Scripture Lesson:
From the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 15:
1Now all the tax-collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. 2And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, ‘This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.’
11 Then Jesus said, ‘There was a man who had two sons. 12The 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. 13A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and travelled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. 14When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. 15So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. 16He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. 17But 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! 18I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; 19I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.’ ” 20So 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. 21Then the son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” 22But 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. 23And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; 24for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!” And they began to celebrate.
25 ‘Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. 26He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. 27He replied, “Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.” 28Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. 29But 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. 30But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!” 31Then the father said to him, “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32But 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.”
"Lost in Righteousness"
A
Sermon Preached by
Rev. Jean Niven Lenk
at
the First
Congregational Church of Stoughton
United
Church of Christ
I“Well a poor boy took his father's bread and started down the road.”
Thus begins the song “Prodigal Son” sung by Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones, based on this morning’s scripture lesson. Wow, I was able to work in both “Mick Jagger” and the word “scripture” in the same sentence – well now that’s a first! But maybe not so surprising.
Afterall, the Prodigal Son is the most beloved and well known of all Jesus’ parables. It has been called “the gospel within the gospel” and “the pearl of parables.” Charles Dickens, the great English author, called it “the greatest story ever told.” Poet Robert Bridges judged it a “flawless piece of art.” The reason is because this parable captures the essence of the Christian faith and sums up the central message of the whole New Testament. No wonder that through the centuries, this story has inspired poets, artists, and musicians, including even the Stones.
But I suspect that for many of us, the Parable of the Prodigal Son is so familiar that we almost don’t pay attention to it anymore; we hear the first line and immediately jump to the familiar interpretation – the father is our patient and loving God who waits for us while we wander away. And then, after we mess up and decide to come back, God graciously and joyously forgives us and welcomes us home.
But this reading sentimentalizes Jesus’ teaching, because his real purpose is not to warm the hearts of his listeners, but to challenge them. And so, this morning, I would like us to consider not just the story itself, but also to whom Jesus was aiming it.
It is on his final journey to Jerusalem that Jesus tells this parable to two different groups who have come to hear him. First are the “tax collectors and sinners,” who observe neither the moral laws of the Bible nor the sacred rules for ceremonial purity. They hear Jesus’ preaching with the ears of outsiders, for -- like the younger brother in the Jesus’ parable -- they have “left home” by leaving the traditional morality of respectable society.
The second group listening to Jesus is the “Pharisees and the scribes,” the dutiful, educated, and religiously devout keepers of the law. The Pharisees are all about being righteous and faithful, and like the older brother in the parable, they hold to the traditional morality of their upbringing; they study and obey Scripture; they worship faithfully and pray constantly; and they hear Jesus’ preaching with the ears of the insiders.
But they have also been critical of Jesus; the second verse of this morning’s lesson says that they have been grumbling about Jesus’ scandalous way of welcoming, and eating with, and talking to people the Pharisees consider unclean, unlovable and unworthy; people whose behavior, the Pharisees are sure, has placed them far beyond the reach of God’s love.
The Pharisees’ reaction in this verse is nothing new. Throughout his Galilean ministry, Jesus constantly offended the Bible-believing religious people of the day. In contrast, outcasts of all sorts –sexual1, racial2, and political -- were drawn to him. And in the gospels, Jesus says to those respectable religious people, “the tax collectors and prostitutes will enter the Kingdom of Heaven before you.3]
So, when Jesus overhears the Pharisees’ grumbling -- and in response to their unforgiving, judgmental spirits -- he tells the parable, turning it into a story both for his audience and also about it. And while the tax collectors and sinners may have been moved to tears hearing how God will always love and welcome them back, no matter what they’ve done, the righteous religious leaders in Jesus’ audience would have had a completely different reaction.
An alternate name for this story is the parable of the Lost Son, and indeed the younger son does lose himself. After he demands and gets from his father his inheritance, this ne’er do well runs off to a “distant country,” where he recklessly squanders it all on fast living. When his last penny is gone and a famine hits the land, he swallows his pride and slinks home to Dad.
We can imagine the Pharisees hanging on every word as Jesus’ story unfolds, certain that the younger son is about to get everything he deserves and more. They would be fully expecting to hear that the father has banished him forever. But surprise, surprise… the younger son is welcomed home by his joy-filled father, who comes running out to him, arms open in forgiveness.
The righteous religious leaders in Jesus’ audience would have been startled, offended, infuriated by the father’s welcome; where they expect judgment, the father shows love; where they expect condemnation, he shows compassion. Because in the father’s eyes, his family is incomplete without his younger son, and all he wants in his family restored to wholeness and unity.
This is actually a parable about lost sons – plural, because there is another member of this family – the elder brother. He has always done the right thing, always worked hard, always obeyed his father. His life is all about being righteous and faithful. And yet, this man of moral rectitude is as spiritually lost as his wayward little brother has been, and just as separated from God. And to underscore this point, when Jesus ends his story, he deliberately leaves the elder son in his alienated state, stewing out in the back yard. It is the complete reversal of everything the Pharisees have ever been taught, everything they believe about God, about themselves, and about those they consider unworthy.
Think about it. The “bad” son enters the father’s feast – a symbol of reunion, reconciliation, and forgiveness -- but the “good” son will not, despite the urgings of his father, who wants his family brought back together. And why does the elder son stay outside, unwilling to say “yes” to his father’s loving invitation and join the party? Because, as he disrespectfully tells him, “Listen, I have never disobeyed you.” In other words, it is not the elder brother’s wrongdoing that creates the barrier between him and his father, it’s his angry self-righteousness that takes him so far away from his father and keeps from sharing in the feast.
Let me put that a different way -- Our righteousness can keep us estranged from God. Most of us think that sin – separating from God -- is failing to keep God’s rules of conduct. But you can also separate by keeping the letter of the law but missing the Gospel message of love, by thinking that because you follow the rules exactly, you are entitled to determine whom God loves and welcomes and forgives.
I would like us to remember this point as we move forward in our Open and Affirming Process, discerning whether we want to extend an unequivocal and public welcome to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered people into the full life and ministry of this church. We invite all of you to our next meeting, which will take place on Wednesday, March 31, beginning at 7 pm. At this meeting, we will be looking at biblical perspectives on homosexuality.
This is an important step, because our Protestant heritage compels us to view scripture as a central source of the revelation of God. And yet, our tradition does not read scripture literally or as the inerrant, infallible word of God. Indeed, the way in which the Bible is interpreted here at the First Congregational Church of Stoughton – in our sermons, our prayers, and our worship liturgy, as well as our Bible studies and other ministries – is that the Bible is the living, breathing, dynamic Word of God.
The 66 books of the Bible were written by men – and I do mean men -- living in a particular time, place, and culture, and they express at times quite contradictory understandings of our relationship with God and God’s will for our lives. We cannot simply pick and choose what we like or what seems to support our particular point of view. The Bible is not a clear-cut black-and-white rulebook for living; instead, the scriptures are complex and nuanced and need to be studied, reflected upon, wrestled with, interpreted, and understood in light of our own context and experience, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
There are a number of biblical passages that clearly label homosexual acts as an abomination, including some found in Leviticus4 in the Old Testament, and in Paul’s letter to the Romans5 in the New Testament. And because the Bible does condemn homosexual activity, it is important to ask whether the biblical judgment itself is correct. Now, some of you may find it inconceivable that we would question anything in scripture. But we as a society and as a people have, through the centuries, indeed questioned the Bible’s stance on issues.
For instance, we have questioned the Bible because it can and has been used to proclaim that slavery is ordained by God. We have questioned the Bible because it has been used to relegate women to subservience and to justify male polygamy. We have questioned the Bible relative to divorce; Jesus says in Matthew, “I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery."6
If we were to adhere to every biblical precept, we would be stoning anybody who ever had an affair or pre-marital sex. Banks would be out of business because the Bible much more frequently condemns lending money for profit than it condemns homosexual acts. I would have been required to marry the brother of my late husband, rather than the person of my own choosing. And as a woman, I would not be here speaking to you in this church, much less talking to you as an ordained pastor, if we did not question some of the judgments made in the Bible.
And so, I think it is the right and important – indeed, the faithful – thing for us to do, to question some of the judgments in the Bible. Almost four hundred years ago, when the Pilgrims – our Congregational forebears – prepared to leave Europe for the New World, their pastor in Holland, John Robinson, urged them to keep their hearts and minds open to new ways and new interpretations of the Holy Scriptures with these words: “The Lord hath more truth and light yet to break forth out of his holy Word.” And our denomination, the United Church of Christ, is still urging us to keep open hearts and open minds with the words “God is still speaking.”
And if in our Reformed tradition the Bible is a central revelation of God, then as Christians, it is Christ who is the central revelation of God for us. Not the Levitical laws, not the Apostle Paul, but Christ who is the center; we are, afterall, called Christians, not Paulians or Levites.
So, what did Christ say about homosexuality?
Nothing; he never addressed the issue. But what he did do was challenge all relationships between individuals and within society that were based in any way, shape, or form on wrongful exclusion, abuse of power, or spiritual or economic oppression. What Christ modeled was inclusion, integrity, love, respect, mutual responsibility, faithfulness, commitment and a radical trust in the providence, love and presence of God who loves us even before we can attempt to do anything to justify ourselves.
On this fifth Sunday in Lent, as we continue our journey with Jesus toward Jerusalem, it is a time for us to look deep into hearts at how we have become estranged from God and also from each other. Sin is separation from God, God’s people, God’s creation, and God’s purpose for our lives. The word “repentance” literally means to turn back --- to turn around, to turn back toward God, to return – from exile, from estrangement from God, from the distant country, even from the back yard. To repent is to return and reconnect with the who one stands, waiting at the window, on the front porch, outside the house, ready to run and wrap divine arms around us to welcome us home and restore the human family to wholeness.
On his way to Jerusalem and the cross, Jesus stands ready to return us to right relationship with God. But he leaves the ending of his parable up to us, to decide: will we stand outside the house all alone being right about following the letter of the law, even if it misses Christ’s spirit of love, or will we come in from being lost in righteousness to take our place at the banquet table of reunion, reconciliation, and forgiveness and feast on God’s extravagant, inclusive and unconditional love? Amen.
1 Luke 7.
2 John 3 and 4.
3 Matthew 21:32.
4 18:22.
5 1:26-27.
6 Matthew 19:1.
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