September 12, 2010 at Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK
Exodus 32: 7-11, 13-14 + Psalm 51 + 1 Timothy 1: 12-17 + Luke 15: 1-32
Three parables are told in response to Scribes and Pharisees who have criticized Jesus for eating with Tax Collectors and Sinners. In that culture there were only two groups: those who were in and those who were out. Scribes and Pharisees of course were in. Tax Collectors and Sinners were out. Jesus proposes that a third group would be more in keeping with the Kingdom of God: those who gather in unity to rejoice.
These three parables seem to build upon one another in intensity and importance. The first is about a lost sheep, an animal. The second is about a lost coin. Now this is not just any coin. Such a huge search effort would not be likely for one coin out of ten. Scholars suggest that this coin might have been part of the dowry which would carry much greater significance than monetary value.
The third parable is about a lost human being, a son.
Now parables always reveal something about God. In every parable Jesus reveals something about the “Father.” I doubt that the Jesus of the Gospels thought much about who was in and who was out. He ate with everyone. He ate in the homes of a Pharisees who were not always perfect hosts. He ate at Matthew the tax collector’s home, and he shared a drink with a Samaritan woman of questionable reputation. The “in” and the “out” groups were not of interest to him.
What was of interest was bringing them together. No matter what kept people apart, sickness, social status, territorial boundaries, tribal identity, or language as we see later when His spirit comes on Pentecost, it had to go.
The will of the Father was unity: unity in Israel, unity in the family. And we tell this story today because the will of the Father is not yet accomplished. The work of Jesus in bringing us together is not complete and there is no one left to complete it but you and me. In the last of the three parables, that reality is made obvious by the older son. The Pharisees and Scribes got the point. That older son was them. It made them mad, and rather than see into the story the Will of God for them, they only became angrier leaving those who thought of themselves as “insiders” on the outside while the party begins. The story has no conclusion because it isn’t over yet – there is still time to complete the Will of the Father for which we pray every time we utter those words that Jesus left us.
Finding what was lost, reuniting whatever is separated, restoring what ever and who ever are lost to the family of God is the Will of the Father. In God’s eyes there is neither “in group” nor “out group”. That is our doing, and it has no place in the family of God. The Will of God is a celebration – a party – call it “heaven” if you wish, Paradise, or a wedding banquet, for what else is a wedding but the unification of two people or two families into one. In the years since these parables first revealed the Will of God, we have not made much progress in restoring what is separated and broken. What progress we make
will be measured by our willingness and desire to celebrate. Continuing to insist that some are worthy and some are not, that some belong and some do not is a long way from the celebration. A desire and movement toward reconciliation is the first step toward the party. A waiting willingness and hope that will not die is the next. Seeking and never giving up is part of the disciple’s work.
This Eucharistic assembly is a taste of that celebration to come, but everyone is not here, and some are not here because we did not look for them. Some are not here because we have hurt them. Some are not here because they never knew we missed them. Nonetheless, the Father still stands and waits; some still seek and search for the lost. We may not be content with the way things are in this world while we threaten to burn one another’s sacred books build walls and fences to keep people apart pass laws about language, and continue to polarize even our own nation with ideologies that favor one group over another rather than seek the common good. In this condition, it is even hard to hear the sound of the party over the cries of those who are left out. “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”