Joshua 5:9-12 * Psalm 32 * 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 * Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
How do you feel when you lose something? How do you feel when you find it again? Well, it depends on what you’ve lost, and in what context. If you lose your keys while bringing in a load of groceries, you know that they will be found again. You let yourself into the house with them, and though you didn’t put them in their normal place, you know that they ARE there; there’s a finite number of places they could be. So, it’s a basic search and rescue operation, and you feel a bit silly when you find them in the freezer on top of the ice cream, but also a little relieved. When you discover that you’ve lost something through no fault of your own, like a missing earring, you feel a bit more frustrated at the lack of control over the situation, and disappointment that you may not find the missing jewellery. Maybe they were your favourite earrings, maybe they were an heirloom; you feel a sense of loss. And, a few weeks down the road when you find it under the edge of the fridge, there’s relief and you realise that you now appreciate these earrings more because you have known what it is like to do without them, and you understand what emotional connection you have to them. Sometimes we lose things due to appearance – I once lost my car while Christmas shopping. I walked out of the store, and in the spot where I had parked my very dirty, brownish-greyish Kia Sportage, there was a sparkling silver SUV. I was furious – someone had intentionally stolen MY car, with all MY purchases in it. I was indignant – all my plans for that week would have to be re-arranged as there would be reports to file, I would have to buy a new car despite having JUST paid off that one, Christmas would be lean in the giving department. As I was pulling out my mobile phone to call the police, I remembered that I had just been through the car wash, and so the sparkling car was in fact mine. I was embarrassed, naturally, as my eyes and memory had deceived me; but mostly I was relieved and delighted that my very human plans would not need to change.
Now, I invite you to imagine that someONE has been lost. Not just a thing, a material item, but a person you love deeply. Imagine that this person has chosen to leave you, and in the days before telephone or email, you have no way of knowing where they are, what they are up to, even if they’re still alive. They decided to go and party, with no intention of returning. When the eldest son takes his inheritance, it is with the understanding that to him, his father is dead. The wealth is much more important than his family. He turns his back on his relatives, his home, everything that has meant much to him up to this point. He’s just won the jackpot, the ultimate lottery. He’s RICH! He can buy friends and servants and all the clothes and food he wants, he doesn’t need to labour for dad, following the old man’s rules, sharing everything with his brother. He is now his own man, and can live how he pleases.
So – imagine how dad feels. Betrayed, but allowing his son to go with half of his money as he desires. He’s depressed – his own child has turned his back on him and the rest of the family. The son’s departure not only symbolises that the son considers the family dead, but that the family should consider the son dead as well. Yet dad continues working, for the sake of the remaining family, which is much more important than the significant mount of money that he has just lost long with his child.
Imagine how the younger brother who stays at home feels. He’s picking up the slack that his absent brother has left. He’s looking after the physical and emotional needs of the household – presumably mom, sisters, and servants along with dad. This is the good child, who likely has received his parents’ blessings for his commitment to family. He may miss his brother, but he has set up his life around this new structure.
Imagine the first brother. He is out, having a good time. Partying, spending all his money. Until the money runs out. Suddenly, his bought friends are no longer wanting to spend time with him, the rich foods and clothes start to disappear, and life isn’t as good as it once seemed. He’s penniless, friendless, starving and wearing threadbare rags. No one will lend him money, he cannot get work, he’s begging for food and still doing without. He has hit rock bottom.
So, what happens? He repents. He returns to his father’s land, begging to be forgiven. He is not expecting a handout from the Bank of Mom and Dad, he is not even expecting to be acknowledged. But he hopes. He returns because this is his last hope at finding work, and thus staying alive. He is certainly not expecting his father to throw a feast at his return. Equally surprised is the “good child” brother, the one who has laboured without partying, the one whose inheritance remains secure. This brother cries out against the injustice of the situation. It’s not fair! And of course, any parent has heard those words before. And that’s the truth – it isn’t fair. It wasn’t fair that when the older brother left, all the work landed on the younger brother. It wasn’t fair that the father not only accepted the brothers’ return, but celebrated it. It wasn’t fair that that celebration of the older brother came at the cost of the younger brothers’ future inheritance. And, in a culture where birthrights establish your place in life, it wasn’t fair that the brothers’ return has now cost the younger brother his place as first son. It was simply not fair.
But then again, life seldom is.
So what are we to learn from this? We already know that life isn’t fair, that some people have amazing advantages based on birthplace, access to education, colour of skin, economic situation, etc. We know this – as did people at that time. If you happened to be born to the royal family, you were rich, well advantaged. If your parents happened to be slaves – well, life would always be difficult, and it wouldn’t legally belong to you. We know this. So what is it that Jesus is trying to teach us?
We can learn that no matter our earthly situation, we are loved. Jesus uses this parable to invite us to recognise that when we repent, when we acknowledge that we need our Father above all else, and are willing to be humble about it, we receive riches beyond our imagination. The prodigal son coming home is an allegory for us to see the benefits of returning to God, every time we have turned away; every time we have chosen to take advantage of our earthly fortunes to our own glory, not God’s. We are the benefits of complete and unconditional love from God, no matter how far we feel we my have distanced ourselves from Him.
We can also learn from the younger brother. While his first reaction identifies the perceived injustice of the situation, once things have calmed down a little bit he can choose to see what he has lost. The truth is, he has lost nothing. He remains a beloved child in the family, whose efforts have always been appreciated. His safety and security are still present, it’s not as though he’s being kicked out because his brother came back. His inheritance remains intact; he is still entitled to half of his fathers’ land and livestock. Ideally, he would not have been counting on what would become his; it’s tacky to consider how your own net worth might increase at the cost of a loved ones’ life. And his father reminds him of all of this, and also of the benefit of having his brother back, essentially from the dead. The father articulates that he has never been ignored simply because he has remained constantly present.
We can choose to hear in this story a message of appreciation, not of loss. We, the beloved family of God, are not ignored simply because we’re the ones who are involved here at the church, worshipping, praying daily, living as Christ commands. God rejoices when someone repents and returns to Him; he also rejoices every second of every day that we acknowledge we belong to him. God appreciates us for simply being; He never takes it for granted that we will always choose to be His. Which means that none of us will ever be lacking for His love based on any of our actions. We are fully loved, no matter what we do, no matter what we think, no matter what we feel. And so, the younger brother is correct – it’s not fair. God’s love is not ‘fair’ by modern standards. And for that, we thank God.
13 March 2010
07 March 2010
Lent 3
Isaiah 55:1-9 * Psalm 63:1-8 * 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 * Luke 13:1-9
What did you eat today? A hearty breakfast of bacon and eggs? A healthy bowl of oatmeal and glass of juice? Some instant-breakfast drink? Last night’s left-overs? Whatever you had, was it tasty? Did it nourish you? Was the benefit worth the cost?
Our bodies are amazing things. We store up excess nourishment when we have it, we use up that excess when our diets are lacking. Our bodies will, if we pay attention to them, let us know what it is that they need – when we need protein, we crave meat or nuts; when we need fruit or vegetables we crave those. When we need fluids, we get thirsty; when we hunger, our stomachs grumble. As our need increases, so do the messages our bodies give us until we respond.
So where does our sustenance come from? Not just the fridge or cupboard within the house, or the restaurant down the way. The stores. Have you been grocery shopping recently? Likely. When we go shopping, we take part in a very old tradition known as bartering. In our culture, the main instrument of barter is money. Good, hard currency. It may be bills and coin, a credit or debit card, a cheque, whatever – but we pay for what we need and want. And what happens when we take things without paying for them? Well, then the authorities get involved, because that is simply not acceptable in this society.
So- what did you purchase the last time you went shopping? Good lean meats, lots of healthy vegetables and fruits, breads and cereals, milk and cheese. All of those wonderful things that nourish our bodies so that we can do our work in the world. Our bodies need a general blend of nourishing factors to keep us strong and healthy. If we start to go without some of these nutritional building blocks, we start to suffer. When we are more physically active, we need more nourishment, and usually more proteins and carbohydrates to keep our energy up. When we are more sedentary, we need fewer calories but more roughage in order to keep our delicate systems working properly. What we do with our bodies tells us what we need to do to nourish them. However, what we put into our bodies will determine what we can get out of them - we cannot expect high energy output if we are not putting in good quality fuel.
So what else did you buy at the grocery store? What other food – or food-like products – grace your cupboard? There are so many processed foods these days that are so accessible, and easy to prepare, but may not be the best for us nutritionally. The basic rule of foods is that if you cannot pronounce it., you should not eat it. I challenge you to read some of the ingredients on your processed foods – see if you can identify what it is, why it’s in there, and where it comes from. Snack foods are the worst – the very popular American treat-cake, the Twinkie, is not actually food. It’s mostly oil. Not vegetable oil, crude. Yes, Twinkies are not grown, they’re mined. Suddenly they’re not so tasty, when you know what’s in them. Think about it – if they were food, they would eventually go bad. Just like margarine – it’s one chemical compound away from being plastic. Fruit flies won’t even eat it. But we treat it as food. Instant foods. Potato chips. Microwave popcorn. My own treat of choice – Doritos. All of those products that are now being re-considered – they’re dangerously high in sodium, they’re disastrously high in trans-fats (did we even know what those were 5 years ago?) – these are in our grocery carts because they are tasty, and convenient, and generally inexpensive, and have a long shelf-life, and we know them.
But what do they offer our bodies? Well, they certainly offer calories. And flavour. But not nourishment. In fact, they can have the opposite effect, wreaking havoc in our bodies rather than providing us with the necessary fuel. We’re hearing more and more about the dangers of what we’re eating and how we’re eating it. We’re learning more about how food is produced, grown, transported. There are people who will only eat organic, fairly-traded or local foods, in an effort to avoid this ‘bad stuff’.
So why are we thinking about the nourishment we buy? Because the scriptures today talk to us about the nourishment that is freely given. The reading from Isaiah exudes this in its opening verses – “Ho! Come to the waters, you who thirst! Come and get food and eat it, even if you have no money!” It sounds counter-cultural, because it is. The person speaking here is God. God is offering us nourishment – spiritual nourishment – for everyone. God does not expect to receive compensation for this gift of nourishment. Instead he simply wants people to have their fill. He’s making a promise to continue feeding all those people that come to Him. And he’s not offering the cheap imitation food that isn’t good for us, he’s offering the best possible food that can be found.
God then challenges us to consider what type of nourishment we normally consume. “Why spend your money on that which is not bread?” It’s a two-part question. First God is asking if we prefer Twinkies over fresh bread. Instant and unhealthy or nutritious and tasty? It shouldn’t be a hard question. He’s also asking us if we want the bread of the bakery, or the Bread of Heaven. Physical and earthly things or spiritual and heavenly? Again, it shouldn’t be a hard question. Yet so often we make the wrong choice.
The reading is God making a covenant, or holy contract, with each and every one of us. He reminds us that His ways are not our ways, nor His thoughts our thoughts. We get caught up on the earthly things which offer no nourishment, forgetting to fill ourselves with the spiritual abundance He is offering. And so here God promises us that all we have to do is turn to Him for our spiritual fill, whether we feel we can afford to or not.
Jesus carries this message of free spiritual nourishment one step further. He assures those gathered around that premature death or devastation is not a punishment from God for sin. But he does teach people that they should repent of their sins at all times, because we never know when the end may come. And whether it’s being sacrificed by enemy forces, caught under a falling structure, or more modern examples of vehicle collisions or devastating earthquakes, we do not know when we will leave this life. And so when we repent our sins and choose to walk with God, following His ways and His teachings, we are prepared spiritually for whatever may happen to our mortal physical selves.
And so we prepare. Especially in Lent, as we continue our journey of self-reflection, we see that holding on to our sinful ways and thoughts prevents us from fully receiving God’s grace and spiritual nourishment. We, like the fig tree, can not bear fruit as a result. And so Jesus calls us to tend to ourselves through that repentance – to dig around ourselves, to provide good spiritual nourishment through fasting, studying scripture, prayer and meditation, self-examination. And we remember that God has promised us the best nourishment, as much as we want. God’s promise to us is for our benefit – because God will delight when we will grow into the fruit-producing beings that He made us to be. It all depends if we will let Him nourish us.
So – what did you eat today? What is your body telling you it wants? More importantly, what is your soul telling you it needs? As we continue our journey towards Easter, may we continue our Lenten prayer for strength, perseverance and faith – knowing that God is providing for us the Bread for our Journey.
What did you eat today? A hearty breakfast of bacon and eggs? A healthy bowl of oatmeal and glass of juice? Some instant-breakfast drink? Last night’s left-overs? Whatever you had, was it tasty? Did it nourish you? Was the benefit worth the cost?
Our bodies are amazing things. We store up excess nourishment when we have it, we use up that excess when our diets are lacking. Our bodies will, if we pay attention to them, let us know what it is that they need – when we need protein, we crave meat or nuts; when we need fruit or vegetables we crave those. When we need fluids, we get thirsty; when we hunger, our stomachs grumble. As our need increases, so do the messages our bodies give us until we respond.
So where does our sustenance come from? Not just the fridge or cupboard within the house, or the restaurant down the way. The stores. Have you been grocery shopping recently? Likely. When we go shopping, we take part in a very old tradition known as bartering. In our culture, the main instrument of barter is money. Good, hard currency. It may be bills and coin, a credit or debit card, a cheque, whatever – but we pay for what we need and want. And what happens when we take things without paying for them? Well, then the authorities get involved, because that is simply not acceptable in this society.
So- what did you purchase the last time you went shopping? Good lean meats, lots of healthy vegetables and fruits, breads and cereals, milk and cheese. All of those wonderful things that nourish our bodies so that we can do our work in the world. Our bodies need a general blend of nourishing factors to keep us strong and healthy. If we start to go without some of these nutritional building blocks, we start to suffer. When we are more physically active, we need more nourishment, and usually more proteins and carbohydrates to keep our energy up. When we are more sedentary, we need fewer calories but more roughage in order to keep our delicate systems working properly. What we do with our bodies tells us what we need to do to nourish them. However, what we put into our bodies will determine what we can get out of them - we cannot expect high energy output if we are not putting in good quality fuel.
So what else did you buy at the grocery store? What other food – or food-like products – grace your cupboard? There are so many processed foods these days that are so accessible, and easy to prepare, but may not be the best for us nutritionally. The basic rule of foods is that if you cannot pronounce it., you should not eat it. I challenge you to read some of the ingredients on your processed foods – see if you can identify what it is, why it’s in there, and where it comes from. Snack foods are the worst – the very popular American treat-cake, the Twinkie, is not actually food. It’s mostly oil. Not vegetable oil, crude. Yes, Twinkies are not grown, they’re mined. Suddenly they’re not so tasty, when you know what’s in them. Think about it – if they were food, they would eventually go bad. Just like margarine – it’s one chemical compound away from being plastic. Fruit flies won’t even eat it. But we treat it as food. Instant foods. Potato chips. Microwave popcorn. My own treat of choice – Doritos. All of those products that are now being re-considered – they’re dangerously high in sodium, they’re disastrously high in trans-fats (did we even know what those were 5 years ago?) – these are in our grocery carts because they are tasty, and convenient, and generally inexpensive, and have a long shelf-life, and we know them.
But what do they offer our bodies? Well, they certainly offer calories. And flavour. But not nourishment. In fact, they can have the opposite effect, wreaking havoc in our bodies rather than providing us with the necessary fuel. We’re hearing more and more about the dangers of what we’re eating and how we’re eating it. We’re learning more about how food is produced, grown, transported. There are people who will only eat organic, fairly-traded or local foods, in an effort to avoid this ‘bad stuff’.
So why are we thinking about the nourishment we buy? Because the scriptures today talk to us about the nourishment that is freely given. The reading from Isaiah exudes this in its opening verses – “Ho! Come to the waters, you who thirst! Come and get food and eat it, even if you have no money!” It sounds counter-cultural, because it is. The person speaking here is God. God is offering us nourishment – spiritual nourishment – for everyone. God does not expect to receive compensation for this gift of nourishment. Instead he simply wants people to have their fill. He’s making a promise to continue feeding all those people that come to Him. And he’s not offering the cheap imitation food that isn’t good for us, he’s offering the best possible food that can be found.
God then challenges us to consider what type of nourishment we normally consume. “Why spend your money on that which is not bread?” It’s a two-part question. First God is asking if we prefer Twinkies over fresh bread. Instant and unhealthy or nutritious and tasty? It shouldn’t be a hard question. He’s also asking us if we want the bread of the bakery, or the Bread of Heaven. Physical and earthly things or spiritual and heavenly? Again, it shouldn’t be a hard question. Yet so often we make the wrong choice.
The reading is God making a covenant, or holy contract, with each and every one of us. He reminds us that His ways are not our ways, nor His thoughts our thoughts. We get caught up on the earthly things which offer no nourishment, forgetting to fill ourselves with the spiritual abundance He is offering. And so here God promises us that all we have to do is turn to Him for our spiritual fill, whether we feel we can afford to or not.
Jesus carries this message of free spiritual nourishment one step further. He assures those gathered around that premature death or devastation is not a punishment from God for sin. But he does teach people that they should repent of their sins at all times, because we never know when the end may come. And whether it’s being sacrificed by enemy forces, caught under a falling structure, or more modern examples of vehicle collisions or devastating earthquakes, we do not know when we will leave this life. And so when we repent our sins and choose to walk with God, following His ways and His teachings, we are prepared spiritually for whatever may happen to our mortal physical selves.
And so we prepare. Especially in Lent, as we continue our journey of self-reflection, we see that holding on to our sinful ways and thoughts prevents us from fully receiving God’s grace and spiritual nourishment. We, like the fig tree, can not bear fruit as a result. And so Jesus calls us to tend to ourselves through that repentance – to dig around ourselves, to provide good spiritual nourishment through fasting, studying scripture, prayer and meditation, self-examination. And we remember that God has promised us the best nourishment, as much as we want. God’s promise to us is for our benefit – because God will delight when we will grow into the fruit-producing beings that He made us to be. It all depends if we will let Him nourish us.
So – what did you eat today? What is your body telling you it wants? More importantly, what is your soul telling you it needs? As we continue our journey towards Easter, may we continue our Lenten prayer for strength, perseverance and faith – knowing that God is providing for us the Bread for our Journey.
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