Rejoicing to Forgive

The road of forgiveness runs long.

The Rev. Kathi Johnson
Lent 4, Year C – March 6, 2016
Text: Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32, 2 Corinthians 5:16-21
Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Grand Prairie, Texas
 

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Today’s Gospel lesson contains one of the most well-known and well-loved stories in the Bible: the parable told by Jesus that we often call the Parable of the Prodigal Son. However, the assigned section of Luke’s Gospel for today leaves out some of the context of this parable. If we read from the beginning of chapter fifteen, all the way through, we see that this parable is actually the third of three parables in that chapter.
 The other two parables are also fairly well-known: the first is the Parable of the Lost Sheep, wherein Jesus asks the crowd who among them wouldn’t leave their flock of ninety-nine sheep to find the one that has wandered away? The second is the Parable of the Lost Coin, with the woman lighting a lamp to find a coin that is worth a day’s wages.
 Both of these parables give us the same story and the same ending: someone is searching, and then they find, that which has been lost. And then at the end of both of these stories, Jesus tells us that there is joy in heaven when even one sinner repents and turns back to God. In both cases, the one doing the searching represents God, who searches us out to bring us back.
 Then we reach the third parable, which gives us the story of the father and his two sons. The placement of this story after the other two parables is important, for there is movement from finding something less valuable (a sheep or a coin) to something much more valuable (one’s own child). Together, these three parables give us a picture of a loving and patient God who longs for reconciliation. It is the parable of the sons and their father, however, that beautifully tells of one son’s repentance and his return to his father, and the father’s rejoicing to welcome him home.
 One son leaves home with his inheritance, living a wasteful life and turning his back on the faith of his family. Once he’s hit rock bottom, he comes to himself, and in humility, he returns to his father to be a slave, only to be welcomed home with a lavish feast. Since the fatted calf was killed for this feast, we know that the whole village would’ve been invited to share in the celebration.
 The father gives his younger son the inheritance, with his older son staying behind to care for the family business. When the younger son returns home, his father and brother know what he’s been up to. His father responds immediately with love, forgiveness, and celebration – his brother responds with deep resentment and anger. The story ends with the father begging his older son to set aside the resentment and anger to join in surrounding the lost-and-found son with love, forgiveness, and joy.
 One common way to read this parable is to see ourselves in the characters of the story. In this way of reading, the lost-and-found younger son represents that part of each of us which is at times wandering, or at times wasteful, but then is humble, returning to God for God’s undeserved forgiveness and love.
 Likewise, the angry older son represents that part of each of us that believes that forgiveness and love are given only to those who work for them – those that deserve forgiveness and love from God. There are two extremes here represented by the two sons, and in reality, our own lives of faith and sin may fall somewhere in the middle.
 How about the father in the story? If we are trying to see ourselves in the characters in this story, can we see ourselves in the actions of the father? Do we reach out with forgiveness and love? Do we rejoice to forgive?
 With the parable ending as it does, we don’t know how things play out. We don’t get to see if the older son forgives his brother, nor do we get to see if the younger son maintains his humility, nor do we get to see if the father is able to re-establish peace within his family. If we are seeing ourselves in the characters of this story, then it is up to each of us in our own lives to decide to be humble, or decide to forgive.
 Looking at this parable another way, we see that it is also about God, and it shows us God’s nature. Unlike our sometimes-shaky relationships with other people, we know the end of the story in our relationship with God. If Lent is a time for us to focus more on repentance and turning back to God, then it is also a time to focus more on the welcoming love of God. Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, we are given new life, and in our baptisms, we are given faith. This is the love of God that we are given as a gift – love that is undeserved – love that sometimes doesn’t make any sense.
 Martin Luther wanted baptized people to remember their baptisms daily, and we should remember our baptisms often. It is in baptism that we are made children of God, and empowered by the Holy Spirit to serve God in the world. At our baptisms, we are made “new creations” in Christ, and we are called to take God’s reconciling love to others.
 Through faith, we know and trust that God welcomes us home with extravagant, rejoicing love whenever we turn from our sin back to God. And as faith gives us the ability to see God’s great love for us, faith also gives us the ability to see God’s love for others in our lives, and to offer his love and forgiveness to them.
 We gain strength for this work again and again, when we hear and read God’s word, when we worship God, and when we join others at the holy meal that God prepares for us at Holy Communion.
 As we are continually renewed by God’s love, may we find the humility of the lost-and-found son within ourselves. May we find the forgiveness and joy of his father within ourselves. Let us be the ones who bring humility, forgiveness, and joy to our families, to our workplaces and schools, and to our communities. The world needs all the humility, forgiveness, and joy that we can muster. Let’s bring it!
 Amen.

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We Are Baptized for the Sake of the Whole World

Lectionary 13, Year B – 28 June 2015

Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Grand Prairie, Texas

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Last Thursday evening, Steve and I traveled to downtown Ft. Worth with Pr. Vicki Taylor (from Lord of Life Lutheran Church) to join a march to support our brothers and sisters in the African Methodist Episcopal Church – both those who live here in North Texas, and those who live in Charleston, South Carolina, and elsewhere. We arrived just in time to join the group as they began the march. We were greeted by those at the head of the group, and then we joined our ELCA colleagues who were further back. And we walked.

As we walked, someone began to sing: “We are one in the Spirit, We are one in the Lord…And we pray that all unity may one day be restored. And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love. Yes, they'll know we are Christians by our love.” And then different verses of, “We are marching in the light of God, we are marching in the light of God…”

And then, “We shall not be, we shall not be moved.
We shall not be, we shall not be moved.
 Just like a tree that's planted by the water.
 We shall not be moved.” Someone at the head of the group began to sing the verses, call-and-response style. And so we sang, and we walked.

We reached the Historic Allen Chapel A.M.E. Church and we were greeted at the door. It was a muggy evening, and I was overjoyed to find a pew right underneath a ceiling fan that was spinning on high. One of the pastors made an announcement for us to greet one another, and so we all got up and introduced ourselves. The members of the A.M.E. church moved through the crowds of visitors, greeting us with smiles and welcome. An elder member made her way to me and, seeing my collar, she invited me down front to the clergy section.

The service began, and the pastor asked us to shout out the names of our churches on the count of three – and the cacophony of names rang out all around us. Then he asked us –on the count of three - to shout out the name of our Lord and Savior: “JESUS!” was the loud reply, from Lutherans, and Episcopalians, and Methodists, and Baptists, and from the African Methodist Episcopal Church members, and any other ilk of Christian who was in that room.

We spent two hours in prayer and praise together – united under the cross of Christ. At several points in the service, the choir sang. Their songs of praise were so rich and full and powerful that we joined in. Our songs of praise together were so rich and full and powerful that I was overwhelmed. I was overwhelmed by God’s power and love, and with the love in that room.

We so easily could’ve chosen to hate one another instead. We so easily could’ve found angry words to cast at each other, and I’ll just say that if the tables were turned – if an A.M.E. church member went into an ELCA church and killed nine people, I’m not sure I’d be able to resist the temptation toward anger and hatred and retaliation – because those are so very easy. To choose welcome, to choose love, instead – those are the harder things.

Maybe that’s part of why I find Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 13 so particularly appropriate for followers of Christ right now. “Love is patient,” he says. “Love is kind. Love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.” Love endures because it’s “like a tree, planted by the water.” Love that is planted and rooted in the love of God – that kind of love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

The woman healed by Jesus in today’s Gospel lesson knows this kind of love. She has suffered and endured pain and all she wants is to be healed, and so she reaches out to Jesus for that healing – and she receives healing. When she is caught in the act, she responds with “fear and trembling,” the text says, except what the text means is not fear and trembling, like if we encountered a grizzly bear on a hike, or a tornado coming at our house. The fear and trembling she shows is what one author calls the “holy state of being overwhelmed by God’s power”[1].

This is the same power that overwhelms us when we are baptized, as Avery will be today. Now, we keep things calm and quiet here – I will pour water over her head and she won’t be literally overwhelmed by the water that washes over her. But even in that little bit of water that will fall over her, there will be found the overwhelming power of God’s love. And she will be sealed with the cross of Christ, and marked as Christ’s own forever.

Martin Luther said that baptism should be like a “daily garment” that we wear all the time,[2] and so the living out of her baptism is still to come. You as parents and grandparents, and we as representatives of Christ’s whole Church, will make promises to help her get out this garment every day – to help her wear her baptism each and every day of her life.

For when we are baptized, we are not only baptized for our own sake. We are baptized for the sake of the whole world. We are made new creations in Christ, and we are sent to love others.

For whatever else this world needs – and this world needs a lot – this world needs love. This world needs healing of the racism that creeps into every avenue it can – even into our churches. This world needs more peace, and more understanding. This world needs “justice to roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream,” as the prophet Amos said.[3] This world needs God’s love, which, in Scripture, is love extended to those who are downtrodden, those who are hurting, and those who are unloved by everyone else. This world needs enduring love – “just like a tree that’s planted by the water…”

“See what love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God; and that is what we are!”[4] This world needs enduring love, and that is lived out in us. So, live out this love as God’s beloved children. Be the love of God that we are called to be in the world. In Jesus’ name.

Amen.

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[1] New Collegeville  Bible Commentary: The Gospel According to Mark by Marie Noonan Sabin, p. 52

[2] Martin Luther’s Large Catechism (Section on Baptism, paragraph 84).

[3] Amos 5:24

[4] 1 John 3:1

Why Do We Study the Bible?

Year B, Lectionary 10 – 7 June 2015

Marks of Discipleship: Bible Study

Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Grand Prairie, Texas

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If we were to conduct a poll of Christians, especially in this part of the country, and ask them this question: “Why do we study the Bible?” – what do you think some of the answers would be?

I’m guessing one of the answers would be something along the lines of “To learn how to live a good life” or something like that. The Bible has, for America, anyway, become the ultimate rule book. The Bible does have many rules in it, but the danger of thinking of it simply as a rule book is that we begin to believe that somehow we must follow all of those rules – or that we can follow all of those rules – in order to somehow gain God’s favor and work our way into heaven.

The problem is, of course, that we can’t follow every rule in the Bible, and in fact, lots of the rules we have thrown out altogether because they don’t apply to our religious practice anymore. We don’t sacrifice pigeons or goats, and when was the last time any of you brought an ox for sacrifice?

Of course, there are rules we do still try to uphold, for instance, the Ten Commandments. And also what Jesus calls the Greatest Commandment: “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. ’ This is the greatest and first commandment,” Jesus says, “And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”[1]

And it makes me wonder, if we polled Christian people and asked them about why we study the Bible, I wonder how many of them would answer, “So I can learn how to love God and to love my neighbor in the very best way.”

Because that should be the main goal of Bible study: to learn how to love God and to love our neighbors in the very best way. Bible study is not to be something we just do, out of a sense of religious obligation or moral piety. We are meant to learn something about loving God and loving our neighbor when we study the Bible.

Jesus said as much: Love God, love neighbor – “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” – that’s Scripture he’s talking about when he says the law and the prophets. Which means that woven into the stories of the people of God contained in the Bible, and woven into the rules and the thou shalts and thou shalt nots, and woven into the letters of Paul and the revelation to John is the idea that God loves us, and we are, in turn, to love God, and to love our neighbor.

So, today we have one of the most famous passages about love in the whole Bible, from 1 Corinthians 13. How many of you have heard this read at a wedding? How many of you used this at your own wedding?

Here is something crazy about this passage: Paul didn’t write it for a wedding.

He didn’t even write it for couples in love. Paul wrote this chapter in 1 Corinthians as part of a huge letter to the church there – a church that was steeped in conflict and riddled with divisions based upon socio-economic differences, and differences in culture, and differences in religious practice, all of which made up the city of Corinth. (We’ll learn more about Corinth next week.)

Paul was one of several people who brought the gospel of Jesus Christ to Corinth and then, as was his practice, he moved on, leaving a fledgling church there. After he leaves, he begins hearing about the division and conflict in the Corinthian church, and so he writes 1 Corinthians in response to these reports, trying desperately to help the Corinthians understand that, in Christ, all those divisions are ended. In Christ, they are all members of one body, together.

And then he gives them this beautiful section about love.

Because this passage has been co-opted so much for romantic love, our minds may go there first. But Paul is writing this to a group of Christians, and so it might as well say the following:

“The love of Christians is patient. The love of Christians is kind. The love of Christians is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. The love of Christians does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. The love of Christians bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

The love of Christians never ends…And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is the love of Christians.”

What a world we would live in if that were actually true. What a world we would live in if the love of Christians – both for each other and for everyone – would be the greatest thing. If that is what we were known for. What a world we would live in if, instead of studying the Bible to learn simply how to follow rules – or try to impose those rules on others – we studied the Bible so that we could hear about God’s love for us, certainly, but also so we could learn how to love God and love our neighbor in the very best way because God loves them.

Bible study is not meant to be just another thing we do. When we study the Bible, we connect ourselves with the ancient stories of the people of God. We read how they messed up, and we hear how they forgave one another, and how they dwelled together in community. We read how they loved God and loved one another. And, as we study the Bible, we begin to see ourselves in their stories, and we begin to see how God calls us into loving relationships – with each other, and with God. When we see how God calls us into these loving relationships, our hearts are changed by that love, so that loving God and loving neighbor become part of who we are at our very core.

And so, as we proceed through June, we’re going to focus on this section of 1 Corinthians over the next few weeks. Later this month, we will begin a Bible Study series based on 1 Corinthians called “Being the Body of Christ.” I hope you will join us in our study time as together, we learn about the great love of God, and together, we learn how to live that out.

Amen.

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[1] Matthew 22:36-40