Easter Expectations: Not Here

Easter Sermon 4-21-19

(The resurrection story from Luke was read at the beginning of the service, then at the Gospel we read the Road to Emmaus) 

Grace to you and peace from God our creator and from our risen lord and savior Jesus the Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

What are you expecting this morning, on Easter morning, 2019?

Where you expecting that, after wandering in the wilderness of Lent, you would come out on the other side, to rise this Easter morning completely refreshed, restored, and renewed? But life doesn’t exactly work out in the way we expect it to, does it? I mean, did any of you really expect to wake up, come to Easter Sunday service, thinking the pastor would have purple hair? Probably not.

But then again, I’ve done a lot of expecting over the years, as I’m sure many of you have.  And for me, reality has more often than not fallen far short of those expectations. And, like many of you, I woke up in the darkness of this morning to the very real, very present realities of pain, brokenness, and suffering in our world and in our lives. Our lives are still in the same mess that they were in yesterday. We still find ourselves buried in dark tombs, or walking down the roads of our lives, perplexed at what is happening around us. Death and violence surround us.

And yet…. here we are, on Easter morning, I’m here. You’re here. Life is poking up out of the ground all around us here. And Easter morning has arrived here, and it DOES change things - just not in the ways we expect.

Really, this whole week tells the story of the unexpected: How Jesus was welcomed into town with a parade at the beginning of the week and being nailed to cross by the end of it. How Jesus shared his last meal with the very people who would betray him, deny him, and run away as Jesus was arrested, tried, mocked, and beaten before being nailed to a cross. Jesus, King of the universe, was hastily laid in a borrowed tomb.  

The women came to that place of death very early in the morning,  with some expectations of their own. They expected to be alone with their grief. They expected to find the body of their beloved Jesus, so that they could care for him one last time by anointing his body with spices, as was their custom. They expected to find death in a place OF death, as we all would.

But instead, the women found the stone sealing his tomb had been rolled away. Instead, the women found a grave with no body. Instead, the women found two men with a question for them: “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” What the women found was the stunning revelation that Jesus was not there. He has risen.

And then the women remembered. They remembered what Jesus had been saying all along. They remembered that he must be betrayed, abandoned, and handed over to be crucified, and three days later he would rise again. And then the women proclaimed. They returned to the remaining eleven disciples and all the rest of Jesus’s followers and told them the amazing and unexpected sight they had just witnessed.

On Thursday we remembered the night in which Jesus was betrayed, and Jesus’ command to us to eat of his body and drink of his blood, in remembrance of him. And these women did just that, on that first Easter morning. These women remembered, and then they proclaimed.

They were the first to share the GOOD WORD, that death no longer has the LAST WORD. Death has been swallowed up in victory, Christ’s victory, the victory of life over death, in all its many forms, calling us out from inside of all of the dark tombs we may find ourselves in. We who have been buried in the darkness of tombs have also been buried with Jesus in our baptisms, as Paul wrote. And that means that we will be united with Jesus in his resurrection. And it begins now, this very morning. New life sprouts up out of the empty shell of death, right now.

The Apostle Paul asks, “Death, where is your sting?”  And we know the answer. - NOT. HERE!

And along with the women that first Easter morning, in this place of death, we wonder, “Where is Jesus?”  - NOT. HERE!!

Why do we look for the living among the dead? We expect to find death in a place of death, but Jesus has done the unexpected. He has risen from the dead. He IS NOT HERE. 

He WAS there in the tomb with us, but he is not here any longer. Instead, he has gone on ahead of us, to meet up us out there on the dusty roads we travel. And he has won the victory for us, so that we who have been buried in our own tombs with Jesus may be raised in his glorious resurrection, now and in the life to come.

Awesome. Well. That sound great… but what about tonight, when we are in the throes of a baked ham and chocolate bunny hangover? What about tomorrow, when we have to go back to work or school, or back to our regularly scheduled, “pretty average at best” lives? What can we really expect from the resurrection out there?

Two disciples were traveling from Jerusalem to Emmaus on Easter afternoon, wondering the same thing. I like to think they were husband and wife, debriefing the crazy 3-day weekend they just had… when Jesus appears to them, hidden in plain sight. Jesus asked about what they were discussing, and they gladly shared with him the whole perplexing story. So, Jesus told THEM the whole of GOD’S story, from start to finish. Then THESE two followers of Jesus REMEMBERED Jesus’ message of welcome and took it to heart – they invited him to share a meal and their Air B-n-B for the night.

It wasn’t until Jesus blessed and broke the bread – HELLO holy communion? Then they KNEW that this was JESUS! And so they RAN – 7 WHOLE MILES all the way BACK to Jerusalem, that same night, just to tell the story to the other disciples of what they had seen – The Risen Jesus!!!!

What would make you run seven miles in the dark? Would it be for something that you didn’t expect? That must have been some “holy heartburn.”

How has Jesus shown up in unexpected ways along on your dusty highways and byways? I bet he has. He certainly has for me.

Three years ago, the last time we read from the Gospel of Luke at Easter, I drove early in the morning to my former church’s Easter Sunrise worship, held in their memorial garden.  It was still dark out, and my divorce had been official for six weeks by then – the same number of weeks that is in Lent. I wasn’t expecting to feel one iota of joy that Easter morning. As I drove in the pre-dawn, deserted New Jersey streets, a song from Panic! At the Disco came on, from a CD a dear friend had given me with a special playlist she had picked out. When the words of the song, “All you sinners stand up, sing Hallelujah.” came blaring over my car speakers, somehow, at that moment, I knew everything was going to be ok. And I could sing the rest of the Hallelujahs that day and mean it.

Now, was my life a piece of cake after that? No way. But I didn’t expect it to be. The very next week my dad was in the hospital back in Wisconsin and I took a last-minute flight to see him before his successful quintuple bypass, and to help him recover. But it was ok. Because I was ok. Because Jesus shows up when you least expect him to. It was true for the disciples on the road to Emmaus, and it was true for me. I remembered. And now, like the women and the tomb, and the couple on the road, I have told you my story. Now it’s your turn.  

What were you expecting this morning, on Easter 2019? Where you expecting to find Jesus here, in church? Because he IS NOT HERE…. At least he is not in this building on a permanent basis. He’s out THERE – he is out there on the road with you… he is wherever there is breading of bread. And sometimes that even happens here in church. Hallelujah. Christ is risen.

He is risen indeed, Alleluia.

Thanks be to God, Amen.  

Palm Sunday: Hearts of Stone, Image of God

Palm Sunday 4-14-19

Grace to you and peace from God our father and from our Lord and savior Jesus our king, Amen.

This is it. We made it. Holy Week: This week is what the forty days of Lent have been leading up to, the most important week of the church calendar. We are about to enter a week where bread and wine become Jesus’s body and blood, and where an instrument of torture and death becomes the means by which we are rescued from death.

This week begins with a parade. Jesus comes down the road into Jerusalem, like kings of old, riding a colt and surrounded by his disciples laying their cloaks before him like a royal procession. They are filled with “Lauds” for all the deeds of power that they had seen Jesus do – for the healings, the feeding of over five thousand people, the casting out demons, calming a storm and raising a widow’s son – feats so astounding that Jesus’ followers can’t help being Loud for the Lord: “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!”

Now, the last time we heard those same words was back in December, over 4 months ago - when the sky was filled with a multitude of the heavenly host, appearing to shepherds late at night. These poor shepherds witnessed the first proclamation of the good news of great joy for all the people, the birth of a savior, a messiah, the Lord. That night, the sky was filled with the shouts of angels: ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom God favors!” As we learned during one of our “Eat, Pray, Learn” nights, this kind of Good News was reserved only for royalty such as Emperors and Caesars. The Emperor was worshiped as a son of the gods. And so for the angels to make this claim about Jesus – a baby born in poverty and not a palace – was news to turn everything they knew about the world upside-down.

Fast forward to today, Palm Sunday, and this time people, not angels are joyfully shouting Jesus’ praises.  But not everyone. The Pharisees, too, have seen these deeds of power that Jesus has done, and they are concerned. And they were absolutely RIGHT. They know exactly what this means: treason.

Remember that the Jewish people at this time were under the oppressive thumb of Rome, who ruled with an iron hand and tolerated no rivals. The Roman Empire claimed everything for themselves – your time, energy, property, money.

After Jesus’ grand entrance into Jerusalem, the scribes and the chief priests decide the best way to get rid of Jesus would be to get him into trouble with the Romans. They use this question about taxes to trick Jesus, because this is one of those questions where there is no “right” answer. If Jesus says yes, pay taxes, then he would be validating Roman oppression and violence against his own people, and his followers would probably desert him.  But if he said NOT to pay taxes, then he will be in big trouble.  

image of the Empire 

Fortunately, Jesus was on to them. He does what he does best, confounding the religious elite and showing them up yet again. Jesus actually used the trick to trick them. The coin he had them bring has the emperor’s face imprinted on it, much like our coins have the pictures of presidents. Because this coin had the face of the emperor on it (like this fake coin I have), and the Emperor was worshiped by the Romans as a god… therefore, coins were considered by the Jewish people to be idols. Iffy at best for the use of everyday commerce, but definitely not allowed in the Temple of the Lord…. So those trying to trick Jesus should not have had these coins on them in the first place. That they produced a coin for Jesus so easily clearly reveals THEIR hypocrisy. They got a far different answer than they bargained for. The joke is on THEM.

Images of God (photo credit M. Russo)

Give to Caesar that which is stamped with his name and image – all the trappings of empire and power. And give to God that which bears God’s image. Take a look around, because that is US. For the weeks of Lent, we have been singing as our offering plates – with our president’s image bearing money comes forward – we have been singing: “Oh my heart, imprint your image, blessed Jesus king of grace… let the clear inscription be: Jesus Crucified for me.” The true offering isn’t what’s in the plates. It’s what’s out there in the pews.

When you were born, you were created in God’s image. And when you were baptized, you were named and claimed, “child of God.” God doesn’t just want part of you. God wants everything that you are and everything that God has created you to be.  

When the scribes and the chief priests figured out this is what Jesus was saying, they were shocked into silence.  They became silent as stones.

After all, Jesus says, “If these were silent, the stones would shout out.”  Thanks to Jesus, we might need to rethink that old phrase, “dumber than a box of rocks.” Stones, boulders, rocks, and pebbles are all on standby to pick up where the everyone leave off.

The stones probably knew, as we all know, that the time was very near that the praises for Jesus would go silent, and the crowds instead would cry out for his death. They probably knew that his disciples would be silent from heavy sleep as Jesus prayed alone in the Garden of Gethsemane, before they all ran away, leaving the faithful women at the foot of the cross, weeping and wailing in grief.

The stones might see what Jesus’s disciples cannot – that this king does not go into Jerusalem to set up a peace that is like that of Rome, a peace brought by might and sword and taxes. This King doesn’t enter the holy city to set himself up as RULER, but to give himself up as SACRIFICE. As Paul wrote, the one who in the form of God and had equality with God empties himself and becomes obedient – even so far as death on a cross.

And this is what Holy Week is all about. Up is down and down is up. Stones would shout when we are silent. Men run away in fear, and women take their place at Jesus’ side. This king that we welcome, we then abandon and reject. We embrace peace that is not actually peace. "Our hearts of flesh become like hearts like stone, silent in the face of evil days and evil deeds." (Bonhoeffer)

Still. There is clearly a place in the story, in this most holy of week, for stones.

Stones can still be called upon to praise Jesus for showing us what the glory of God looks like in the flesh. You can write things on stones, like “Jesus crucified for me.” A stone sealed the tomb where Jesus lay after his death, but stones of tombs can be rolled away to make room for the power of resurrection and new life. The stone that the builders reject can become the cornerstone, the very source of our faith. Hearts of stone - like ours - can be gathered together into spiritual house around that cornerstone, gathered and loved by their creator.

Jesus describes himself as the cornerstone to same Pharisees who would continue to reject him. And Peter, our favorite “loud mouth” disciple, the same who denied Jesus three times, his very names means “Rock” or stone. And this rock – Peter - would later write about Jesus as a living rock, a living stone, rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight. He says that we are God’s own people, living stones, stones that are at the same time dead and alive.

In Holy week, down is up and up is down. Flesh and blood bear the image of God. Hearts of stone come back to life. We who have hearts of stone cry “hosanna” and “crucify.” We who would not show mercy, have received it. Despite our willingness to turn away from God, God will never turn away from us, and will go all the way to death and back in order to prove it.

In the meantime, join us on the road through Holy Week, on our way to the cross. Be a witness with the disciples and the women and the stones, to the journey of our savior from a parade to a last meal to suffering and death on a cross, to be hastily laid in a borrowed tomb….  Only to burst open the stone sealing that tomb three days later. Spoiler alert. Thanks be to God. Amen.  

Lent 5: Preparing like Mary

4-7-19

Grace to you and peace from God our creator and from our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, amen.

When you get invited to a party, such as a wedding, your first thought might be – yay, how exciting! And your next thought might be all the things you need to do to get ready? Even if you are “just” a guest, there are some many things to do before you arrive at the ceremony or reception. Make sure you can get time off work. Get directions. Book a flight and a hotel room if you’re from out of town. Look on the registry and buy a gift. And the most important thing: figure out what you’re going to WEAR!

And if you are IN the wedding party, your list of preparations just got about four times longer. And if you’re a bride (or a groom), THAT list is longer still. Dress, tux, shoes, jewelry, makeup, hair, nails, veil, flowers, something borrowed, something blue, figuring out the venue, music, food, and registry…. But I’m pretty sure a pound of nard is not on any registry I know of.

As I shared during one of our “Eat, Pray, Learn” dinners, each Gospel tells the story of Jesus a little bit differently, depending on their focus and their audience. For example, this year we’re hearing from the Gospel of Luke, and his focus is on how Jesus brings salvation to everyone, especially people on the margins. But every so often, we get to hear from the Gospel of John, which is a bit different from the other three.

This story that we hear – this time from the Gospel of John – is about preparations. And it also comes with a few different options – sort of like choosing types of items for a registry - one for every Gospel. What kind of blender do you want? One with lots of speeds, small and portable, extra flavor boost….. but in the end, no matter how fancy it is, it’s still a blender.

This story, of Jesus’ anointing, is found in all the Gospels… but the details are a little bit different in each one. In some, this party is at the home of Simon the Leper, and the woman with the jar is a stranger without a name. In John, Jesus is with Lazarus, whom he had recently raised from the dead. Mary and Martha, the siblings of Lazarus, are so happy that they all threw Jesus a big party. So, there is still the party, which is the same in all the Gospels… as is the fact that Jesus’ feet are anointed both with the expensive oil by a woman – Mary or otherwise, and then she wiped with her hair. 

Mary was not just being hospitable and cleaning Jesus’ dusty and – probably smelly – feat. When someone is anointed in this manner in the Bible, it usually means one of two things. When a new king is crowned, he is also anointed. Messiah in Hebrew and Christ in Greek mean anointed one. So “Christ” is not Jesus’s “last name”… it’s a title. It means Jesus, the chosen one.

There is another use for this kind of anointing oil. It is used on the body after death to prepare it for burial. Jesus was not being anointed for his coming glory, as his ancestor David had been. For Jesus there was not coronation ceremony. Jesus crown would be one of thorns, and his thrown would be a cross.

Mary thought she was doing something good for Jesus purely out of gratitude for what Jesus had done. She had no idea that she was preparing Jesus for his burial. She also had no idea that, according to John, Jesus raising her brother from the dead would ultimately be the reason that Jesus himself is condemned to die.

But Jesus knows, what they don’t - that just around the corner lies betrayal and suffering and humiliation and death. betrayed and handed over by one of his own followers, denied by another, abandoned by the rest of the male disciples, falsely accused, tried in the middle of the night, given a convenient death sentence, denied justice, beaten, mocked, and finally killed as a common criminal, in public, as a deterrent. She had no idea that her actions would help prepare Jesus for Holy Week.

It’s sort of funny, that Mary was chastised for using ONE point of this anointing oil on Jesus NOW, when later in John, a man, Nicodemus, brings ONE HUNDRED POUNDS of similar oil to anoint Jesus’ body after his death. Who was ACTUALLY being wasteful, Judas?

Jesus’ death might have looked like a total waste to the rest of the world – a waste of three years, a waste of a life, a waste of time for the Son of God. Just as Jesus’ Judas thought this splendid gift was a totally waste on Jesus…. The man he was about to betray to death.

But with God, nothing is ever a waste…. Out of death, comes new life. Out of a tomb, comes resurrection. From a cross, comes salvation.

There is a lot of death happening all around us right now, even as the new life of spring is finally bursting forth from a chilly and wet winter. We all know someone who is struggling with a chronic illness, a cancer diagnosis, with a chemical dependency, or with the loss of someone they love.

There is a death that comes with any change – changing families, neighborhoods, ways of doing life that we are used to. Our church doesn’t look the same as it used to. We might not have as much energy or resources as we used to, and the same goes for our congregations. A number of churches in our own synod have already closed this year, and there are still more that are scheduled to close before the year is over. We have seen fewer and fewer faces in our own pews from year to year, while neighboring churches break ground on new building expansions. Someone like Judas might wonder if it makes it at all worth it to get up on a Sunday morning… if it is indeed all a waste.

Some may see Mary’s gift as a waste, but Jesus saw it as an act of faith. An act of Thankfulness. An act of Generosity. And generosity is never the wrong answer. Generosity is never a waste.

With God, no act done out of faith is wasteful. Every act of getting up in the morning, of showing up, of putting a dollar in the offering plate, of giving of an hour of our time to make sandwiches or to serve on a committee or to eat dinner at Candlewick to support a ministry, or at night Buckingham Pizza to have fellowship and to learn …. All these things are an act of faith.

To others they may seem like wasteful, foolish gestures, like wasting an entire pound of super expensive perfume on one man… to people like Judas, this is foolish. Judas tells us to be cautious… restrained, …. responsible, as much as Mary’s gift was exuberant… irresponsible… and “all-in” And his advice IS sound…. But do we REALLY want to listen to JUDAS???

Out of her thankfulness, Mary decided to “go for broke” …. Literally. She broke that jar of pricey perfume over Jesus’s smelly feet. She thought nothing of getting down and dirty, and using her own hair, and she didn’t care about the fragrant mess that is was probably making all over the floor, or how in the world she would get it out of the carpet.

Mary, and the other women who surrounded Jesus during Holy Week, were “All-In.” They stayed by Jesus when all the other – male – disciples – had betrayed, denied, and abandoned Jesus. But God was at work doing a new thing, preparing the way from death into life. As the psalmist says, those who sowed in tears will reap with songs of joy. But first, God has to prepare the soil, so that the seeds that God has planted in us can bear fruit.

Lots of things prevent us from going “All-In” with Mary… fear of the unknown, anxiety about doing it right, worry about going in the wrong direction, hesitancy over tough but necessary choices, timidity in dreaming big.

But there are also lots of ways to “prepare the soil” for going “all-in” and they just might be similar in how we can get ready for Holy Week. We can follow Mary’s example, for a start. She INVITED Jesus to HER table. She didn’t expect anything out of him – in fact, she along with Martha, sought to serve HIM. She gave the gift of both her boldness and her humility. She gave the gift of the most expensive thing she owned – the perfume – and then gave the gift of the most precious thing she had – her devotion and her discipleship. In the past, she had sat Jesus’ feet as a pupil, and he had raised her brother from the dead. He had given her everything, and this is the least she could give in return. After all, Jesus had gone “all in for her” and went “all in” for us. 

Coming up soon is the week we tell the story of how Jesus went “all in” for us. Will you be “all in,” this Holy Week to hear and believe? If so, prepare yourselves for the way of the cross. Amen.

Lent 4: Invitation to being Un-Lost

3-31-19

Grace to you and peace from God our creator and from our savior Jesus the Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

I wish more people loved Jane Austen as much as I do. True Jane-ites like myself (yes there is a name for us) know that Austen’s reputation for being “sappy chick-lit” is completely unfounded. Austen was actually a revolutionary for her time: a successful published author in a field dominated by men, and a single woman all her life in a society where most women needed to marry for survival. Her works have inspired more films, reboots, adaptations, and spin-offs than almost any other author. There is a REASON we still read her, and trust me, it’s not just that we all want to ride in carriages and marry Mr. Darcy… Though that might be pretty awesome. Austen’s words endure still, because she speaks to us and our human condition today.

Let me give you an example. In her most famed work, Pride and Prejudice, her protagonist Elizabeth sometimes struggles to navigate her relationships to her other sisters. While the older sisters Elizabeth and Jane behave “properly,” their extremely selfish younger sister Lydia – yes, Lydia – is never really punished for her bad behavior. In the end all of her selfish antic lands her a husband BEFORE any of her older sisters. And for the moment, at least, she “wins.”

Now, I think we all have a “Lydia” in our families, right? There is always that sibling or cousin who, no matter how they muck things up, always seems to come up smelling like a rose. While the “Lydias” of the world are continually hungry for more and will do anything to satisfy that hunger, the dutiful “older siblings” feel the sting of unfairness. So, you see, even two hundred years later, Jane Austen has successfully described every family reunion EVER.

Families are always complicated. And the Family of God across the ages has been no different. At EVERY “family of God” reunion, meaning worship and holy communion, there are present “oldest” siblings and “younger” siblings… but, if I had to guess… there are probably far more “older siblings” present here. I don’t mean by physical age in your family of origin, but more like the older brother in the parable that Jesus tells.

To be here at this church, toiling away faithfully despite the “family issues,” rather than leaving to join another church, shows some of the Older Sibling traits of faithfulness, steadfastness, and commitment. Family of God Lutheran church would not be here today without their, and your, dedication.

But beware the shadow side of the Older Sibling. Here in this parable we witness his resentment, anger, and stubbornness, and rigidity. This is what keeps the older brother in this story out of the party, and on the outside of the joy of his father and estranged from his family. That’s what makes the Pharisees and the scribes – the “good, faithful church goers” – grumble and judge Jesus for hanging out with the lost people on the margins and IN the margins.

As a Lydia, paradoxically I am an older sibling, but moreover I am a lifelong Lutheran and a lifelong church-goer, so I “get” the older brother. I don’t have an amazing “lost” story to tell that gets me invited to be featured on The Moth or On Being with Krista Tippet. I don’t have a powerful “conversion” or “born-again” moment. And that’s ok. My story is my story, and the important things is that I see where God has been present in it. But... right now, it feels as a significant number of pastors who are also in their thirties are all publishing books.  Not everyone, but enough to notice. Like, it’s what all the “cool kids” are doing. And sometimes it makes me feel, no one is coming after ME for a book deal.

But I’ve also noticed something about most of these books coming out … they are from perspectives that have traditionally been thrust to the margins, or at least, they are voices from the “outside.” One is about oneAfrican-American pastor who has a deep love for the ELCA, which is the whitest denomination in the Unites States. Another is from a queer pastor and how she learned to love the Bible. Another is a pastor who has written in the past about her addictions and her tattoos.

These three authors and many others have something in common – they have all experienced being on the outside or have felt lost within the church in some way. I wonder if any of them would trade their book deals to have the position of being on the “inside,” to have a story like mine that is boring but advantaged in many ways.

And yet, with Jesus, the church insiders find themselves on the outside, and the outsiders are let in. That is how Jesus operates…. And its so maddening! Or at least, it can feel that way... to us “older siblings.” The truth is, though, that with Jesus, there is no inside OR outside. There cannot be anyone on the outside if all are truly embraced in the family of God. There is enough Jesus to go around. The love and grace of God is not going to run out.

The older son in this story forgot that. He forgot that he is the OLDEST son in the family and is therefore entitled to the lion’s share already. But his father has to remind him – the father is always with the son, and everything that belongs to the father also belongs to the son. It’s his birthright, his inheritance. Which is language that might seem strange to us, and make it hard for us to find ourselves in the story.

To engaged this old story, Debie Thomas, Episcopal family minister, wrote a letter to each of the sons. This is what she wrote to the older son: “the power in this story is … yours. Your brother is inside; he's done breaking hearts for the time being.  Now your father stands in the doorway, waiting for you.  Waiting for you to stop being lost.  Waiting for you to come home.  Waiting for you to take hold at last of the inheritance that has always been yours.”

We belong to God, and our inheritance has always been evident in our baptisms: claimed as beloved children and given abundant life in Jesus’ victory over the grave. But sometimes we have our heads down, eyes to the plow, dedicated to the work - so much so that we completely miss the music and dancing and celebrating happening in God’s house. And God is at the doorstep, holding out a hand and an invitation to the party… into relationship with people that we might have judged wrongly in the past, or looked down on. This invitation summons us to a future that makes us realize that we have we have been unnecessarily expending our energy in the name of duty and devotion, and that is why we have missed out this party all along… and makes our hard work feel like a waste. But hard work is never wasteful as long as we learn something along the way.

After all, the word prodigal just means “extravagantly wasteful” “use resources freely.’ and Jesus did not name his parable “The prodigal son.” That came much later. Perhaps we could also call this parable “The TWO Lost Son.” Or even, “The Prodigal Father” – because of the prodigal, wasteful, and extravagant use of resources on BOTH of his lost sons. The father in the story IS very much like God – God loves us lavishly and extravagantly, throwing us the ultimate victory feast over death, every… single… Sunday… and then, coming outside, to where we are to give us a personal invitation.

So, what are we going to do? We can stay outside the celebration and remain just as lost as the younger brother was. After all, a sibling turning his back on another sibling is not all that different from a son that up and leaving his father with his half of the inheritance.

Our other choice is to take the hand of the prodigal father and go into the party, to take a risk that might make us feel uncomfortable or scary us a little bit. To welcome our siblings face to face, and to realize that you both have been lost, but now are found… you both were dead and now are come back to life, through the same love of Jesus Christ, and joined together in one family of God – older and younger, parent and child, dutiful and prodigal, you and them and me.  Thanks be God. Amen.

Art from the back wall of the sanctuary