Being Fully Human

Brad Sullivan
4th Sunday in Lent, Year C
Sunday, March 14th, 2010
Emmanuel, Houston
Joshua 5:9-12
Psalm 32
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

What does it mean to be fully human? During this season of Lent, our theme has been “knowing God and knowing self.” Looking at our lessons today, we certainly can find a little bit about who God is and who we are as people made by God.

To start with, we’re going to take a look at the story from Joshua. At this point in Joshua, the people of Israel were beginning to be settled in Canaan, and for the first time, the people ate the crops of the land of Canaan. The manna from God stopped appearing for the first time in years. A lazy person might think “great, now we have to work for our food; thanks God,” and yet the people of Israel were glad to be able to grow crops. They were glad to be able to work for their food. They were still cared for by God, but they also go to provide for themselves rather than only gather the food that God gave them.

There is something about being human that we tend to want to have some autonomy. We have some desire to be able to take care of ourselves, at least somewhat. Infants are entirely provided for by their parents. As they grow, they want to and learn to feed themselves. Our son, Noah, wants to do things for himself, and he gets mightily frustrated when he can’t…I love that he’s two. Part of being human is the desire to be able to in some way care for ourselves.

Looking now at the Prodigal son, we find a man who didn’t want to care for or provide for himself. “Give me what’s mine,” he said. He wanted to be given his inheritance so he could live off of it, presumably forever. He wanted to be given everything for ever. He had been cared for as child. Presumably he would have been cared for as an old man, but he wanted to skip the part where he helped care for himself. He wasn’t being fully who he was. The son’s particular sin was wasteful living and the rejection of his father, but generally speaking, the son was sinning because he was denying part of his humanity. He wasn’t living up to and into the image of God in which he was made. Now, the story doesn’t say that explicitly, but the father in the parable says, “this brother of yours was dead and has come to life.” The man’s son was dead, because he was not being truly human. Part of the sons humanity had died and then was restored and brought back to life in the end of the parable.

So looking at our own lives in this “knowing self” piece, when we sin, part of our humanity dies. When we value things over people, like the prodigal son did, or when we hate others or treat them badly, part of our humanity dies. When we turn away from God, part of our humanity dies. When we “sin”, what we’re really doing is straying from or falling short of the image of God in which we were made. For a very stark example, look at mass murderers, rapists, terrorists: we sometimes call them monsters. When we sin, we become less fully human than we were made to be.

I say this not to tear us down, but to build us up. Scripture doesn’t tell us we were terribly made or made to be mediocre. Scripture tells us we were wonderfully made by God, who is love. When we mess up, we often say, “oops, well, I’m only human.” I’ve said this many times before. The meaning, of course, is we know we’re going to make some mistakes and some bad decisions. Saying “I’m only human” is a way of offering ourselves some forgiveness. On the flip side of the coin, however, saying “I’m only human” is little by little to tear humanity down. I’m only human. No one can expect that much of me. I wasn’t made that well. These statements aren’t true. We were wonderfully made.

Of course we’re going to make some mistakes and some bad decisions, that’s part of freedom and part of learning. So, when we make mistakes and bad decisions, a better response might be, “oops, I wasn’t being fully human.” See how that raises us up? When we say, “I’m only human,” we’re really letting ourselves off the hook, which has to do with fear of punishment. John tells us in his first epistle, however, that “perfect love casts out fear, for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.”

We were made not to fear punishment but to love God and to love each other. So, “I wasn’t being fully human” is a more loving response to our sins. “I wasn’t being fully human” affirms how wonderful we truly are. Does God say, “ehh, forget about all those people, they’re only human?” I hope not. Scripture doesn’t seem to indicate that. God calls us to repentance and forgives us.

What did Jesus teach in the parable? After the son had repented and was returning to his father, while the son was yet a long way off, the father ran to him and threw his arms around him. We are wonderfully and lovingly made, and God calls us all to be fully and truly human as we were made to be.

Looking again at the parable of the prodigal son, we can see the father’s forgiveness contrasted with the older brother’s anger towards his younger brother. Does the father tell him, “you go right on being angry; you have every right to be?” No, the father tells the son why they should be celebrating and implicitly asks the older brother to do the same.

Remembering why Jesus told this story in the first place, he had been eating with tax collectors and sinners and the Pharisees and scribes were none too happy about it. They felt, like the older brother, that Jesus should not have been eating with the likes of those reprobates. To be sure, the tax collectors and sinners were all sinners. They were not being fully human. The scribes and the Pharisees, however, in their lack of forgiveness, we’re also being less than fully human. They weren’t living into the image of God in which they were made.

In contrast, by eating with the tax collectors and sinners, Jesus was showing us that God desires not for us to be punished or slain as monstrous beasts when we sin. Rather, God desires to lead us to repentance. God desires to lead us to live as fully human as we possibly can. That’s why Jesus taught us to much about how to live. He cares for us and wants the very best for us. He also cares for us enough, like the Prodigal son’s father, to let us go when we tell him we want to go, and he cares for us enough to run towards us and welcome us back when we desire to return. God loves and forgives us.

Part of our being human, therefore, is also to forgive and to guide to repentance. Jesus didn’t just tell the tax collectors and sinners, “Go on living exactly as you have been, you’re only human.” Jesus taught them a better way, a more life-giving way.

The scribes and the Pharisees looked with contempt on the tax collectors and sinners. Jesus welcomed them and showed them a better way. Looking at how we might do the same, I turn to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians:

But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body…promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.
So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil.
Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. Ephesians 4:15-16, 25-27, 29-32

We are definitely called to hold each other accountable for our actions. Forgiveness is not a simple matter of “anything goes.” Rather, we are taught to speak the truth in love. Be angry, but do not sin. Forgiveness involves calling each other to repentance. Forgiveness involves pointing out those times when we aren’t being fully human, but doing so with love.

“We are ambassadors of Christ,” having been entrusted with the message of reconciliation. As ambassadors of Christ, our message to each other, to ourselves, to the world is, be reconciled to God. The message we have from Jesus is, “you are wonderfully made. You are beloved of God. You are going to make mistakes and bad decisions, and God still loves you so rather than hate yourself when you sin, turn yourself around. Help turn others around. Be the wonderful, beautiful human being God made you to be. Keep on coming back to God, and he will run to embrace you with loving arms.” Amen.