Profiles of Grace
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For March 31, 2019:
Profiles of Grace
by Tom Willadsen
Joshua 5:9-12, 2 Corinthians 5:16-21, Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32, Psalm 32
All this amazing grace is from God. All of it — a new creation; a feast in the promised land; a party with dancing and a fatted calf — all of it. It’s all yours, all of it; you just have to accept it. (And it wouldn’t hurt if you realized your own need for it; that’s the scandal of grace.)
In the News
The event casting a shadow over all the world’s news this week is the shooting at the mosques in Christschurch, New Zealand, Friday, March 14, 2019. The reaction of New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, has been profoundly human and humane. She has assumed the role of “Mourner in Chief” with grace, dignity and humility. The Prime Minister has embodied humanity’s best efforts at responding to unspeakable tragedy. She said to the survivors of the attacks, “New Zealand mourns with you; we are one.” When people ask “What’s so amazing about grace?” show them photos of Prime Minister Ardern wearing a hijab, visiting the mosques, expressing unity and quoting the Koran. The text she shared translated into English was, “According to Muslim faith, the prophet Muhammad…. The believers in their mutual kindness, compassion and sympathy are just like one body. When any part of the body suffers, the whole body feels pain.” (Does this remind anyone else of 1 Corinthians 12:12-27?)
Many more examples of the Prime Minister’s grace under pressure can be found here.
A much more powerful, though less widely publicized response has been a nearly complete absence of hatred among the survivors of these attacks. This article is concise and moving and repeatedly points to quotes from survivors, many of whom were wounded in the attacks, to not respond with violence, not seek revenge.
The restraint on the part of the survivors of the massacre has strong parallels with a similar shooting at an Amish elementary school in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, in 2006. The world gaped in wonder at how readily the Amish forgave the shooter and comforted his grieving parents. Their speed in offering forgiveness, however, did not and does not, prevent them from grieving their losses, but their grief also, does not prevent them from extending forgiveness.
Here’s a news story from the first anniversary of the shooting.
In the Scriptures
Psalm 32
This psalm shifts perspectives and audiences, so mind who’s doing the talking when peaching it. It is most helpful, in my opinion, to regard the psalmist as having already fully experienced salvation.
I write on March 22 and meteorologists and hydrologists are predicted huge floods coming to the Great Plains and upper Midwest. You’ll want to keep 32:6 handy in the weeks and months ahead:
Therefore let all who are faithful
offer prayer to you;
at a time of distress, the rush of mighty waters
shall not reach them.
You might also want to keep “Wide River” by the Steve Miller Band in mind. If the forecasts are correct, you will have plenty of chances to address the floods.
Joshua 5:9-12
This passage is sort of the capstone of the Israelites wandering in the Wilderness and entry into the promised land. They crossed through the Sea of Reeds on dry ground 40 years ago. They just crossed the Jordan River on dry ground. They have made the transition from nomads to people with a land, and the land shapes their identity.
Salvation is not a single event. It’s a process, a journey. While some Christians can give the date and time of their accepting Christ, the very moment when they were born again/from above, most of us have come to accept Christ over many years. As in any journey there are milestones and moments of struggle. Many Christians even experience grace a little at a time, or if they’re fortunate/blessed, a lot at a time — repeatedly.
Today’s lesson from Joshua sort of telescopes their journey.
From slavery in Egypt/hell to the wilderness finally to the promised land/heaven. Keep this in mind: faith is not “one and done;” grace is not “one and done.” We keep experiencing it; Christ is alive!
In England the fourth Sunday in Lent is known as “Mothering Sunday.” Both the Old Testament and gospel passages point toward returning (or arriving) home and finding welcome and refreshment. Both point to the Lord’s Supper as a kind of heavenly banquet. Since many congregations celebrate the Lord’s Supper on the first Sunday of the month, it’s unfortunate that this Sunday is the last one in March.
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
Pre-gospel advice: Today’s gospel lesson is the parable of the Prodigal Son. Whenever I planned to preach on this parable I would call Roger Birdsong (name changed to protect the irritating) the Wednesday before and alert him that this parable would be the basis of the sermon. Roger did not like this parable, and he was speechless that it appeared in the Bible! The prodigal, in Roger’s estimation, was irresponsible and couldn’t take care of himself and he should have not have been welcomed home. Why, no father would ever do what the father in the parable did! The first time I heard this rant I tried to explain grace to Roger. The second time I tried to describe grace, hoping he could feel what he refused to understand. Wrong. I got wise. Every subsequent time I planned to preach this parable, I called Roger beforehand and prevented the entire conversation, well monologue. The good thing about Roger is that I always knew exactly what he thought. The bad thing about Roger was I always knew exactly what he thought. Okay, now back to this week’s commentary on the content of the readings.
This is a long reading, and still it needs a bit of context, more context than we find in vv. 1-3. Between that introduction and today’s parable, lay two other parables.
The Parable of the Shepherd and the Lost Sheep shows that heaven rejoices when one in a hundred is rescued. The Parable of the Lost Coin shows that one in ten is important. The math gets down to one in two. The grace this parable describes becomes increasingly narrowly focused. At the very end, everyone should be able to appropriate, embrace and understand the magnitude of God’s grace. Still, there are some who can only walk into the parable identifying with the older brother.
The Parable of the Prodigal Son (and his brother) is not a story about what’s fair. It’s not a story about how to make Dad proud. It’s not a story about the nobility of suffering, poverty as the crucible in which faith is refined. The turning point is when the Prodigal hits bottom, feeding pigs and so hungry that what the pigs are eating looks pretty appetizing. He “comes to himself.” His epiphany is due to his hunger. Desperation gets his attention and sets the stage for the embracing grace of his father.
Two things to point out about the conclusion, or denouement as Mr. Fleming (my Sunday school teacher) called it:
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
Presbyterians might want to take a look at the Confession of 1967 for a thorough exposition of reconciliation. Well, I suppose non-Presbyterians can as well; you may not find it on your bookshelf. Wait! I just remembered the wonders of the internet! See it here.
Reconciliation is not just for Presbyterians anymore!
Paul is describing an enormous transition in himself initially, then in the lives and faith of the Corinthians. Originally, Paul understood Christ in flesh; that is by human standards. On receiving grace, however, reality shifted profoundly. Recipients of the grace of Christ have become completely new! “There is a new creation.” Make that personal, preachers. When one person receives, accepts, embraces — choose your verb — grace, there is a new creation. Not only does that person become completely new, but she is also an agent of grace, a bearer of grace, a conduit of grace. Paul is urging the Corinthians — and us — to accept reconciliation, accept this completely new reality. And then our call is to be ambassadors of grace!
And finally, all of this reconciliation is from God in Christ. You didn’t earn it, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t accept it. See, that’s the hardest thing about grace, isn’t it? The scandal of grace is that we need it. We need it, and God in Christ provides it. Our job is to accept it, accept being reconciled, accept and trust the depth of God’s love for each of us.
In the Sermon
There are so many good approaches to take in today’s passages. Each of them points us to a specific way God expresses love for humankind, and people experience it.
Food.
Land.
Forgiveness.
New creation.
Surely you’ve heard people say, “It’s all good,” a phrase that has gained in popularity recently. In the case of today’s reading, they’re all good. The challenge this week will be to focus on one or two key phrases or ideas and lead worshipers to experience — or better yet identify their own experience of — grace. It is better, I’ve found, to describe grace, rather than to define it. When did someone do something for you that was so profoundly kind and unexpected that you could not even say thank you. That’s grace. Preach that.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Eatin’ Dinner with Sinners
by Dean Feldmeyer
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
You’re in the bathroom or the kitchen and you hear it on the television.
First, there’s that double clanking sound. “Blung, blung.”
That’s probably enough to tell you what’s on, but if it isn’t what comes next surely will.
Next, you hear a deep, baritone voice saying these words: "In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: the police who investigate crime and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories."
And now you surely know. You’re watching “Law and Order.”
Today’s gospel lesson is just about that familiar. Opening line: “There was a man who had two sons.”
If you were raised in the church, going to Sunday School and VBS and youth fellowship, you probably heard those words and you already know what comes next. You know the entire story because you’ve heard it so many times.
In fact, even if you weren’t raised in the church, you probably know the story pretty well. It’s not just part of our religion. The story of the Prodigal Son is part of our culture.
Most of us know the story. Know it by heart. We could tell it to anyone who asks.
So why do so many of us miss the point?
Start At The Beginning
It’s probably because we skip the lead-in. We forget to identify the context in which the story was first told.
That’s because even though the story begins in verse 11, after two other stories have already been told, the context is set out way up in verses 1-2. Listen again:
“Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, ‘This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.’”
That is why Jesus tells the story of the Prodigal Son and it’s the only reason for retelling it. It’s a story about exclusion and inclusion which shows that God is on the side of inclusion.
Jesus welcomes sinners and eats with them because God, by grace, welcomes sinners.
God is just as happy about one sinner coming home to God’s house as the shepherd is about finding his lost sheep, as the woman is about finding her lost coin, as the father is about finding his lost son coming down the driveway.
Let’s review, shall we?
Prodigal = Wasteful
Most of us think that the word “prodigal” means lost or wandered off or something like that. Actually, it means, “wasteful.” This is a story about a wasteful young man.
He is the second born of two sons and he’s tired of this drudgery of working on the farm so he goes to his father and asks to be given his inheritance.
Now, understand that in first century Jewish tradition the oldest son would be the only one to inherit anything. He would then be responsible for taking care of the rest of the family, in this case, the younger son. It wasn’t law but it was a long standing tradition and it would be presumptuous in the extreme for the younger son to ask to be given “his” inheritance. There was no “his inheritance.”
But the father, no doubt reluctantly, breaks with tradition and does as his younger son asks, no doubt setting off a cascade of resentment in the older son who was counting on getting that big inheritance when the old man passed away.
The younger son takes his “inheritance,” liquidates it into cash, moves to Vegas and starts living the high (roller) life, spending the money in the casinos and on call girls and penthouse apartments and lavish parties and cars that would make Jay Leno jealous. Oh, and investing in risky, stupid, get-rich-quick-schemes with some guy named Bernie.
None of us are surprised when the money inevitably runs out. Our protagonist suddenly finds himself without so many friends. No one is coming to his parties. The casinos have cut off his credit lines. His cars have been repossessed. His “friends” aren’t taking his calls and someone has changed the locks on his penthouse apartment.
In no time he’s gone from playing at the high roller tables to washing dishes in a greasy spoon diner in the tenderloin district and, just between us, he is so hungry he would gladly eat the food left on the dishes he is washing and, who knows, he probably has done so when no one was looking.
One day he looks out at the customers and the waitresses in the diner and he realizes that these people are all living better than he is. In fact, he knows that the people who work for his dad are living better than he is.
And with that he decides to go back to the family farm and see if he can get a job as a hired hand, just hoeing beans and corn in the fields or putting up hay or, God forbid, mucking out the barns. Anything, he decides, would be better than this.
So that’s what he does. He gets on a bus and he goes back home and he walks up to the porch where the old man is sitting, having his coffee and he tells the old man how sorry he is. “I’ve made some bad choices and I’ve humiliated you and brought shame to our family name. I’m asking your forgiveness, not so I can be your son again. I realize that I’ve squandered that right. All I want is enough forgiveness to be given a menial, minimum wage job here on the farm, a job as a laborer, nothing more.”
The father thinks for a moment then he walks down the steps to the porch and takes the boy in his arms and with tears in his eyes, he says, “I’m sorry my son. I cannot just forgive you.
“You are right that I am a loving and forgiving father but I am also a proud father and a just father and my righteous justice would not be served if I were to simply forgive you without your paying a penalty and making a large sacrifice to pay for the sins you have committed.”
“Fair enough,” says the young man. “Tell me the penalty and I will pay it. I will make the sacrifice three times over to be forgiven if I must.”
The old man shakes his head. “It is not possible, my son. The shame you have brought upon our house is too great to be overcome with a normal sacrifice. The only sacrifice that can undo the damage you have caused is the ultimate one, your own life. Only when you have died for the sins you have committed can I forgive you and enter your name back into the family’s book of life.”
The son sadly nods his head but before he can say anything a voice interrupts.
“Wait.” It’s the voice of his brother, the older son.”
“I will pay his penalty for him,” he says. “Father, I have been faithful and loyal to you. I will die in his place.”
The old man nods, “Yes, you have been as sinless as it is possible for a son to be. The sacrifice of your life will be sufficient to pay the debt of your brother.”
“Then let it be so,” says the older boy, extending his wrists toward the old man.
The father’s face is now bathed in tears as he reluctantly nods his head and the security guards come forward, place manacles upon the wrists of his older son and take him away to his execution.
As the boy is lead away, the old man approaches his younger son and takes him in his arms. Now they are both weeping as they hear the headsman’s ax fall. Now, his debt paid by an innocent, the young man can be accepted into the family again. And for the rest of his life he will look with gratitude and awe at the portrait on the mantle, the portrait of the one who gave his life so that he might live.
Wait a minute. That’s not how the story goes.
Is it? No! No, that’s not how it goes at all.
Of course, it isn’t.
Because the story of the Prodigal Son, the one we heard read from scripture just a few moments ago, is not a story about atonement. It’s not a story about paying for sins so they can be forgiven. It’s not about a father whose demand for justice is so severe, so perverse and twisted that he is incapable of forgiving or, worse, unwilling to forgive, unless an innocent person, even his own son, is killed to somehow pay for some sins that have been committed by another, guilty party.
No, this is not a story about atonement; it’s a story about grace.
It is a story about love that is unconditional, about forgiveness that is given without price, about reconciliation that is a gift.
It is about the love of a father who leaps from the porch and runs to greet his son whom he sees “from afar” and “falls upon his neck” as the King James so beautifully puts it, and weeps with joy at the return of the one who was lost and now is found, was dead but now is alive.
It is about a father whose joy is so complete that he brushes aside the son’s request to come and live as a slave in his father’s house, a joy so complete that he places a cloak upon the young man’s shoulders and a ring upon his finger and announces a day off for everyone so that a feast can be given in celebration of the lost child’s return. It is about a father who, when his acts of love are questioned by the older son, does not defend them but explains them in terms of love and joy and, yes, grace.
Because he was motivated by grace and love, he says, he doesn’t really have a choice: “…we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”
Yes, this is a story about grace and the way grace comes to us from God who is, in this story, our loving father. It’s a story about the grace we are asked to demonstrate and share with the rest of the world because God has shared it with us.
Grace, Happiness and the Rest of the World
Well, the results are in and, once again, Finland has won and the United States has come in a piteous 19th place.
Finland is, officially, the happiest country in the world.
Denmark is the second happiest. Norway is third, Iceland fourth, and The Netherlands is fifth. Go figure, huh? And these countries are all kinda noted for their cold winters. You know, ice skating, cross-country skiing, that sorta thing. Me, I would have figured that the tropical countries would be the really happy ones – Fiji, Jamaica, the Virgin Islands – those places. But no, it’s the cold places that make it to the top of the list.
So, apparently, their happiness is not based on their climate.
And it’s not based on the size of their military or the number of guns they own. Neither is it based on how low their taxes are. No, according to the World Happiness Report which was released by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network for the United Nations on March 20, their happiness quotient is based on six key variables that support well-being: income, freedom, trust, healthy life expectancy, social support, and generosity.
Only one of the six has to do with personal wealth.
One has to do with health.
One has to do with freedom.
The other three have to do with relationships: trust, social support, and generosity. Those people are happiest, in other words, who live in graceful relationships with their neighbors.
And it’s not just true for native born Fins. “It's true that last year all Finns were happier than the rest of the countries' residents, but their immigrants were also the happiest immigrants in the world," says report co-editor John Helliwell, a professor emeritus of economics at the University of British Columbia. "It's not about Finnish DNA. It's the way life is lived in those countries.”
They pay high taxes for a social safety net, they trust their government, they live in freedom and they are generous with each other. "They do care about each other," he says. "That's the kind of place people want to live."1
Because I know you’re itching to find out, I’ll tell you the rest of the top ten: Switzerland came in sixth place, followed by Sweden, New Zealand, Canada (the only country in the Americas) and Austria. The 2019 list only changed a little, with Austria nudging Australia out of the top 10 list. Australia dropped one spot to 11th place.
The super powers aren’t super happy. United Kingdom came in 15th place, up from 18th place, while Germany came in 17th place, down from 15th. Japan came in 58th place (down from 54th), Russia came in 68th place (down from 59th) and China came in 93rd place (down from 86th).
Last place (156) was South Sudan.
The United States came in at 19th place. The lowest we’ve ever placed on the scale. We are, in other words, the unhappiest we have ever been as a nation. Some attribute our national malaise to the addiction crisis.2 Others would remind us that unhappiness is also the result of an increase in negative emotions such as worry, sadness, and anger, which were also measured for the study.
In the Pulpit
In the story of the Prodigal Son the people who are happy at the end of the story are the ones who live by grace. The father is happy as the one who bestows grace and the prodigal son is happy as the recipient and acceptor of the father’s grace. It is only the older son who cannot bring himself to bestow grace upon his younger brother who is unhappy.
Happiness is a byproduct of grace.
And this is not just a nice little object lesson that comes to us from the parable. It is a fact of life as bourn out by the happiness study. Those countries are happiest whose citizens live by grace, who are generous, and kind, and caring, and loving, and gentle and supportive of each other.
Those countries are unhappiest whose citizens live by worry and fear and anger and sadness.
By bestowing grace and by accepting grace, by eating dinners with sinners, we can be the authors of happiness, the builders of joy in our own lives and the lives of others.
It is a lesson well learned as we move through Lent and on to the cross and, ultimately, to the resurrection on Easter morning.
1 Katia Hetter, This is the world's happiest country in 2019 CNN. March 21, 2019.
2 Allyson Chiu, Americans are the unhappiest they’ve ever been, U.N. report finds. An ‘epidemic of addictions’ could be to blame. Washington Post. March 21, 2019.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Mary Austin:
Luke 15:1-3; 11b-32 and Psalm 32
Lost Sons and Forgiveness
Azim Khamisa and Ples Felix both understand the pain of a lost son. The two are speaking partners, often giving talks a schools together, and they introduce each other as brothers. The intersection of their lives is unexpected.
“Khamisa is the son of successful Persian merchants who settled in Kenya and practiced Sufi Islam; Felix was born to a blue-collar black family in Los Angeles and raised Baptist. Khamisa studied in London and became an international investment banker; Felix studied in New York and became an urban planner. Yet their lives show striking similarities. For one, both men turned their backs on violence. As a young man, Khamisa fled persecution in Kenya at the hands of the Idi Amin regime in neighboring Uganda, eventually settling in the U.S. Felix left South Central L.A. by joining the United States Army and served two tours in Vietnam before foregoing a military career to attend college and pursue a civilian profession. On separate continents, they both learned to meditate—Khamisa from a Sufi friend in Africa; Felix from a Buddhist monk in Southeast Asia. Both made it a daily practice. But none of these commonalities are what brought them together. They met 17 years ago after Felix’s only grandson murdered Khamisa’s only son.”
One day in 1995, Azim Khamisa “stood in the kitchen of his condo in La Jolla, California, straining to comprehend the words coming from the phone. “Your son … shot … dead …” Surely there was a mistake. He hurried the detective off the phone and dialed his 20-year-old son Tariq’s number. No answer. He called Tariq’s fiancée, Jennifer. She answered but was crying so hard she could barely speak. Khamisa’s knees buckled. He fell backward and hit his head on the refrigerator. As the phone crashed to the floor, he was enveloped by pain that he would forever describe as “a nuclear bomb detonating” in his heart.” Even in the pain of that day, he was able to say, “There were victims at both ends of that gun.” When he heard himself say the words, he felt that the idea had come from God.
“Within a year of the murder, Khamisa started the Tariq Khamisa Foundation, which teaches the virtues of nonviolence to San Diego middle schoolers and young people nationwide. TKF raises $1.5 million annually for educational, mentoring, and community service programs that target at-risk youth. The curriculum’s centerpiece features Khamisa and his surprise ally Ples Felix sharing their story at school assemblies. Educators who have opened their doors to the duo say that gang activity and discipline problems have dipped as a result. TKF has reached nearly 1 million kids in San Diego County through live presentations, plus another 8 million through Khamisa and Felix’s visits to schools in Australia, Europe, and Canada, and broadcasts on Channel One News (shown in schools across the U.S.). After launching TKF, Khamisa partnered with the nonprofit National Youth Advocate Program to create CANEI, or Constant and Never Ending Improvement, a program that teaches nonviolence and individual responsibility to young offenders and their families.”
None of this has been easy. “The day Khamisa and his family buried Tariq in Vancouver, where both sets of Tariq’s grandparents lived, it was cold and rainy. Khamisa chanted prayers in a mosque with thousands of worshipers. In accordance with tradition, he climbed down into a muddy grave to receive his son’s body. A group of men lowered Tariq down. As Khamisa held his son for the last time, his feet sinking into the mud and rain pouring over his head, saying goodbye seemed so abhorrent that he lingered for a few long moments. In the weeks that followed, Khamisa contemplated suicide. Just months before, he’d been going from one international business trip to the next and working 100-hour weeks; now he could barely rise from bed. Things like showering and eating lunch seemed to be enormous tasks.”
Felix’ grandson, Tony, was charged as an adult for the murder. “At juvenile hall, Tony sat sullen and silent in his blue jumpsuit while his attorney laid out his options, then left grandfather and grandson alone. Felix handed Tony an orange, and the boy began to cry—maybe because it reminded him of his grandfather’s ritual of talking over fruit, or maybe because the gravity of his predicament had finally hit him. As if he were 5 again, he jumped into Felix’s lap. “Daddy, I’m so sorry for what I did,” he sobbed. “I never wanted to hurt anybody, I was just angry, stupid.” He grew quiet after a moment and returned to his seat. He took the orange, peeled it, and gave half to his grandfather. Then, with his body shaking, he calmly spoke like a man twice his age: “I have to take responsibility for what I did.” Tony, the first juvenile prosecuted as an adult in California, took the plea bargain and was sentenced to 25 years to life.”
“Forgiveness, Khamisa likes to say, is a process, not a destination, and it doesn’t mean skipping grief. As the Sufi poet Rumi wrote, “The cure for the pain is the pain.” Even as he spent his days meditating and building the foundation’s programs with his daughter, Tasreen, Khamisa operated under a shroud of sadness. One evening while out with friends, nearly four years after the murder, someone told a joke, and he laughed—for the first time since Tariq’s death.”
There are many ways to be lost, and many to be found.
* * *
Psalm 32
Forgiveness
“Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven,” the Psalmist proclaims. Archbishop Desmond Tutu has spent many years thinking about forgiveness. His questions began when he was a small boy, when “there were so many nights when I, as a young boy, had to watch helplessly as my father verbally and physically abused my mother. I can still recall the smell of alcohol, see the fear in my mother’s eyes, and feel the hopeless despair that comes when we see people we love hurting each other in incomprehensible ways. If I dwell in those memories, I can feel myself wanting to hurt my father back, in the same ways he hurt my mother, and in ways of which I was incapable as a small boy. I see my mother’s face and I see this gentle human being whom I loved so very much and who did nothing to deserve the pain inflicted upon her. When I recall this story, I realize how difficult the process of forgiving truly is. Intellectually, I know my father caused pain because he was in pain. Spiritually, I know my faith tells me my father deserves to be forgiven as God forgives us all. But it is still difficult. The traumas we have witnessed or experienced live on in our memories. Even years later they can cause us fresh pain each time we recall them.”
Tutu notes that the power of forgiveness extends beyond the people involved in the original transgression. “When we are uncaring, when we lack compassion, when we are unforgiving, we will always pay the price for it. It is not, however, we alone who suffer. Our whole community suffers, and ultimately our whole world suffers. We are made to exist in a delicate network of interdependence. We are sisters and brothers, whether we like it or not. To treat anyone as if they were less than human, less than a brother or a sister, no matter what they have done, is to contravene the very laws of our humanity.” He adds, “If your own well-being—your physical, emotional, and mental health—is not enough, if your life and your future are not enough, then perhaps you will forgive for the benefit of those you love, the family that is precious to you. Anger and bitterness do not just poison you, they poison all your relationships, including those with your children.”
Happy are those who are set free of this cycle, through the time-consuming work of forgiveness.
* * *
Psalm 32
Forgiveness, Part Two
“Many are the torments of the wicked,” the Psalmist writes, “but steadfast love surrounds those who trust in the Lord.” Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who experienced great evil as a black person in the apartheid era in South Africa, makes this connection between forgiveness and peace. He writes, “The invitation to forgive is an invitation to find healing and peace. In my native language, Xhosa, one asks forgiveness by saying, Ndicel’ uxolo—“I ask for peace.” Forgiveness opens the door to peace between people and opens the space for peace within each person. The victim cannot have peace without forgiving. The perpetrator will not have genuine peace while unforgiven. There cannot be peace between victim and perpetrator while the injury lies between them. The invitation to forgive is an invitation to search out the perpetrator’s humanity. When we forgive, we recognize the reality that there, but for the grace of God, go I.”
Tutu’s father was abusive, and Tutu now says, “My father has long since died, but if I could speak to him today, I would want to tell him that I had forgiven him. What would I say to him? I would begin by thanking him for all the wonderful things he did for me as my father, but then I would tell him that there was this one thing that hurt me very much. I would tell him how what he did to my mother affected me, how it pained me.” Forgiveness, as the Psalmist notes, is a way to end that torment. “Perhaps he would hear me out; perhaps he would not. But still I would forgive him…Why? Because I know it is the only way to heal the pain in my boyhood heart. Forgiving my father frees me. When I no longer hold his offenses against him, my memory of him no longer exerts any control over my moods or my disposition. His violence and my inability to protect my mother no longer define me. I am not the small boy cowering in fear of his drunken rage. I have a new and different story. Forgiveness has liberated both of us. We are free.”
Forgiveness is a way toward that steadfast love the Psalmist proclaims, and we can practice it with or without the other person.
* * *
Luke 15:1-3; 11b-32
How to Manage Anger
The story of the prodigal son is a story of simmering anger. The older brother is so mad at the younger brother that he won’t come in to the homecoming celebration, and we can imagine that some level of rage originally prompted the younger brother to demand his inheritance (essentially saying to his father, “I wish you were dead”) and hit the road.
An NPR reporter who has a young child recently visited the Inuit people, who have a unique way of managing anger in their parenting. “Across the board, all the moms mention one golden rule: Don't shout or yell at small children. Traditional Inuit parenting is incredibly nurturing and tender. If you took all the parenting styles around the world and ranked them by their gentleness, the Inuit approach would likely rank near the top. (They even have a special kiss for babies, where you put your nose against the cheek and sniff the skin.) The culture views scolding — or even speaking to children in an angry voice — as inappropriate, says Lisa Ipeelie, a radio producer and mom who grew up with 12 siblings. "When they're little, it doesn't help to raise your voice," she says. "It will just make your own heart rate go up." Even if the child hits you or bites you, there's no raising your voice?” No, the Inuit say, if you’re an adult, you shouldn’t be functioning at the child’s level.
Yelling at a child is demeaning, according to the Inuit. “It's as if the adult is having a tantrum; it's basically stooping to the level of the child…[but] intense colonization over the past century is damaging these traditions. And, so, the community is working hard to keep the parenting approach intact. Goota Jaw is at the front line of this effort. She teaches the parenting class at the Arctic College. Her own parenting style is so gentle that she doesn't even believe in giving a child a timeout for misbehaving. "Shouting, 'Think about what you just did. Go to your room!'" Jaw says. "I disagree with that. That's not how we teach our children. Instead you are just teaching children to run away." And you are teaching them to be angry, says clinical psychologist and author Laura Markham. "When we yell at a child — or even threaten with something like 'I'm starting to get angry,' we're training the child to yell," says Markham. "We're training them to yell when they get upset and that yelling solves problems." In contrast, parents who control their own anger are helping their children learn to do the same, Markham says. "Kids learn emotional regulation from us." I asked Markham if the Inuit's no-yelling policy might be their first secret of raising cool-headed kids. "Absolutely," she says.”
The father in the gospel story has much to teach us all about how to meet anger with gentleness.
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Luke 15:1-3; 11b-32
Party Trends
Perhaps the father of the missing son has been imagining this celebration for a long time, as he watches the road for his son’s return. We are left to wonder how long he’s been fattening up the calf, waiting for this day.
If he were throwing the homecoming party in our time, the overjoyed father might want to consider some of the trends in party-giving for 2019. If we, too, have parties to host, we should be mindful that, for 2019, unicorns are out, and llamas are in. Also, consider charcuterie. “Charcuterie boards — mainstay of French meals and house parties — are now finding their way into luxe events, but with a twist. We’re seeing meat-and-cheese innovations like personal charcuterie selections displayed on mini marble platters at each place setting, and entire tables festooned with elaborate charcuterie displays running their center.” Long and winding tables, outdoor chandeliers, and experiential photo booths are coming your way. “Photo booths are an essential party staple for any modern, millennial event. However, photo booths are stepping up their game and becoming more integrated into events — experiential photo ops allow guests to embed themselves with props, backdrops, and structures aligned with the event’s theme. Not only does this offer a creative branding opportunity, but encourages viral sharing by your guests on social media.” Watch out, too, for indoor fireworks. “As admired on a sultry summer day celebrating the 4th of July — there’s truly nothing more magnificent than a beautiful fireworks display. Cold fireworks, or cold pyro displays, let you illuminate your special day without any hazards, both indoors and outdoors — so winter events, too, can let sparks fly.”
If you have someone to welcome home, it’s time for a party!
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From team member Bethany Peerbolte:
Psalm 32
Grief as Art
Art is meant to take us somewhere, to see something from another angle, and bring people together. It is not surprising that people like to look at art that evokes happiness, follows conventional beauty, and makes them feel at peace. The art that is heartbreaking, “ugly,” and chaotic is pushed to the back of the gallery only to be seen by the diehard art enthusiasts. Once a year the Detroit Institute of Art stays open late and brings the art of grief to the main hall. Residents are invited to come listen to or share their grief that has fallen into silence.
The creator of the event, poet Natasha T. Miller started the Science of Grief as she grieved the loss of her brother. She said “I’ve been grieving for four years over the death of my brother and I got to a point where I was starting to feel alone because it’s been four years and I thought people were tired of hearing about it, One late night I was in bed, I started to feel sadness about my brother, but I didn’t want to talk to my circle about it because I felt like I had exhausted them. I woke up the next day and thought about how many other people must be experiencing their own personal grief in silence and from there spawned this crazy idea to open a space overnight where people could come to talk about or listen to stories about grief."
Psalm 32 says when we keep silent it effects our relationship with God and can lead to sin. God never gets tired of hearing about our hurt. This Psalm reminds us that there is a bottomless supply of steadfast love available to us all. We need to find a way to stay open to God and listening to other’s grief or sharing are long held grief may be just what we need.
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Luke 15:1-3; 11b-32
What Combat Ready Dolphins Can Teach Us About the Prodigal Son
Jesus gives three teachings in these verses with the moral that finding the one lost is worth the time searching. That makes me wonder if the sheep ever got addicted to the celebration. If they are anything like toddlers playing hide and seek there comes a time when the celebration of being found is so exciting one will reveal where they are prematurely to get to the celebration quicker. When training animals, treat receiving is the best motivator. It can be hard though to convince the animal to perform once the reward is taken away.
Dolphins can be trained to report enemy submarines and divers. However, there is a point in the training process where false-positives become a hurdle to overcome. Since dolphins must swim far beyond the sight of handlers and return with their findings, handlers must trust that the responses the dolphins will give are accurate. Dolphins are smart and learn quickly that the reward comes when they say there is an enemy presence. To overcome this hurdle, trainers give different levels of reward for correct responses. Sometimes the dolphins get a small fish reward and sometimes they get a big fish reward. Eventually they learn that being truthful is more rewarding over time than just reporting that someone is there all the time.
We don’t get to see what would happen if the prodigal son took off for a second or third adventure, but the implication is that God is ready to receive us back with open arms each time. If there is a celebration every time we are found, what is keeping us from wondering away and jumping out to be found? The celebration can’t be the only reward. The reward to focus on needs to be recognizing when we are receiving a blessing, small or big. When we can see those rewards, we learn to be truthful about our journey.
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Joshua 5:9-12, Psalm 32, 2 Corinthians 5:16-21, Luke 15:1-3; 11b-32
Celebrate What is Right with the World
The verses this week felt like a full breath after a long swim underwater. Lent is designed to be reflective and spiritually challenging. It sets us up for the refreshing breath of Easter. This hint at what is to come does not ruin the surprise of Easter, it makes us even more excited for the day. Grace is waiting for us. The work we do on ourselves, the fasting, is all worth it.
As a National Geographic photographer, Dewitt Jones discovered a way of seeing that changed his life. In his Tedx Talk, Dewitt shares his emotional, personal journey that leaves the audience with an extraordinary lens of possibility and celebration with which to view the world. His critics complain that with war and injustice raging in the world the images Dewitt shows the world are out of touch. It is his commitment to focusing on what is right in the world and finding something to fall in love with that inspires his work. Finding what is right in a situation “connects us with our passion and energizes us. Celebrating what is right gives us the energy to find the next right answer.”
Taking a moment to remember what is right in our relationship with God will help energize us through the remainder of lent. If we remember why we are passionate enough about our faith to fast from the things we love, then we can launch ourselves forward into a deeper more meaningful relationship with God.
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From team member Ron Love:
Luke 15:1-3; 11b-32
Dr. Kenneth E. Bailey lived and taught for forty years (1955-1995) at seminaries and institutes in Egypt, Lebanon, Jerusalem and Cyprus. Based on his years of living in the Middle East, he offers commentary on the request of the younger son:
For over fifteen years I have been asking people of all walks of life from Morocco to India and from Turkey to the Sudan about the implications of a son’s request for his inheritance while the father is still living. The answer has almost always been emphatically the same…the conversation runs as follows:
“Has anyone ever made such a request in your village?”
“Never!”
“Could anyone ever make such a request?”
“Impossible!”
“If anyone ever did, what would happen?”
“His father would beat him, of course!”
“Why?”
“This request means – he wants his father to die!”
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Luke 15:1-3; 11b-32
Roman law during Jesus’ time stated that the two sons would have been able to live off their father’s wealth while the father was alive, but the father would have maintained control of that wealth until his death. After the father’s death, his wealth would have been divided between his two sons, with two thirds of the estate going to the older son and one third going to the younger son. So, as Alan Culpepper states in The New Interpreter’s Bible commentary, by requesting that he receive his share of his father’s estate while his father was still alive, the younger son “was breaking the family ties and treating his father as though he were already dead.”
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Luke 15:1-3; 11b-32
We are provided a vivid description of the deterioration of the life of the younger son. Having “squandered his property in dissolute living,” the younger son found himself “in need” when “a severe famine” struck the distant land in which he was living. Out of desperation, the younger son took a job at a pig farm. He not only tended the pigs, but actually coveted the pigs’ food. The “pods” were pigs’ food that come from the carob tree. The pods had a sweet pulp that were used for food for both animals and people. The narrative detail in the parable that the young man took a job as a worker at a pig farm illustrates the younger son’s desperation, since working on a pig farm was an abomination to Jews. The rabbis taught that, “None may raise swine anywhere.” This emphasizes the young man’s deplorable status in life.
* * *
Luke 15:1-3; 11b-32
The older son brought embarrassment and shame to his father by refusing to join the celebration that his father was hosting. The younger son had, indeed, disgraced his father by asking for his share of the family estate before his father’s death. But now, the older son disgraced his father by refusing to participate in a banquet that his father was hosting. In the Middle East, a son does not argue with or insult his father in public, especially at a public gathering that the father is hosting. The father’s honor must not be brought into question. In Jesus’ parable, though, that is exactly what the older son did. He insulted his father by refusing to join the banquet that his father was throwing in honor of the return of his younger son.
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Luke 15:1-3; 11b-32 “coming near to listen to him”
Ralph Waldo Emerson realized that the clergyperson who is in the pulpit sharing the message of Jesus must witness in language that is easily understood and relevant to the congregation, reflective of their daily struggles and persistent fears. In a lecture titled The Preacher, delivered in May 1879 at the Divinity Hall Chapel in Cambridge, the elocutionist said, “And if I had to counsel a young preacher, I should say, ‘When there is a difference felt between the footboard of the pulpit and the floor of the parlor, you have not yet said that which you should say.’”
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Joshua 5:9 “And so that place is called Gilgal to this day.”
The Arabella, a ship of 350 tons, 28 cannons, and a crew of 52, set sail from Cowes in the Isle of Wight on March 29, 1630. The passengers on board for the voyage across the Atlantic were the future leaders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The families could do little to amuse themselves during the long hours at sea. The most popular form of entertainment was listening to a sermon.
As the Arabella neared the coast of the New World, John Winthrop, the leader of the Puritans, delivered a stirring oration. Winthrop prophesied to the colonists, “We shall be as a City upon a Hill, eyes of all people are upon us; so if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken and show cause to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world.” With this homily the future Americans had their mandate: to be a perfect Christian community that is to be imitated throughout the world.
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2 Corinthians 5:18 “ministry of reconciliation”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German theologian. At the age of 39 he was hung, on April 9, 1945, at Flossenburg concentration camp for participating in an assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler. As a theologian he wrestled with his decision to participate in the plot because he understood that the scriptures commanded us not to kill; but, he came to the conclusion that Hitler was so evil that he must be stopped, even if it meant assassination. He was arrested by the Gestapo for his involvement.
Before he was sent to Flossenburg, he spent eighteen months at Tegel military prison. While he was incarcerated there, he was able to write letters that were smuggled out of the prison by a guard. These letters have been recorded in the book Letters and Papers from Prison. In one letter Bonhoeffer wrote, “Jesus himself did not try to convert the two thieves on the cross; he waited until one of them turned to him.”
We often think of evangelism as “going to” rather than “waiting for.”
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2 Corinthians 5:18 “who reconciled us”
Ambrose (c. 340–397) was the Bishop of Milan. He was one of the four original Doctors of the Church, which means that he was a teacher of acceptable church doctrine which guided the church in the fourth century and the centuries that followed. He wrote two books condemning the Novatian heresy, which believed that the church did not have the authority to absolve apostate Christians of the grievous sin of idolatry. An apostate Christian is an individual who formally renounces his religion. Idolatry is the worship of idols, as opposed to the worship of Christ.
In the controversy surrounding the Novatian heresy, Ambrose wrote that all individuals, even apostate Christians, could be forgiven. In one section Ambrose wrote: “And what is more unjust than to desire to have your sins forgiven you, and yet yourself to think that he who entreats you ought not to be forgiven? What is more unjust than to justify yourself in that wherein you condemn another, while you yourself are committing worse offenses?”
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2 Corinthians 5:18 “ministry of reconciliation”
Francis Thompson lived a deeply troubled life. As a frail, shy, introverted child, he suffered from depression. He was born into a well-to-do English family. Opportunities for higher education were afforded him. He had studied to be a priest, but never finished. He studied medicine, but flunked out of medical school. He joined the military, but was let go after one day. Eventually he became an opium addict. This life resulted in poverty and homelessness on the streets of London.
But Thompson couldn’t escape his desire to write poetry. In the midst of his despair, someone who recognized his poetic gifts, befriended and helped him write his experiences in verse.
In 1887, Thompson sent his poem to Wilfrid Meynell, editor of a Catholic literary magazine titled Merry England. Meynell realized the poetic genius in Thompson and called him “a poet of high thinking, of ‘celestial vision,’ and of imaginings that found literary images of answering splendor.”
Meynell published the poem and helped the Thompson financially, mentoring him in coping with daily life and helping him to battle his drug addiction. While Meynell and other friends cared for Thompson during the remaining years of his life, he never fully recovered from his life on the streets and died in 1907 of tuberculosis.
The 182-line poem that Meynell published in 1893 was titled The Hound of Heaven. Noted for its vivid imagery, Thompson shares his own personal story in these poetic verses.
The title “The Hound of Heaven” is used as a reference to God; but, the words “The Hound of Heaven” never appear in the poem. Over the years “The Hound of Heaven” has come into popular use as a descriptive of God. The “Hound of Heaven” typifies an important characteristic of our God: He seeks us! He hunts us! He wants us!
The poem closes with this verse:
Halts by me that footfall:
Is my gloom, after all,
Shade of His hand, outstretched caressingly?
'Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest,
I am He Whom thou seekest!
Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest Me.'
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2 Corinthians 5:18 “who reconciled us”
Martin Luther, the father of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, was always fearful of the state of his soul, fearing it to be condemned to hell for his lack of obedience to the rituals of the Roman Catholic Church. No matter how dedicated he was to the required offices of being both a priest and a monk, he feared that salvation had always escaped him, and at best he would be assigned to purgatory upon his death.
To amend his sins, he made a pilgrimage to Rome. In the Holy City he embarked upon every ritual of redemption sanctioned by the Vatican. One such appointment was climbing Pilate’s stairs, 28 marble steps, on hand and knees, kissing each one while reciting the Pater Noster, which is Latin name for our Lord’s Prayer. Each one of the 28 marble steps acted as an indulgence that would lessen one’s time in purgatory.
Luther elected not to engage in this exercise for himself, but for another. Luther directed that his indulgences be for Grandpa Heine, so that his time spent in purgatory would be lessened.
Having completed the legalistic ritual, at the top of the steps Luther raised himself to his feet and in the disillusionment of what he had just done exclaimed, “Who knows whether it is so?”
WORSHIP
by George Reed
Call to Worship:
Leader: Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven.
People: Happy are those to whom God imputes no iniquity.
Leader: When we keep silence, we waste away with no strength.
People: When we acknowledge our sin, we are forgiven and free from guilt.
Leader: Be glad in God and rejoice, O righteous.
People: Shout for joy, all you upright in heart.
OR
Leader: God calls us to become a new creation.
People: We hear God’s call but we know our sins.
Leader: God also knows our sins and offers us forgiveness.
People: We rejoice in the forgiveness and grace of God.
Leader: God’s gifts are meant to be shared with others.
People: We will offer forgiveness to all whom we encounter.
Hymns and Songs:
From All That Dwell Below the Skies
UMH: 101
H82: 380
PH: 229
NCH: 27
CH: 49
LBW: 550
AMEC: 69
STLT: 381
I’ll Praise My Maker While I’ve Breath
UMH: 60
H82: 429
PH: 253
CH: 20
Sing Praise to God Who Reigns Above
UMH: 126
H82: 408
PH: 483
NCH: 6
CH: 6
W&P:: 56
Renew: 52
Jesus Shall Reign
UMH: 157
H82: 544
PH: 423
NNBH: 10
NCH: 300
CH: 95
LBW: 530
ELA: 434
W&P: 341
AMEC: 96
Renew: 296
Christ, Whose Glory Fills the Skies
UMH: 173
H82: 6/7
PH: 462/463
LBW: 265
ELA: 553
W&P: 91
There Is a Balm in Gilead
UMH: 375
H82: 676
PH: 394
AAHH: 524
NNBH: 489
NCH: 553
CH: 501
ELA: 614
W&P: 631
AMEC: 425
Dona Nobis Pacem
UMH: 376
H82: 712
CH: 297
ELA: 753
STLT: 388
Renew: 240
Help Us Accept Each Other
UMH: 560
PH: 358
NCH: 388
CH: 487
W&P: 596
AMEC: 558
Forgive Our Sins as We Forgive
UMH: 390
H82: 674
PH: 347
LBW: 307
ELA: 605
W&P: 382
Renew: 184
Create in Me a Clean Heart
CCB: 54
Renew: 181
O How He Loves You and Me
CCB: 38
Renew: 27
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who is the great reconciler:
Grant us the grace to allow your grace to draw us to you
and to one another as we forgive all for all they have done;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, because you are the One who reconciles all creation. You draw all of us to yourself and you draw us to one another. Help us to open our arms in grace and forgiveness that you will may be done on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our failure to forgive others as we wish to be forgiven.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We readily seek to be forgiven by you and by others and yet we do not easily forgive. We hold on to hurts and slights both real and imagined. We bruise the Body of Christ by not letting go of our grievances. Soften our hearts that we may forgive freely even as we have freely been forgiven. Amen.
Leader: God does forgive all our sins. God gives us the power of the Spirit so that we, too, can be forgiving. Share God’s grace and forgiveness with all.
Prayers of the People
Glory and blessings are yours, O God, because you are love which is demonstrated in your forgiveness of your children’s folly.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We readily seek to be forgiven by you and by others and yet we do not easily forgive. We hold on to hurts and slights both real and imagined. We bruise the Body of Christ by not letting go of our grievances. Soften our hearts that we may forgive freely even as we have freely been forgiven.
We give you thanks for all the blessings of this life and, especially, for the gift of forgiveness which allows us to start over each day.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our need. We pray for those who are weighed down by guilt and regret. We pray that our forgiving attitude will help others to feel your forgiveness.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together saying:
Our Father....Amen.
(Or if the Our Father is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
Did you ever do anything you were not supposed to do? Or maybe you didn’t do something you should have? Did it make you feel bad? That is called guilt. It doesn’t feel very good does it? Sometimes we can change things to make them right. We cannot do what we weren’t supposed to do or we can do what we didn’t do that we should have. Sometimes we can’t change what has happened but people forgive us. They say, ‘It’s okay.’ Forgiveness feels really good. It also feels good to forgive others.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
It’s not Fair…It’s Grace!
by Chris Keating
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
Prepare ahead of time: In big letters, print “FAIR” on one side of a piece of paper and “NOT FAIR” on the other side, and make enough copies to give to each child.
Introduction: Take the time to read the parable of the prodigal throughout the week, perhaps consulting different translations. Because the story is so familiar, it is wise to take time to let it digest. As it comes to life within you, begin to see how the story could be told from different perspectives. The beauty of this parable is the way that the story’s impact shifts when considered from differing points of view. It could be the story of the son who ran away, or it could be the story of the father waiting for him to return. It could be the story of a faithful sibling whose hard work is not recognized. It could also be the story of the servants who watch this entire drama take place, and who may also be wondering, “Am I included, as well?”
Many children will be able to relate to the elder sibling. From his point of view the father is not acting fairly. Why should the younger brother receive all the attention? It is perhaps this perspective which Jesus invited the Pharisees to consider as they watched him eat with sinners.
As the children gather: Greet them, and pass around the papers which say “fair” and “unfair.” Invite them to think of a time when they felt someone had received an advantage over them in an unfair way. For example, maybe a sister or brother gets to stay up later because they are older. Some older children may be think that their younger siblings get more advantages. Let them know that today you’ll be asking them to help vote on whether a situation is “fair” or “unfair” in the story of the prodigal son.
Tell the story in your own words, stopping at different points and asking for their votes. For example, ask them to vote on whether it was fair or unfair for the younger son to demand all of his inheritance (you may need to explain what this means). Was it fair or unfair when he ran out of money? How about when he had to feed the pigs? How about when he returned home and his father gave him a party? Was that fair?
Fair is not the same thing as equal. This will be a stretch for the children – and perhaps for all of us. A friend of mine used to say, “Fair” is a place where pigs win ribbons.” In this story, it is true that the father does not treat the sons in the same way. Instead, he acts in a surprising way toward the younger son. He acts with love (“grace” may be a word that is hard for the children to understand).
Ask them to think with you about the ways the father shows his love equally with both sons. What would happen if he treated them “fairly” instead?
It’s good to act fairly, but it is even better to act lovingly. When we act with love, we act the way God acts. In the story, the father’s love is lavish, and unexpected. He doesn’t treat them fairly, but instead is always loving. He showed that love to the one who returned, but also showed it to the one who had stayed with him. That is the good news Jesus wants us to hear this morning—it is much better to be loving than fair.
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The Immediate Word, March 31, 2019 issue.
Copyright 2019 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 or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
- Profiles of Grace by Tom Willadsen — All this amazing grace is from God. It’s all yours, you just have to accept it.
- Second Thoughts: Eatin’ Dinners With Sinners by Dean Feldmeyer — Jesus’ life is driven by pure grace. That’s why he can eat dinners with sinners..
- Sermon illustrations — Coming soon.
- Worship resources by George Reed that focus on forgiveness, new creation, and God’s grace.
- Children’s sermon: It’s not Fair…It’s Grace! by Chris Keating — Fair is not the same thing as equal. This will be a stretch for the children – and perhaps for all of us.
Profiles of Graceby Tom Willadsen
Joshua 5:9-12, 2 Corinthians 5:16-21, Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32, Psalm 32
All this amazing grace is from God. All of it — a new creation; a feast in the promised land; a party with dancing and a fatted calf — all of it. It’s all yours, all of it; you just have to accept it. (And it wouldn’t hurt if you realized your own need for it; that’s the scandal of grace.)
In the News
The event casting a shadow over all the world’s news this week is the shooting at the mosques in Christschurch, New Zealand, Friday, March 14, 2019. The reaction of New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, has been profoundly human and humane. She has assumed the role of “Mourner in Chief” with grace, dignity and humility. The Prime Minister has embodied humanity’s best efforts at responding to unspeakable tragedy. She said to the survivors of the attacks, “New Zealand mourns with you; we are one.” When people ask “What’s so amazing about grace?” show them photos of Prime Minister Ardern wearing a hijab, visiting the mosques, expressing unity and quoting the Koran. The text she shared translated into English was, “According to Muslim faith, the prophet Muhammad…. The believers in their mutual kindness, compassion and sympathy are just like one body. When any part of the body suffers, the whole body feels pain.” (Does this remind anyone else of 1 Corinthians 12:12-27?)
Many more examples of the Prime Minister’s grace under pressure can be found here.
A much more powerful, though less widely publicized response has been a nearly complete absence of hatred among the survivors of these attacks. This article is concise and moving and repeatedly points to quotes from survivors, many of whom were wounded in the attacks, to not respond with violence, not seek revenge.
The restraint on the part of the survivors of the massacre has strong parallels with a similar shooting at an Amish elementary school in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, in 2006. The world gaped in wonder at how readily the Amish forgave the shooter and comforted his grieving parents. Their speed in offering forgiveness, however, did not and does not, prevent them from grieving their losses, but their grief also, does not prevent them from extending forgiveness.
Here’s a news story from the first anniversary of the shooting.
In the Scriptures
Psalm 32
This psalm shifts perspectives and audiences, so mind who’s doing the talking when peaching it. It is most helpful, in my opinion, to regard the psalmist as having already fully experienced salvation.
I write on March 22 and meteorologists and hydrologists are predicted huge floods coming to the Great Plains and upper Midwest. You’ll want to keep 32:6 handy in the weeks and months ahead:
Therefore let all who are faithful
offer prayer to you;
at a time of distress, the rush of mighty waters
shall not reach them.
You might also want to keep “Wide River” by the Steve Miller Band in mind. If the forecasts are correct, you will have plenty of chances to address the floods.
Joshua 5:9-12
This passage is sort of the capstone of the Israelites wandering in the Wilderness and entry into the promised land. They crossed through the Sea of Reeds on dry ground 40 years ago. They just crossed the Jordan River on dry ground. They have made the transition from nomads to people with a land, and the land shapes their identity.
Salvation is not a single event. It’s a process, a journey. While some Christians can give the date and time of their accepting Christ, the very moment when they were born again/from above, most of us have come to accept Christ over many years. As in any journey there are milestones and moments of struggle. Many Christians even experience grace a little at a time, or if they’re fortunate/blessed, a lot at a time — repeatedly.
Today’s lesson from Joshua sort of telescopes their journey.
From slavery in Egypt/hell to the wilderness finally to the promised land/heaven. Keep this in mind: faith is not “one and done;” grace is not “one and done.” We keep experiencing it; Christ is alive!
In England the fourth Sunday in Lent is known as “Mothering Sunday.” Both the Old Testament and gospel passages point toward returning (or arriving) home and finding welcome and refreshment. Both point to the Lord’s Supper as a kind of heavenly banquet. Since many congregations celebrate the Lord’s Supper on the first Sunday of the month, it’s unfortunate that this Sunday is the last one in March.
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
Pre-gospel advice: Today’s gospel lesson is the parable of the Prodigal Son. Whenever I planned to preach on this parable I would call Roger Birdsong (name changed to protect the irritating) the Wednesday before and alert him that this parable would be the basis of the sermon. Roger did not like this parable, and he was speechless that it appeared in the Bible! The prodigal, in Roger’s estimation, was irresponsible and couldn’t take care of himself and he should have not have been welcomed home. Why, no father would ever do what the father in the parable did! The first time I heard this rant I tried to explain grace to Roger. The second time I tried to describe grace, hoping he could feel what he refused to understand. Wrong. I got wise. Every subsequent time I planned to preach this parable, I called Roger beforehand and prevented the entire conversation, well monologue. The good thing about Roger is that I always knew exactly what he thought. The bad thing about Roger was I always knew exactly what he thought. Okay, now back to this week’s commentary on the content of the readings.
This is a long reading, and still it needs a bit of context, more context than we find in vv. 1-3. Between that introduction and today’s parable, lay two other parables.
The Parable of the Shepherd and the Lost Sheep shows that heaven rejoices when one in a hundred is rescued. The Parable of the Lost Coin shows that one in ten is important. The math gets down to one in two. The grace this parable describes becomes increasingly narrowly focused. At the very end, everyone should be able to appropriate, embrace and understand the magnitude of God’s grace. Still, there are some who can only walk into the parable identifying with the older brother.
The Parable of the Prodigal Son (and his brother) is not a story about what’s fair. It’s not a story about how to make Dad proud. It’s not a story about the nobility of suffering, poverty as the crucible in which faith is refined. The turning point is when the Prodigal hits bottom, feeding pigs and so hungry that what the pigs are eating looks pretty appetizing. He “comes to himself.” His epiphany is due to his hunger. Desperation gets his attention and sets the stage for the embracing grace of his father.
Two things to point out about the conclusion, or denouement as Mr. Fleming (my Sunday school teacher) called it:
- Celebration is commanded. “We had to celebrate!” and
- The parable does not really end. The older, aggrieved son is standing outside the party; the reader does not learn whether he chooses to join the festivities.
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
Presbyterians might want to take a look at the Confession of 1967 for a thorough exposition of reconciliation. Well, I suppose non-Presbyterians can as well; you may not find it on your bookshelf. Wait! I just remembered the wonders of the internet! See it here.
Reconciliation is not just for Presbyterians anymore!
Paul is describing an enormous transition in himself initially, then in the lives and faith of the Corinthians. Originally, Paul understood Christ in flesh; that is by human standards. On receiving grace, however, reality shifted profoundly. Recipients of the grace of Christ have become completely new! “There is a new creation.” Make that personal, preachers. When one person receives, accepts, embraces — choose your verb — grace, there is a new creation. Not only does that person become completely new, but she is also an agent of grace, a bearer of grace, a conduit of grace. Paul is urging the Corinthians — and us — to accept reconciliation, accept this completely new reality. And then our call is to be ambassadors of grace!
And finally, all of this reconciliation is from God in Christ. You didn’t earn it, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t accept it. See, that’s the hardest thing about grace, isn’t it? The scandal of grace is that we need it. We need it, and God in Christ provides it. Our job is to accept it, accept being reconciled, accept and trust the depth of God’s love for each of us.
In the Sermon
There are so many good approaches to take in today’s passages. Each of them points us to a specific way God expresses love for humankind, and people experience it.
Food.
Land.
Forgiveness.
New creation.
Surely you’ve heard people say, “It’s all good,” a phrase that has gained in popularity recently. In the case of today’s reading, they’re all good. The challenge this week will be to focus on one or two key phrases or ideas and lead worshipers to experience — or better yet identify their own experience of — grace. It is better, I’ve found, to describe grace, rather than to define it. When did someone do something for you that was so profoundly kind and unexpected that you could not even say thank you. That’s grace. Preach that.
SECOND THOUGHTSEatin’ Dinner with Sinners
by Dean Feldmeyer
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
You’re in the bathroom or the kitchen and you hear it on the television.
First, there’s that double clanking sound. “Blung, blung.”
That’s probably enough to tell you what’s on, but if it isn’t what comes next surely will.
Next, you hear a deep, baritone voice saying these words: "In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: the police who investigate crime and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories."
And now you surely know. You’re watching “Law and Order.”
Today’s gospel lesson is just about that familiar. Opening line: “There was a man who had two sons.”
If you were raised in the church, going to Sunday School and VBS and youth fellowship, you probably heard those words and you already know what comes next. You know the entire story because you’ve heard it so many times.
In fact, even if you weren’t raised in the church, you probably know the story pretty well. It’s not just part of our religion. The story of the Prodigal Son is part of our culture.
Most of us know the story. Know it by heart. We could tell it to anyone who asks.
So why do so many of us miss the point?
Start At The Beginning
It’s probably because we skip the lead-in. We forget to identify the context in which the story was first told.
That’s because even though the story begins in verse 11, after two other stories have already been told, the context is set out way up in verses 1-2. Listen again:
“Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, ‘This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.’”
That is why Jesus tells the story of the Prodigal Son and it’s the only reason for retelling it. It’s a story about exclusion and inclusion which shows that God is on the side of inclusion.
Jesus welcomes sinners and eats with them because God, by grace, welcomes sinners.
God is just as happy about one sinner coming home to God’s house as the shepherd is about finding his lost sheep, as the woman is about finding her lost coin, as the father is about finding his lost son coming down the driveway.
Let’s review, shall we?
Prodigal = Wasteful
Most of us think that the word “prodigal” means lost or wandered off or something like that. Actually, it means, “wasteful.” This is a story about a wasteful young man.
He is the second born of two sons and he’s tired of this drudgery of working on the farm so he goes to his father and asks to be given his inheritance.
Now, understand that in first century Jewish tradition the oldest son would be the only one to inherit anything. He would then be responsible for taking care of the rest of the family, in this case, the younger son. It wasn’t law but it was a long standing tradition and it would be presumptuous in the extreme for the younger son to ask to be given “his” inheritance. There was no “his inheritance.”
But the father, no doubt reluctantly, breaks with tradition and does as his younger son asks, no doubt setting off a cascade of resentment in the older son who was counting on getting that big inheritance when the old man passed away.
The younger son takes his “inheritance,” liquidates it into cash, moves to Vegas and starts living the high (roller) life, spending the money in the casinos and on call girls and penthouse apartments and lavish parties and cars that would make Jay Leno jealous. Oh, and investing in risky, stupid, get-rich-quick-schemes with some guy named Bernie.
None of us are surprised when the money inevitably runs out. Our protagonist suddenly finds himself without so many friends. No one is coming to his parties. The casinos have cut off his credit lines. His cars have been repossessed. His “friends” aren’t taking his calls and someone has changed the locks on his penthouse apartment.
In no time he’s gone from playing at the high roller tables to washing dishes in a greasy spoon diner in the tenderloin district and, just between us, he is so hungry he would gladly eat the food left on the dishes he is washing and, who knows, he probably has done so when no one was looking.
One day he looks out at the customers and the waitresses in the diner and he realizes that these people are all living better than he is. In fact, he knows that the people who work for his dad are living better than he is.
And with that he decides to go back to the family farm and see if he can get a job as a hired hand, just hoeing beans and corn in the fields or putting up hay or, God forbid, mucking out the barns. Anything, he decides, would be better than this.
So that’s what he does. He gets on a bus and he goes back home and he walks up to the porch where the old man is sitting, having his coffee and he tells the old man how sorry he is. “I’ve made some bad choices and I’ve humiliated you and brought shame to our family name. I’m asking your forgiveness, not so I can be your son again. I realize that I’ve squandered that right. All I want is enough forgiveness to be given a menial, minimum wage job here on the farm, a job as a laborer, nothing more.”
The father thinks for a moment then he walks down the steps to the porch and takes the boy in his arms and with tears in his eyes, he says, “I’m sorry my son. I cannot just forgive you.
“You are right that I am a loving and forgiving father but I am also a proud father and a just father and my righteous justice would not be served if I were to simply forgive you without your paying a penalty and making a large sacrifice to pay for the sins you have committed.”
“Fair enough,” says the young man. “Tell me the penalty and I will pay it. I will make the sacrifice three times over to be forgiven if I must.”
The old man shakes his head. “It is not possible, my son. The shame you have brought upon our house is too great to be overcome with a normal sacrifice. The only sacrifice that can undo the damage you have caused is the ultimate one, your own life. Only when you have died for the sins you have committed can I forgive you and enter your name back into the family’s book of life.”
The son sadly nods his head but before he can say anything a voice interrupts.
“Wait.” It’s the voice of his brother, the older son.”
“I will pay his penalty for him,” he says. “Father, I have been faithful and loyal to you. I will die in his place.”
The old man nods, “Yes, you have been as sinless as it is possible for a son to be. The sacrifice of your life will be sufficient to pay the debt of your brother.”
“Then let it be so,” says the older boy, extending his wrists toward the old man.
The father’s face is now bathed in tears as he reluctantly nods his head and the security guards come forward, place manacles upon the wrists of his older son and take him away to his execution.
As the boy is lead away, the old man approaches his younger son and takes him in his arms. Now they are both weeping as they hear the headsman’s ax fall. Now, his debt paid by an innocent, the young man can be accepted into the family again. And for the rest of his life he will look with gratitude and awe at the portrait on the mantle, the portrait of the one who gave his life so that he might live.
Wait a minute. That’s not how the story goes.
Is it? No! No, that’s not how it goes at all.
Of course, it isn’t.
Because the story of the Prodigal Son, the one we heard read from scripture just a few moments ago, is not a story about atonement. It’s not a story about paying for sins so they can be forgiven. It’s not about a father whose demand for justice is so severe, so perverse and twisted that he is incapable of forgiving or, worse, unwilling to forgive, unless an innocent person, even his own son, is killed to somehow pay for some sins that have been committed by another, guilty party.
No, this is not a story about atonement; it’s a story about grace.
It is a story about love that is unconditional, about forgiveness that is given without price, about reconciliation that is a gift.
It is about the love of a father who leaps from the porch and runs to greet his son whom he sees “from afar” and “falls upon his neck” as the King James so beautifully puts it, and weeps with joy at the return of the one who was lost and now is found, was dead but now is alive.
It is about a father whose joy is so complete that he brushes aside the son’s request to come and live as a slave in his father’s house, a joy so complete that he places a cloak upon the young man’s shoulders and a ring upon his finger and announces a day off for everyone so that a feast can be given in celebration of the lost child’s return. It is about a father who, when his acts of love are questioned by the older son, does not defend them but explains them in terms of love and joy and, yes, grace.
Because he was motivated by grace and love, he says, he doesn’t really have a choice: “…we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”
Yes, this is a story about grace and the way grace comes to us from God who is, in this story, our loving father. It’s a story about the grace we are asked to demonstrate and share with the rest of the world because God has shared it with us.
Grace, Happiness and the Rest of the World
Well, the results are in and, once again, Finland has won and the United States has come in a piteous 19th place.
Finland is, officially, the happiest country in the world.
Denmark is the second happiest. Norway is third, Iceland fourth, and The Netherlands is fifth. Go figure, huh? And these countries are all kinda noted for their cold winters. You know, ice skating, cross-country skiing, that sorta thing. Me, I would have figured that the tropical countries would be the really happy ones – Fiji, Jamaica, the Virgin Islands – those places. But no, it’s the cold places that make it to the top of the list.
So, apparently, their happiness is not based on their climate.
And it’s not based on the size of their military or the number of guns they own. Neither is it based on how low their taxes are. No, according to the World Happiness Report which was released by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network for the United Nations on March 20, their happiness quotient is based on six key variables that support well-being: income, freedom, trust, healthy life expectancy, social support, and generosity.
Only one of the six has to do with personal wealth.
One has to do with health.
One has to do with freedom.
The other three have to do with relationships: trust, social support, and generosity. Those people are happiest, in other words, who live in graceful relationships with their neighbors.
And it’s not just true for native born Fins. “It's true that last year all Finns were happier than the rest of the countries' residents, but their immigrants were also the happiest immigrants in the world," says report co-editor John Helliwell, a professor emeritus of economics at the University of British Columbia. "It's not about Finnish DNA. It's the way life is lived in those countries.”
They pay high taxes for a social safety net, they trust their government, they live in freedom and they are generous with each other. "They do care about each other," he says. "That's the kind of place people want to live."1
Because I know you’re itching to find out, I’ll tell you the rest of the top ten: Switzerland came in sixth place, followed by Sweden, New Zealand, Canada (the only country in the Americas) and Austria. The 2019 list only changed a little, with Austria nudging Australia out of the top 10 list. Australia dropped one spot to 11th place.
The super powers aren’t super happy. United Kingdom came in 15th place, up from 18th place, while Germany came in 17th place, down from 15th. Japan came in 58th place (down from 54th), Russia came in 68th place (down from 59th) and China came in 93rd place (down from 86th).
Last place (156) was South Sudan.
The United States came in at 19th place. The lowest we’ve ever placed on the scale. We are, in other words, the unhappiest we have ever been as a nation. Some attribute our national malaise to the addiction crisis.2 Others would remind us that unhappiness is also the result of an increase in negative emotions such as worry, sadness, and anger, which were also measured for the study.
In the Pulpit
In the story of the Prodigal Son the people who are happy at the end of the story are the ones who live by grace. The father is happy as the one who bestows grace and the prodigal son is happy as the recipient and acceptor of the father’s grace. It is only the older son who cannot bring himself to bestow grace upon his younger brother who is unhappy.
Happiness is a byproduct of grace.
And this is not just a nice little object lesson that comes to us from the parable. It is a fact of life as bourn out by the happiness study. Those countries are happiest whose citizens live by grace, who are generous, and kind, and caring, and loving, and gentle and supportive of each other.
Those countries are unhappiest whose citizens live by worry and fear and anger and sadness.
By bestowing grace and by accepting grace, by eating dinners with sinners, we can be the authors of happiness, the builders of joy in our own lives and the lives of others.
It is a lesson well learned as we move through Lent and on to the cross and, ultimately, to the resurrection on Easter morning.
1 Katia Hetter, This is the world's happiest country in 2019 CNN. March 21, 2019.
2 Allyson Chiu, Americans are the unhappiest they’ve ever been, U.N. report finds. An ‘epidemic of addictions’ could be to blame. Washington Post. March 21, 2019.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Mary Austin:Luke 15:1-3; 11b-32 and Psalm 32
Lost Sons and Forgiveness
Azim Khamisa and Ples Felix both understand the pain of a lost son. The two are speaking partners, often giving talks a schools together, and they introduce each other as brothers. The intersection of their lives is unexpected.
“Khamisa is the son of successful Persian merchants who settled in Kenya and practiced Sufi Islam; Felix was born to a blue-collar black family in Los Angeles and raised Baptist. Khamisa studied in London and became an international investment banker; Felix studied in New York and became an urban planner. Yet their lives show striking similarities. For one, both men turned their backs on violence. As a young man, Khamisa fled persecution in Kenya at the hands of the Idi Amin regime in neighboring Uganda, eventually settling in the U.S. Felix left South Central L.A. by joining the United States Army and served two tours in Vietnam before foregoing a military career to attend college and pursue a civilian profession. On separate continents, they both learned to meditate—Khamisa from a Sufi friend in Africa; Felix from a Buddhist monk in Southeast Asia. Both made it a daily practice. But none of these commonalities are what brought them together. They met 17 years ago after Felix’s only grandson murdered Khamisa’s only son.”
One day in 1995, Azim Khamisa “stood in the kitchen of his condo in La Jolla, California, straining to comprehend the words coming from the phone. “Your son … shot … dead …” Surely there was a mistake. He hurried the detective off the phone and dialed his 20-year-old son Tariq’s number. No answer. He called Tariq’s fiancée, Jennifer. She answered but was crying so hard she could barely speak. Khamisa’s knees buckled. He fell backward and hit his head on the refrigerator. As the phone crashed to the floor, he was enveloped by pain that he would forever describe as “a nuclear bomb detonating” in his heart.” Even in the pain of that day, he was able to say, “There were victims at both ends of that gun.” When he heard himself say the words, he felt that the idea had come from God.
“Within a year of the murder, Khamisa started the Tariq Khamisa Foundation, which teaches the virtues of nonviolence to San Diego middle schoolers and young people nationwide. TKF raises $1.5 million annually for educational, mentoring, and community service programs that target at-risk youth. The curriculum’s centerpiece features Khamisa and his surprise ally Ples Felix sharing their story at school assemblies. Educators who have opened their doors to the duo say that gang activity and discipline problems have dipped as a result. TKF has reached nearly 1 million kids in San Diego County through live presentations, plus another 8 million through Khamisa and Felix’s visits to schools in Australia, Europe, and Canada, and broadcasts on Channel One News (shown in schools across the U.S.). After launching TKF, Khamisa partnered with the nonprofit National Youth Advocate Program to create CANEI, or Constant and Never Ending Improvement, a program that teaches nonviolence and individual responsibility to young offenders and their families.”
None of this has been easy. “The day Khamisa and his family buried Tariq in Vancouver, where both sets of Tariq’s grandparents lived, it was cold and rainy. Khamisa chanted prayers in a mosque with thousands of worshipers. In accordance with tradition, he climbed down into a muddy grave to receive his son’s body. A group of men lowered Tariq down. As Khamisa held his son for the last time, his feet sinking into the mud and rain pouring over his head, saying goodbye seemed so abhorrent that he lingered for a few long moments. In the weeks that followed, Khamisa contemplated suicide. Just months before, he’d been going from one international business trip to the next and working 100-hour weeks; now he could barely rise from bed. Things like showering and eating lunch seemed to be enormous tasks.”
Felix’ grandson, Tony, was charged as an adult for the murder. “At juvenile hall, Tony sat sullen and silent in his blue jumpsuit while his attorney laid out his options, then left grandfather and grandson alone. Felix handed Tony an orange, and the boy began to cry—maybe because it reminded him of his grandfather’s ritual of talking over fruit, or maybe because the gravity of his predicament had finally hit him. As if he were 5 again, he jumped into Felix’s lap. “Daddy, I’m so sorry for what I did,” he sobbed. “I never wanted to hurt anybody, I was just angry, stupid.” He grew quiet after a moment and returned to his seat. He took the orange, peeled it, and gave half to his grandfather. Then, with his body shaking, he calmly spoke like a man twice his age: “I have to take responsibility for what I did.” Tony, the first juvenile prosecuted as an adult in California, took the plea bargain and was sentenced to 25 years to life.”
“Forgiveness, Khamisa likes to say, is a process, not a destination, and it doesn’t mean skipping grief. As the Sufi poet Rumi wrote, “The cure for the pain is the pain.” Even as he spent his days meditating and building the foundation’s programs with his daughter, Tasreen, Khamisa operated under a shroud of sadness. One evening while out with friends, nearly four years after the murder, someone told a joke, and he laughed—for the first time since Tariq’s death.”
There are many ways to be lost, and many to be found.
* * *
Psalm 32
Forgiveness
“Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven,” the Psalmist proclaims. Archbishop Desmond Tutu has spent many years thinking about forgiveness. His questions began when he was a small boy, when “there were so many nights when I, as a young boy, had to watch helplessly as my father verbally and physically abused my mother. I can still recall the smell of alcohol, see the fear in my mother’s eyes, and feel the hopeless despair that comes when we see people we love hurting each other in incomprehensible ways. If I dwell in those memories, I can feel myself wanting to hurt my father back, in the same ways he hurt my mother, and in ways of which I was incapable as a small boy. I see my mother’s face and I see this gentle human being whom I loved so very much and who did nothing to deserve the pain inflicted upon her. When I recall this story, I realize how difficult the process of forgiving truly is. Intellectually, I know my father caused pain because he was in pain. Spiritually, I know my faith tells me my father deserves to be forgiven as God forgives us all. But it is still difficult. The traumas we have witnessed or experienced live on in our memories. Even years later they can cause us fresh pain each time we recall them.”
Tutu notes that the power of forgiveness extends beyond the people involved in the original transgression. “When we are uncaring, when we lack compassion, when we are unforgiving, we will always pay the price for it. It is not, however, we alone who suffer. Our whole community suffers, and ultimately our whole world suffers. We are made to exist in a delicate network of interdependence. We are sisters and brothers, whether we like it or not. To treat anyone as if they were less than human, less than a brother or a sister, no matter what they have done, is to contravene the very laws of our humanity.” He adds, “If your own well-being—your physical, emotional, and mental health—is not enough, if your life and your future are not enough, then perhaps you will forgive for the benefit of those you love, the family that is precious to you. Anger and bitterness do not just poison you, they poison all your relationships, including those with your children.”
Happy are those who are set free of this cycle, through the time-consuming work of forgiveness.
* * *
Psalm 32
Forgiveness, Part Two
“Many are the torments of the wicked,” the Psalmist writes, “but steadfast love surrounds those who trust in the Lord.” Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who experienced great evil as a black person in the apartheid era in South Africa, makes this connection between forgiveness and peace. He writes, “The invitation to forgive is an invitation to find healing and peace. In my native language, Xhosa, one asks forgiveness by saying, Ndicel’ uxolo—“I ask for peace.” Forgiveness opens the door to peace between people and opens the space for peace within each person. The victim cannot have peace without forgiving. The perpetrator will not have genuine peace while unforgiven. There cannot be peace between victim and perpetrator while the injury lies between them. The invitation to forgive is an invitation to search out the perpetrator’s humanity. When we forgive, we recognize the reality that there, but for the grace of God, go I.”
Tutu’s father was abusive, and Tutu now says, “My father has long since died, but if I could speak to him today, I would want to tell him that I had forgiven him. What would I say to him? I would begin by thanking him for all the wonderful things he did for me as my father, but then I would tell him that there was this one thing that hurt me very much. I would tell him how what he did to my mother affected me, how it pained me.” Forgiveness, as the Psalmist notes, is a way to end that torment. “Perhaps he would hear me out; perhaps he would not. But still I would forgive him…Why? Because I know it is the only way to heal the pain in my boyhood heart. Forgiving my father frees me. When I no longer hold his offenses against him, my memory of him no longer exerts any control over my moods or my disposition. His violence and my inability to protect my mother no longer define me. I am not the small boy cowering in fear of his drunken rage. I have a new and different story. Forgiveness has liberated both of us. We are free.”
Forgiveness is a way toward that steadfast love the Psalmist proclaims, and we can practice it with or without the other person.
* * *
Luke 15:1-3; 11b-32
How to Manage Anger
The story of the prodigal son is a story of simmering anger. The older brother is so mad at the younger brother that he won’t come in to the homecoming celebration, and we can imagine that some level of rage originally prompted the younger brother to demand his inheritance (essentially saying to his father, “I wish you were dead”) and hit the road.
An NPR reporter who has a young child recently visited the Inuit people, who have a unique way of managing anger in their parenting. “Across the board, all the moms mention one golden rule: Don't shout or yell at small children. Traditional Inuit parenting is incredibly nurturing and tender. If you took all the parenting styles around the world and ranked them by their gentleness, the Inuit approach would likely rank near the top. (They even have a special kiss for babies, where you put your nose against the cheek and sniff the skin.) The culture views scolding — or even speaking to children in an angry voice — as inappropriate, says Lisa Ipeelie, a radio producer and mom who grew up with 12 siblings. "When they're little, it doesn't help to raise your voice," she says. "It will just make your own heart rate go up." Even if the child hits you or bites you, there's no raising your voice?” No, the Inuit say, if you’re an adult, you shouldn’t be functioning at the child’s level.
Yelling at a child is demeaning, according to the Inuit. “It's as if the adult is having a tantrum; it's basically stooping to the level of the child…[but] intense colonization over the past century is damaging these traditions. And, so, the community is working hard to keep the parenting approach intact. Goota Jaw is at the front line of this effort. She teaches the parenting class at the Arctic College. Her own parenting style is so gentle that she doesn't even believe in giving a child a timeout for misbehaving. "Shouting, 'Think about what you just did. Go to your room!'" Jaw says. "I disagree with that. That's not how we teach our children. Instead you are just teaching children to run away." And you are teaching them to be angry, says clinical psychologist and author Laura Markham. "When we yell at a child — or even threaten with something like 'I'm starting to get angry,' we're training the child to yell," says Markham. "We're training them to yell when they get upset and that yelling solves problems." In contrast, parents who control their own anger are helping their children learn to do the same, Markham says. "Kids learn emotional regulation from us." I asked Markham if the Inuit's no-yelling policy might be their first secret of raising cool-headed kids. "Absolutely," she says.”
The father in the gospel story has much to teach us all about how to meet anger with gentleness.
* * *
Luke 15:1-3; 11b-32
Party Trends
Perhaps the father of the missing son has been imagining this celebration for a long time, as he watches the road for his son’s return. We are left to wonder how long he’s been fattening up the calf, waiting for this day.
If he were throwing the homecoming party in our time, the overjoyed father might want to consider some of the trends in party-giving for 2019. If we, too, have parties to host, we should be mindful that, for 2019, unicorns are out, and llamas are in. Also, consider charcuterie. “Charcuterie boards — mainstay of French meals and house parties — are now finding their way into luxe events, but with a twist. We’re seeing meat-and-cheese innovations like personal charcuterie selections displayed on mini marble platters at each place setting, and entire tables festooned with elaborate charcuterie displays running their center.” Long and winding tables, outdoor chandeliers, and experiential photo booths are coming your way. “Photo booths are an essential party staple for any modern, millennial event. However, photo booths are stepping up their game and becoming more integrated into events — experiential photo ops allow guests to embed themselves with props, backdrops, and structures aligned with the event’s theme. Not only does this offer a creative branding opportunity, but encourages viral sharing by your guests on social media.” Watch out, too, for indoor fireworks. “As admired on a sultry summer day celebrating the 4th of July — there’s truly nothing more magnificent than a beautiful fireworks display. Cold fireworks, or cold pyro displays, let you illuminate your special day without any hazards, both indoors and outdoors — so winter events, too, can let sparks fly.”
If you have someone to welcome home, it’s time for a party!
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From team member Bethany Peerbolte:Psalm 32
Grief as Art
Art is meant to take us somewhere, to see something from another angle, and bring people together. It is not surprising that people like to look at art that evokes happiness, follows conventional beauty, and makes them feel at peace. The art that is heartbreaking, “ugly,” and chaotic is pushed to the back of the gallery only to be seen by the diehard art enthusiasts. Once a year the Detroit Institute of Art stays open late and brings the art of grief to the main hall. Residents are invited to come listen to or share their grief that has fallen into silence.
The creator of the event, poet Natasha T. Miller started the Science of Grief as she grieved the loss of her brother. She said “I’ve been grieving for four years over the death of my brother and I got to a point where I was starting to feel alone because it’s been four years and I thought people were tired of hearing about it, One late night I was in bed, I started to feel sadness about my brother, but I didn’t want to talk to my circle about it because I felt like I had exhausted them. I woke up the next day and thought about how many other people must be experiencing their own personal grief in silence and from there spawned this crazy idea to open a space overnight where people could come to talk about or listen to stories about grief."
Psalm 32 says when we keep silent it effects our relationship with God and can lead to sin. God never gets tired of hearing about our hurt. This Psalm reminds us that there is a bottomless supply of steadfast love available to us all. We need to find a way to stay open to God and listening to other’s grief or sharing are long held grief may be just what we need.
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Luke 15:1-3; 11b-32
What Combat Ready Dolphins Can Teach Us About the Prodigal Son
Jesus gives three teachings in these verses with the moral that finding the one lost is worth the time searching. That makes me wonder if the sheep ever got addicted to the celebration. If they are anything like toddlers playing hide and seek there comes a time when the celebration of being found is so exciting one will reveal where they are prematurely to get to the celebration quicker. When training animals, treat receiving is the best motivator. It can be hard though to convince the animal to perform once the reward is taken away.
Dolphins can be trained to report enemy submarines and divers. However, there is a point in the training process where false-positives become a hurdle to overcome. Since dolphins must swim far beyond the sight of handlers and return with their findings, handlers must trust that the responses the dolphins will give are accurate. Dolphins are smart and learn quickly that the reward comes when they say there is an enemy presence. To overcome this hurdle, trainers give different levels of reward for correct responses. Sometimes the dolphins get a small fish reward and sometimes they get a big fish reward. Eventually they learn that being truthful is more rewarding over time than just reporting that someone is there all the time.
We don’t get to see what would happen if the prodigal son took off for a second or third adventure, but the implication is that God is ready to receive us back with open arms each time. If there is a celebration every time we are found, what is keeping us from wondering away and jumping out to be found? The celebration can’t be the only reward. The reward to focus on needs to be recognizing when we are receiving a blessing, small or big. When we can see those rewards, we learn to be truthful about our journey.
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Joshua 5:9-12, Psalm 32, 2 Corinthians 5:16-21, Luke 15:1-3; 11b-32
Celebrate What is Right with the World
The verses this week felt like a full breath after a long swim underwater. Lent is designed to be reflective and spiritually challenging. It sets us up for the refreshing breath of Easter. This hint at what is to come does not ruin the surprise of Easter, it makes us even more excited for the day. Grace is waiting for us. The work we do on ourselves, the fasting, is all worth it.
As a National Geographic photographer, Dewitt Jones discovered a way of seeing that changed his life. In his Tedx Talk, Dewitt shares his emotional, personal journey that leaves the audience with an extraordinary lens of possibility and celebration with which to view the world. His critics complain that with war and injustice raging in the world the images Dewitt shows the world are out of touch. It is his commitment to focusing on what is right in the world and finding something to fall in love with that inspires his work. Finding what is right in a situation “connects us with our passion and energizes us. Celebrating what is right gives us the energy to find the next right answer.”
Taking a moment to remember what is right in our relationship with God will help energize us through the remainder of lent. If we remember why we are passionate enough about our faith to fast from the things we love, then we can launch ourselves forward into a deeper more meaningful relationship with God.
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From team member Ron Love:Luke 15:1-3; 11b-32
Dr. Kenneth E. Bailey lived and taught for forty years (1955-1995) at seminaries and institutes in Egypt, Lebanon, Jerusalem and Cyprus. Based on his years of living in the Middle East, he offers commentary on the request of the younger son:
For over fifteen years I have been asking people of all walks of life from Morocco to India and from Turkey to the Sudan about the implications of a son’s request for his inheritance while the father is still living. The answer has almost always been emphatically the same…the conversation runs as follows:
“Has anyone ever made such a request in your village?”
“Never!”
“Could anyone ever make such a request?”
“Impossible!”
“If anyone ever did, what would happen?”
“His father would beat him, of course!”
“Why?”
“This request means – he wants his father to die!”
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Luke 15:1-3; 11b-32
Roman law during Jesus’ time stated that the two sons would have been able to live off their father’s wealth while the father was alive, but the father would have maintained control of that wealth until his death. After the father’s death, his wealth would have been divided between his two sons, with two thirds of the estate going to the older son and one third going to the younger son. So, as Alan Culpepper states in The New Interpreter’s Bible commentary, by requesting that he receive his share of his father’s estate while his father was still alive, the younger son “was breaking the family ties and treating his father as though he were already dead.”
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Luke 15:1-3; 11b-32
We are provided a vivid description of the deterioration of the life of the younger son. Having “squandered his property in dissolute living,” the younger son found himself “in need” when “a severe famine” struck the distant land in which he was living. Out of desperation, the younger son took a job at a pig farm. He not only tended the pigs, but actually coveted the pigs’ food. The “pods” were pigs’ food that come from the carob tree. The pods had a sweet pulp that were used for food for both animals and people. The narrative detail in the parable that the young man took a job as a worker at a pig farm illustrates the younger son’s desperation, since working on a pig farm was an abomination to Jews. The rabbis taught that, “None may raise swine anywhere.” This emphasizes the young man’s deplorable status in life.
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Luke 15:1-3; 11b-32
The older son brought embarrassment and shame to his father by refusing to join the celebration that his father was hosting. The younger son had, indeed, disgraced his father by asking for his share of the family estate before his father’s death. But now, the older son disgraced his father by refusing to participate in a banquet that his father was hosting. In the Middle East, a son does not argue with or insult his father in public, especially at a public gathering that the father is hosting. The father’s honor must not be brought into question. In Jesus’ parable, though, that is exactly what the older son did. He insulted his father by refusing to join the banquet that his father was throwing in honor of the return of his younger son.
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Luke 15:1-3; 11b-32 “coming near to listen to him”
Ralph Waldo Emerson realized that the clergyperson who is in the pulpit sharing the message of Jesus must witness in language that is easily understood and relevant to the congregation, reflective of their daily struggles and persistent fears. In a lecture titled The Preacher, delivered in May 1879 at the Divinity Hall Chapel in Cambridge, the elocutionist said, “And if I had to counsel a young preacher, I should say, ‘When there is a difference felt between the footboard of the pulpit and the floor of the parlor, you have not yet said that which you should say.’”
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Joshua 5:9 “And so that place is called Gilgal to this day.”
The Arabella, a ship of 350 tons, 28 cannons, and a crew of 52, set sail from Cowes in the Isle of Wight on March 29, 1630. The passengers on board for the voyage across the Atlantic were the future leaders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The families could do little to amuse themselves during the long hours at sea. The most popular form of entertainment was listening to a sermon.
As the Arabella neared the coast of the New World, John Winthrop, the leader of the Puritans, delivered a stirring oration. Winthrop prophesied to the colonists, “We shall be as a City upon a Hill, eyes of all people are upon us; so if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken and show cause to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world.” With this homily the future Americans had their mandate: to be a perfect Christian community that is to be imitated throughout the world.
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2 Corinthians 5:18 “ministry of reconciliation”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German theologian. At the age of 39 he was hung, on April 9, 1945, at Flossenburg concentration camp for participating in an assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler. As a theologian he wrestled with his decision to participate in the plot because he understood that the scriptures commanded us not to kill; but, he came to the conclusion that Hitler was so evil that he must be stopped, even if it meant assassination. He was arrested by the Gestapo for his involvement.
Before he was sent to Flossenburg, he spent eighteen months at Tegel military prison. While he was incarcerated there, he was able to write letters that were smuggled out of the prison by a guard. These letters have been recorded in the book Letters and Papers from Prison. In one letter Bonhoeffer wrote, “Jesus himself did not try to convert the two thieves on the cross; he waited until one of them turned to him.”
We often think of evangelism as “going to” rather than “waiting for.”
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2 Corinthians 5:18 “who reconciled us”
Ambrose (c. 340–397) was the Bishop of Milan. He was one of the four original Doctors of the Church, which means that he was a teacher of acceptable church doctrine which guided the church in the fourth century and the centuries that followed. He wrote two books condemning the Novatian heresy, which believed that the church did not have the authority to absolve apostate Christians of the grievous sin of idolatry. An apostate Christian is an individual who formally renounces his religion. Idolatry is the worship of idols, as opposed to the worship of Christ.
In the controversy surrounding the Novatian heresy, Ambrose wrote that all individuals, even apostate Christians, could be forgiven. In one section Ambrose wrote: “And what is more unjust than to desire to have your sins forgiven you, and yet yourself to think that he who entreats you ought not to be forgiven? What is more unjust than to justify yourself in that wherein you condemn another, while you yourself are committing worse offenses?”
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2 Corinthians 5:18 “ministry of reconciliation”
Francis Thompson lived a deeply troubled life. As a frail, shy, introverted child, he suffered from depression. He was born into a well-to-do English family. Opportunities for higher education were afforded him. He had studied to be a priest, but never finished. He studied medicine, but flunked out of medical school. He joined the military, but was let go after one day. Eventually he became an opium addict. This life resulted in poverty and homelessness on the streets of London.
But Thompson couldn’t escape his desire to write poetry. In the midst of his despair, someone who recognized his poetic gifts, befriended and helped him write his experiences in verse.
In 1887, Thompson sent his poem to Wilfrid Meynell, editor of a Catholic literary magazine titled Merry England. Meynell realized the poetic genius in Thompson and called him “a poet of high thinking, of ‘celestial vision,’ and of imaginings that found literary images of answering splendor.”
Meynell published the poem and helped the Thompson financially, mentoring him in coping with daily life and helping him to battle his drug addiction. While Meynell and other friends cared for Thompson during the remaining years of his life, he never fully recovered from his life on the streets and died in 1907 of tuberculosis.
The 182-line poem that Meynell published in 1893 was titled The Hound of Heaven. Noted for its vivid imagery, Thompson shares his own personal story in these poetic verses.
The title “The Hound of Heaven” is used as a reference to God; but, the words “The Hound of Heaven” never appear in the poem. Over the years “The Hound of Heaven” has come into popular use as a descriptive of God. The “Hound of Heaven” typifies an important characteristic of our God: He seeks us! He hunts us! He wants us!
The poem closes with this verse:
Halts by me that footfall:
Is my gloom, after all,
Shade of His hand, outstretched caressingly?
'Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest,
I am He Whom thou seekest!
Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest Me.'
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2 Corinthians 5:18 “who reconciled us”
Martin Luther, the father of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, was always fearful of the state of his soul, fearing it to be condemned to hell for his lack of obedience to the rituals of the Roman Catholic Church. No matter how dedicated he was to the required offices of being both a priest and a monk, he feared that salvation had always escaped him, and at best he would be assigned to purgatory upon his death.
To amend his sins, he made a pilgrimage to Rome. In the Holy City he embarked upon every ritual of redemption sanctioned by the Vatican. One such appointment was climbing Pilate’s stairs, 28 marble steps, on hand and knees, kissing each one while reciting the Pater Noster, which is Latin name for our Lord’s Prayer. Each one of the 28 marble steps acted as an indulgence that would lessen one’s time in purgatory.
Luther elected not to engage in this exercise for himself, but for another. Luther directed that his indulgences be for Grandpa Heine, so that his time spent in purgatory would be lessened.
Having completed the legalistic ritual, at the top of the steps Luther raised himself to his feet and in the disillusionment of what he had just done exclaimed, “Who knows whether it is so?”
WORSHIPby George Reed
Call to Worship:
Leader: Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven.
People: Happy are those to whom God imputes no iniquity.
Leader: When we keep silence, we waste away with no strength.
People: When we acknowledge our sin, we are forgiven and free from guilt.
Leader: Be glad in God and rejoice, O righteous.
People: Shout for joy, all you upright in heart.
OR
Leader: God calls us to become a new creation.
People: We hear God’s call but we know our sins.
Leader: God also knows our sins and offers us forgiveness.
People: We rejoice in the forgiveness and grace of God.
Leader: God’s gifts are meant to be shared with others.
People: We will offer forgiveness to all whom we encounter.
Hymns and Songs:
From All That Dwell Below the Skies
UMH: 101
H82: 380
PH: 229
NCH: 27
CH: 49
LBW: 550
AMEC: 69
STLT: 381
I’ll Praise My Maker While I’ve Breath
UMH: 60
H82: 429
PH: 253
CH: 20
Sing Praise to God Who Reigns Above
UMH: 126
H82: 408
PH: 483
NCH: 6
CH: 6
W&P:: 56
Renew: 52
Jesus Shall Reign
UMH: 157
H82: 544
PH: 423
NNBH: 10
NCH: 300
CH: 95
LBW: 530
ELA: 434
W&P: 341
AMEC: 96
Renew: 296
Christ, Whose Glory Fills the Skies
UMH: 173
H82: 6/7
PH: 462/463
LBW: 265
ELA: 553
W&P: 91
There Is a Balm in Gilead
UMH: 375
H82: 676
PH: 394
AAHH: 524
NNBH: 489
NCH: 553
CH: 501
ELA: 614
W&P: 631
AMEC: 425
Dona Nobis Pacem
UMH: 376
H82: 712
CH: 297
ELA: 753
STLT: 388
Renew: 240
Help Us Accept Each Other
UMH: 560
PH: 358
NCH: 388
CH: 487
W&P: 596
AMEC: 558
Forgive Our Sins as We Forgive
UMH: 390
H82: 674
PH: 347
LBW: 307
ELA: 605
W&P: 382
Renew: 184
Create in Me a Clean Heart
CCB: 54
Renew: 181
O How He Loves You and Me
CCB: 38
Renew: 27
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who is the great reconciler:
Grant us the grace to allow your grace to draw us to you
and to one another as we forgive all for all they have done;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, because you are the One who reconciles all creation. You draw all of us to yourself and you draw us to one another. Help us to open our arms in grace and forgiveness that you will may be done on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our failure to forgive others as we wish to be forgiven.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We readily seek to be forgiven by you and by others and yet we do not easily forgive. We hold on to hurts and slights both real and imagined. We bruise the Body of Christ by not letting go of our grievances. Soften our hearts that we may forgive freely even as we have freely been forgiven. Amen.
Leader: God does forgive all our sins. God gives us the power of the Spirit so that we, too, can be forgiving. Share God’s grace and forgiveness with all.
Prayers of the People
Glory and blessings are yours, O God, because you are love which is demonstrated in your forgiveness of your children’s folly.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We readily seek to be forgiven by you and by others and yet we do not easily forgive. We hold on to hurts and slights both real and imagined. We bruise the Body of Christ by not letting go of our grievances. Soften our hearts that we may forgive freely even as we have freely been forgiven.
We give you thanks for all the blessings of this life and, especially, for the gift of forgiveness which allows us to start over each day.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our need. We pray for those who are weighed down by guilt and regret. We pray that our forgiving attitude will help others to feel your forgiveness.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together saying:
Our Father....Amen.
(Or if the Our Father is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
Did you ever do anything you were not supposed to do? Or maybe you didn’t do something you should have? Did it make you feel bad? That is called guilt. It doesn’t feel very good does it? Sometimes we can change things to make them right. We cannot do what we weren’t supposed to do or we can do what we didn’t do that we should have. Sometimes we can’t change what has happened but people forgive us. They say, ‘It’s okay.’ Forgiveness feels really good. It also feels good to forgive others.
CHILDREN'S SERMONIt’s not Fair…It’s Grace!
by Chris Keating
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
Prepare ahead of time: In big letters, print “FAIR” on one side of a piece of paper and “NOT FAIR” on the other side, and make enough copies to give to each child.
Introduction: Take the time to read the parable of the prodigal throughout the week, perhaps consulting different translations. Because the story is so familiar, it is wise to take time to let it digest. As it comes to life within you, begin to see how the story could be told from different perspectives. The beauty of this parable is the way that the story’s impact shifts when considered from differing points of view. It could be the story of the son who ran away, or it could be the story of the father waiting for him to return. It could be the story of a faithful sibling whose hard work is not recognized. It could also be the story of the servants who watch this entire drama take place, and who may also be wondering, “Am I included, as well?”
Many children will be able to relate to the elder sibling. From his point of view the father is not acting fairly. Why should the younger brother receive all the attention? It is perhaps this perspective which Jesus invited the Pharisees to consider as they watched him eat with sinners.
As the children gather: Greet them, and pass around the papers which say “fair” and “unfair.” Invite them to think of a time when they felt someone had received an advantage over them in an unfair way. For example, maybe a sister or brother gets to stay up later because they are older. Some older children may be think that their younger siblings get more advantages. Let them know that today you’ll be asking them to help vote on whether a situation is “fair” or “unfair” in the story of the prodigal son.
Tell the story in your own words, stopping at different points and asking for their votes. For example, ask them to vote on whether it was fair or unfair for the younger son to demand all of his inheritance (you may need to explain what this means). Was it fair or unfair when he ran out of money? How about when he had to feed the pigs? How about when he returned home and his father gave him a party? Was that fair?
Fair is not the same thing as equal. This will be a stretch for the children – and perhaps for all of us. A friend of mine used to say, “Fair” is a place where pigs win ribbons.” In this story, it is true that the father does not treat the sons in the same way. Instead, he acts in a surprising way toward the younger son. He acts with love (“grace” may be a word that is hard for the children to understand).
Ask them to think with you about the ways the father shows his love equally with both sons. What would happen if he treated them “fairly” instead?
It’s good to act fairly, but it is even better to act lovingly. When we act with love, we act the way God acts. In the story, the father’s love is lavish, and unexpected. He doesn’t treat them fairly, but instead is always loving. He showed that love to the one who returned, but also showed it to the one who had stayed with him. That is the good news Jesus wants us to hear this morning—it is much better to be loving than fair.
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The Immediate Word, March 31, 2019 issue.
Copyright 2019 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 or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
