5 Lent, Year C

Father Tucker served as Spiritual Director at Happening -- a diocesan youth event -- this weekend. His Sunday sermon is not available in written form.

4 Lent, Year C

“GOD’S ECONOMY – OR OURS?”
Given March 18, 2007 at Church of the Redeemer, Cairo, IL

Remember the movie “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”? In the movie, there was the Father-of-the-Bride who said, “behind every English word, there is a Greek word.” The longer I live, the more I believe he is right!

Take the word, “economy”….To us, it means things like “the handling/flow of money”, “thrifty management”, “the prosperity of a place”, or, “an organized system or method”.[1]

But the English word “economy” comes from a Greek word “oeconomia”, meaning “household management” or “plan”.

While we are on the subject of English words that come from Greek, let’s define the word “parable”, as in today’s Gospel reading, “The Parable of the Prodigal Son” (as it’s most commonly called)….The word “parable” comes from two Greek words “para” and “bolle”, which literally mean “para = alongside” and “bolle = thrown”. So, a “parable” is a short story or lesson, which is “thrown alongside” our lives….By comparing the point of the story with our lives, we can draw a lesson from the parable itself.

Parables[2] are somewhat open ended, inviting the listener to make the comparisons themselves. If we have to explain the parable in too great a detail, it’s sort of like telling a joke that then has to be explained.[3]

So, Jesus’ parable, heard today, invites us to “throw the lesson of his teaching alongside our lives”, drawing lessons for ourselves from His teaching in the process.

We begin with an examination of the setting for the “Parable of the Prodigal Son”….

Since the beginning of chapter 15, Jesus has been addressing a group of Scribes and Pharisees, who complain that Jesus “welcomes sinners (tax collectors) and eats with them”.

In response, Jesus tells three parables, all of which have a similar theme: rejoicing at the recovery of something that was lost….the “Parable of the Lost Sheep”,[4] the “Parable of the Lost Coin”,[5] and now, today’s reading, the “Parable of the Prodigal Son”.

In today’s parable, Jesus expands on the previous two parables, and, in the process, sets the stage for the teaching that will follow….For Jesus expands on the recovery of something that is lost, in today’s case, the lost son (far more valuable than a sheep or a coin), but adds to it the story of the elder son, whose claims create blockages to a full relationship with his father. Jesus will pick up these themes by illustrating other blocks to a full spiritual life in chapter 16, with the “Parable of the Shrewd Manager”,[6] and the “Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus”.[7]

As we look more closely at today’s parable, we should begin by reflecting on the common title given to this passage of Scripture: the “Parable of the Prodigal Son”…Naturally, since the younger, wayward son is the major character in the first half of the parable, it might seem quite natural to call this parable the “Prodigal Son”. But there are two other characters, as well: The father, and the elder son. Their attitudes and actions are critical to the story, as well. No wonder, then, that some scholars call this parable the “Parable of the Prodigal Son, the Waiting Father, and the Elder Brother”.[8]

But, if we are to be able to “throw the lesson alongside our lives”, then we ought to consider all three characters, their attitudes and actions, in our application of Jesus’ teaching….

So, it is to the task of examining the three characters, and their attitudes and actions, that we now turn….

1. The assertion of rights that causes alienation:
   
   Notice how the younger son demands “his due”….According to the Jewish law of Jesus’ day, such an early distribution of the father’s estate, though not unheard of, was quite contrary to the norms of the day. The younger son seems brash, headstrong.
   
   But notice the reaction of the elder brother: He cites years of faithful service in his father’s employ (verses 28 – 30), calling himself a “slave”.
   
   The father, however, risks the alienation, by giving the younger son exactly what he asked for, including the ability to take what had been given him in order to move to a far country. The father also risks the alienation of the elder brother, by mounting a sumptuous feast for the wayward younger brother.
   
   
2. The risk of alienation is overcome:
   
   The younger son returns to his father, determined not to press any claim for kinship, but only the relationship of a “hired hand”. A son has the possibility of being in a close, loving relationship with the father that a hired man cannot have.
   
   But the elder son refuses to acknowledge the relationship with the younger son, referring to him, as “this son of yours”.
   
   The father is the key to the entire situation: For it is the father who is actively looking for the son’s return, and when the reunion occurs, breaks off the younger son’s rehearsed monologue in order to immediately welcome him back into the family. It is also the father who seeks out the elder brother, reminding him that “everything (the father) has is his” (verse 31). It seems as though the older brother had forgotten that the younger son’s request for a premature distribution of the father’s estate meant an early distribution for him, as well.
   
   

How might we “throw alongside” the lessons Jesus seems to be pointing our way today?

Certainly, what is suggested here is far from an exhaustive list of the possibilities. But some of the things we might begin with, as we apply this teaching to our own lives, might include:

1. We will find ourselves in one position or another throughout our lives: If we are honest with ourselves, we will have to admit that there have been times in our lives where we have “bottomed out”, as the younger son did. There are times when we have gotten to the point, physically, mentally, and/or spiritually, where we had no merit, no basis for any claim of right or privilege. We have had to rely on God’s gracious mercy, only.
   
   By contrast, have there been times when we’ve claimed rights or privileges because of something we’ve done or believed? That surely seems to be the basis for the Pharisees’ existence: rigid keepers of the Law of Moses, inheritors of God’s promises on the basis of their superior (but accidental) birthright.
   
   Sometimes, we shift between one position or another, often quite rapidly.
   
   

We assert our rights, damaging our relationships in the process: By claiming what doesn’t belong to us, or what isn’t ours to have yet, the “asker” alienates him/herself from the “giver”. This point is particularly important to our 21st century “I want to have it all, now!” culture.

But, we can assert our rights by virtue of past actions and beliefs, and the result is the same: damage to our relationships.

The danger in both circumstances is that the alienation can become a reciprocal relationship, where the alienation is total and permanent.

“There are no atheists in foxholes”: a prescription for change: The younger son “comes to himself” only when his options have run out….When he reaches the point where he has no: money, no food, and no social status (remember that tending pigs, for the devout Jews Jesus was addressing, was the lowest point a person could reach), he decides to return to his father.

By contrast, the elder son stakes a claim to many options: devotion, faithful service, etc. All of the things he seems to claim (interestingly enough) are derived from his father (though he cannot acknowledge it).

We are called to examine how we might find ourselves in each of the three positions:

Surely, there will be times when:

· We have “bottomed out”, and have no resources of our own.
· We try to claim special status, usually because of our own efforts.
· We will be asked to defy the normal “economy” of human relations (which often mirror the attitude “an eye for an eye”), forgiving others, as we have been forgiven by God.

One final thought: God’s “ecomony”, God’s plan, mirrors the generosity of the father…surely, the father took risks in welcoming back the errant son, for the son had squandered the gifts his father had given him. It’s possible that the younger son could easily have done so again, in some form or another. But that’s the way God treats us: He is willing to take risks, to welcome us back home again.

Thanks be to God!

AMEN.

[1] From Webster’s New Unabridged Universal Dictionary
[2] As Fred B. Craddock points out in his commentary, Luke, A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching (pp. 107 – 111)
[3] Again, this is Craddock’s observation.
[4] Luke 15: 3 – 7
[5] Luke 15: 8 - 10
[6] Luke 16: 1 - 13
[7] Luke 16: 14 – 31
[8] As does R. Alan Culpepper in his article on Luke’s Gospel in The New Interpreter’s Bible: A Commentary in Twelve Volumes (Volume IX Luke, John).

3 Lent, Year C

“VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE DANGERS”
Given at Church of the Redeemer, Cairo, IL on Saturday, March 10, 2007; and at St. Mark’s Church, West Frankfort, IL, and St. James’ Memorial Church, Marion, IL; Sunday, March 11, 2007

On April 14th, we will remember the 95th anniversary of the sinking of the steamship, the “HRMS Titanic”. Perhaps no other tragedy has captivated people’s imaginations as this event has: there have been several movies made about it, books have been written, and a traveling exhibit has been making the rounds of this country, attracting large crowds.

The significance of the sinking of this magnificent ship on its maiden voyage from Southampton, England extends far beyond the enormous loss of life involved[1]….for the sinking was one of the “wakeup calls” that came to a complacent humanity that placed far too much faith in technology. Along with the horrors of World War I, another “wakeup call”, people began to awake to the reality that progress was not the automatically assured result of human creativity and ingenuity.

The Titanic was widely believed to be “unsinkable”….No doubt, its captain thought it was impervious to the dangers of sailing the North Atlantic during the winter season, that dangers that lesser vessels would do well to be wary of surely wouldn’t affect his mighty vessel. Perhaps that’s why he ordered the engines to be opened up fully, so as to allow his ship to arrive in New York ahead of schedule.

But the Titanic proved to be very vulnerable to the dangers of sailing in the fields of ice that had formed as chunks broke off from the glaciers in Greenland. And, the danger wasn’t just from the visible mountains of ice that could be seen from the crow’s nest at the front of the ship, but from the 90% of the ice that lay below the water, out of sight.

Ultimately, it was that 90% of the ice’s mass, the part that couldn’t be seen, that proved to be Titanic’s undoing.

The Titanic’s story provides a good entryway into Jesus’ teaching for today. This sermon will extract two aspects of the Titanic’s sinking, and apply them to today’s Gospel:

1. An attitude of superiority, of invulnerability and imperviousness to danger
2. A belief that what can be seen represents the extent of the dangers we face.

Taking these two aspects, let’s look at today’s Gospel account, as Jesus makes His way toward Jerusalem, toward His face-off with the authorities of His day, and His eventual death and resurrection….

Though we know nothing about the incidents that the onlookers present to Jesus today, Pilate’s slaughter of some Galileans and the collapse of a tower in Siloam that Jesus mentions,[2] Jesus cuts to the heart of an attitude He surely must have detected in their conversation: that the people’s deaths were attributable to some grave sin in their lives. Such an attitude must’ve been common in Jesus’ day, for we read in John 9: 2 this question from Jesus’ disciples: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

Don’t we share that same sort of an attitude? How long has it been since we’ve heard someone say, “oh, I’d better not say or do thus-and-so, because I’ll really get punished for it”? Or, when have we last heard this comment, “boy, that person surely must’ve done something really bad, to be in that situation.”

Boil both of these comments down, and what’s left is this attitude: really bad, visible sin leads to really severe and visible punishment.

Our beliefs are quite similar to the ones that circulated in Jesus’ time.

But we share another belief with those first century Jews: that we, by virtue of our superior conduct/knowledge/ abilities/luck (pick one or more than fit) are exempt from such serious sin and therefore, from the equally serious punishment for sin. We are impervious, like the Titanic, to the misfortunes that befall lesser beings. Our spiritual ship is unsinkable, impervious to the dangers of sin.[3]

Jesus, in His response, guts both attitudes completely: “do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”

We are all vulnerable to the dangers of sin, lurking, unseen, like icebergs on the sea of life.

Sin’s dangers, often lying mostly hidden and out-of-sight, threaten to cut us off from God, and in the process, from life itself, which comes from God.

Sin’s dangers threaten all of us together, both the great and the small. We are all vulnerable and none of us is exempt, invincible or impervious to those dangers.

Are we destined, then, to sail into hidden spiritual dangers, blinded either by the things we can see, or the things we cannot see which lurk beneath the surface of our lives? Are we doomed to the loss of our lives, spiritually?

No!

Jesus offers His hearers in our Gospel reading, and us today, a chance to turn around, to alter course, to be responsive to the warnings about the presence of spiritual icebergs in our lives….

Jesus appends the parable of the fig tree onto today’s reading….Instead of an inevitable spiritual death due to invisible sin, which can kill us just as surely as the sin we can see, Jesus offers another chance and another choice:

If we will be responsive, allowing the soil of our hardened hearts to be softened, then we can change course, and remain open to the resources God gives us to be alive to Him.

Disaster can be averted.

How about us?

Doesn’t today’s Gospel demand a careful inquest into our attitudes and beliefs?

Doesn’t today’s Gospel demand a careful examination of our ability to discern the dangers of sin, both the visible and the invisible kind?

May God’s Holy Spirit enable us to see our own vulnerability clearly, and to change course!

[1] Of the 2,228 persons on board, only 705 survived.
[2] The Siloam area of Jerusalem was located in the southern part of the city, south of the Temple area.
[3] This superior attitude will show up again in Luke’s recounting of Jesus’ parable of the “Pharisee and the Tax Collector” (Luke 18: 9 – 14). In this parable, the Pharisee recounts his spiritual superiority, based on his scrupulous adherence to the ritual requirements of the Torah.

2 Lent, Year C

“DO YOU HEAR THE ALARM?”
Given at St. Stephen’s Church, Harrisburg, Illinois; Sunday, March 4th, 2007

“Strive to enter by the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able….”

Can you hear the alarm in those words of Jesus?

Let’s begin with a story about alarms…

Just after Christmas, my younger daughter, Julie, and I went to the Fire Museum of Maryland, located a little north of Baltimore. I’ve wanted to visit this museum for quite sometime, since a large part of it is dedicated to the Great Baltimore Fire, which occurred in February, 1904.

A good portion of the display of 100 year old equipment (which was used to fight the fire) was dedicated to that event, and particularly to the actions of a horse named Goliath who saved the lives of the firemen who were first on the scene of the fire.

The story is told that Goliath pulled his crew and equipment to the scene, and instinctively turned around and headed away from the scene, just as the wall of the five story building collapsed. Without his instantaneous action, all of the firemen would have been buried in an avalanche of bricks and burning debris. The horse suffered burns in the process, and was honored at the parade which took place a few years later, once the rebuilding of the one square mile of downtown Baltimore that was destroyed was complete.

Now, let’s use Goliath as an example to get into our Gospel reading for today…

Goliath’s life in the firehouse was probably a combination of routine and boredom, maybe consisting of relishing the bucket of oats he was fed, or enjoying the grooming the firemen would lavish on him, mixed with the sound of the alarm bell and the rush of adrenalin that accompanied the firemen’s response to a fire.

But what if Goliath got used to the routine, and refused to answer the alarm? What if he remembered what happened in February, 1904, when he got burned answering the alarm, and decided to hunker down in the firehouse?

Both responses: getting used to the routine, and hunkering down, might well characterize the responses of original hearers of Jesus’ words, the church to whom Luke was writing, and to the church (that’s you and me) today.

And, since this is a good way to look at Holy Scripture, let’s look at today’s Gospel from these three perspectives:

• What did Jesus’ message say to the original hearers?
• What did it mean to the readers who read the Scripture in the early Church?
• What does it mean to us today?

1. We begin by looking at Jesus’ original audience:

If ever a group of people were trying to “hunker down”, it was the Jewish people of the first century… Oppressed by the Romans, their entire system of beliefs, centered around the Torah (the Law of Moses), was under threat. A puppet king (Herod) ruled by Roman permission in Jerusalem, but the Temple priests and the ruling elders were corrupted by their collaboration and collusion with the Romans (remember their collusion with the Romans that led to Jesus’ death).

As a result, focus on the Torah increased, leading to detailed studies by the rabbis about exactly how the provisions of the Law should be applied to every aspect of life. Temple worship gained more and more importance, both as a sign of national identity for the Jewish people, but also as the focal point of the physical presence of God among His chosen people.

Most likely, their religious routines provided comfort and protection from the dangers of Roman occupation.

So Jesus’ words must’ve struck them hard, that day….”When once the owner of the house has got up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us’, then in reply he will say to you, ‘I do not know where you come from…..Then people will come from east and west, from north and south, and will eat in the kingdom of God.”

“What do you mean by addressing us as “you”? Do you mean that we will be cast out from God’s presence? “Surely not”, they must have said, “for we are children of Abraham. We are comfortable in our Temple routines, and we’ve seen quite enough of the abuse and harm the Romans can inflict. Leave us alone, and don’t bother us with your cries of alarm.” (My estimation of what they might have said and thought.)

2. By the time Luke was writing to the early Church (many scholars think the date of Luke’s writing was c. 85 – 90 AD), much of what Jesus had predicted was now coming true…

The Temple had been destroyed in 70 AD, near the conclusion of the Jewish – Roman War (66 – 70 AD). God’s chosen people were defeated, demoralized, had been partially scattered as a result.

Meanwhile, the early Church was growing, gaining members who were not Jewish, and who did not follow the Torah’s ritual requirements (though the moral imperatives were still in place).

But, if one of my New Testament scholars is right in their estimation of Luke’s perspective on Jesus’ life and message, then Luke is writing to a church that’s gotten used to being around, operating in the world for awhile….Perhaps Luke’s church has gotten used to the routine of being outsiders, followers of Jesus, in the pagan Greco-Roman world of the First Century. Maybe the sense of alarm was getting lost, with the growing realization that Jesus’ return in the clouds with power and great glory might not happen as quickly as was originally thought by many Christians.

But something else was also beginning to happen: Roman persecution, which began in earnest under the Emperor Nero in 64 AD, with the great fire that destroyed much of Rome. Both Saints Peter and Paul were martyred, tradition tells us, during this first persecution. Many Christians died horrible deaths as a result.

Maybe many of those who survived wanted to simply hunker down, to ignore the dangers that they faced daily. Maybe Jesus’ cries of alarm, “strive to enter by the narrow door” were simply more than they could bear.

Maybe they’d gotten used to the routine of Christian life, and the urgency of following Christ, particularly of being different from the pagan world they lived in, had worn off. Maybe they didn’t want to attract any attention, so private religious practices behind the closed doors of the houses where they met was becoming more and more attractive all the time.

3. Fast forward now to the 21st Century….

There’s wonderful saying: “the more things change, the more they stay the same”.

The temptations that faced the First Century Jews, and the early Christians, are same temptations we face….

We might be tempted to get used to our routines, to try to blend into the world we live in, to adopt their ways of life and manner of believing. After all, we’re going to be around for awhile, so “what’s the urgency?”, we might ask ourselves.

We might well get used to our religious routines (a particularly dangerous thing for a church that values its rich traditions of worship like Anglicans do). We might even adopt the attitude that the first century Jews did: that the Church is the place were God lives, and once we’ve left the church premises, we’ve left His presence and His influence behind.

But, we might well be aware of the growing disparity in our culture between genuine Christian living and the world around us…for the world around us is beginning to look more and more like the pagan Greco-Roman world of the first century….Our world’s moral behavior is quite similar to theirs, the idolatry in which they engaged has morphed from the pagan temples to Aphrodite, Zeus, or Minerva of the first century into the worship of material goods, sports, or other more subtle forms of worship of today. The growing disparity between rich and poor of the Greco-Roman world, which was populated with large numbers of displaced peoples, looks remarkably similar to ours.

In the face of these similarities, it’s quite tempting to simply “hunker down”, not be different, not attract attention.

The radical claims of Jesus Christ get muted....we adopt the mindset and the values of the pagan culture we live in….No alarm bells for us, we say!

We adopt the comfortable routines of our Christian lives, content to munch away on the bucket of religious oats we’ve gotten used to.

But Jesus’ words still call out to us: “strive to enter by the narrow door”….And despite our claims of familiarity with Him, “we ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets”, He might well reply, “I do not know where you come from.”

Today’s Gospel sounds the alarm! It calls us to awaken from the slumber of our familiar routines, and to see Jesus Christ and His radical claims for holiness of life clearly. It calls us to be willing to head out the door of the comfortable life we enjoy, to engage the world around us as Jesus leads us in redeeming the world for which He died and rose again.

Will we answer that alarm?