son of God into the Far Country.")
THE THIRD SON
The prodigal son: Is he really the main character in this familiar parable? Is it a story about the son who deserted his father, ran off to the far country, "wasted his substance with riotous living," and finally came to his senses?
Maybe it's more about his older brother. Is it the story of the uptight and resentful son, angry that his good works weren't appreciated, who wouldn't welcome his brother's return?
Or is the parable, as some have suggested, really the story of the prodigal father? "Prodigal" means "extravagant" or "wasteful," and that describes this father. Are we supposed to focus on this parent who lavished forgiveness and gifts on the child who had done nothing to deserve his father's love?
The father and both of those sons are certainly important for the story. But let me suggest that we can't understand it unless we recognize the role of the third son. He isn't referred to in the story but he is part of it. The third son is the one who is telling the story.
"Now all the sinners and tax collectors 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 he told them this parable ..."
The third son is the one who is completely loyal and devoted to his father, yet he too takes a journey into the far country. It's precisely because of his commitment to the father that he takes the journey. He is sent on a dangerous and deadly mission to rescue the prodigal from his wastefulness, and to rescue the stay-at-home son from his self-righteousness.
And this third son seems to be the most prodigal, the most extravagant and wasteful, of all. He throws away his life for undeserving and uncaring and ungrateful people. He gives up the honor and glory of his noble birth to die as a criminal, abandoned and humiliated on the gallows. More than the disgrace of his condemnation, more than the pain of his dying, he suffers there the separation from his father -- just as the father suffers the loss of his beloved son whom he sent on this mission. By any sensible standard this wastefulness of the Father and the Son far outweighs the paltry prodigality of the young man who spent a few dollars in the brothels and bars of the far country.
And yet it is the journey of the third son that is the reconciliation of the whole family. It is through his Spirit that the younger brother comes to his senses among the swine and says, "I will get up and go to my father." And it is because of him that -- perhaps -- the other brother is able to let go of his anger and join in the celebration.
"You know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ," Saint Paul says, "That though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich" (2 Corinthians 8:9). Jesus tells this story as he is on the road to Jerusalem, on his way to the apparent waste of the cross. The gospel is in the deepest sense the story of the Prodigal Son and the Prodigal Father and their Prodigal Spirit, whose generosity we are offered. And the proper response is simply to come to the party.
Team Comments
Carlos Wilton responds: With the possible exception of the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son is Jesus' best-known parable. Preaching on it is a challenge. Longtime worshipers will assume they've heard it all before: including the once-fresh (but now familiar) gambit of focusing on the older brother rather than the younger.
Recently I heard of a homiletical approach to the parable I hadn't heard before: and, George, it fits in nicely with your emphasis on the younger son's experience of having to hit rock bottom before he's able to repent. Bass Mitchell, a frequent Internet commentator on the lectionary, makes the point in a recent newsgroup posting that the prodigal's transformation can be described as a move from "give me" to "make me." At the beginning of the story, we hear him demanding of his father, "Give me my inheritance." After he has descended to his own personal rock bottom, he is for the first time ready to say, "Make me -- make me one of your hired hands."
Repentance is a transformative experience. It is only in the moment of repentance that we are ready to say to God not, "Give me," but, "Make me -- make me into whatever you would have me be."
One aspect of the parable that would have been perfectly apparent to Jesus' listeners but which we, in our non-Jewish context, may easily miss is the particular location where the prodigal's transformation occurs. To most city-dwellers, a pigsty is a dirty, smelly, humiliating place. No one would call such work immoral, but many of us would call it hard and unpleasant. It may be tempting, especially for those preaching to urban or suburban congregations, to bemoan the prodigal's sad fate of having fallen into agricultural labor. Yet Jesus' point in the parable is not based on a negative value judgment about farm work. (Many of his listeners were farmers.) In constructing the story the way he does, Jesus is making it clear that the prodigal has abandoned the morality of his people: for he has been tending unclean animals. Not only has this wayward son fled to a "far" -- presumably Gentile -- country, but he has abandoned all the moral underpinnings of his life. The pigsty is to the prodigal as the belly of the great fish is to Jonah -- about as far from home and hearth and honoring God as it's possible to go.
It can be hard for us to understand the full impact of that detail for a society like first-century Judea, where ritual cleanliness and uncleanness were serious business. We tend to belittle such concerns, viewing the prodigal's descent in economic terms. Yet for Jesus' listeners, the prodigal's place of employment would have evoked nothing less than moral outrage.
Many prodigal-son sermons seek to retell the parable in modern terms. Nearly always, such retellings end up being riches-to-rags economic fables. They emphasize the son's financial sins in wasting the family wealth. They transform his story into a sort of reverse "Beverly Hillbillies": a journey from Beverly Hills to Bugtussle. (A recent reality-TV show, which placed the young socialite Paris Hilton and an equally well-heeled friend in a blue-collar farming community, accomplished much the same thing, in a highly patronizing way.) It would be more accurate for contemporary storytellers to emphasize the immorality of the boy's work. Once the son has dealt his father the ultimate insult, then blown through his bankroll, he descends into morally questionable activities. Perhaps the modern equivalent would be a son of our nation's elite who becomes a drug addict, and who's driven not only to shooting up but also to dealing in order to maintain his desperate habit. Maybe, as he trudges up his father's driveway, the prodigal's got a thick file at the police station. Maybe he's not only clad in ragged, cast-off clothing, but also has needle-tracks up and down his arms and a court summons in his pocket. Sure, he's preparing to say to his father, "Make me one of your hired hands" -- in other words, to work in a legitimate job for a change -- but can he make his resolution stick? Can his father trust him to be as good as his word?
Most of us would say it all depends on whether his repentance is genuine -- whether it's neither deception nor self-deception on the prodigal's part, but a decision that represents a true change of heart. Yet Jesus never brings us to the point where we can pose that question. For, in a truly surprising development, the father comes running out to meet his long-lost son -- breaking all his society's protocol, which would have required him, as the injured paterfamilias, to sternly wait for the penitent to come beg for mercy. The father leads the way: he does not fold his arms and say, "Give me -- give me the apology that is my due." No, he opens wide his arms and says, "Make me -- make me your father again!"
Our natural state in this life is to demand, "Give me." In our transformed condition, we are for the first time able to say to our God, "Make me -- make me your own." Or, as the old hymn puts it,
Have thine own way, Lord! Have thine own way!
Thou art the Potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after thy will,
While I am waiting, yielded and still.
Carter Shelley responds: George, you've taken one of the most powerful and moving of Jesus' parables and adeptly found a way to keep it fresh for those of us raised on its ability to convey God's grace and forgiveness to all of God's children. I agree with you that the Martha Stewart trial and result doesn't serve as the primary entree for this week's homiletical fare, but I find several ironies in her circumstance I'd like to discuss before moving on to the biblical banquet the parable of the father, prodigal son, and other son provides (puns intended).
First, Martha Stewart's remarkable success fits the best in the American dream Horatio Alger* tradition. She did not inherit scads of money. She was born and reached adulthood before the late 1960s-early 1970s feminist movement and the broadening of career options for women. All that she has accomplished has been the result of her own hard work, drive, ingenuity, and creativity. And, unlike some of the male CEO's and higher-ups of Enron, WorldCom, etc., whose far more serious and injurious to others financial shenanigans and extensive abuse of power and trust are yet to be tried, Martha Stewart actually produced a range of products and techniques that people enthusiastically purchased. The irony of her situation comes from the fact that she, if she has embodied the rags-to-riches American immigrant story, has certainly succeeded in moving from off-the-Penny's or Sears-rack to designer label clothes and riches on her own. It's ironic that someone who's road to the top has been so wholeheartedly American in its success now is getting pummeled mercilessly in print and in the news by one and all. I realize much of it stems from the perfectionist image Stewart projects but, unlike the Kenneth Lays, her crime has not deprived thousands of their jobs and their pensions.
The second irony stems from the small amount of money Stewart saved by acting on insider trading information. Even if she had been vindicated at her trial, the cost in lawyers' fees and public respect have cost her far more than the $57,000 she protected. As it is, Stewart will not only lose her freedom but she also stands to lose millions as her company founders from both her notoriety and absence from the helm. As Christians I think it's also important for us to remember that behind the cool coifed facade of blondness and style lies the heart and soul of a 60+ year old woman who's going to jail. I know she hasn't confessed or repented any more than John Mohammed has confessed or repented but, as George observes in discussing Jesus' parable, God doesn't love only the worthy and the contrite. God loves the hardheaded, stubborn, self-righteous, and self-deceiving among us as well.
Now on to Luke 15. George, I am intrigued by the more recent interpretations of the lost coin parable in which the widow serves as a stand-in for God. As a feminist Christian, it's always nice to find another biblical example of God's identification with women as well as with men. As you observe, that's not the way most of us had it taught to us in Sunday school. Rather, the emphasis was upon our lostness and our need to find our way home with the momentum of the story building as the importance of what was lost moving from sheep to coin to son. What I have loved about the parable of the father, the prodigal, and the other son ever since I read the whole thing in seminary is the scope of God's love. God's love is so all-encompassing that every variety of sorry reprobate and Christian has a place in the narrative and a potential happy ending. The parable concludes with the prodigal son's joyful return a given, but the decision of the other son remains open-ended. It's as though Jesus (and Luke) are saying to Pharisees and Christians: "The end of this story is up to you. You decide whether you shall choose to feeling judgmental and aggrieved or if you, like your father on earth and your father in heaven will be gracious and joyful at the salvation offered to another."
I have taught a series on the parables of Jesus to high school students in the past. The one they find the hardest to understand is not Luke 15:11-32 or the Good Samaritan but the parable of the laborers who come at different times of day seeking work from the master. When payment is made to the laborers at the end of the day, the master begins with those who worked the shortest amount of time and pays them the exact same amount the laborers who've worked all day were told they would receive. The latter group is outraged when they discover they are to be paid exactly the same amount as the men who worked far fewer hours. The high schoolers always side with the workers who worked all day. It's a great exercise, because our American sense of justice wants everything to be fair. What we miss in our outrage is the fact that the master (and God in Christ) are fair to those who've worked the whole day or been devout conscientious Christians their whole lives: "It's not fair!" But, of course, it is fair, because God is just. The hook is that God is just, but God chooses to be gracious. The wage agreed upon by the master with the full day laborers is a just wage for a day's work and sufficient money to feed the laborer and his family for that day. The laborers who work few hours need the same amount of money if they are to feed themselves and their families that day. They haven't earned the full amount. They've been given it, because the master is generous.
This past weekend has been full of discussion of the tragic scope of the killing and injuries that resulted from the bombing of a commuter train in Spain on Friday. Over and over again the phrase has been used, "Innocent people were killed." I find those words disturbing, because they are used so frequently by ourselves and our own government in reference to the ongoing death and destruction taking place in Iraq, and in many other parts of the world. Do these words suggest that the death of "guilty people" is okay? I think we all know the answer is yes. Few tears will be shed by American citizens if Saddam Hussein is tried, convicted, and executed. Fewer tears will be shed over the fate of Osama bin Laden if he is ever captured or killed. We still identify ourselves as a Christian nation, but we are not divine in our actions or our feelings. We want justice towards our enemies, not graciousness or forgiveness. Thank goodness God in Christ holds to a higher standard than we do ourselves!
____________
*While most of us think we know who Horatio Alger was, it might be helpful to the majority of our congregations to offer a brief explanation of why his name is often used in conjunction with rags-to-riches success stories. An excellent resource is the following website. Click on "Novels," and the description of the hero in the novels will explain all: http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/cinder/Horatiomain.htm
Related Illustrations
Submitted by Carlos Wilton
"We are intimately loved long before our parents, teachers, spouses, children, and friends loved or wounded us. That's the truth of our lives. [God says] 'I have called you by name, from the very beginning. You are mine and I am yours. You are my beloved, on you my favor rests. I have molded you in the depths of the earth and knitted you together in your mother's womb. I have carved you in the palms of my hands and hidden you in the shadow of my embrace. I look at you with infinite tenderness and care for you with a care more intimate than that of a mother for her child. I have counted every hair on your head and guided you at ever step. Wherever you go, I go with you, and wherever you rest, I keep watch. I will give you food that will satisfy all your hunger and drink that will quench all you thirst. I will not hide my face from you. You know me as your own, as I know you as my own. You belong to me. I am your father, your mother, your brothers, your sister, your lover and your spouse ... yes, even your child ... wherever you are I will be. Nothing will ever separate us. We are one.' "
-- Henri Nouwen, The Life of the Beloved
***
"Sin demands to have us by ourselves. It withdraws us from the community. The more isolated people are, the more destructive becomes the power of sin ... the more deeply they become involved in it, the more disastrous their isolation.... In repentance and confession, the light of the gospel breaks into the darkness and seclusion of the heart. The sin must be brought into the light.... It is a hard struggle until the sin is openly admitted. But God breaks gates of brass and bars of iron."
-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together
***
There's an old story that begins in a little village in Spain. Father and son argue and say things they should never have said. The son, whose name is Paco, runs away to the big city of Madrid.
Weeks go by, then months, and the father comes to regret his anger. He rehearses, over and over again in his mind, the apology he will offer to his son when he returns. Yet Paco, the prodigal son, does not return. The father begins to fear he has lost his son forever.
Finally, the father resolves upon a desperate plan. He travels to the city, armed with posters that he puts up on every wall and tree. He takes out a classified ad in the newspaper, and everywhere the message is the same:
Dear Paco,
Meet me in front of the newspaper office tomorrow at noon. All is forgiven. I love you.
Your father.
To understand what happens next, you have to realize that "Paco" is a very common name in Spain: almost like "John" or "Jim" in our country. And you have to remember that the father did not sign his posters, or his classified ad, with anything except "Your father."
By twelve o'clock the next day, the story goes, Paco the son is waiting outside the newspaper building; he and his father have a joyful reunion. Yet along with the son, there are 800 other men named Paco, gathered outside the newspaper building: every last one of them hoping it is his father who took out the classified ad and nailed up the posters.
***
"You are a child of God. Please phone home."
-- bumper sticker
***
"It is not always wrong even to go, like Dante, to the brink of the lowest promontory and look down at hell. It is when you look up at hell that a serious miscalculation has probably been made."
-- G. K. Chesterton
***
"True repentance hates the sin, and not merely the penalty; and it hates the sin most of all because it has discovered and felt God's love."
-- W. M. Taylor
***
"Repentance is as close as we get to the mind of God. For as urgently as people want to portray God as rigid and changeless, a stern judge whose law book never has fresh ink and whose mind was fixed eons ago, the Scripture portrays God as one who repents: taking on a new mind, loving in new ways, trying new words, accepting new people, charting a new course, rethinking the old.
"Christians have preferred to see themselves as the shock troops of God, armed with verity and virtue and riding forth to command or, nowadays, staying inside to enjoy. With meaningless evasions like, 'Hate the sin but love the sinner,' they have dispensed one-way judgment, like an impatient parent or arrogant boss. Ask the compelling question, and move on. Indict and condemn, and move on. Drop off a pamphlet, and move on. Put an ad in the religion section, and move on.
"Repentance takes far more work than that. It takes time, it takes openness, it takes sharing, it takes wisdom, it takes clarity of word and kindness of heart. Minds don't change -- in any meaningful or lasting way -- in response to fear, compunction, force or fawning. Minds are like flowers. They require water, sunlight, a gentle hand and patience."
-- Tom Ehrich, "On Repentance," in his On a Journey e-newsletter, 7/12/03
***
"Jesus came to raise the dead. The only qualification for the gift of the Gospel is to be dead. You don't have to be smart. You don't have to be good. You don't have to be wise. You don't have to be wonderful. You don't have to be anything ... you just have to be dead. That's it."
-- Robert Farrar Capon
***
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
-- T. S. Eliot, "Little Gidding," pt. 5, from Four Quartets (1942)
Worship Resources
by Chuck Cammarata
The first call to worship for this week uses Father language. If you are uncomfortable with that language, you can use the responses in parenthesis as an alternative.
CALL TO WORSHIP
LEADER: The one constant,
PEOPLE: The unchanging reality
LEADER: That we can always count on,
PEOPLE: That will never disappoint us
LEADER: Is this,
PEOPLE: That the Father, (that God)
LEADER: Our Father (the God)
PEOPLE: In heaven, (of all creation)
LEADER: Will never,
PEOPLE: Ever,
LEADER: Abandon or forsake us.
PEOPLE: Praise God!
LEADER: With hearts and hands
PEOPLE: And voices.
LEADER: Amen.
Our second option this morning is for those who are a little more daring
CALL TO WORSHIP
Begin by saying to the congregation, "Give me a one word description of God. Complete the sentence: God is ______________."
Be patient with them; they are probably not used to shouting out in worship. But a little patience will get them going. You are likely to get answers like these:
God is love ... holy ... awesome ... powerful ... beautiful ... glorious ... righteous ... perfect ... alive ... merciful ... truth ... good
Allow for 6 or 7 shout outs and then complete the list with a few you would like to emphasize. Finish by saying, "God is all that and more! So let us worship God!"
Today's sermon focuses on repentance and forgiveness. The first prayer of confession reminds us that God has pointed out a way of living and that we have gotten off the way. Repentance involves getting back on God's way.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION (option 1)
LEADER: The Master said,
PEOPLE: "The way through the wood is dangerous,
LEADER: Filled with temptations and fearsome creatures."
PEOPLE: But
LEADER: If you just stay on the path
PEOPLE: That has been cleared for you by a righteous pioneer --
LEADER: If you just stay on the path
PEOPLE: Temptations will not affect you,
LEADER: And the beasts will be powerless to harm you.
PEOPLE: Master, we confess that we wander off the path,
LEADER: And into the tangle of thorns and brambles,
PEOPLE: Where we are ensnared
LEADER: And often captured by the enemy.
PEOPLE: Forgive our foolishness,
LEADER: And give us the strength of will
PEOPLE: To remain on the path cleared for us by Jesus Christ.
LEADER: We ask it in his name,
PEOPLE: AMEN.
ASSURANCE OF PARDON
The way has been made clear by the one who is the pioneer and perfecter of our faith -- Jesus Christ -- who went before us to his cross, where he conquered sin, and entered the tomb, where he overcame death.
This is good news. The way has been made clear to overcome our sin and death. All we need to do is take up our crosses and follow him.
At first blush that doesn't seem like such good news does it? "Take up your cross." But the thing is, if you take your cross to him he will replace it with a crown of glory. If you die to your old self he will give a new and perfect self.
If you are like me and have an old self you'd very much like to be rid of, that may not be comfortable news, but it is very good news. Amen.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION (option 2)
LEADER: God of grace,
PEOPLE: We confess that we often presume on your grace.
LEADER: We live unchanged lives,
PEOPLE: Believing all will be forgiven.
LEADER: We are more dabblers
PEOPLE: Than disciples,
LEADER: More fans
PEOPLE: Than followers.
LEADER: Forgive our faithless living,
PEOPLE: Remind us that not all who say, "Lord, Lord"
LEADER: Shall enter the kingdom of heaven,
PEOPLE: But only those who live to obey you.
LEADER: We pray in Jesus name.
PEOPLE: AMEN.
(Use the same assurance for this prayer.)
PASTORAL PRAYER
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your way, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.
Let us pray.
Lord God, thoroughly convince us of the truth of these words that we might become men and women who so trust in your ways, who know deep within that you always guide us into the best course of action, that faithful obedience become the rule in our lives rather than the exception. May we become those who acknowledge you in all our ways so that our paths may be made straight and sure.
In all our ways at home, in school, in the neighborhood, at the office, on the athletic field -- in all our ways make us faithful followers of your ways. Amen.
Hymns and Songs
Cleanse Me
If My People's Hearts Are Humbled
Jesus I Come
Just As I Am
Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus
Seek Ye First
At the Cross
Refiner's Fire
A Children's Sermon
by Wesley T. Runk
Luke 15: 1-3, 11b-32
Text: " 'For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!' And they began to celebrate." (v. 24)
Object: Print out the words, "I'M SORRY"
Good morning, boys and girls. Today we are going to talk about some words that are used every day. You use these words, I use these words, almost everyone I know uses these words and they use them often. These are not favorite words. We don't like to say these words but we do and we say them very often. Can you guess the words that I am thinking about? (let them answer) Remember, you don't like to say these words but you say them often. Can you think of these couple of words? (let them answer)
There is a story in the Bible about a father and his two sons. The youngest son was kind of wild. He didn't like the rules at home or the rules almost anywhere. So he asked his father to give him some money and he sort of ran away from home. His father didn't want him to leave but things were pretty tough at home. If the father had tried to keep him home, he would have left anyway.
Pretty soon the son had spent all of the money doing things that he should not have done. He tried to get a job but no one wanted to hire him. Finally, he got a job that was about the worst kind of job a man could get. One day the son was trying to work at this awful job when he thought to himself, "I could go home and get a better job working for my father. I will tell him.... (long pause) What do think the son is going to say to his father? (let them answer) (hold up the sign with the words printed on it) What do you think he is going to say? (ask them to repeat the words, "I'm sorry") I'm sorry. Those are the words that are so hard to say. Do you tell your father or mother, "I'm sorry?" Do you say it pretty often? (let them answer)
Those are the words, and they are the words the son thought he would say when he met his father. He was a sad young man. But before he could say anything his father saw him coming and he ran down the road and gave him a big hug. He put on a new robe and gave him a ring and told everyone that there was going to be a big party for his returning son. He even told them to get out the best food in the house and the best things to drink they had in the house and welcome back his son.
The son kept repeating the words, "I'm sorry, father for making such a mess out of my life." But the father knew that the son had changed his life when he saw him walking back up the road toward the house. In Bible talk it was like saying, I repent. I'm sorry and I will not do what I did again.
That is a big difference. The son was not only sorry but he promised himself and his father that he would not do it again.
We do bad things don't we? (let them answer) We are sorry when we do those bad things and we have to tell our parents that we are sorry. But just being sorry is not enough. We need to tell our parents that we are sorry and we are not going to do the bad thing again. When you say those words, "I'm sorry and I will not do it again," we have really repented.
The next time you say, "I'm sorry," I hope you will think of the story in the Bible about the father and the son and how the son admitted that he was sorry but that he would never do it again. Amen
* * * * *
The Immediate Word, March 21, 2004, issue.
Copyright 2004 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503
Lead writer George Murphy brings the strange and somewhat tragic case of Martha Stewart to bear on our reading of the text. He then uncovers not two but three sons in the parable, and finds in the story a specific message for each. All of us probably can resonate with the situation of at least one of these sons.
Team members add their own reflections on the story of the prodigals and on the parables of Jesus as a whole. As usual, illustrations, worship resources, and a children's sermon complete this issue.
THE EMPIRE OF MARTHA AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
by George L. Murphy
A few years ago many people were sure that God smiled upon Martha Stewart. That belief had nothing to do with knowledge of her religious beliefs or, indeed, much of anything to do with knowledge of God. But Ms. Stewart was successful. She was regarded as an expert on entertaining, decorating, gardening, and other areas, and had become a multi-millionaire. Whether you liked her or not, you had to admit that it seemed, in the popular phrase, that "somebody up there liked her." But now she's wasted much of what she'd achieved over the years by what appear to have been questionable stock dealings and attempts to cover up wrongdoing. (It's just been announced that she has resigned as CEO of her company.) What is God's attitude toward her now?
That's an interesting question but perhaps not the one that strikes closest to home for our hearers this week. The Gospel for this Fourth Sunday of Lent seems to say, rather surprisingly, that God cares not only about those who have gone astray but also about our attitude -- that of the good church going folks -- toward those who have gotten themselves lost. How do we feel about the local schoolteacher who had an affair or the member of church council who got caught cheating on taxes?
Martha Stewart hasn't done anything wrong. At least that's her side of the story. (In her announcement that she is resigning as CEO she says that she is sorry for the pain and difficulties that her legal situation has caused for the company's employees. It is an expression of concern for those who have been affected, but it is not an admission of guilt.) The government disagrees, saying that she at least lied to those who were investigating her stock transactions. She refused any plea bargain, maintaining her innocence and hoping to be exonerated in court. A jury agreed with the charges and now Ms. Stewart is facing perhaps a year in a federal prison. (Her sentence could in theory be longer, but about a year is what most experts expect.)
We're now in the season of Lent, in which Christians are called to give special attention to repentance and renewing their commitments to faithful and obedient discipleship. This week's Gospel, Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32, Jesus' parable of the prodigal son, his resentful brother, and their father, has repentance and returning home as a major theme. The younger son, starving in a pigsty in the far country, "came to himself" and said "I will get up and go to my father."
It's easy for us to tell people to repent, and even for us and for them to go through the formal words of a confession of sin. But we find it very hard to admit really serious wrongdoing, to say, "I'm sorry," and to accept the consequences. Do we have to hit rock bottom, like the prodigal, before we can turn around?
Perhaps we do have to be reduced to zero before the gospel can really get through to us. The biblical message of salvation, after all, isn't one of God simply finishing a clean-up job on people who are already in pretty good shape. In Romans 5 Paul speaks of Christ dying for the ungodly and reconciling enemies of God, and Ephesians 2:1 describes the pre-Christian state of people as one of being "dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once lived." As long as we think we've got other resources available, we can avoid having to say, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you." Is Martha Stewart unrepentant because she still has her business empire and a lot of supporters?
But being reduced to zero is no guarantee that a person will repent and seek forgiveness. Sometimes those who hit rock bottom just stay there. John Muhammad, sentenced to death for one of the Washington "sniper" murders on the basis of overwhelming evidence, continues to maintain his innocence. He's probably sorry that he got caught, but not for what he did.
And in any case, the current story isn't just about Martha Stewart or John Muhammad, any more than Jesus' story was only about the younger son. We've come to realize that we miss the point of this story if we call it simply "The Prodigal Son" and focus on that one figure in the story. In order really to appreciate what's going on in the story we have to pay attention not only to the whole narrative but also to the context in which it's placed in the Gospel of Luke.
The Gospel lection for this week begins with the first two verses of Luke 15. Notorious sinners are coming to listen to Jesus and the pious people complain about the fact that Jesus welcomes them. In response, we then have three of Jesus' parables. These were probably not told by him bang -- bang -- bang one after another all at one time, but they are put here by Luke because they answer that challenge which seems to have been so common in Jesus' ministry: Why does he consort with tax collectors and other sinful people?
The first two parables, those of the lost sheep and the lost coin, are omitted in our reading. We'll get back to them in a few minutes. Then we come to the story of "the prodigal son." And the younger son certainly is "prodigal" -- that is, wasteful. He doesn't just passively get lost, like a coin, but deliberately takes his share of the inheritance, goes off to the far country and parties it away. It's easy to categorize him as one of those notorious sinners.
But the virtuous older son, who refuses to accept the prodigal on his return, is equally important. He obviously represents the scribes and the Pharisees mentioned in verse 2, the people whose complaints prompt these three parables. But he also may represent us! A lot of people resented Ms. Stewart and were happy to see her downfall. (You can hear a lot of jokes about Martha Stewart in an orange jumpsuit decorating her cell.) If she had taken the stand and said "Yes, I lied and I'm very sorry," would we have been satisfied to see her get a suspended sentence or would be still be demanding jail time for her?
And in fact the Gospel parable isn't just about the two brothers. Think first about the structure of the whole chapter. To begin with, the scribes and Pharisees criticize Jesus because he associates with sinners, and in response there is a story about a shepherd who leaves ninety-nine sheep at home and goes out to hunt for the one that got lost. We're so used to the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd that we may automatically think that the shepherd in this parable represents him. But then Jesus would just be saying, "That's right, I am concerned about sinners and seek them out," which is true but not a very effective answer to the initial criticism.
The shepherd in fact is the God of Israel, the one who says, "Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so will I seek out my sheep; I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness" (Ezekiel 34:11-12). Jesus is then represented as saying, in answer to his critics, "I am doing the same thing that God does." And as those who have been brought to know who Jesus is, we can see that he is in fact the one through whom God is seeking out the lost.
The similar structure of the next parable, about the lost coin, then indicates that the woman (interestingly) who searches for the coin till she finds it is God. The point of both of these parables is God's desire to find and bring home sinners, and the rejoicing when that takes place. Then when we come to the much longer parable in this Sunday's reading, we can see not only that the father represents God (which may be obvious) but could make the case that he is really the main character. In a collection of sermons on the parables of Jesus, Helmut Thielicke began with two sermons on this parable, one for each son, but the English title of whole book, The Waiting Father (New York: Harper & Row, 1959), is an accurate description of the story. (In spite of the fact that these sermons address people in postwar West Germany fifty years ago, you could do a lot worse than consulting them as resources for preaching on this text.)
So we have three characters in the story, the two sons and the father. Which of them are you going to preach to this Sunday? Clearly not the father, i.e., God. You are supposed to speak for God, bringing Jesus' story into living contact with the situations people find themselves in today.
Will you be preaching to the prodigals, the younger children who have wandered away from home? Perhaps, for the confession that we are all sinners means that we have all been, in some degree or other, wastrels who have ignored or squandered the gifts of God. But while all Christians are sinners as well as saints, little is gained by picturing a faithful church member as a type of sinner that he or she really is not, i.e., one who has left the father's house and "wasted his substance with riotous living" (as KJV so nicely puts it). Most of the prodigals in that sense won't be in church this week. Of course that doesn't mean that we're to have no concern for them, but we probably won't reach them with a Sunday morning sermon. Some other type of outreach may be called for.
In that connection, since I've used Martha Stewart as an illustration, we ought to remember that we don't know her state of mind or much of anything about her religious beliefs or relationship with God. If she -- or people in a similar situation -- are likely to be in your congregation, by all means emphasize the role of the prodigal and the father's unqualified acceptance of him. But if not, you may want to go in another direction.
It's likely that there will be some older brothers in the congregation. In fact, those of us in the preaching business often have more affinity with the scribes and Pharisees than we may like to admit, so we may be older brothers or sisters. How does the view of God that we've seen represented in these parables affect not only our willingness to repent but also our readiness to accept the repentance of others? Almost all Christians will say that certainly, if Ms. Stewart is genuinely contrite about what she's done wrong, God will forgive and accept her. Some Christians may find it a little harder to say that about the murderer John Muhammad.
(When the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was murdered in prison a few years ago, it was reported that he had been converted to Christianity shortly before his death. One correspondent to my local paper wrote that she wasn't interested in anything like that; she hoped that Dahmer would burn in hell. I don't know if this person claimed to be a Christian or not, and that attitude may not be common in the church, but it can certainly be heard from virtuous people in the larger society.)
We could analyze the reasons why the older brother was unable to rejoice with his father and the rest of the household when the prodigal returned, but the basic truth is that he was out of touch with his father, and therefore unable to share his love and his joy. And if we are unable to welcome the prodigals -- whether respectable or not -- of our society, we need to consider whether we're really in touch with God and willing to let our attitudes be conformed to what is shown to us in Christ.
Many congregations face aging memberships, declines in numbers and changing neighborhoods, and would like -- in theory -- to figure out some way to "grow." Too often what members of the church actually mean by that is that they'd like to get young families with children of pretty much the same ethnic background and socioeconomic status that the present membership had thirty or forty years ago. But the church should be a welcoming community among the people where it actually exists -- and not simply for the sake of numerical or financial growth. It is to seek out and to welcome those who have gone into the far country simply because God seeks them out and welcomes them.
Finally, let me suggest another approach in the form of a brief homily that I preached a few years ago. The opening paragraphs repeat some things I've already said, but I include them here for the sake of completeness. (I should acknowledge the influence of the title of a chapter of Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics (IV.1, 59.1), "The Way of the Son of God into the Far Country.")
THE THIRD SON
The prodigal son: Is he really the main character in this familiar parable? Is it a story about the son who deserted his father, ran off to the far country, "wasted his substance with riotous living," and finally came to his senses?
Maybe it's more about his older brother. Is it the story of the uptight and resentful son, angry that his good works weren't appreciated, who wouldn't welcome his brother's return?
Or is the parable, as some have suggested, really the story of the prodigal father? "Prodigal" means "extravagant" or "wasteful," and that describes this father. Are we supposed to focus on this parent who lavished forgiveness and gifts on the child who had done nothing to deserve his father's love?
The father and both of those sons are certainly important for the story. But let me suggest that we can't understand it unless we recognize the role of the third son. He isn't referred to in the story but he is part of it. The third son is the one who is telling the story.
"Now all the sinners and tax collectors 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 he told them this parable ..."
The third son is the one who is completely loyal and devoted to his father, yet he too takes a journey into the far country. It's precisely because of his commitment to the father that he takes the journey. He is sent on a dangerous and deadly mission to rescue the prodigal from his wastefulness, and to rescue the stay-at-home son from his self-righteousness.
And this third son seems to be the most prodigal, the most extravagant and wasteful, of all. He throws away his life for undeserving and uncaring and ungrateful people. He gives up the honor and glory of his noble birth to die as a criminal, abandoned and humiliated on the gallows. More than the disgrace of his condemnation, more than the pain of his dying, he suffers there the separation from his father -- just as the father suffers the loss of his beloved son whom he sent on this mission. By any sensible standard this wastefulness of the Father and the Son far outweighs the paltry prodigality of the young man who spent a few dollars in the brothels and bars of the far country.
And yet it is the journey of the third son that is the reconciliation of the whole family. It is through his Spirit that the younger brother comes to his senses among the swine and says, "I will get up and go to my father." And it is because of him that -- perhaps -- the other brother is able to let go of his anger and join in the celebration.
"You know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ," Saint Paul says, "That though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich" (2 Corinthians 8:9). Jesus tells this story as he is on the road to Jerusalem, on his way to the apparent waste of the cross. The gospel is in the deepest sense the story of the Prodigal Son and the Prodigal Father and their Prodigal Spirit, whose generosity we are offered. And the proper response is simply to come to the party.
Team Comments
Carlos Wilton responds: With the possible exception of the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son is Jesus' best-known parable. Preaching on it is a challenge. Longtime worshipers will assume they've heard it all before: including the once-fresh (but now familiar) gambit of focusing on the older brother rather than the younger.
Recently I heard of a homiletical approach to the parable I hadn't heard before: and, George, it fits in nicely with your emphasis on the younger son's experience of having to hit rock bottom before he's able to repent. Bass Mitchell, a frequent Internet commentator on the lectionary, makes the point in a recent newsgroup posting that the prodigal's transformation can be described as a move from "give me" to "make me." At the beginning of the story, we hear him demanding of his father, "Give me my inheritance." After he has descended to his own personal rock bottom, he is for the first time ready to say, "Make me -- make me one of your hired hands."
Repentance is a transformative experience. It is only in the moment of repentance that we are ready to say to God not, "Give me," but, "Make me -- make me into whatever you would have me be."
One aspect of the parable that would have been perfectly apparent to Jesus' listeners but which we, in our non-Jewish context, may easily miss is the particular location where the prodigal's transformation occurs. To most city-dwellers, a pigsty is a dirty, smelly, humiliating place. No one would call such work immoral, but many of us would call it hard and unpleasant. It may be tempting, especially for those preaching to urban or suburban congregations, to bemoan the prodigal's sad fate of having fallen into agricultural labor. Yet Jesus' point in the parable is not based on a negative value judgment about farm work. (Many of his listeners were farmers.) In constructing the story the way he does, Jesus is making it clear that the prodigal has abandoned the morality of his people: for he has been tending unclean animals. Not only has this wayward son fled to a "far" -- presumably Gentile -- country, but he has abandoned all the moral underpinnings of his life. The pigsty is to the prodigal as the belly of the great fish is to Jonah -- about as far from home and hearth and honoring God as it's possible to go.
It can be hard for us to understand the full impact of that detail for a society like first-century Judea, where ritual cleanliness and uncleanness were serious business. We tend to belittle such concerns, viewing the prodigal's descent in economic terms. Yet for Jesus' listeners, the prodigal's place of employment would have evoked nothing less than moral outrage.
Many prodigal-son sermons seek to retell the parable in modern terms. Nearly always, such retellings end up being riches-to-rags economic fables. They emphasize the son's financial sins in wasting the family wealth. They transform his story into a sort of reverse "Beverly Hillbillies": a journey from Beverly Hills to Bugtussle. (A recent reality-TV show, which placed the young socialite Paris Hilton and an equally well-heeled friend in a blue-collar farming community, accomplished much the same thing, in a highly patronizing way.) It would be more accurate for contemporary storytellers to emphasize the immorality of the boy's work. Once the son has dealt his father the ultimate insult, then blown through his bankroll, he descends into morally questionable activities. Perhaps the modern equivalent would be a son of our nation's elite who becomes a drug addict, and who's driven not only to shooting up but also to dealing in order to maintain his desperate habit. Maybe, as he trudges up his father's driveway, the prodigal's got a thick file at the police station. Maybe he's not only clad in ragged, cast-off clothing, but also has needle-tracks up and down his arms and a court summons in his pocket. Sure, he's preparing to say to his father, "Make me one of your hired hands" -- in other words, to work in a legitimate job for a change -- but can he make his resolution stick? Can his father trust him to be as good as his word?
Most of us would say it all depends on whether his repentance is genuine -- whether it's neither deception nor self-deception on the prodigal's part, but a decision that represents a true change of heart. Yet Jesus never brings us to the point where we can pose that question. For, in a truly surprising development, the father comes running out to meet his long-lost son -- breaking all his society's protocol, which would have required him, as the injured paterfamilias, to sternly wait for the penitent to come beg for mercy. The father leads the way: he does not fold his arms and say, "Give me -- give me the apology that is my due." No, he opens wide his arms and says, "Make me -- make me your father again!"
Our natural state in this life is to demand, "Give me." In our transformed condition, we are for the first time able to say to our God, "Make me -- make me your own." Or, as the old hymn puts it,
Have thine own way, Lord! Have thine own way!
Thou art the Potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after thy will,
While I am waiting, yielded and still.
Carter Shelley responds: George, you've taken one of the most powerful and moving of Jesus' parables and adeptly found a way to keep it fresh for those of us raised on its ability to convey God's grace and forgiveness to all of God's children. I agree with you that the Martha Stewart trial and result doesn't serve as the primary entree for this week's homiletical fare, but I find several ironies in her circumstance I'd like to discuss before moving on to the biblical banquet the parable of the father, prodigal son, and other son provides (puns intended).
First, Martha Stewart's remarkable success fits the best in the American dream Horatio Alger* tradition. She did not inherit scads of money. She was born and reached adulthood before the late 1960s-early 1970s feminist movement and the broadening of career options for women. All that she has accomplished has been the result of her own hard work, drive, ingenuity, and creativity. And, unlike some of the male CEO's and higher-ups of Enron, WorldCom, etc., whose far more serious and injurious to others financial shenanigans and extensive abuse of power and trust are yet to be tried, Martha Stewart actually produced a range of products and techniques that people enthusiastically purchased. The irony of her situation comes from the fact that she, if she has embodied the rags-to-riches American immigrant story, has certainly succeeded in moving from off-the-Penny's or Sears-rack to designer label clothes and riches on her own. It's ironic that someone who's road to the top has been so wholeheartedly American in its success now is getting pummeled mercilessly in print and in the news by one and all. I realize much of it stems from the perfectionist image Stewart projects but, unlike the Kenneth Lays, her crime has not deprived thousands of their jobs and their pensions.
The second irony stems from the small amount of money Stewart saved by acting on insider trading information. Even if she had been vindicated at her trial, the cost in lawyers' fees and public respect have cost her far more than the $57,000 she protected. As it is, Stewart will not only lose her freedom but she also stands to lose millions as her company founders from both her notoriety and absence from the helm. As Christians I think it's also important for us to remember that behind the cool coifed facade of blondness and style lies the heart and soul of a 60+ year old woman who's going to jail. I know she hasn't confessed or repented any more than John Mohammed has confessed or repented but, as George observes in discussing Jesus' parable, God doesn't love only the worthy and the contrite. God loves the hardheaded, stubborn, self-righteous, and self-deceiving among us as well.
Now on to Luke 15. George, I am intrigued by the more recent interpretations of the lost coin parable in which the widow serves as a stand-in for God. As a feminist Christian, it's always nice to find another biblical example of God's identification with women as well as with men. As you observe, that's not the way most of us had it taught to us in Sunday school. Rather, the emphasis was upon our lostness and our need to find our way home with the momentum of the story building as the importance of what was lost moving from sheep to coin to son. What I have loved about the parable of the father, the prodigal, and the other son ever since I read the whole thing in seminary is the scope of God's love. God's love is so all-encompassing that every variety of sorry reprobate and Christian has a place in the narrative and a potential happy ending. The parable concludes with the prodigal son's joyful return a given, but the decision of the other son remains open-ended. It's as though Jesus (and Luke) are saying to Pharisees and Christians: "The end of this story is up to you. You decide whether you shall choose to feeling judgmental and aggrieved or if you, like your father on earth and your father in heaven will be gracious and joyful at the salvation offered to another."
I have taught a series on the parables of Jesus to high school students in the past. The one they find the hardest to understand is not Luke 15:11-32 or the Good Samaritan but the parable of the laborers who come at different times of day seeking work from the master. When payment is made to the laborers at the end of the day, the master begins with those who worked the shortest amount of time and pays them the exact same amount the laborers who've worked all day were told they would receive. The latter group is outraged when they discover they are to be paid exactly the same amount as the men who worked far fewer hours. The high schoolers always side with the workers who worked all day. It's a great exercise, because our American sense of justice wants everything to be fair. What we miss in our outrage is the fact that the master (and God in Christ) are fair to those who've worked the whole day or been devout conscientious Christians their whole lives: "It's not fair!" But, of course, it is fair, because God is just. The hook is that God is just, but God chooses to be gracious. The wage agreed upon by the master with the full day laborers is a just wage for a day's work and sufficient money to feed the laborer and his family for that day. The laborers who work few hours need the same amount of money if they are to feed themselves and their families that day. They haven't earned the full amount. They've been given it, because the master is generous.
This past weekend has been full of discussion of the tragic scope of the killing and injuries that resulted from the bombing of a commuter train in Spain on Friday. Over and over again the phrase has been used, "Innocent people were killed." I find those words disturbing, because they are used so frequently by ourselves and our own government in reference to the ongoing death and destruction taking place in Iraq, and in many other parts of the world. Do these words suggest that the death of "guilty people" is okay? I think we all know the answer is yes. Few tears will be shed by American citizens if Saddam Hussein is tried, convicted, and executed. Fewer tears will be shed over the fate of Osama bin Laden if he is ever captured or killed. We still identify ourselves as a Christian nation, but we are not divine in our actions or our feelings. We want justice towards our enemies, not graciousness or forgiveness. Thank goodness God in Christ holds to a higher standard than we do ourselves!
____________
*While most of us think we know who Horatio Alger was, it might be helpful to the majority of our congregations to offer a brief explanation of why his name is often used in conjunction with rags-to-riches success stories. An excellent resource is the following website. Click on "Novels," and the description of the hero in the novels will explain all: http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/cinder/Horatiomain.htm
Related Illustrations
Submitted by Carlos Wilton
"We are intimately loved long before our parents, teachers, spouses, children, and friends loved or wounded us. That's the truth of our lives. [God says] 'I have called you by name, from the very beginning. You are mine and I am yours. You are my beloved, on you my favor rests. I have molded you in the depths of the earth and knitted you together in your mother's womb. I have carved you in the palms of my hands and hidden you in the shadow of my embrace. I look at you with infinite tenderness and care for you with a care more intimate than that of a mother for her child. I have counted every hair on your head and guided you at ever step. Wherever you go, I go with you, and wherever you rest, I keep watch. I will give you food that will satisfy all your hunger and drink that will quench all you thirst. I will not hide my face from you. You know me as your own, as I know you as my own. You belong to me. I am your father, your mother, your brothers, your sister, your lover and your spouse ... yes, even your child ... wherever you are I will be. Nothing will ever separate us. We are one.' "
-- Henri Nouwen, The Life of the Beloved
***
"Sin demands to have us by ourselves. It withdraws us from the community. The more isolated people are, the more destructive becomes the power of sin ... the more deeply they become involved in it, the more disastrous their isolation.... In repentance and confession, the light of the gospel breaks into the darkness and seclusion of the heart. The sin must be brought into the light.... It is a hard struggle until the sin is openly admitted. But God breaks gates of brass and bars of iron."
-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together
***
There's an old story that begins in a little village in Spain. Father and son argue and say things they should never have said. The son, whose name is Paco, runs away to the big city of Madrid.
Weeks go by, then months, and the father comes to regret his anger. He rehearses, over and over again in his mind, the apology he will offer to his son when he returns. Yet Paco, the prodigal son, does not return. The father begins to fear he has lost his son forever.
Finally, the father resolves upon a desperate plan. He travels to the city, armed with posters that he puts up on every wall and tree. He takes out a classified ad in the newspaper, and everywhere the message is the same:
Dear Paco,
Meet me in front of the newspaper office tomorrow at noon. All is forgiven. I love you.
Your father.
To understand what happens next, you have to realize that "Paco" is a very common name in Spain: almost like "John" or "Jim" in our country. And you have to remember that the father did not sign his posters, or his classified ad, with anything except "Your father."
By twelve o'clock the next day, the story goes, Paco the son is waiting outside the newspaper building; he and his father have a joyful reunion. Yet along with the son, there are 800 other men named Paco, gathered outside the newspaper building: every last one of them hoping it is his father who took out the classified ad and nailed up the posters.
***
"You are a child of God. Please phone home."
-- bumper sticker
***
"It is not always wrong even to go, like Dante, to the brink of the lowest promontory and look down at hell. It is when you look up at hell that a serious miscalculation has probably been made."
-- G. K. Chesterton
***
"True repentance hates the sin, and not merely the penalty; and it hates the sin most of all because it has discovered and felt God's love."
-- W. M. Taylor
***
"Repentance is as close as we get to the mind of God. For as urgently as people want to portray God as rigid and changeless, a stern judge whose law book never has fresh ink and whose mind was fixed eons ago, the Scripture portrays God as one who repents: taking on a new mind, loving in new ways, trying new words, accepting new people, charting a new course, rethinking the old.
"Christians have preferred to see themselves as the shock troops of God, armed with verity and virtue and riding forth to command or, nowadays, staying inside to enjoy. With meaningless evasions like, 'Hate the sin but love the sinner,' they have dispensed one-way judgment, like an impatient parent or arrogant boss. Ask the compelling question, and move on. Indict and condemn, and move on. Drop off a pamphlet, and move on. Put an ad in the religion section, and move on.
"Repentance takes far more work than that. It takes time, it takes openness, it takes sharing, it takes wisdom, it takes clarity of word and kindness of heart. Minds don't change -- in any meaningful or lasting way -- in response to fear, compunction, force or fawning. Minds are like flowers. They require water, sunlight, a gentle hand and patience."
-- Tom Ehrich, "On Repentance," in his On a Journey e-newsletter, 7/12/03
***
"Jesus came to raise the dead. The only qualification for the gift of the Gospel is to be dead. You don't have to be smart. You don't have to be good. You don't have to be wise. You don't have to be wonderful. You don't have to be anything ... you just have to be dead. That's it."
-- Robert Farrar Capon
***
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
-- T. S. Eliot, "Little Gidding," pt. 5, from Four Quartets (1942)
Worship Resources
by Chuck Cammarata
The first call to worship for this week uses Father language. If you are uncomfortable with that language, you can use the responses in parenthesis as an alternative.
CALL TO WORSHIP
LEADER: The one constant,
PEOPLE: The unchanging reality
LEADER: That we can always count on,
PEOPLE: That will never disappoint us
LEADER: Is this,
PEOPLE: That the Father, (that God)
LEADER: Our Father (the God)
PEOPLE: In heaven, (of all creation)
LEADER: Will never,
PEOPLE: Ever,
LEADER: Abandon or forsake us.
PEOPLE: Praise God!
LEADER: With hearts and hands
PEOPLE: And voices.
LEADER: Amen.
Our second option this morning is for those who are a little more daring
CALL TO WORSHIP
Begin by saying to the congregation, "Give me a one word description of God. Complete the sentence: God is ______________."
Be patient with them; they are probably not used to shouting out in worship. But a little patience will get them going. You are likely to get answers like these:
God is love ... holy ... awesome ... powerful ... beautiful ... glorious ... righteous ... perfect ... alive ... merciful ... truth ... good
Allow for 6 or 7 shout outs and then complete the list with a few you would like to emphasize. Finish by saying, "God is all that and more! So let us worship God!"
Today's sermon focuses on repentance and forgiveness. The first prayer of confession reminds us that God has pointed out a way of living and that we have gotten off the way. Repentance involves getting back on God's way.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION (option 1)
LEADER: The Master said,
PEOPLE: "The way through the wood is dangerous,
LEADER: Filled with temptations and fearsome creatures."
PEOPLE: But
LEADER: If you just stay on the path
PEOPLE: That has been cleared for you by a righteous pioneer --
LEADER: If you just stay on the path
PEOPLE: Temptations will not affect you,
LEADER: And the beasts will be powerless to harm you.
PEOPLE: Master, we confess that we wander off the path,
LEADER: And into the tangle of thorns and brambles,
PEOPLE: Where we are ensnared
LEADER: And often captured by the enemy.
PEOPLE: Forgive our foolishness,
LEADER: And give us the strength of will
PEOPLE: To remain on the path cleared for us by Jesus Christ.
LEADER: We ask it in his name,
PEOPLE: AMEN.
ASSURANCE OF PARDON
The way has been made clear by the one who is the pioneer and perfecter of our faith -- Jesus Christ -- who went before us to his cross, where he conquered sin, and entered the tomb, where he overcame death.
This is good news. The way has been made clear to overcome our sin and death. All we need to do is take up our crosses and follow him.
At first blush that doesn't seem like such good news does it? "Take up your cross." But the thing is, if you take your cross to him he will replace it with a crown of glory. If you die to your old self he will give a new and perfect self.
If you are like me and have an old self you'd very much like to be rid of, that may not be comfortable news, but it is very good news. Amen.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION (option 2)
LEADER: God of grace,
PEOPLE: We confess that we often presume on your grace.
LEADER: We live unchanged lives,
PEOPLE: Believing all will be forgiven.
LEADER: We are more dabblers
PEOPLE: Than disciples,
LEADER: More fans
PEOPLE: Than followers.
LEADER: Forgive our faithless living,
PEOPLE: Remind us that not all who say, "Lord, Lord"
LEADER: Shall enter the kingdom of heaven,
PEOPLE: But only those who live to obey you.
LEADER: We pray in Jesus name.
PEOPLE: AMEN.
(Use the same assurance for this prayer.)
PASTORAL PRAYER
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your way, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.
Let us pray.
Lord God, thoroughly convince us of the truth of these words that we might become men and women who so trust in your ways, who know deep within that you always guide us into the best course of action, that faithful obedience become the rule in our lives rather than the exception. May we become those who acknowledge you in all our ways so that our paths may be made straight and sure.
In all our ways at home, in school, in the neighborhood, at the office, on the athletic field -- in all our ways make us faithful followers of your ways. Amen.
Hymns and Songs
Cleanse Me
If My People's Hearts Are Humbled
Jesus I Come
Just As I Am
Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus
Seek Ye First
At the Cross
Refiner's Fire
A Children's Sermon
by Wesley T. Runk
Luke 15: 1-3, 11b-32
Text: " 'For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!' And they began to celebrate." (v. 24)
Object: Print out the words, "I'M SORRY"
Good morning, boys and girls. Today we are going to talk about some words that are used every day. You use these words, I use these words, almost everyone I know uses these words and they use them often. These are not favorite words. We don't like to say these words but we do and we say them very often. Can you guess the words that I am thinking about? (let them answer) Remember, you don't like to say these words but you say them often. Can you think of these couple of words? (let them answer)
There is a story in the Bible about a father and his two sons. The youngest son was kind of wild. He didn't like the rules at home or the rules almost anywhere. So he asked his father to give him some money and he sort of ran away from home. His father didn't want him to leave but things were pretty tough at home. If the father had tried to keep him home, he would have left anyway.
Pretty soon the son had spent all of the money doing things that he should not have done. He tried to get a job but no one wanted to hire him. Finally, he got a job that was about the worst kind of job a man could get. One day the son was trying to work at this awful job when he thought to himself, "I could go home and get a better job working for my father. I will tell him.... (long pause) What do think the son is going to say to his father? (let them answer) (hold up the sign with the words printed on it) What do you think he is going to say? (ask them to repeat the words, "I'm sorry") I'm sorry. Those are the words that are so hard to say. Do you tell your father or mother, "I'm sorry?" Do you say it pretty often? (let them answer)
Those are the words, and they are the words the son thought he would say when he met his father. He was a sad young man. But before he could say anything his father saw him coming and he ran down the road and gave him a big hug. He put on a new robe and gave him a ring and told everyone that there was going to be a big party for his returning son. He even told them to get out the best food in the house and the best things to drink they had in the house and welcome back his son.
The son kept repeating the words, "I'm sorry, father for making such a mess out of my life." But the father knew that the son had changed his life when he saw him walking back up the road toward the house. In Bible talk it was like saying, I repent. I'm sorry and I will not do what I did again.
That is a big difference. The son was not only sorry but he promised himself and his father that he would not do it again.
We do bad things don't we? (let them answer) We are sorry when we do those bad things and we have to tell our parents that we are sorry. But just being sorry is not enough. We need to tell our parents that we are sorry and we are not going to do the bad thing again. When you say those words, "I'm sorry and I will not do it again," we have really repented.
The next time you say, "I'm sorry," I hope you will think of the story in the Bible about the father and the son and how the son admitted that he was sorry but that he would never do it again. Amen
* * * * *
The Immediate Word, March 21, 2004, issue.
Copyright 2004 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503
