The survey we took last Spring, and reviewed a few weeks ago, told us many things about ourselves, one of them being that we, as a parish, do not know how to talk about our faith.
A group of us last week participated in the Magnetic Church Conference, which took a good look at Evangelism. We looked at our biases and prejudices and fears of evangelism. And we began to see evangelism in a whole new light, as the ability to be comfortable sharing our faith with others in a way that is authentic to who we are.
It’s about conversation, relationship, about being ourselves and affirming others.
Then, I read an article about helping congregations grow in their ability to share their experience of faith by inviting the parish to dialogue during the sermon time. When all the emphasis for talking about faith is the responsibility of the clergy its no wonder the rest of the people don’t know how to do it.
So, today I’m going to initiate something new in the sermon time.
We are going to practice talking about our faith. And I assure you that it won’t feel laborious or scary. It begins with a question. And I invite you to respond as you feel called...but by the same token, I hope a few of you respond so I’m not left hanging here by myself…
Whenever we preach this way the question we ask will inevitably be connected to the heart of the Gospel and will hopefully help each of us see how we are living lives of faith, in the ordinary way we live our lives, and how we can have a conversation about faith with out it being too churchy.
So, here is the question for today:
How many of you have had an experience of being deeply loved just for being who you are? Raise your hand if you’ve had this kind of experience ever in your life.
Now, what did it feel like?
Anyone care to share, not the circumstances per se, just what it felt like to loved in that way….
Well, that’s what we’re looking at today: what it feels like to be loved for being exactly who we are. If we read verses 1-3 in Chap 15 of Luke, the ones just before our reading today, we would hear that as usual, two groups of people are gathered around Jesus: the faithful and the unfaithful, those who follow the ancient Jewish laws and those who do not, the sinners.
Some of the people are grumbling. …they are grumbling and confused about Jesus. They wonder how Jesus can be so welcoming and accepting of all people. They are especially concerned about the way Jesus cares for sinners its as if Jesus is approving and sanctioning their behavior.
Jesus doesn’t see it in exactly this way. He is not concerned with who is a “sinner,” in terms of the “law”
Jesus is concerned with who is lost.
Because for Jesus sin is about what is in your heart. Sin is how we hurt other people. Sin is about broken relationship in all its various aspect: broken relationship with God, broken relationship with others, broken within our selves.
So he tells them this parable….
“There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will be coming to me.’ So he divided his property between them.”
In this story we come to see that both sons are lost – one because he wanders far from father and the other because he has been hurt and is angry.
“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. When he had spent everything…he began to be in need...so he hired himself out...(but) no one gave him anything.”
The lost son has wandered far from the father/God, squandered everything, and is starving –
a metaphor for our lives
when we wander far from God, we too end up starving,
a spiritual starvation…that is the sign of broken relationship with God…
“I will go to my father…and I will say to him, treat me like one of your hired hands…”
“But while he was still far off the father saw him and was filled with compassion…”
The father runs to his son, and immediately all is forgiven. So, too, when we, like the son, turn back to the father/God we will be received unconditionally…all we need to do is initiate the turning back and the father/God, who has been anticipating our return will come running to us.
“…let’s eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and is alive again, was lost and is found…”
The feast becomes a metaphor – not only does God rejoice when we return, loving us for being exactly who are – but our spiritual lives are nourished and fed when we work on our relationship with God.
The elder son returned from the field and saw the celebration. He said to 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 that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours comes back, who has devoured your property...(you celebrate).”
The oldest son has been deeply hurt by the selfish actions of his brother, he is feeling the consequences of broken relationship between them…and now he is hurt by his father’s apparent acceptance of that behavior…yet another broken relationship…
He could just stuff his feelings under, and pretend that all was ok, he could mask his true feelings, but that would only lead to broken relationship with himself, he wouldn’t be true to his own feelings of hurt and pain….
So, the oldest brother summons up his courage and tells his father how hurt he is.
He may anticipate that the father will fail to understand.
He may worry that he will be shut down for his feelings.
We all worry that we will be rejected for telling someone that they have hurt our feelings….
“Then the father said to him, ‘You have always been with me, and all that is mine is yours.”
The father/God hears the older son, and understands. Although they are celebrating, this is not the end of the story. Later the brothers will need to work out their broken relationship, one will need to ask for forgiveness and the other will need to forgive…
The father/God models this ability in the way he willingly and with great generosity loves both his sons equally, he does not play favorites based on behavior, they are both his sons.
This story leaves us standing on holy ground, in a space between the sacred and the ordinary.
God loves all humanity equally…just for being who we are.
We are not perfect.
We do mean things that hurt other people.
We get our feelings hurt and may not say anything about those hurt feelings.
But this parable points us to think about the ways we hurt others
and the ways we have been hurt
and how we might be different,
how we might behave with the same kind of love that God offers.
A love that shares feelings
A love that forgives
a love that understands our hurt and pain.
The father/God running to meet the younger son is a symbol of divine grace. God pours out God’s grace to all who turn to God, to all who will receive it. This kind of grace is radical, it is indiscriminate, it is freely given.
In the reality of human life God works in and through us, we are the face of Christ to others in this broken world. We, as Christians, are called to bring forth God’s healing love into the broken places of our lives.
So, our assignment for this week, as we strive to live the gospel and share our faith, is to look for opportunities to love others with a deep and radical generosity that might surprise them. And pay attention to any occasion when are generously loved by another. This might be an occasion of forgiving someone, or of asking for forgiveness. It might be an occasion of telling someone how much they mean to you.
It might be an occasion of standing up for yourself and honoring your own feelings, giving another the opportunity to apologize. It might be doing something kind and unexpected for another. It might be finding a way to be gracious to the very person who annoys you. Whatever the occasion, remember the graciousness with which God loves you and strive to love with that same kind of gratitude and radical hospitality.
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