Lent 4 2013

Lent 4, 2013

Well today it appears that we have quite a lot going on in our readings. First, we have the story of Israel finally emerging from their 40 year excursion through the Wilderness, and taking possession of the land that was promised to them.

Next, we have in the second letter to the Corinthians the reminder that in Christ we’re not to see one another only from a human perspective—but to see one another as new creations.

Finally, in our Gospel reading, we hear the familiar story of the Prodigal Son; this parable about squandered wealth, and a return to unconditional love (a pretty good story, really).

Anyway, with all of these seemingly disconnected themes floating around, I’ve decided that it would be a fantastic idea to preach on all three of the readings.

Now, for the sake of our visitors, I have to say that I do not regularly do this sort of thing. And for the sake of all of us, I promise not to be too long winded (please hold your applause).

So, as I mentioned, there are a lot of themes in our readings, but it’s my hope that once I’ve given some context for each of them, a singular theme will begin to emerge—namely that seeing God’s work of grace takes on-going practice. (So, we’ll see if we get there…)

 In the Old Testament reading, we hear about Israel finally emerging into this land that they had been promised. In fact, it was land that had been promised to Abraham hundreds of years before…it just took them this long to finally see that promise fulfilled.

As you may remember from the story of the Exodus, Israel had spent about 40 years wandering in the Wilderness. There was a lot that happened over those 40 years, as you could imagine—and we can gather from the text that it wasn’t really the easiest of times for God’s People. They complained a lot. There were bandits—armies—snakes (probably even spiders), but even in the midst of all of that, God still took care of them.

Interestingly enough, while Israel may have remembered this time as bitter; God seems to have remembered it as a kind of honeymoon. After all, this was the first (and perhaps the last) time that God had the people together without any distractions. This was the time when God called Israel to be God’s People—so, this was a very special and intimate time.

It was just too hard for the people to see that fact; because, I suppose, sometimes when you’re being chased by bandits, armies, snakes and spiders; it’s a little difficult to really take stock of God’s providence…

 In the Gospel Reading from Luke, we have a similar kind of spiritual short-sightedness. The reading begins with a group of short-sighted Pharisees and scribes complaining about all of the tax collectors and sinners showing up to listen to Jesus. This, of course, leads Jesus to tell this parable of the Prodigal Son: this story of a young man taking his inheritance early and squandering it (that’s what prodigal means, after all).

But the big finish comes when this young man hits rock bottom and decides to return home to beg for any job he could on his father’s land. After all, he knew that even the people with the worst jobs on his father’s payroll were treated better than he was being treated by that point.

To his surprise, when he returned, his father welcomed him with open arms, and even threw a party.

Meanwhile, when the young man’s brother shows up after a hard day’s work and finds his lousy brother back, and a party in his honor happening—well, he’s less than thrilled. He even stands outside and pouts.

In the end his father comes out to him and tries to console him by explaining that it’s as if his brother had been dead and returned to life—and this was certainly something to celebrate.

Even though we don’t see any resolution with the brother, we might hope that he sees the wisdom in his father’s words and goes in to welcome his brother.

 On the other hand, it could also be that this brother—having spent all of this time trying to recoup all that his father’s estate had lost when his brother left—might’ve just walked away from the whole mess. After all it can be pretty difficult to see God’s grace when your prodigal brother has his thumb in your eye—even if it is like he died and came back…

Unfortunately though, like most of Scripture, this Second Letter to the Corinthians doesn’t leave a lot of room for us to hold on to our angst—no matter how justified we may feel.

The writer (probably St. Paul) begins by stating clearly that our perspectives of one another are to be changed. We’re not supposed to hold grudges, or keep score on those who have been redeemed by the same Jesus Christ who redeemed all of us.

This sounds like a very good thing…the trouble, however, is that we’re human. We’ve always been human; we’ll always be human. After all, that’s what we were created to be—and God even called our creation “good” along with everything else.

However, while we’ve been made new creations in Christ (as Paul says), there is no sense that we should immediately be really good at seeing things in the proper way. In other words, we shouldn’t expect everything to just ‘click,’ especially trying to see God’s grace in every situation.

 Yesterday we were at our monthly meeting for Thrive, and we began some of our conversation by talking about the ability to see—specifically our perception. We watched this video of eight people—four wearing black clothing, the other four in white. The narrator of the video then says to count the number of times the players wearing white, pass the ball. The answer is 13. But the narrator then asks if, while you were counting, you noticed the bear moonwalking through the group…

Now, I had already heard of this test, and knew what to expect—so, it probably wasn’t fair. However, if I didn’t know what to expect—it’s likely that I would have missed this bear moonwalking through the group of basketball players.

The point was that we often don’t always perceive everything that’s happening—especially if we’ve been told to look for a specific thing. In those situations, we suddenly get tunnel vision and miss quite a lot.

But what if we could learn to be attentive to things like bears moonwalking through basketball players? I suppose we might even be able to learn to recognize God’s grace—whether we’re running from bandits snakes and spiders, or welcoming back our good-for-nothing siblings.

So, the question is, how do we learn such a thing as spiritual perception and perspective?

Well, I think that we do this a couple of ways.

 We can start by looking again at the story of the Prodigal Son. After all, when we begin to realize how much patience and grace that God has for us in Jesus Christ (just like the father in the parable)—it’s overwhelming.

I for one know my own potential to be a pretty terrible person. So when I realize that I can always, under any condition, return again to God’s house, and God’s table…well, it gives me some perspective about being more patient with others as well.

Another thing that we have to do is be intentional about being in a community of faith. Without sharing the stories of our faith, and being reminded about how these stories connect to our own—it’s easy to lose hope. It’s easier to lose sight of what is essential, and it’s easier to feel that we’re alone when things are difficult.

The point is that we can’t learn how to be perceptive of God’s grace immediately, and we can’t learn it on our own. Because on one hand, it takes time to be able to begin to discern even the smallest places where God shows up in our lives. On the other hand, it’s difficult for a fish to know it’s wet, just like it’s hard for us to always be mindful of how much grace surrounds us.