In the Company of the Lost

Luke 15:1-32

And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”--Luke 15:2

A lost sheep.

A lost coin.

A lost son.

In the fifteenth chapter of Luke, Jesus responds to some scribes and Pharisees who were grumbling about his habit of welcoming sinners and eating with them by telling three parables about finding what has been lost.

A shepherd leaves ninety-nine sheep to go after one who has wandered off.  

A woman turns the house upside down to find a single coin that has disappeared.

A father runs down the lane to welcome home a son who had left the family and squandered his inheritance.

All three, the shepherd, the woman and the father rejoice when the lost has been found.

Jesus, I think, tells these parables to teach the scribes, the Pharisees and us something about the depth of God’s love for those who might be considered “lost.”

And, ultimately, that would be all of us.

But, here’s the thing.  I don’t think the father in this week’s parable only started loving his prodigal son afterhe decided to come home.  After he “came to himself.”  I think the father loved him before he asked for his portion of the inheritance and after he gave it to him.  I think the father loved him and missed him every day he was gone.  He loved him before he knew the boy had squandered his inheritance, and after he learned what happened.  Otherwise, why would he have been so joyful when he saw the young man walking down the lane?  Why else would he have killed the fatted calf and thrown a party?

And that’s the way God is with us too.

Paul says in Romans that God loved us while we were still sinners, and that nothing can separate us from God’s love.  Just like this father’s love for his wayward son.

Knowing that should, I think, impact the way we treat each other.  Wouldn’t you agree?

In his explanation to the 8^thCommandment in the Small Catechism, Luther says that not bearing false witness against a neighbor means that we are to “come to their defense, speak well of them, and interpret everything they do in the best possible light.”  

The Pharisees and the scribes didn’t do that. They looked at Jesus’ meal companions and saw tax collectors and sinners.  Jesus looked across the table and saw beloved children created in the image of God.

The elder son didn’t either.  He looked at his brother and only saw someone who burned through his inheritance with prostitutes. But, the father saw a beloved son returned home. 

What do we see when we look at the people around us? Too often, I think, we stake out our own claim to righteousness over and against those we think of as sinners rather than run down the lane to welcome them or sit at table with them.

Not always easy.

But, if we started where Jesus starts – seeing the other not as other, but as a child created in the image of God just like us, as a sheep, coin and prodigal in need of finding just like us, as one we rejoice in because God rejoices in us – then maybe the world would be able to celebrate a bit more, and fight a whole lot less.

Peace,

Bishop Mike

Thank-you for reading.  Rather than praying for the prodigals of our world, maybe we should try praying with them.  

If You're Not Careful...

Luke 13:1-9

 “No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.”  --Luke 13:5

The car lay on its side in the snowy median, it’s flashers going, the dazed young driver standing next to it, his cell phone pressed to his ear.  I instinctively took my foot from the gas and felt the car slow as I moved carefully into the right lane.

It was slippery.

Even as I slowed, I told myself that kind of thing happens to others, not to me!  I’m a good driver!  I tried to explain away the car in the ditch. The driver was young. He must have been texting.  His car wasn’t reliable.  Worn tires. Maybe he’d been cut off.  But then, somewhere, in the deep recesses of my prideful mind, I heard my mother’s words, “If you’re not careful, the same thing could happen to you!”  

Jesus’ warning words in this week’s lesson tend to make me cringe.  They sound harsh to my ears.  While he separates the human and natural evil we endure from the belief that the terrible things we experience are punishment or retribution from God he also calls us to repentance – to turn back to God – and warns that, if we don’t, we will suffer a similar fate.  I hear my mother’s words echoing in Jesus’ words (or is it the other way around), “If you’re not careful, the same thing could happen to you!” 

Like my mother’s words, Jesus words are not a threat, but a sign of concern and love.  To turn away from  God is to turn toward death as certainly as speeding on icy roads is to court a trip to the ditch.  And God, as Jesus shows us time and again, does not desire the death of sinners.  When evil befalls us, (for whatever reason) God’s heart is the first to break.

If we have any doubt about that, Jesus tells us a parable about a fig tree and a gardener who is willing to give it some manure and one more year to bear fruit.  After three unproductive years, that’s undeserved patience!  If we have any doubt, we simply need to look to the cross where Jesus took on all the hatred and violence of humankind, overcame evil, and defeated death for you and me and the whole world.  That’s undeserved grace!  

In a world where a white supremacist guns down fifty people at worship, where cyclones kill hundreds and even thousands, where families flee their homelands in the face of violence and warfare, and people’s livelihoods are swept away by springtime floods, what more can we do than to turn toward God with our hands stretched out for mercy?  What more can we do than cry out with the Psalmist, “O God, you are my God; eagerly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water?” (Psalm 63:1) and lean forward, listening intently for the Good News of the Easter angels, “Why do you look for the living among the dead, he is not here, but has risen!” (Luke 24:5)

And then, be moved, not only to take our foot off the gas and slow down, but even more to pull over and care for our brothers and sisters in the ditch.

Peace,

Bishop Mike

Thank-you for reading.  Please pray with me for the people of Christchurch, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique, Africa, Nebraska, Western Iowa and the Midwestern United States, and all the people in our world whose lives have been torn apart by tragedy, violence, bloodshed and war.  

Resistance

Luke 13:31-35

How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! -Luke 13:34

The Gospel is not always comfortable.  It can challenge us.  Convict us. It can clash with “conventional wisdom” and the “accepted ways of doing things.”  Not everyone in the first century welcomed Jesus’ ministry.  Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, Elders, Politicians, and others pushed back against Jesus’ teaching, his healing and casting out of demons. He was derided because he dared to dine with tax collectors, prostitutes, and sinners (and ate with his detractors too).  He was criticized for reaching out to those other people rejected.

The resistance to Jesus’ message and ministry that has been building throughout Luke’s Gospel seethes through this week’s lesson.  But, Jesus does not respond with anger.  He responds with deep sadness.  He laments that the leaders of God’s people just don’t get it.  He yearns to gather them under his wing like a protective hen, but they won’t allow it.  He longs for all people to experience and share the Reign of the God of love, and to turn back to the One who offers forgiveness, life , and healing.  Yes, even the likes of the Pharisees.  But he knew that wasn’t going to happen.  He knew he was going to Jerusalem to die.

The Gospel is not always comfortable.  It can challenge us.  Convict us. It can clash with our own “conventional wisdom” and “accepted ways of doing things.”  Like the people of the first century, we can resist Jesus’ message and ministry, rationalize our way around it, reject its implications and sow division rather than the kind of love, forgiveness, life and healing Jesus teaches.

Though all too frequently we wind up having to live in the damaged houses we build, Jesus never abandons us.  (Am I glad about that!)  Jesus continues yearning to gather us like a hen gathers her brood. And that is grace. Jesus goes to the cross at the hands of our all too common human propensity to hate and divide, and on the third day finishes his work by leaving the grave alive.

Today, we are all invited to confess our brokenness.  We are called upon to admit our shortcomings, bad choices and horrible decisions.  We acknowledge our harsh words and inability to really listen to one another.  And then we are drawn again into the arms of our loving mother hen, who breathes life into us and opens our eyes so that we might truly see Jesus’ compassion and mercy for us and for the whole world.   And then, filled with this gift of new life, we can proclaim with joy,

“Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!”

Peace,

Bishop Mike

Thank-you for reading. I invite you to join me in praying  for the reconciliation of Christ to heal all the broken places in our lives. 

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions!

Luke 4:1-13

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil.  –Luke 4:1

I am cursed by indecisiveness.  I have the unenviable gift of being able to see all the various sides of most issues, and the merits of the variety of options possible when a decision needs to be made. It can be paralyzing.  I have been told that this gift is valuable for mediation, and I suppose it probably is.  Maybe. Over the years, I have learned how to be more decisive.  But, it is not a natural skill, and I don’t find it easy.  

The thing about making decisions is that rarely, if ever, are things crystal clear.  There is a lot of cloudiness in life.  It’s impossible to anticipate all the consequences of any choice.

In this week’s Gospel, Jesus is faced with three decisions put to him by the devil.  Three temptations.  The devil doesn’t make it easy for him.  No surprise there!  Who could fault him if he used his power to whip himself up some bread?  He was hungry after all!  We all agree that self-care is important, don’t we?  Who could blame him if he exercised his authority to rule? Wouldn’t he rule with justice and love, compassion and mercy?  Wouldn’t it have been easier for people to believe in him if he provided some clear demonstration that he was God’s son?  And yet, he rejects the devil’s temptations to use his power in selfish, self-serving and self-aggrandizing ways.  

Jesus, fresh from the waters of baptism, is filled with the Holy Spirit.  He has spent forty days in prayer.  In the face of the devil’s temptations, Jesus anchors himself in scripture and its witness to God’s will for God’s people.  Jesus makes his decisions based on these cornerstones of faith and faithfulness.  

The power of the Spirit, the centering of prayer and wisdom of scripture can guide us when we are faced with difficult decisions too. They can help us face the temptations that inevitably come our way.  And, for imperfect people like us, who sometimes (often) make the wrong decisions, they also remind us that our God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.  I, for one, am grateful that we have a forgiving God. Trusting in that promise helps me dare to decide, even on those days when I am feeling indecisive.  

Peace,

Bishop Mike

Thanks for reading.  Today, I invite you to join me in praying this line from the Lord’s Prayer, “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”