"The Sinners Heard Him Gladly" Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Trinity Cathedral

3/10/13

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

“The Sinners Heard Him Gladly”

On this fourth Sunday in Lent we take a look at the well-known parable of the prodigal son, which is probably better referred to as the parable of the two sons. 

The lesson begins by showing us who this parable is directed towards.  The text says that the tax collectors and sinners were coming to Jesus.  The Pharisees and scribes see this and complain about Jesus.  How could a true righteous and holy man welcome and eat with sinners?  In those days to eat with someone was a sign of acceptance, something the Pharisees would never do with prostitutes and tax collectors, murderers and thieves. 

So we have two groups at hand for Jesus’ parable—the sinners and the “righteous.”

With both groups gathered, Jesus tells the parable of the two sons.

He starts with the younger, more well-known son.  From the start the son says to the Father, “Give me the share of the property that will belong to me.”  Now this may not sound like a deeply irreverent and disrespectful request to us, but in the ancient world asking for your inheritance before your father died was anathema.  It was tantamount to wishing your father dead.  This request would have been scandalous to Jesus’ listeners.  The younger son was essentially saying, “Father I want your things, I don’t want you” (Tim Keller “Gospel in Life”).

Now the listeners, both sinners and Pharisees would probably have expected the Father to discipline the son severely, if not disown him.  But this does not happen.  So it came as a surprise, in Jesus’ parable, when the Father not only doesn't discipline the son, but he grants him his request.

A Nod to "And God Spoke to Abraham"

To avoid prepping for the General Ordination Exams (that I take in two days!), I've been commenting on various year-end lists. On one "Top Theology Books of 2012" (I have other hobbies, I swear!), I suggested that the author check out Fleming Rutledge's collection of Old Testament sermons--"And God Spoke to Abraham." It's brilliant, accessible and existentially satisfying, while being faithful to the biblical texts. When I simply can't bring myself to pick up the Word, or find my own ears and eyes completely deaf and blind (numb) to him/it, her clear yet round-about proclamation always seems to penetrate my obliviousness, unclogging my ears, unscaling my eyes. Rutledge's corpus has served as a daily devotional for most of this year.

Rutledge's blog: http://www.generousorthodoxy.org/

*Rutledge lists Gerhard von Rad and Brevard Childs, Ellen Davis and Patrick Miller as major influences.

Faith and Prayer (James 5:13-20)

Heinz Chapel

9.30.12

James 5:13-20

“Faith and Prayer”

“Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise. Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. Elijah was a human being like us, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain and the earth yielded its harvest.

My brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and is brought back by another, you should know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner’s soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.”

“Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to
hear than we to pray, and to give more than we either desire
or deserve: Pour upon us the abundance of your mercy,
forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid,
and giving us those good things for which we are not worthy
to ask, except through the merits and mediation of Jesus
Christ our Savior; who lives and reigns with you and the
Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.”

I don’t pray enough.  I’ll admit it.  Passages like the one we read from the Epistle to James make me realize this all the more.  As I was preparing for the sermon this week, I began to wonder if I even believe in the power of prayer.  I began to wonder if the reason why I don’t make prayer a priority in my life is because I’m scared of being disappointed.  Afraid of getting my hopes up, only to have them dashed.

Samaritans, Prophets, Fire From Heaven (II Kings 1:2-17 and Luke 9:51-56)

Heinz Chapel

9.12.12

II Kings 1:2-17 and Luke 9:51-56

“Samaritans, Prophets, Fire From Heaven”

"Be Ye Perfect..." Matthew 5-7

Trinity Church, (Beaver, PA)

2/15/11

Matthew 5-7

"Be Ye Perfect (or Complete, or Mature)..."

Every December 24^th my family—on my mother’s side—comes together to celebrate the holidays.  Only we don’t actually celebrate Christmas.  Instead, being good Reformed/agnostic Jews, we celebrate each other’s company and catch up on happenings of the past year.  We eat potato latkes, listen to Hanukkah songs, and say “uh vey” quite a bit.  I always look forward to Christmas Eve, for it never fails to be my favorite day of the year.      

With that said, my family is a loud and opinionated bunch—and I wouldn’t have it any other way.  They’ve got their opinions on sports, celebrities, and fashion, but they save their most passionate speech for issues of politics.  You see I’m from New Jersey, and in Jersey most people are pretty liberal.  Being fairly politically apathetic myself, I enjoy hearing my family rant about health care, the war, and especially Sarah Palin because—quite frankly—it’s entertaining.

My family is concerned about great things.  They hope to see the poor no longer go hungry, they hope to see peace reign supreme, and they hope to see bipartisan polarization extinguished.  And while all these are good things, something always bothered me about the way we talked about these things.  And I couldn’t put my finger on what it was until I read a book by the Catholic novelist Walker Percy called The Moviegoer.

I Don't Want to Forgive (Matthew 18:21-35)

Grace Anglican Church

Date: I forget

Matthew 18:21-35

(I preached the following sermon a few years ago at Grace Anglican Church in Slippery Rock, PA.  I'm a little embarrassed by it.  It's overly personal and I was trying too hard (and I hadn't taken homiletics--an art of preaching class--yet!).  Despite these shortcomings--and others--I still like it.  Hope you do too...)

Holy Spirit… Your words make sense, but they are hard words.  Birth in us the desire to forgive those who have hurt us the most.  In Jesus’ name, Amen

In my junior of college I was functionally engaged to a girl who I thought was “The ONE.”  How we got together was pretty epic.  I asked her out, she said maybe.  I pursued, she said no.  I gave up, her feelings changed, and we got together.  From there the relationship was much like an emotional free fall.  I was on top of the world, she was too, and I dropped the L-bomb for the first time in my life.  We were on a collision course for marriage by the end of the school year. 

     

The summer months consisted of daily telephone conversations that wreaked havoc on my cell phone bill, and bi-weekly treks from the Jersey Shore to downtown Pittsburgh.  I was smitten, she was too, and the relationship only intensified.        

Two weeks before the school year began; I had gone to visit her at her apartment.   I remember searching the internet looking for teaching jobs, when she drastically limited my options.  She said, “I’m applying to grad schools here, here, and here… you can only work in these areas.

She had given me what I wanted, a not so subtle indication that by the time we graduated we’d be married.  And so I decided not to waste time applying to jobs in other locations.

By this time I had “called off the search.”  This girl was it. 

Unconditional Acceptance: Breaking Down the Wall (Ephesians 2:8-22)

St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church (Highland Park)

7.22.12

Ephesians 2:8-22

“Unconditional AcceptanceàHostility UndoneàPurpose”

It’s an absolute pleasure to be here with you in your beautiful building this morning.  And while it is noble and very Christian of you to welcome a complete strange into your midst, it probably wasn’t very wise giving him the pulpit.  With that said, have no fear, your valiant rector will return next week to undo any of the damage that Tim, Philip, and I most certainly have done or—in this case—will do.

But in all seriousness, I am very excited to be here this morning, not only because I have the chance to meet new people, but also because I get to talk about my favorite thing in the world—the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  What one theologian refers to as the one-way love of God for suffering sinners like you and me.  What NT scholar F.F. Bruce summarized using in these words, “Christ died [not for the healthy but] for the ungodly.”

It’s been offending self-righteous people like myself for two thousand years now.  For just like the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son, some of us find it downright upsetting that the wayward son is just as acceptable to the Father as us—the diligent, hard-working, rule-keeping—older brother (or sister) types.  We’ve been trying to earn his love for some time, how dare he accept these reprobates who turn to him at the last minute? 

Yet when we internalize the truth of the Gospel even we begin to realize that this unfair reality—this message that is too good to be true—is, in fact, what we’ve wanted all along.  A love from the praiseworthy that is truly unconditional—a love, that as the great hymn says, will never let us go. 

This Gospel, while found throughout both Old and New Testaments, is most explicitly stated in what has come to be known as the Pauline Corpus—and that just means the collection of letters traditionally attributed to St. Paul.  Unfortunately, for many of us Episcopalians, we have picked up the notion somewhere that Paul somehow complicated what Jesus made simple. 

This truly is an unfortunate reality, and we would do well to learn from our Lutheran brothers and sisters that, rather than complicating Jesus’ teaching, Paul makes explicit what is left implicit in the Gospel narratives.  And I’m going to say that again because that was profound for me the first time I heard it.  What Jesus left implicit, Paul makes explicit. 

And hopefully this will become evident as we take a look at the actual passage read just a moment ago.