Rev. Cathy Cox<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sermon – Lent 4C Joshua 5:9-12, Psalm 32, 2 Corinthians 5:16-21, Luke 15:1-3, 11-32<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today\u2019s readings are all about the prodigal Father.
We have badly misunderstood the story to call it \u201cthe prodigal son\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cProdigal\u201d isn\u2019t a bible word, anyway.
But if we are going to use it, remember that it has two meanings – wasteful, and GENEROUS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So let\u2019s not get hung up on the son who messed up, badly.
Who wasted his father\u2019s money.
Or even the resentful older brother who is so darned unattractive.
Let\u2019s notice the Father, first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Joshua, God has erased the shame of Israelite enslavement in Egypt – The disgrace of Egypt was \u201crolled away.\u201d The 40 years of wandering were over. The disobedience of the people on that journey is forgotten.
And now, having crossed the Jordan and entered the land they were given, God\u2019s temporary provision of manna ended, as the people of God were enabled to settle down, and plant, and eat the fruit of their own labor.
That\u2019s how God treats people who have been ungrateful, neglectful, even hostile to the freedom they have been given. They still don\u2019t get it. But God doesn\u2019t care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the Psalm – the moment the psalmist confesses his wrong-doing, he realizes it\u2019s already forgiven – \u201cHappy are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sin is put away.\u201c
It is after recognizing wrong-doing and acknowledging it, God that \u201csurrounds us with songs of deliverance!\u201d
God\u2019s songs!
It is God\u2019s great delight to be that kind of God. The God who rushes out to meet God\u2019s own beloved children.
And look at the Epistle – \u201cGod has reconciled us to himself through Christ – reconciled the WORLD to himself, not counting their trespasses against them!\u201d
Done. Finished.
So it is our privilege to tell everybody that God has already rushed out to meet us – all – all – all and wrapped us in the robe of his love, and put a ring on the world\u2019s finger, so to speak. Done. Nothing to fear. No threats. None.
A God \u201cout to get you\u201d is a figment of your anxious imagination\u2026or, sadly, a figment of the imagination of preachers and teachers and sometimes parents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We have a prodigal God – a prodigal Father, too generous for the taste of many who love – and fear God.
But this God is also the source of our astonished joy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And so we come to the Gospel story itself.
But you know it already.
The Father is watching, waiting, and seeing his son \u201cfrom afar\u201d runs out to meet him, embracing him and rejoicing before the son has a chance to say anything and more or less ignoring everything the boy has rehearsed when he does speak.
It\u2019s irrelevant.
This story is about the Father. Dancing for joy. Giving his errant kid the best robe and an expensive ring – and a party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, it\u2019s also about the older brother who angrily refuses to rejoice – or to even go into greet his brother – who calls him \u201cthis son of yours\u201d – who furiously argues that he has always done everything the \u201cright\u201d way – who claims to have \u201cworked like a slave\u201d for his father\u2026 who resents his Father for not giving him a calf – even though it all belongs to him and he could have enjoyed it all – including a young goat if he has dared to trust it!
But wait a minute. Who ever asked him to think about himself that way, to react to his Father\u2019s love with such an attitude of servile, unhappy obedience?
That\u2019s an interesting question, isn\u2019t it?
It doesn\u2019t seem to be his father – so where did he learn to see himself, his rigid obedience, his careful observance of the rules, as \u201cgood\u201d – and his father as a hard-to-please slave-driver? Ask that – consider it for a long time if you need to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Remember that the younger son remembers him differently:
\u201cEven my father\u2019s hired hands have bread enough to spare\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And listen to this from Father David Janus:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe wants them both,
Though only God knows why.
The younger-selfish, sensuous, scheming.
The older – selfish in his self-righteousness way, happier with his junior gone,
Not willing to spill one drop of compassion.
Me, I would dump the pair.
Doesn\u2019t the old man have any daughters?
He\u2019d be better off with them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHow to understand this God?
In the late Catholic playwrite, Terrance Mc Nally\u2019s play, Love, Valor, Compassion, a young, gay blind character named Bobby, speaks this soliloquy to the audience:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDo you believe in God? Do you?
I think we all believe in God in our own way.
Or want to.
Or need to.
Only so many of us are afraid to.
Unconditional love is pretty terrifying.
We don\u2019t always think we deserve it.
It\u2019s human nature to run.
But God always finds us.
God never gives up.
I use to think that\u2019s what other people were for,
Lovers, friends, family. I had it all wrong.
Other people are as frightened as we are.
We love, but not unconditionally.
Only God is unconditional love.
And we don\u2019t even have to love him back.
He\u2019s very big about it.
I have a lot of reservations about God.
What intelligent, caring person doesn\u2019t lately?
But the way I see it,
God doesn\u2019t have any reservations about me.
It\u2019s very one-sided.
It\u2019s unconditional.
Besides, he is God. I am not.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is the way God is.
And nothing you imagine, or that you have been taught can change that.
Nothing you fear can change that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And that is why, today, we read these stories – and rejoice that God is not like us – and wear rose-colored vestments, and eat rose -colored pie and rose-frosted cupcakes and drink pink lemonade and laugh right outloud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rev. Cathy Cox Sermon – Lent 4C Joshua 5:9-12, Psalm 32, 2 Corinthians 5:16-21, Luke 15:1-3, 11-32 Today\u2019s readings are all about the prodigal Father.We have badly misunderstood the story to call it \u201cthe prodigal son\u201d \u201cProdigal\u201d isn\u2019t a bible word, anyway.But if we are going to use it, remember that it has two meanings […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stalbansbolivar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stalbansbolivar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stalbansbolivar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stalbansbolivar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stalbansbolivar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2566"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stalbansbolivar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2567,"href":"https:\/\/stalbansbolivar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2566\/revisions\/2567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stalbansbolivar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stalbansbolivar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stalbansbolivar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}