4 Lent, Year C
Sunday, February 24, 2013
St. Mark’s, Bay City
Joshua 5:9-12
Psalm 32
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
Did
you notice how similar the two sons were in the story Jesus told? The younger son didn’t seem to care all that
much for his father, he just wanted to get as much stuff as he could from his
dad. “Give me my inheritance,” he
said. The older son seemed at first to care a bit more for his
dad than the younger son, but as it turns out, their hearts were
identical. “You owe me and I want what’s
mine,” the younger brother said at the beginning of the story. Those same words, “you owe me and I want
what’s mine,” were on the heart of the older brother. His heart just wasn’t revealed until the end
of the story.
The older
son seemed to feel he was due a party for working so hard for his dad. He presumably never asked for a party, nor
for the dead goat he so desperately wanted.
He seemed to think his relationship with his father was one of employer
and employee. “I work, and you give me
stuff.”
I
think the father in Jesus’ story might have said something like, “Well, Son, I
thought you were with me all these years and working with me all these years
because you had some amount of affection for me. I didn’t know it was all so I would give you
a dead goat.” The son seemed to lack
love for his father, just like his brother did.
To
be fair, the son was probably spouting off because he was a bit jealous of his
brother, but still, he seemed to feel his father owed him something. “I’ve been faithful to you, Dad, therefore
you owe me.”
The
Pharisees were the older brother, feeling God owed them something for being so
darn religious. They also despised those
who were not as deeply religious. They
had abandoned the image of God in which they were made, the image of one who
loves others, and they had replaced that image with an image of one who works
for wages. I do this, and then you owe me that.
That’s basically a form of idolatry.
Remember from a couple of weeks ago, I talked about turning God into an
idol, worshipping God in order to get something from God rather than out of
love for God.
The
tax collectors and sinners, on the other hand, having been forgiven of their
sins and shown a more beautiful way of life by Jesus, loved God for the gift of
love and grace he had shown them. They
had come to their senses like the younger brother in the story. There was no tit for tat exchange going on. There was love given by God and loved
received by the tax collectors and sinners, who then gave God their love and
found their loved received by God
We
can look at this story and apply it to any deeply religious person who feels
God owes him something for being faithful in his religious observance. “I haven’t eaten anything all Lent, God, so
you should give me something great come Easter.” Having been faithful in religious practice
and observance, some might feel that God owes them something. We from time to time might feel the same way. Shouldn’t we be rewarded for our
faithfulness?
“Faith,
hope, and love abide, these three, and the greatest of these is love,” we’re
told in 1 Corinthians 13:13. Faith or raithfulness
is good, but love is even greater. We
act kindly toward those whom we love in order to love them and be loved in
return, not in order to get some reward from them or to be paid what we’re
due. Otherwise what would we say? “I loved you really well for 45 hours this
week; I’ll expect my paycheck next Monday…oh, and I’d like a raise. You’ve been rather insufferable lately.”
Of
course not! Our relationships are based
not on an economy of exchange, but on an economy of grace and love. Life in God’s kingdom is also based not on an
economy of exchange, but on an economy of grace and love.
An
economy of exchange means goods and services of equal value are exchanged. I work, providing this service for you, and
you give me money, or food, or housing, or something else in exchange for my
work, basic economy of exchange. An
economy of grace and love, on the other hand, is not based on exchanging good
and services of equal value.
Rather,
an economy of grace and love is based on giving and receiving freely gifts of
grace simply for the sake of love of the other.
Again, we aren’t kind to those whom we love so that we can get something
out of them. We’re kind to those whom we
love simply because we love them. When
we are harmed by those whom we love, as we all will be, we forgive the beloved,
giving that gift of grace, simply out of love for the beloved. There is no exchange of equally valued
items. In an economy of grace and love,
there are simply gifts of grace and love given and received freely. An economy of grace and love is the basic
economy of our relationships with each other and the economy of our
relationship with God.
The
Father’s love in the story Jesus told was based on this economy of grace and
love. He did not love his sons based on
how well they did in life or even how faithful they were to him. The older son was faithful to him, the older
was not, and he loved them both equally.
He gave the younger son the gifts of the robe, the ring, and the fatted
calf and party, not because he had done anything to deserve those gifts. The father gave the younger son those gifts
simply out of the grace of forgiveness and the love he had for his son.
So too with the older son, the father said, “Son,
you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.” In other words, “Son, you are not working for
me like a slave, and you’re not working for me like an employee. I owe you no wages. I love you, and all that I have I give to
you, not because I owe you for your work, but simply because I love you.”
“Faith, hope, and love abide, these
three, and the greatest of these is love.”
The older son was faithful to his father. The younger son hoped for his father’s
forgiveness. The Father loved his sons. In this story, Jesus reveals to us our hears,
often similar to the sons hearts, and Jesus reveals to us God’s heart, the
heart of the Father who loves his children.
“Happy are they whose transgressions are forgiven, and whose sin is put
away!” We heard in our psalm today. “Happy
are they to whom the LORD imputes no guilt, and in whose spirit there is no
guile!” (Psalm 32:1-2)
Happy are those who have accepted
God’s gift of grace in the forgiveness and love he freely gives. Happy are those who have come to their senses
and no longer demand an inheritance from God, but love God for the gifts
already given and seek only to dwell with God and share in his love. Happy are those who love God and love others
not with an economy of exchange but with an economy of grace and love. Amen.
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