| September 16, 2001 Exodus 32:7-14 + 1 Timothy 1:12-17 + Luke 15:1-32 |
| We must look at all the stories we have from this stop on the journey, for together they give us the twelfth virtue, or quality, that marks a disciple of Jesus. We see it in the man who looks for the lost sheep. It is there in the woman who sweeps the house, and all the more obvious in the father who looks, waits, and watches for his son. The disciple is watchful. Even when it makes no sense by the world’s judgement, by the worlds values, the watch, the expectation, the hope, the wait, is never abandoned. |
| The man looking for his lost sheep doesn’t care what anyone else thinks. Never mind that to leave ninety-nine in danger and look for one opens him up for criticism and ridicule because the one that wanders is the one that always wanders. Never mind that he may have done it before. He goes off looking and watching to find. |
| The woman looking for her coin is not concerned about anything except finding that coin. She goes about her business with single purpose, finding that coin. She would have swept anyway, but now she sweeps night and day to find that coin, uninterested in the fact that she had nine others just like it. |
| The father is the focus of the third story, no matter what riches we may gain from reflection on the other characters. He is watchful for that son to return. He has not gone back to “business as usual” He has not said to the rest of the household. “He’s always going to be that way, forget it.” He has not closed the door on the future, changed the locks on the house, nor cut off any hope of change or growth or reconciliation in himself, his first son, or the “lost one” He is simply watchful, and because of it, he doesn’t miss the chance he gets to have the party I’ve wondered sometimes about that fatted calf. Was there always one being readied for a party, or was he living in watchful anticipation that it would be used for just this purpose? |
| Watchful is the disciple of Jesus Christ. Never cutting off, never giving up hope, never living with that final and self-justifying attitude about another that says: “They’ll just always be that way” “That’s the way they’ve always been, and they’re not going to change.” It’s like pulling down the garage door on hope, and the ultimate conclusion and dismissal of hope. The disciple continues to be watchful and alert to any opportunity for finding anyone that is lost. No matter what others may say, not matter that others may come along to replace what has been lost. The disciple knows the loss and watches for the chance to seize and celebrate the return or reconciliation. |
| Reflecting on this gospel has done more to develop my attitude about capital punishment than any other of the sayings of Jesus. The realization that killing an offender ends all hope of their repentance, is really something to think about. It takes from them more than life. It takes away any hope or opportunity to repent. Giving up on them with the thought that “they’ll never change”is a sad excuse for our judgements when we know how painful it would be were others to say the same thing about us and take away any chance to grow, change, and repent. It is beginning to seem to me that if we take away another opportunity to repent and change, we take the obligation of doing so upon ourselves. |
| What happened to us six years ago in this city now seems to have been a trial run, a preview, if you will, of what has now happened to our whole nation. It makes no difference who did it. It makes no difference why What matters is what we do about it, and what we become because of it. It should come as no surprise to any living person that human beings are capable of great cruelty and evil, especially when driven by hatred, anger, and helplessness. Yet at the same time, great heroism and self-sacrifice out of love rises up in contrast. We can chose which behavior is more worthy of us as disciples of Jesus Christ. Rather than wondering “why”, perhaps we might wonder about what it is we are to become and therefore what we are to do consistent with our identity. |
| In the lives of the people of this gospel there is no effort to blame or punish the lamb or the son. There is one virtue that marks them all. Watchfulness. They look for and wait for the opportunity to restore the unity that is broken, and they never give up nor do anything to eliminate that opportunity Always on the look-out, the disciple remains watchful and vigilant for every opportunity to extend the mercy of God and the embrace of God’s reign not only to those who are deserving, but to those some insist will never change, never be worthy, nor ever find their way home. For the celebration to begin, it takes two movements. one, the return, and two the welcome. In neither case can there be a heart hardened by disappointment, anger, or stubbornness. For this grace, we pray. |