Fourth Sunday in Advent Year C 2010

04 Lent C 10

March 14, 2010

Joshua 5:9-12
5:9 The LORD said to Joshua, "Today I have rolled away from you the disgrace of Egypt." And so that place is called Gilgal to this day.

5:10 While the Israelites were camped in Gilgal they kept the passover in the evening on the fourteenth day of the month in the plains of Jericho.

5:11 On the day after the passover, on that very day, they ate the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain.

5:12 The manna ceased on the day they ate the produce of the land, and the Israelites no longer had manna; they ate the crops of the land of Canaan that year.

Psalm 32
32:1 Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

32:2 Happy are those to whom the LORD imputes no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

32:3 While I kept silence, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long.

32:4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah

32:5 Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not hide my iniquity; I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD," and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah

32:6 Therefore let all who are faithful offer prayer to you; at a time of distress, the rush of mighty waters shall not reach them.

32:7 You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with glad cries of deliverance. Selah

32:8 I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.

32:9 Do not be like a horse or a mule, without understanding, whose temper must be curbed with bit and bridle, else it will not stay near you.

32:10 Many are the torments of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds those who trust in the LORD.

32:11 Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart.

2 Corinthians 5:16-21
5:16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way.

5:17 So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!

5:18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation;

5:19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.

5:20 So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
15:1 Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him.

15:2 And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them."

15:3 So he told them this parable:

15:11b "There was a man who had two sons.

15:12 The younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.' So he divided his property between them.

15:13 A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living.

15:14 When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need.

15:15 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs.

15:16 He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything.

15:17 But when he came to himself he said, 'How many of my father's hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger!

15:18 I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you;

15:19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands."'

15:20 So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him.

15:21 Then the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.'

15:22 But the father said to his slaves, 'Quickly, bring out a robe--the best one--and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.

15:23 And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate;

15:24 for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!' And they began to celebrate.

15:25 "Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing.

15:26 He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on.

15:27 He replied, 'Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.'

15:28 Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him.

15:29 But he answered his father, 'Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends.

15:30 But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!'

15:31 Then the father said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.

15:32 But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.'"


Ticket to Paradise

What happens next?

Did you notice that this story doesn’t end? We’re left standing outside the party with the old man and his elder son. You can almost see the big tent, the music and the loud laughter and singing, the warm light in the evening, the sound of silver and glassware.

To me, and perhaps only to me, a happy party celebration is a powerful image for paradise. To be in a crowd of people who are all very fond of one another, to feel those good feelings of being accepted and loved and enjoyed by your community, to have that lovely feeling of having way more of everything than you need. If that all isn’t paradise, I don’t know what is.

It seems obvious to me that this parable is aimed finally at the elder brother. The chapter begins with the Pharisees grumbling about Jesus hanging around with sinners and it ends with the old man appealing to his elder son to take part in the party. Or to put it another way, it ends with the old man offering the elder son a ticket to paradise.

The only problem is that it involves letting go of all our enmity toward others. The paradise party is loaded with people that don’t deserve to be there, or at least so we think. In our society now, social life has become as consumerized as every other dimension of our existence. We now have all kinds of technological tools for avoiding people we don’t feel comfortable with and finding people who agree with us on every issue.

Who is this I’m supposed to party with? I want you to think about invitations to parties and which ones you’d turn down. I have to say one of the most dishonest things I hear from Southerners is that they love everybody. I’ve never met a human being yet who loved everybody. Usually when someone says they love everybody, they simply are excluding whole groups of people from the status of being human. Do you love radical militant Muslims? Do you love dirty black people on welfare? Do you love communists?

But I’m no one to talk. I have to say I struggle all the time with this church thing. I think you’d all probably fire me, and you may yet, if you knew how often I questioned it. I have many days when I thank God for all the good things people do here at Philippi. But there are other days when I wonder how many of us even have a glimmer of faith? I sometimes wonder if there is anyone here who really has any idea what promise they have made to Christ. I wonder if there is anyone here, including me, who is really ready to keep that promise.

If only everyone would do what I told them, I could be happy. You know what I’m saying?

My own spiritual bankruptcy here is my insistence on believing that this really has anything to do with what anyone decides or works on, including me, that this depends on anyone but God’s Spirit. It’s my own not-so-comfortable conviction that somehow I get it and no one else does.

The reality is that I don’t get it either, and when paradise is here, I really don’t know how it got here, and when it’s gone I really don’t know how I lost it.

Your ticket to paradise is an invitation to be possessed by a very foolish spirit. This is a ticket that many, many people have refused, and continue to refuse.

There are times when I find it in my heart to include everyone, and when that happens I find that I am filled with energy, filled with warmth, filled with joy. I also, incidentally, notice that enemies line up to shoot at me. It is far more quiet and peaceful in the grave than it is in the land of the living.

So do I want to go into the feast with my Father, or do I want to stand outside here, fuming at the injustice of it?

What happens next?

Amen.