Proper 19C / Pentecost +14 / September 11, 2022

Prayer

So in Jesus, you have come searching. May we never forget how much we are loved. May we never refuse to love others as much.  We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen.

From Prayers for Sunday and Seasons, Year C, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.



Some Thoughts on Luke 15:1-32


"I think that these parables can be read as jokes about God in the sense that what they are essentially about is the outlandishness of God who does impossible things with impossible people."

"One Lost Sheep," sermon discussion from Frederick Buechner, Frederick Buechner Blog.

"The main verb in the second conclusion (v. 10) is ginetai a present = "There is". So, when a sinner repents, at that moment there is joy in heaven. Will there be joy on earth, then seems to be Jesus' question."

Exegetical Notes by Brian Stoffregen at CrossMarks Christian Resources.

Oremus Online NRSV Gospel Text

This is a big chunk of text. The new lectionary expects you to use the first part of this selection. The Roman Catholic expects you to preach on the second. The problem is that they all go together.

I am going to offer you both here. There are also three sermon selections below. One of them is written the other two recorded.

Let us begin with the background. As we well remember in chapter 14 we have been listening to Jesus teach about inviting the least and the lost to the banquet. He then offered a vision of what this is going to cost you. To break with familial and religious traditions is costly. But we are invited to follow him more. We might look at the cost like a person building a foundation or going against a great army.

Here then Jesus gives us the parable of the bad shepherd and the woman who has lost her coin.

The parable of the shepherd is most often remembered as a lesson about us being the one lost sheep. Certainly, this is true. "I was once lost but now I am found," we sing. In the frame of reference, we see Jesus using it to show that our work is to find the lost sheep too. We are to go out and find the least and lost. The story ends with the banquet imagery again. It is our work to join Jesus in the ingathering work.

The woman has lost one of the coins sewn into her wedding garment. It is important. She turns her house overlooking for it. A cardinal sin in the social world of her day - a dirty home. She finds it and has a party! Again, banquet imagery of friends and neighbors of the new family of God celebrating that which was lost has been found. Again our work...to seek the lost.

It is as if the parables again reveal the cost that is to be paid. The other sheep left the social expectations of the day broken. The bad shepherd and the poor housekeeper are icons of the disciples' work.

Here then we move into the story of the Prodigal Son.

I like this translation of the last words of the parable: "Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It is necessary to celebrate and rejoice because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’”

We find Jesus again in the midst of preaching the lost and the found; this time using what has become one of the most popular parables from the New Testament.

I find Jesus’ words in verse 32 to be paramount. The words are left out of many translations but essential to the text: “It was necessary…” According to Luke Timothy Johnson (Luke, 239), this verse begins with these words. This is the literal translation. Bringing all of the stories of the past few weeks together in the mind of the reader and listener, Jesus is saying, “It was necessary.”

“The first part of this is pure Gospel,” says Luke Timothy Johnson, “…the lost are being found, the dead rising, the sinners are repenting.” (242) The mood quickly shifts as the reader becomes aware that the established religion of the day is not eager to accept the message of good news. It is clear that they (the powers) understand their faith as a “slavery” to God and religion. They resent grace being offered on the boundaries of the institution to those who do not follow the law as they do.  Their sentiments are to be found in the loyal son in our parable.

Many times we read the passage about those left outside the banquet as judgmental and as mean. But the passage is clear, God has offered, God has gone out of his way to invite and find and heal, God welcomes them. All are invited.  The good son and the bad son are to sit at the table together.  And, who those are shall be in the telling and the listening. One possible group who is not ready to be at the table with the sinner may, in fact, be the loyal sons of Abraham.  Those religious who have decided to shut this miracle-working, prophetic, and the powerful new king of the reign of God out, have instead kept themselves from enjoying the banquet feast.

Again, our passage which is filled with the good news challenges us to see where is it that we in keeping others outside of the kingdom, are instead keeping ourselves from rejoicing. After all, don’t we see that “It is necessary.”  Is it possible we have taken the place of the good son; we are the good sons of today.

I think this week especially about our evangelism efforts and our efforts of welcoming newcomers to our church. How do we do the Gospel work without getting stuck like the son who has worked so hard? Can we receive the grace of God, and then turn to our neighbor who has not "earned it" in our eyes and offer grace?  That is truly hard work.

I think sometimes I am so relieved to receive the good news and the grace of God that I want to keep it all for myself, it as if it were too scarce and precious to share. I love being the center of God’s love and grace. Most of all, I like to pretend that I have earned it.

But this passage like the others before it challenges me to understand that there is more than enough grace for everyone. By the grace of God go I, the same grace is given to all, and wouldn't it be beautiful if we could all walk together into the banquet hall hand in hand; the good son and the bad son. And, when asked, "Which is which?" We might reply: "I do not remember."

I was lost but am found. I was dead but now I am alive. Now, I am invited to be the shepherd, the woman, and the father. More often than not I think we find ourselves, in our missionary context and our foreign culture, to be the faithful son who stayed home and worked. It is difficult to see that it is necessary. It is. It is necessary that we celebrate because God has brought us all together and those who were lost have been found.

Some Thoughts on 1 Timothy 1:12-17

"At first blush, it may seem to be a text ready-made for a classic evangelistic sermon about the power of Christ to save unbelievers. And it certainly does speak to that reality. However, the evangelical preacher should take care not to run ahead of the text and risk missing the powerful tensions that remain that in fact deepen the profundity of Christ's saving work."
Commentary, 1 Timothy 1:12-17 | Timothy L. Hahn | MDiv, MATS Student at NTS | A Plain Account, 2016


"'Saving,' as Paul describes what happens to him, is not moving a name from one column to another. Saving is certainly not ignoring sin and the harm it does. Saving is re-commissioning someone for new work. It is taking a persecutor of the church and turning him into an ambassador of Christ. Saving is the human equivalent of fashioning swords into plowshares."
"On Christ Saving Sinners," Mary Hinkle Shore, Pilgrim Preaching, 2010.

Oremus Online NRSV Epistle Text

As we have seen in a few of Paul's letters his thanksgiving always begins to pull out strands of the letter's arguments.  The letter to Timothy is no different.  

Paul begins by telling the reader(s) that he was given grace by Christ Jesus and strengthened.  God offered this grace to Paul even though he was a "blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence." God was merciful, and primarily so because he had not yet received the Gospel.  He acted "ignorantly and in unbelief."  Paul then offers a phrase Episcopalians include as part of the "comfortable words" in our liturgy.  Paul says, "The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners."  

What Paul will ultimately be arguing is that he himself was an outrageous example of how the law does not bring righteousness.  He did not understand, grace, mercy, and God's love; which is the Christ's law as well as the disciple's response. (Luke Timothy Johnson, 1 & 2 Timothy, 182) Instead, Paul will explain that it was rage and murder that the law drove him to undertake.  Christ Jesus offered change and transformation. 

This is a wonderful passage to read along with the Good Samaritan.  Luke Timothy Johnson writes these words:  "How God worked in Paul is the model for how God works in all believers.  The final words of the thanksgiving remind readers by means of a doxology that no human norm or performance, but solely the "only God," can shape a life leading to "eternal life."  (Ibid, 183)  

How quickly we humans have rushed to become as Paul prior to his conversion; I am struck with how important it is to hear from someone who has received grace and been transformed.

Some Thoughts on Jeremiah 4:11-28

"The preacher who chooses to preach this passage has no easy task. Walter Brueggemann calls it a "dangerous poem," and rightly so."
Commentary, Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28, Anathea Portier-Young, at WorkingPreacher.org, Luther Seminary, 2016.


"The anguish of the prophet appears to mirror the anguish of God which cannot believe the people are bent on self-destruction. I can't help feeling this must the case today as we watch our world bent on self-destruction because of our greed and the consequences of our actions."
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28, Commentary, Background, Insights from Literary Structure, Theological Message, Ways to Present the Text. Anna Grant-Henderson, Uniting Church in Australia.

Oremus Online NRSV Old Testament Text

The prophet confronts the people on their lack of response and returning to the Lord. God is clear that he will not stop the Babylonian's from their invasion. 

Jeremiah prophesies:

11At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem: A hot wind comes from me out of the bare heights in the desert toward my poor people, not to winnow or cleanse— 12a wind too strong for that. Now it is I who speak in judgment against them. 13Look! He comes up like clouds, his chariots like the whirlwind; his horses are swifter than eagles— woe to us, for we are ruined! 14O Jerusalem, wash your heart clean of wickedness so that you may be saved. How long shall your evil schemes lodge within you? 15For a voice declares from Dan and proclaims disaster from Mount Ephraim. 16Tell the nations, “Here they are!” Proclaim against Jerusalem, “Besiegers come from a distant land; they shout against the cities of Judah. 17They have closed in around her like watchers of a field, because she has rebelled against me, says the Lord. 18Your ways and your doings have brought this upon you. This is your doom; how bitter it is! It has reached your very heart.”

The people are awash in false prophecy and the religious leaders of the kingdom are bankrupt spiritually.  God's heart breaks and he weeps and Jeremiah shares in his heartbreaking:

19My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain! Oh, the walls of my heart! My heart is beating wildly; I cannot keep silent; for I hear the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. 20Disaster overtakes disaster, the whole land is laid waste. Suddenly my tents are destroyed, my curtains in a moment.21How long must I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet?22“For my people are foolish, they do not know me; they are stupid children, they have no understanding. They are skilled in doing evil, but do not know how to do good."

God is clear through Jeremiah's words that the reality is that though the conquerers will bring death and destruction God will birth out a new transformed people. In their dying shall also be their birth as a new and faithful nation.

I am reminded of the lesson from John 12:24, "Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life." What is true in the prophecy foretelling the death and resurrection of Jesus is true too for the faithful people of Israel is true for us.

The great paradox of the Gospel is that in death there is life. In loss are renewal and discovery. This is the ancient truth of our ancient faith ancestors and it is true for us as well.

Previous Sermons Preached


Go Find The Lost and Fill My Banquet


Sep 15, 2019, Proper 19C Sermon on Luke 15:1-10 The Lost Coin and the Lost Sheep. Given at St. Francis, Tyler.
The Prodigal Son

This sermon is on Luke 15.1-32 with an introduction from lyrics of Prodigal Son by the Rolling Stones.  Preached on March 15, 2010, at St. Thomas Nassau Bay, Texas.

Sermon

Proper 19C

Luke 15 – The Prodigal Son



Paul Rodgers

Of the Rock Band

Bad Company

Famously sang these words:



“Bad company

And I can't deny

Bad company

Till the day I die”



There once was a bad son

A bad bad son

A bad company kind of son

who went to his father



The Son asks for

his part of the inheritance,

He tells his dad

“put your will into effect

drop dead

and give me what is coming to me”



It is fratricide

The death of the father[1]



Now I am leaning

on one of my favorite

theologians here

quite heavily -

Robert Farrar Capon




He points this out,

futhermore, that...

the father does what the Father does

He gives the son what he wants

The father turns himself over

As God in Jesus turns himself over to the people



The son goes off

does unspeakable things

has a great time

lives life to the fullest

and beyond

Wasting all that the father had

all that was given to him



The son has wasted

His very being - essence

all that the father had given

and all that the son inhabited

All was empty

All was gone

It is a true death[2]



The son is miserable

Recognizes he would be better off

serving in his father’s household



This “prodigality”, Capon says

“Is the realization he has no claim on personhood”



But when he was far off

The father sees him

Has compassion and ran

Fell upon him



The father sees the corpse of the son

The dead man walking

and goes to him.[3]



There is complete utter helplessness

Walking towards the father

Nothing is left

All is lost

The son is an empty shell of a human being



So God Fills

The son with love

The father gives resurrection

untethered

because

God loves

And God forgives



And because

And I quote

“because raising dead sons [and daughters] to life and throwing fabulous parties for them is [God’s] favorite way of spending an afternoon, he proceeds straight to hugs, kisses, and resurrection.”



[Pause]

What we discover is that it

Is not the son’s realization

In the pig pen that he could do better

Or his returning

Or his confession

That gets him A new life

and forgiveness



Let me turn to Capon here

He writes:

“Confession is not a medicine

leading to recovery”



Because recovery from sin

Is not possible

Paul says

“I do the things I do not wish to do.”



You see if we could

Confess our way

Into new behavior

And then be all better tomorrow

Then we would

Just say we were sorry…

And it would all be done.



Confession is not

“sorry”.



The Gospel of Jesus

Reminds us

“we never recover.”



We are powerless

We understand we are dead

And that only a power greater than ourselves can

save us

and give us life

We have faith

And we turn our lives

Over to God in Christ Jesus



The only reason

We get life out of death

In this world and the next

Is because

We stop trusting

In our own ability

To earn it

And start

Trusting in

The father’s love

To give it



Confession is not a transaction

Not a negotiation

In order to secure forgiveness

It is the last gasp of death

The realization that we are helpless

To change



Confession is

The realization that

We are The walking dead



And

Here then comes the banquet

Of the fatted calf

(Which is a parallel for

The lamb that was slain – in cased you missed it)



The banquet that is in all the parables before

The banquet where all are invited

Friends

Neighbors

Everyone comes



And a good time

Was had by all!



[pause]

Well most everyone



Now

We must deal with the older son

Who says

“Whaaaat?

This can’t be

This is unfair”



Ahhhh

The parable of grace

Contains within it

A parable of judgment afterall



the son doesn’t get it

he doesn’t know he is the walking dead

he holds onto the idea

that

Hard work

Righteous living

And faithful attendance

Is what gets you the father’s love



But…The fathers says to him:

“Son

You have always been with me

And all that I have is yours.

I gave it to you

Remember?

I executed my will

I gave it to you when I died

Your brother got his

And you got yours

You are the head of the house -Not me

You could have done anything you wanted

You could have killed the calf

Had friends over

You could have met your brother

And resurrected him

But you have not

You have hardly lived

And you don’t even know you are dead[4]

Here you are

And you think this

This

Is living



The only reason that you can’t enjoy the feast

Which you are missing

Is because in the end

you have chosen

To pretend that this life of death

is worth trying to live



And if you create enough rules about righteousness

And then you follow them

You will save yourself



If you can’t figure out you are dead already

And join the party

There is very little hope for you



So stop moping

Your bringing us down, man

Accept your inability to save yourself

And come to the party[5]



[Pause]

Grace

Jesus is telling us

Only works for the least and the lost and the dead



Capon concludes,

“At the last judgment

Nobody will be kicked out

for having a rotten life

Because [at that moment]

nobody there will have any life

but the life of Jesus



Jesus will say to all

[What the father says to the son]

You were dead and are now alive

You were lost and are found

Come inside”



I find it hard to imagine

On that day

In that moment

Faced with Jesus in front of us

That we will do anything but fall to our knees

Confess our death and go to the party



But there are always older sons and daughters

Who will refuse to believe

that god is that good

And they will sit out on the lawn

Or wherever that place is

“God seems to have a place for everything”

Capon quips



[pause]

So rejoice

Your death is assured

And so is your resurrection



We are the bad sons and daughters

Of God



“Bad company

we can't deny

Bad company

Till the day we die”



luckily God loves

bad company

loved us

before we were in the womb

And, God loves

To feast

With reprobates just like you and me

---

[1] Robert Farrar Capon, Parables of Judgment and Grace, 280ff

[2] the word used here is ten ousian –  which means being substance Ibid, 284.

[3] Ibid, 285

[4] Ibid, 287

[5] Ibid, 288