Sunday, March 27, 2022

Year C Lent 4 2022 Grace Gets In Close

 Year C Lent 4, 27 March 2022

St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA

“Grace Gets In Close”


Collect: Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.


2 Corinthians 5:16-21

From now on, 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. If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; 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. 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. 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

All the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them."

So Jesus told 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 belong to me.' So he divided his property between them. 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, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. 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. He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. 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! I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands."' 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. 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.' 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. And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!' And they began to celebrate.

"Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. He replied, 'Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.' Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. 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. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!' Then the father said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 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.'"


Getting close is a hazardous thing. Our preconceived notions shatter. The pretty veneer disappears very quickly. When we get in close, we start to see the blemishes, the pimples, the ingrown hairs. We smell the bad breath or the too-much-ness of the perfume. Whenever we get close, we start to see all that makes up whatever image we have, all the good or all the bad, together in our heads. We may want the purity of black and white, when life, all of life if we are honest, is gray. To get close we have to get our hands dirty, and we have to let our preconceived notions be blemished.


One of the reasons I think that God can be so forgiving of us, so gracious, is because God knows us so well. If God knows the number of hairs on our head [Luke 12:7], then God knows our warts, and zits, and accomplishments, and failures. God knows us all, and all of each of us, and God still loves us. That is Grace, my friends.


Last week I mentioned that the parable told about the fig tree gives two competing images of God: The Smiter and The Gardener. And Jesus makes sure we understand that God is the Gardener, not giving up and working for the best. We are still combating the Sky God image with the thunderbolts. Here we are given another image of God, that of the loving and forgiving Father. But the juxtaposition this week is how we live in that Grace.


How do we wrestle with it? How do we let it seep in our bones?


Both sons took the Father and his graciousness for granted. Both were so loved they thought it just was, unflinching, unchanging. One son took it so much for granted that he asked for his portion of the inheritance, which is as crass a thing as a child could ask for. He is basically telling dear ol’ dad that he is the same as dead to him, and he is taking the money and running away. 


We know this story. Most everyone knows this story, whether in or out of the church. The archaic word Prodigal has entered our culture and we know it well. It has nothing to do with running away, or coming back contrite. It is late Middle English: from late Latin prodigalis, from the Latin for ‘lavish’. Prodigal has come to mean more, but it comes from how he spent the money. He partied it up, and was “lavish” with the wealth. Until it was all gone.


Some people have to hit bottom before they figure things out. Thankfully, the Prodigal found that the bottom was solid and that is when he had his epiphany. His dad whom he always considered naïve and too nice(or why else would he have the nerve to ask for his inheritance), there is one place he would be welcome, even after all of it. He worked on his speech, and I would even say it was sincere. “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.” He just knew that feeding slop to pigs, as low as a good Jewish boy could fall by the way, there had to be a better way. And his dad came to mind. And he went home. Jesus’s listeners to this story would have been in shock by all of this son’s actions.


And if I were filming this, this is the point in the movie when we get stirring music underneath a montage of heartwarming and heartbreaking images to go along with the sweeping strings. 


And then it cuts to the Father, who is out on his porch looking out at the distance, heartbroken. And then while still far off, he spies his son. And this Father of advanced years throws decorum out the window and sweeps the son up in his arms and thanks God. Put a ring on his finger! Put a robe around him! Cover those bleeding and bruised feet with shoes! Kill the fatted calf we were saving, for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!' And they began to celebrate.


Even the most hardened of hearts gets a little choked up with the image. Grace is not only Amazing, it is Beautiful.


But I started with how we are given a juxtaposition. We love the first part of the story, but so readily skip on, or give a passing nod to the other Son, the “good” Son. He did everything he was supposed to do. But why? Why did he do it? Steeped in so much love, it seems to not have rubbed off on him. He comes in from the field, having worked hard for the Father all day, and sees a party happening. He calls over a slave to ask what on earth is going on. “Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.


And that is when the heart of the Good Son is exposed. So steeped in love, so far from loving. His bitterness and resentment come out. He never got a party. He never sowed his wild oats. He worked and worked and worked, and what about him! We turn our heads away. This is not a picture we want to see. 


We like Redemption. We like Reconciliation. We like the Happy Ending. The Miserable Reality is not a picture we like, or want to see. But if we see the Prodigal as sinners welcomed in, and the Father as God, what does that make the Good Son?


We really do not want to go there. We want to be respectable. We want to be likable. We want things Just So. And Grace has been replaced with Decorum. We absolutely MUST read this story in the context it starts with: 

All the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them."

The self-righteous, the rule-keeping accountants, judged Jesus for doing what he came to do. He did not come to uphold faulty systems of self-justification, facades of empty shells. He came to bring in the lost, the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, and to inform them that they were loved and could be transformed. And that is a dirty and hard business.


As I started this morning:

Getting close is a hazardous thing. Our preconceived notions shatter. The pretty veneer disappears very quickly. When we get in close, we start to see the blemishes, the pimples, the ingrown hairs. We smell the bad breath or the too-much-ness of the perfume. Whenever we get close, we start to see all that makes up whatever image we have, all the good or all the bad, together in our heads. We may want the purity of black and white, when life, all of life if we are honest, is gray. To get close we have to get our hands dirty, and we have to let our preconceived notions be blemished.

God came close to us, he moved into the neighborhood as The Message translation says it in talking about Jesus. [John 1:14] In our reading from St. Paul this morning, he speaks to how God got God’s hands dirty, coming down to take care of business himself. This was too important to give over to someone else. A Priest would not do. A Prophet would not do. Only God Incarnate would, and that means showing up and getting down in the muck and the mire. He put on a skin suit and walked a lifetime in our shoes.


In our Lenten Study we look at the Covenants of God, and we see that there are three things that the evolving and unveiling Covenants that God made with us reveal. Covenants look at Paradise (lost or slowly regained), Progeny delivered to ensure a future, and the whole point, the Real Presence of God with us. 


Christ came like the Father running from afar to welcome us home and invite us to be transformed from the heart out. This would apply to both sons in our parable today. As our New Testament reading said:

If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; 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. 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. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. [2 Cor 5:17-21]


Reconciliation is about getting in close. We cannot avoid the wrinkles or the scars. We cannot miss the smells and shame. The Father saw the cracked, bruised, and bleeding feet, and smelled the pig slop, and the filth, and the sweat. But nothing would keep him from embracing his Son.


Reconciliation is about Again (re-) Within (-con-) Eyelash Distance (-cilia-) from someone. Close enough to see the little hairs. You do not get that close without taking in everything. And our purpose, as was God’s in all the Covenants, was to get in close. To see the good and the bad, to experience it all, and not turn away. To love and welcome and invite Transformation.


For those of us in the Church, like the Good Son, how do we make it about doing the “right thing,” so much so that we miss the whole point?


For those who are outside, looking with eyes of wonder, could it really be true? Could life be better? Could Love be real? Will I be welcomed and encouraged and accepted, warts and stink and all?


Jesus did not come to make self-righteous people feel better about themselves. Jesus came preaching a Gospel of Grace that is rumbling through cultures and history STILL to transform the world. Jesus knew that his hands would get dirty. He knew that this would require blood, sweat, and tears. It still does.



Friends, are we a club of self-righteous smugness or a filling station to be about the work of making Hanover County and Ashland proper more and more like heaven each and every day? As St. Teresa of Avila prayed, “From silly devotions and sour-faced saints, good Lord, deliver us!” That is still true.


The world is still in need of Grace. The world is still in need of Reconciliation. The world still needs Jesus and his words. What are we going to do about it? What am I going to do about it? 


The story today is called the Prodigal Son, the “Lavish” Son. But the most lavish thing in the story today is the Father, the Prodigal Father, showering his love and Grace. God the Father still does. Amen

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Blessings, Rock