Lent - Year C -- 2025
Indexed by Date. Sermons for Lent Year C
Deuteronomy 26: 1-11
Psalm 91
Luke 4: 1-13
In today’s reading from the book of Deuteronomy, we meet the people of Israel, after an entire generation in the wilderness, about to enter their promised land. The passage you heard read earlier is both spiritual advice and liturgical instruction. The major thing that stands out for me is the instruction to be thankful, AND to bring that gratitude to mind each year by a thanksgiving ritual of first fruits. Notice that this is a festival that takes place at the beginning of harvest, before it is in the bin.
The instruction to be thankful. Gratitude, like love, is not a feeling, it is a way of life. It involves seeing both the past and the present as God guided and God blessed.
We all have family stories involving some sort of journey. What I have always known is that in the spring of 1932 my grandparents and their 4 children, shipped what they could and got in their car (a 1920s Buick) and headed east - from Saskatchewan to PEI. (I do have a poor quality picture of the actual car but this one is a much better picture of a restored one, as close as I could find to theirs on the internet.) I remember it as a rusting hulk in the woods; the engine long since re-purposed to run the sawmill after the water wheel washed out.
The one story I was told was that they were the first car on the ferry that spring and they got stuck in the mud (which was not at all hard to do in the spring, before paved roads) and that they were rescued and taken in by a local farmer who brought his horse and wagon out to get them. My father, still a toddler, fell off and almost got run over!
Back to the trip. A Google search last week told me that it would take 40 hours of straight driving (on modern roads and in a modern car of course.) I don’t know how long it took back then, in a car with 6 people inside. I can’t imagine it!
I was talking with a cousin one day who said that like my father, her mother was a person of stories. We heard the stories so often that we didn’t pay much attention sometimes. Her mom lived well into her 90s while my dad died in his mid 70s.
We learned that my grandfather drove, of course, and his oldest daughter, our aunt was the navigator. My grandmother sat in the back seat with the 3 younger children, to “keep the peace”. My aunt recalled them trying to make sure the night-time accommodations had swings and slides so the children could burn off energy!
One of my aunt’s stories was that one night, before the move, she sneaked into the hallway where she could hear her parents discussing their future. Listening in, sounds like a common occurrence for any child in the midst of change and tension! Her parents knew that they had to move somewhere else; there had been no crop for several years and they now had four children to feed! They had a difficult decision to make. They could go north; a lot of people were doing that. There was land that you could get for just clearing it! (Maybe they would have ended up farming in Codette? Who knows?) Or, their other option was to go east to PEI where her mom was from and where she had a lot of family for support, A LOT OF FAMILY. Letters from the family strongly encouraged moving east. They would help them find a farm that was already a working farm and even though it would be VERY small, compared to the section which they farmed in Rouleau, at least they could eat.
Like the people of Israel, my grandfather had a steep learning curve; learning to farm all over again for the second time in his life (he was born near Ottawa) and learn how to run a water powered saw and grist mill. My grandmother was home and, not that far from her siblings and cousins. She was happy to reconnect and to introduce her husband to the relatives who lived a few miles away.
I encourage you to think of your own family story. How did you come to this area and what did your family gain and lose when they made the journey?
I told you a few weeks ago about the couple, in a nursing home, who were neither glass half-full people or glass half-empty people, but stated with no hesitation, “our cup runneth over.” I have also talked with couples who might well have answered my question with, “our glass is bone dry!”
Canadians who have worked overseas in other church communities have learned a great deal about gratitude and generosity from those who, by Canadian standards, had far, far less, or even, not enough.
Deuteronomy describes a ritual that is rooted in memory, shaped by a journey and defined by joy. Thanks to “Feasting on the Word, for that! ” Today, I want to look at the story from Deuteronomy using the temptation of Jesus as a lens. What was the “temptation” in the story from Deuteronomy and what does it say to us today about thankfulness and abundance?
First, as I see it, Jesus’ temptation was not about doing bad things, such as stealing or murder. The temptation was, generally speaking, about misplaced power. The assumption of the story is that Jesus COULD have done all of the things that he was tempted to do, he had the ability, but he knew that the people would get the wrong message. He had to win people’s hearts and not wow and amaze them in those ways. I also need to say that the devil of this passage is not the evil monster of later literature, depicted in red suit and wielding a pitchfork, but an adversary, one who tempts with things that sound OK until you really analyze them. He can quote scripture and lead people astray. This adversary is cunning, crafty!
The Deuteronomy passage instructs people to live into, “an attitude of gratitude.” They were not to fool themselves into believing that they had done it all on their own. Compared to eating manna or catching quail, growing a crop, or tending a vineyard or grove of olive or fig trees was going to be work. So why should they be thankful for the fruits of their own labours? Deuteronomy counters: it is NOT all our own doing. We have the people who have gone before us and other factors; not every input is in our control.
We teach children to say thank-you when offered something as simple as a cookie or as complex and costly as an i-Phone or a trip to Disneyland.
When I graduated from theological, during our last week of classes, a group of United Church students re-wrote three popular songs - as our “gift to the school” and to get a good laugh. One was to the tune and in the manner of, “I did it my way;” think Frank Sinatra! We wanted to be remembered as the class who forged our own path. However we did know that we were not entirely responsible for our own success; the class before us evaluated the new curriculum introduced their first year, as we did, and changes were made to make the program better. A great deal of discussion and reflection on our experience was built into our classes and we learned from one another. Added together, our professors had hundreds of years of experience and we learned from their wisdom and their knowledge. We might have “done it our way” but we did not “do it on our own!”
Another temptation in the book of Deuteronomy is to see life as an experience of scarcity. When we operate out of scarcity we come to believe that life is “less” because we do not have as much as we think we should or as much as other people. I am told that Elon Musk is the richest man in the world but I wonder if he is really any happier than someone with just enough?
I remember my father at Christmas; under our tree was usually a large smattering of small things that we needed, generally things not too expensive. The vast majority of our toys were shared between the four of us - and then- the five of us. Over time we were given a series of books, but it was understood we all shared them. My dad would be happy when his presents included a shirt and a few pairs of socks and a bag or two of candy. It did not take much more for him to feel and express gratitude.
If you are feeling your scarcity, I found this seemingly counter-intuitive antidote on the internet -
“Give your time, effort, knowledge, advice, talent, or money to others who have a real need. This giving will attract abundance into your life. You can never be in lack as you simply can't out-give life. That's the equation of life.”
If you are in survival mode you believe that you have nothing to give; you can discover the truth that giving frees you to count your blessings. 125 years ago, Johnson Oatman, wrote the hymn, “Count your blessings” and it speaks of counting blessings despite hardship.
We often equate success and happiness with an accumulation of stuff. I have a cousin who lives in a modest bungalow with her husband in an Ontario city. Once they had been there for a few years, real estate agents began to call them. The message was, “your home would make an excellent starter home for a young family. We can list it for you and it will sell quickly.” The clear message was, “You SHOULD be in a bigger house. You SHOULD move up and make room for others.” With no children, two bedrooms, a totally finished basement and a garage, suited them just fine. 40 or more years later, they still live in the same house and live modestly by their choice. Im not sure if the real estate people have given up calling or not!
Some people are not happy unless they have the very latest in cell phones, in cars, in other electronics, or are continually yearning to add to the list of foreign places visited. I get a kick out of the Samsung phone you can now buy which it weighs 256 pounds and comes with it’s own refrigerator!
We may work hard and we may credit our success with our own efforts, that is fine, but only to a point. Looking at life in this way, we may look at poor people and blame them for their misfortune. There are so many other reasons for poverty, than laziness or incompetence or some other perceived lack of merit.
The passage from Deuteronomy tells us to resist the temptation to forget our ancestors. They were not likely wandering Arameans, but they may have come here because of the potato famine, or the highland clearances or the movement out of the Ukraine because of political instability and a near starvation existence 100 or more years ago.
However it happened, our ancestors did bring us to the place we find ourselves today. How did my grandparents make that trek across Canada, I talked about earlier; how did their ancestors make that long and perilous journey across the Atlantic in leaky and barely seaworthy ships to come to the new world? What hope was there in leaving dairy farming behind for the freedom of the open prairie early in the last century? How was it that my loyalist ancestors found themselves on the wrong side after the American Revolution and made their way to what came to be referred to as the Maritimes, leaving behind familiar support systems and former friends..
In addition to this, the difficult question of our generation is, “at what cost to our First Nations People is our success and prosperity?” Native people had and have a lot to teach Settler people about the wisdom of their ancestors and we are poorer for not having learned it. Perhaps our planet would not be in the ecological trouble we are in if we had listened more and not assumed we Europeans were right.
In Lent we are called to remember and bring to mind the long history of God’s relationship with a people who eventually came to span the European continent. As their spiritual heirs, we also need to hear and value the stories and wisdom of other ancestors who wandered this land, the so-called “new world”, a land of lakes, rivers and great herds of buffalo and elk and found their sustenance in them.
(At the back of the church)(in the narthex) are black wrist bands and a self-guided meditation to begin lent. The time got away on me this year - they should have been out last week - but I guess, “better late than never.” Take one and take enough wrist bands for everyone in your household who wants one. Wear the wristband for lent as a reminder to yourself to pause and reflect on God’s guidance in your life.
Lent is a time where we can pause, visit a rest stop, change direction, reassess our purpose in life or just be renewed. As we undertake this journey let us be intentional and seek God’s guidance.
Amen.
Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18
Psalm 27
Luke 13: 31-35
I have a copy of a picture in one of my scrapbooks, of my father as a teenager, holding up a bunch of rabbits he had snared in order to feed some foxes. Perhaps he sold the pelts to make some money. On the other side of the family the raising of foxes was more lucrative especially in the early 1900s. I believe they were “silver foxes” and not the red foxes that still live in the wild on PEI, in small patches of wooded lan Any caged foxes on the Johnston farm were long gone by the time I arrived on the scene.
However I recall one night (when we were kids) that our dad shot a raccoon that was trying to get into the rabbit pen, the rabbit being my brother’s PET. It was his second rabbit, the first not even surviving one whole day - becoming a night lunch for a fox or a raccoon. The hens were safely shut up in a building that was, more or less, fox and raccoon proof. You cant house foxes in the same place as bunnies and expect the bunnies to survive!
I get a kick out of Jesus reaction to the news about Herod trying to kill him. “Go and tell that fox, that I will do what I want - his threats are not going to stop me. “ It immediately reminded me of Winston Churchill’s response to the news that Hitler predicted that in three weeks he would wring Britain’s neck like that of a chicken, as Hitler’s advances were thwarted Churchill’s response was “some chicken, some neck.” This and other speeches and expressions served to strengthen their resolve as they resisted being taken over like so much of Europe had been.
In today’s reading, Jesus is on a journey with a purpose and an ending. If he cannot convince the powers that be and his followers of the way of love, he is willing to die for it. If he cannot convince his followers that his way is not one of earthly power and domination, he is prepared to let evil win, but only temporarily. He knows God will vindicate him - he trusts in the overall plan.
In the season of Lent we hear this story as we journey with Jesus on the way to the cross. In Lent we must come to terms with all the ways in which we ourselves betray the one we profess to follow.
The good news is that the fox will not, in the end, win.
Amen.
Isaiah 55: 1-9
Psalm 63
Luke 13: 1-9
Many years ago, I accompanied a friend on a shopping trip. Part of her list was some supplies for her brother’s garage which included fan belts and oil and oil filters, bathroom supplies and such like as well as pop, chips and chocolate bars. The errands seemed to take a long time. When we finally got to the IGA for her family groceries, I was very thirsty. I took a 500ml bottle of chocolate milk from the cooler near the checkout lane and waited in line to pay for it. The friend I was with took it from me, placed it on the belt and said, “my treat.” I thanked her and as soon as it was scanned I opened it and I drank it in about 2 gulps. She looked at me, wide eyed, saying, “you WERE thirsty.”
About the same time, my sister had just taken an eco-tourism course and she was taught that thirst is a sign of dehydration; ideally you drink a little bit at a time and drink often so that you never feel thirsty. Quite a few years ago I began to notice people bringing their water bottles to meetings, to choir practice and even to church. Happens so often now, I barely notice it. Hydration! Hydration? Hydration? I guess all you folks who carry your water bottle have gotten the memo. Even though Coke and Pepsico would disagree, nutritionists tell us that water is the best thing to drink when we are thirsty and we all know what a relief a glass of cold water is, on a hot day. We have all heard that “we wanted something so much that we could taste it.” I’m sure that we have all had the experience of feeling hungry in the evening and going to our fridge or cupboards and after looking through them, thinking, “I’m hungry, but not for any of that!” If it was early enough, and your snack attack strong enough, you went to the store where you probably saw something that perfectly met that “need”.
Today’s passages are about thirst, either physical thirst or about that desire for answers that is so strong “that we can taste it.”
Every so often we hear a story of some kind of tragedy. Perhaps a balcony at a nightclub has collapsed under the weight of many young adult party goers. We shake our heads in disbelief at the injuries and loss of life. We wonder about building codes or shoddy construction.
I sort of remember the controversy about the Ford Pinto, in the 1970s which had a tendency to explode in a rear-end collision. Unless you are in the mafia, no one sets out to rear-end someone - but it does happen accidentally; all you should have to worry about is a wrecked car, not dying. Eventually the model was discontinued because of the design flaw.
When terrorists flew two jets into the world trade centers in NYC, there were 3 basic questions. Why and how did they actually accomplish this without being stopped along the way? The second was, “Why did the towers fall down as they did?” The answer to the first resulted in major changes to airline screening, the response quickly led to a war and increased racism and xenophobia. The answer to the second, with respect to the towers, showed the flaws in design which enabled them to build those structures as tall as they did, but left them vulnerable to the intense heat of an explosion and fire fuelled by so many tons of jet fuel. They had never planned for such a scenario. How can you guard against the unthinkable?
However these answers are only partially satisfying. When tragedy strikes, many people ask the deeper questions of “Why”. Why our loved one? There are people who missed their bus or train that day and some credit the hand of God with saving their lives. That may sound great and comforting - but the flip side of that answer is far more disturbing. I refuse to believe that everyone who did perish in those buildings on that day had no redeeming points that would cause God to save them from disaster. It was not God’s will - it was the result of a terrorist attack and a building design which assumed invulnerability. Like the Titanic sinking, the disaster was caused, in part, by human arrogance. “Look at us, we are so smart, there is no limit to what we can do.” A number of years before the WTC went up, another company president told the architect to build it as tall as possible. Such buildings are a statement to the world of power and invincibility - until they are not.
You may have heard of Westray; a name now synonymous with a coal mine disaster in 1992 that took 26 lives. A couple in one the congregations I served at that time had a grown son who was a mining engineer, working for the parent company, who was supposed to accompany a crew to the coal face that day but, for some reason, did not. He lived while all the workers underground perished. Were they worse sinners than the workers on the other shift, was he spared because of some special favour from God?
The first scenario proposed by Jesus most likely refers to some kind of recent incident in which Pilate punished some worshippers or worship leaders. Josephus, an historian writing a generation later proposed about 5 incidents that might meet these criteria - of the blood of slaughtered worshippers being mixed with that of the usual sacrifices in the temple. The Romans were hard and cruel taskmasters. It seems that such an incident happened more than once.
Roman Catholic archbishop, Óscar Romero was assassinated on March 24, 1980, while celebrating Mass in a small hospital chapel, becoming a martyr and a symbol of resistance against oppression in El Salvador. You might say that his desire for justice was so strong that he could taste it, and his unwillingness to keep silent cost him his life.
We have a tendency to spend a lot of energy looking for answers that cannot be found but forget to ask the questions about the things we can change. We ignore the evils that are staring us in the face. We have a tendency to look for sustenance in places and things that can only provide the equivalent of junk food or empty calories.
We tend to think of sin as “doing something wrong,” but the biblical word for sin actually means, “missing the mark.” Sin can be defined as falling short of God’s will for us. I think of the pole vaulters at the Olympics who run along a track carrying a long pole which they plant in a special hole on the track and allow the pole to carry them up and over the horizontal bar above and in front of them. The athlete who jumps the highest, without knocking down the bar, wins.
In this season of Lent the teachings of Jesus seem to have a special urgency; time is short for Jesus; he does not have time to waste, and really, neither do we. Of course this is like life in general. The time gets away on us - Lent is half over and I’ve just started the Book Study. On Wednesday we were told it was spring; but whether we get spring weather is another matter. By the end of spring, seeding must happen. We are planning for Easter and we have lots of time to plan and prepare, till we don’t. I have a colleague whose oldest child is in university. I saw them on the day the baby was discharged from hospital. Mom and baby were sitting in the lobby and he was in the pickup zone trying to install the bottom part of the car seat. Its not like he did not have lots of time to prepare; I think his child took 9 months like everyone else but he did not get it done!
As Lent continues on and we continue to learn about Jesus and his mission, we gain a sense of impending doom intertwined with the urgency. Those who knew Jesus personally, could not bring themselves to believe that anything bad could happen, until it did.
In some churches, this urgency is used as a kind of weapon; “you could die any day so get right with God.” I don’t see it this way, the urgency is more about opportunity for faithfulness. For example, we can look at the poor and the hungry. While some people are looking for solutions such as guaranteed annual income there must also be those who feed the hungry on a daily basis. People need to eat even when some people are trying to end poverty.
When I am faced with a deadline I am fine unless there is a glitch. The other day I was waiting for a computer “log-in-code” for the wonderful invention of two stage authentication. Just in case someone was trying to hijack my acount, I have to wait for a code to be emailed or texgted before I can proceed. ! I could not finish my task without it - and I became cranky. To make matters worse, tech support requires documentation and has no phone number.
But the danger is that in our journey of discipleship we become so complacent and laid back that we assume there will always be another opportunity to show love and care, another day to have coffee with a friend, or another day to apologize for that act, or, or, or. I can’t fill in the blanks for you.
“Cat’s in the Cradle,” by Harry Chapin tells the tale of a dad who was always going to get around to spending more time with his son. He never does. Old Man Luddeke sings the song, “The Early Days” about the swift passage of time. When they became grandparents my brother and his wife got their second chance at parenting, but of course, it’s only second-hand.
Lent is partially about assessing our priorities so that we don’t come to a point, or several points where we realize it may be too late.
In Lent we are called to slow down and intentionally think and pray about our lives. What do our actions say about our priorities? Can we change, even a little, toward becoming the person we feel called to be? Are we searching for the things that don’t last, waiting for a better time to do better? Are we living on spiritual junk-food? We don’t have to save the world all by ourselves, all at once, but we are called to Christ- led action each and every day. It is the only thing that will meet our thirst and the thirst of the world.
Of course, we know about Easter, which the first disciples did not - another case of them not listening - but relying on Easter when we have not experienced Good Friday is cheap grace - it is a cop out, it is poor discipleship.
For what do you thirst? What have you been putting off? Go get a cold drink of water and continue the lenten path of sacrificial discipleship.
Amen.
Joshua 5: 9-12
Psalm 32
Luke 15: 1-3, 11b-32
I was watching the tv show “911" a little more than a week ago. It is about a fire department in Los Angeles, CA, and a couple of the police officers and 911 call centre employees married to firefighters. Of course it is about both their work and their personal lives. In this episode, the fire and rescue crew was called to a worship service because a lot of people started to collapse, beginning with the worship leader, a middle aged woman.. We find out that the sound and lighting person was running gas generators to meet the evangelist’s requirements for lighting, but doing so without proper ventilation! Not recommended! Turns out that the evangelist/healer, was the estranged mother of the fire captain who responded to the call. When, for the first time in years, he meets his brother, who works for their mother, the first words spoken are “Luke 15" and the fire captain knows immediately that this is a reference to the story of the prodigal son. The rest of the episode deals with those family dynamics, their past conflicts and issues of the place of faith in healing.
Jesus told many parables and people have differing opinions on most of them, but the parable of the Prodigal Son, is perhaps, the most contentious.
For some, it strikes too close to home. Their children have robbed them or hurt them or otherwise made their lives miserable time after time. They might tell me, “Jesus does not understand how difficult it has been in my family!” Or, “Jesus does not know; he did not try and raise our boy!” The thought that this kind of forgiving behaviour is imposed on them by Jesus causes them to feel completely misunderstood and resentful.
Some people have difficulty because this parable depicts a God who is too soft, too generous. Despite their contention that they believe in grace, they really believe that people have to earn what they get. Our “Protestant Work Ethic” demands it. It is, as if grace is really not grace, but payment for services rendered.
Jesus’ parables, which are often seen as nice heartwarming stories, are actually intended to offend and even to anger. Jesus’ parables, at the very least, make “good church people,” uncomfortable. We are so familiar with them that we assume they are tales of the way life was in first century Palestine! The problem is that they were shocking to the first listeners because they were “tales with a twist.” They are not stories of how things were normally done.
They are among the first stories that we teach to children, forgetting that built in shock value. Perhaps we should keep them for grownups, rathe them as “R” instead of “G”!
We also forget that the people named in them never existed. I was talking with the curator of one of the museums in PEI associated with Lucy Maud Montgomery, the author of Anne of Green Gables, and more often than you’d think, she has had to tell a tourist that “Anne was not a real girl.” Yet, her stories connect with people’s lives and inspire them in so many ways. The story is very popular in Japan, a society which is very different than early 20th century Canada, so her popularity strikes me as a bit odd, but it drives a lot of tourism to PEI. Now if YOU could just figure out how to market Montgomery’s connection to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan could get a piece of that tourist pie! Hugh John Montgomery, Maud’s father, lived in PA (Prince Albert), starting about 1887 and in 1891, 16 year old Maud moved there for about a year.
However, to emphasize that parables are stories with a “bite,” someone once wrote, “Jesus told parables and Jesus was crucified”, as if there was a direct correlation between the two. Well, yes, I believe there is! Taken together, Jesus’ parables turned the listeners’ expectations upside down and inside out. They called the listener to question everything they thought they knew about community, about faith and about God.
It seems to me that Palestine in the first century was a powder keg of people walking on egg shells in order to preserve as much as possible of the glory days of ancient Israel. There were those who donned the equivalent of a Donald Trump, MAGA, hat and tried to silence anyone who disagreed. The local Romans wanted above all, to keep the peace, and would kill to do so. The Pharisees, who were present when Jesus told many of his parables, including this one, had a tenuous relationship with the authorities in that they carved out a deal so that they would not be bothered as long as they stayed in their lane. Jesus upset the apple cart. His ministry made people yearn for true justice; they wanted more. His ministry made people look at life in different ways and they wanted things to change.
The people listened to Jesus and dreamed of justice and mercy. They knew deep down that justice and mercy for one was not true justice or true mercy.
Some people would listen to Jesus and respond, “How dare Jesus say such a thing. If people start following him we will lose our status, we will have anarchy. The Romans will give us heck!” Like I sid, Jesus died because he would not compromise his truth.
The word, “prodigal” means wasteful, and this parable is usually called the Prodigal Son because he was regarded as wasteful - with his family’s money and his family’s love. However that title was not given to the parable by Jesus but, like the verse numbers, by biblical editors over the years. There is a case to be made that the father and the older brother were wasteful as well. Some have called this parable, “the lost son,” while others, “the forgiving parent”.
What if the whole story needs to be taken together, as a unit without slotting it into parts like we would a dozen eggs! . What if the whole point was to make us rethink everything? Life in Jesus day was not like this? But, what if life was like this? What if parents treated wayward children with this amount of grace and forgiveness? What if people stopped beating their kids when they went outside social norms and insulted their parents?
What if all parents would stand at the end of the driveway looking up and down the road for the lost child to return?
What if the older brother, always faithful and polite to dear old dad, swallowed his resentment and joined the party? Though we know, in our heart of hearts, we know that older brother types never join the party.
What if the father honoured his son’s carefully worded request and allowed him to return but only to work for food and basic lodging. That’s all he asked for, after all.
But NO! The father had the fatted calf killed, a calf that would have fetched GOOD PRICE at the sale barn AND and he gave him a ring, a ring that meant status and belonging and son-ship! And he gave him a fine robe perhaps like the one Jacob gave to Joseph, genderations before. All of this together spoke both of restoration and of joy.
The words of the servant to the older brother and the words of the father to the older brother attempt to explain something he cannot understand - how love trumps the law.
I recall a Family Circus cartoon (what did we ever do before the internet - when I can actually find copies of this stuff) in which an older woman asks the Family Circus mom, how she divides her love among so many and her reply indicates that this is the wrong question, because “she multiplies” her love. The vast majority of parents know that when children are born that that fierce maternal (and paternal love) just comes or it normally does. .
But love in a marriage like love in families can die or be killed. We need to realize that in this case, “To ask for his inheritance in such a way was for the younger son to say to his father, “I wish you were dead, give me what is mine and I’m gone.” This father could have allowed the love he had for his younger son to die. He could have allowed that insult to fester inside his soul.
The younger brother’s request may have been coming for a long time, resentment and attitude building up over time. After he had left it could have been supper-table conversation, or a conversation over sheep shearing or other farm tasks for many months. What he could not understand was his father’s wish to have the boy come back
Is this about God or is it about human family? We might say, “God can do what God wants as long as I do not have to forgive!”
German pastor, the Rev Martin Niemöller, a German who had been awarded the Iron Cross, and once a supporter of Hitler and anti-semitic, was imprisoned for most of the war because he changed and became opposed to Hitler and was associated with the Confessing Church, also opposed to the Nazi outlook. His most famous quote is:
First they came for the Communists And I did not speak out Because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the Socialists And I did not speak out Because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists And I did not speak out Because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews And I did not speak out Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me And there was no one left To speak out for me.
Another quote relevant to the Prodigal Son Parable by Niemöller was, “It took me a long time to learn that God is not the enemy of my enemies. He is not even the enemy of his enemies."
All of us could tell stories of stuff our children did, or things we did as children, for which we were forgiven. But sometimes childhood misdeeds continue into adolescence and adulthood- and society must become involved as public safety becomes an issue.
The parable of the prodigal son is a powerful tale of forgiveness and restoration. If Jesus was telling a story about how things SHOULD have happened such a boy should have gotten a good beating! And he should have been gone for good. But that’s not whagt happened.
I see a lot of complaints on social media such as Facebook about our society being soft on crime and criminals just getting a slap on the wrist instead of having the “book thrown at them.” I believe that just fills up the jails and the streets with angry parolees. Increases in crime have to do with much more than not enough punishment. It has little to do with taking the Lord’s Prayer out of schools or banning the strap or other forms of corporal punishment.
Of course, some crimes are so egregious that the perpetrator needs to be locked up always remembering that we send people to jail, as punishment and not for punishment. When I was a pre-teen one of my favourite songs was “tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree,” a song now over 50 years old! Its not that I related to it personally, but that it just sounded like the way things should be and it made my hart sing.
When someone wrongs us, we can respond in anger and seek revenge, or we can respond with the heart of God which seeks restoration. It is clear in the parable that the older son is filled with anger and resentment that comes from a lifetime of not getting the concept of grace and believing for some reason that good behaviour is a prerequisite for love. To forgive and to restore is not to say to younger son , “what you did was ok” but rather, “what you did was not ok, but I’m not going to let it prevent me from loving you as you were created to be, beloved child of mine, beloved child of God.”
Amen.
Psalm 126
John 12: 1-8
Extravagant Discipleship!
As you know, I like the Family Circus. The cartoonist, Bill Keane, drew quite a few cartoons based on the children’s misunderstanding of things heard or said in church, a not uncommon theme in children’s church cartoons. According to the children, one of the songs that was sung in their parish church was, “Bringing in the Sheets.” These are city kids of course, with no idea what sheaves were. A friend of my mom’s told some hilarious stories about her grand-daughter from a city adjusting to life on the farm when she came to visit for an entire summer. Farm and rural children have a world of experience that city kids cannot even imagine. Children around here would have a far easier time understanding the world of the Bible than city children.
Today’s passage from Isaiah was written in a time, many years after the exodus, when they were living in exile, as refugees, we might say. The prophet is looking back to the earlier time of God leading the people from bondage to freedom while assuring them that such a reversal would happen again.
Each of the passages for today have a similar theme - thankfulness, and in Mary’s case it was extravagant thankfulness. Perhaps, thankfulness is best felt by contrast - if you can remember how difficult life was while your people were in Egypt in slavery, or in exile, forced out of your land, your land of promise, your land of milk and honey - and you are now back in that land, your exile over, you are thankful. BUT, before too many years you may become complacent and take your life, as it is, for granted. You may tire of the old stories.
The gospel story reminds us of a particular family’s life, just before this event it tells. Today’s Gospel story is one for which we NEED to know what went before. Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead. We know that Jesus was a friend and a frequent visitor of the Lazarus, Mary and Martha family - sounds a bit like a singing group, eh! “Mary - Martha and Lazarus.” I recall a family in one of the pastoral charges I served where the elderly mom and three unmarried and middle aged children, two sons and a daughter, all lived in the same house and ran the family business. It certainly is not usual these days - it may have been in Jesus’ day.
The gospels tell several stories of Jesus interaction with this family. Martha was the practical one, the no-nonsense housekeeper one. She would have rules whose purpose was, “to have her house run efficiently.” Mary was the listener, the student, the theologian, and now, the extravagant one.
Then there was Judas, whose name will live on in infamy as the betrayer of Jesus. It is not surprising that gospel writer John cannot forget that when he is writing about an event prior to the crucifixion AND allows it to colour his telling of what happened in the previous week. At the time some of them may well have thought, “That’s what I was going to say.”
Taken at face value, Judas objection sounds a bit like a normal church debate over money - almost. The cynic in me would say that most church debates would be, “that could have been sold and the money put into the roof fund, or to erase the deficit.” Or others objecting, “we don’t need new banners, we can give the money to the food bank.” I recall a church board debate about accepting the GIFT of new curtains for one of the meeting rooms - do we need them? Even, “can she afford to do that?” The minister reminded the board that it was a gift and that this was what she wanted to give.
The context is almost everything. Remember what I said about the specific context of the “lost and found son story”- the prodigal father was holding an extravagant celebration because he was welcoming a son who had been lost and was found, dead (metaphorically speaking) but now alive.
In this story, in case we have forgotten, we are reminded that Lazarus, the brother in this family had died and been buried and Jesus raised him to life after 4 days in the tomb. I cannot begin to count the number of times I have sat with families who would have given everything they had to bring back a loved one! Instead they are planning a funeral. Mary’s thankfulness and display of love is pre-mortem; it is in time for Jesus to experience. Perhaps a lesson from this scripture is advice to, “Lavish your gratitude on your loved ones while they are still here to enjoy it.”
In the aftermath of Lazarus rising from death, Mary, always thoughtful and devoted became the extravagant one. We are told that she takes a pound of very expensive lotion and applies it to Jesus feet, wiping them with her hair. Apparently this was the kind of lotion used to anoint the body before burial. The symbolism belongs in holy week.
As we remember what we know about this event, or what we think we know, we need to remember that each of the gospels tells this story, but the details are somewhat different. In Matthew and Mark, it takes place in the house of Simon the leper and the woman has no name. In Luke the event takes place at the home of a Pharisee and the woman is identified only as someone of loose morals. I am going to try to not bring detains in from those different stories but simply to acknowledge that this event is either remembered differently or it happened more than once. In John she is the sister of Lazarus.
By mere coincidence, the passage used on Wednesday for the weekly lenten lunch was the story of the raising of Lazarus. This passage like all of tthose used for the Lenten Lunches contained one of Jesus, “I am” statements; ” I am the resurrection and the life.” While I picked the passages, I had no idea they would line up so neatly.
If anything, Judas’ objection gives us the information about the value of this perfumed substance. The stated amount, 300 denarii, would have been approximately one year’s wages for a day labourer. It seems that the family was a family of some means.
Jesus response about always having the poor with them is very often taken out of context. It is often taken as Jesus’ acceptance of poverty, almost like Jesus is saying, “Don’t bother about the poor” which is the furthest thing possible from Jesus ministry. Neither should we take it to mean that Jesus is telling his disciples not to try to eliminate poverty; he is speaking about Mary’s need to show her love. In the light of the kind of deadline Jesus was facing, in the light of the gratitude this particular family was feeling, it was perfectly acceptable to express this kind of extravagance.
When we speak of generosity and giving to the poor, objections can come at so many levels. One of the common posts on Facebook that I find so frustrating is a post that says something like this, “why are we giving money to (whatever country had the most recent earthquake or other natural disaster), when we have poor people here in Canada?” My response is always, “Canada is rich enough to do both.”
Back at the turn of the century, the beginning ot the millennium, there was a concerted effort by various justice organizations to have the IMF and the World Bank erase the debts of a number of poor countries. These debts had, for the most part, been taken on by corrupt regimes and the populace was forced to make payments on the debt long after the government toppled. Paying the interest alone was keeping the countries in abject poverty. Writing off the debt was not going to change the economic status of the richest countries by very much. Based in the biblical principle of “The Year of Jubilee” whereby every 50 years land was returned to the original owners, the churches petitioned for a “debt reset” so that the countries in question could get back on their feet and not be at sea with a millstone around their necks.
I had lost track of the results of this program but this past week our Regional Council provided a link to the 2025 version of the program. In 2000 the debt of 36 low income countries in the global south were forgiven of 100B in debt - there are many countries where servicing the debt takes more money than they can devote to healthcare, education and climate action. To many people of faith, the situation is completely unacceptable and it matters far more to the citizens of the indebted countries than it does to the bodies which have loaned them the money.
I have spoken before of the experience of westerners when being hosted by communities in the developing world and discovering the generous hospitality they have been shown, despite the poverty in which most of them live.
We are called to a journey which employs discernment - we need to discern what we are being called to do in a particular time and place. Ten years ago, when the body of Alan Kurdi washed ashore after an attempt to journey from Turkey to Europe the international community woke up and the welcoming of refugees from those trouble spots became extravagant and loving; we could have done something else with all the money spent, but really, it was all we could do in that moment within the context of our faith.
When we experience unexpected and life-changing grace, the practical is less important than extravagant gratitude. As Lent continues, let us open our hearts to the presence of Christ and what he is calling us to do.
Amen.
Psalm 118
Luke 19: 28-40
We’ve all been there - in the right place at the wrong time or the wrong place at the right time. Are they having a parade this year? What is this year’s route? How are we going to get to our favourite spot before they block off the street or before it is too crowded and we wont get a place to sit where we can see. If it is an official parade there is a notice in the local paper and on a website though it is sometimes a challenge to find the right website. Often you have to have gone before and tried out a number of locations over the years to find the best spot to watch the parade. Major public events can be a logistical nightmare for police and civic officials and for residents living in the affected area. When the church is on the parade route and the holiday is on a Sunday what do we do!
If the crowds are any indication, most people love parades. We get to wave at people we know on the floats or driving the fancy trucks. We laugh at the floats or marvel at the precision of the marching bands. If you like pipe and drum bands they are usually very good. And the children like it when the people on the floats or the antique tractors, throw candy.
Over 25 years ago now, the city of Moncton NB was hosting the summit for the “Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie” and expecting many world leaders who had to be accommodated and protected. Of course the security officials involved had to have a practice run and it ended up that I was trying to go through Moncton on the day of the practice to get to preach at an anniversary service in a former church. In the past, I had used one route to get through the city but the RCMP officer blocking my way was from out of town and did not have a clue how to get where I wanted, except that I could not use the street I had been planning to. I was forced to use the new bypass which I had not used before from end to end; when I could drive the other route blindfolded, almost! On this day I did not have the time to get lost and find my way out again but I did make it, and all was fine.
I few years ago I read a book that indicated that in Jerusalem, on the day in question; the day we call, “Palm Sunday,” there were actually 2 parades. Entering one of the 10 gates was an impressive show of force by what seemed like the entire Roman army marching into town. Through another gate there was a small, seemingly impromptu parade led by Jesus riding on a donkey.
One was this informal parade by Jesus and his disciples; Jesus was riding on a donkey, a beast of burden. I’ve ridden horses and I’ve ridden a donkey (once, about 50 years ago) and I much prefer horses! With every step, that donkey’s back bone moved and without a saddle it was very uncomfortable. On that long ago day, the people threw coats on the road and waved palm branches, shouting, “Hosanna” which means, “save us.”
The other parade was a military one. The city of Jerusalem was getting ready to celebrate Passover which was a celebration of their escape from Egypt. It reminded them of becoming free from slavery and the beginning of their journey to the land of promise. Fast forward to Jesus’ day, they were not in slavery or in exile but Rome was an occupying power. They were not in control of anything anymore. Sooooo, it’s not surprising that some people got ideas about rebelling, about causing trouble for the Romans - especially at Passover. Rome had to keep a fragile peace; as to unrest, they had to nip it in the bud so they sent a whole phalanx of soldiers, with the most advanced weapons for the day, including body armour, with swords and shields. Generals would be riding on fine horses. All their weapons would have been on display - the message was, “don’t you even think of acting up.” If they did they would most likely be killed or captured and tried. For the worst of them, the punishment was execution by crucifixion - a method that ensured a painful and prolonged death.
As I indicated, Jesus and his disciples lived in a time of great unrest. The Roman authorities were frequently rounding up dissidents and often executing them to show the populace who was boss. There are plenty of movies showing the strength of Roman legions and stories of Roman soldiers whose interactions with the populace were always harsh and often merciless and led to many deaths.
At the beginning of Lent, we are told that Jesus was tempted in the desert. The nature of the temptation was a little different than what we might think of as temptation. He was not tempted to “do evil things,” but forced to discern whether things that sounded ok were actually things that were consistent with his mission and ministry. As Lent continued we found Jesus in despair over the people he loved not being interested in his goals and objectives, and Jesus sought to give teachings on second chances based on examples of common garden plants like a fig tree. The parable of the prodigal son reminded us of the forgiveness of a loving God. A few weeks ago, Mary sister of Martha and Lazarus taught us about extravagant love.
What is required of us? One afternoon I was spending time with a family who had been recently bereaved. The house was full of family, friends and neighbours. Three or four of the grand-daughters were studying for their RN exam and had these thick volume of practice questions with them. I took a look at the sample questions. For many questions there was one really bad answer, one that sounded ok and one that was correct. One of the granddaughters told me it was designed so that anyone with some common sense could get about a third of the answers but it was the subtleties that were most important and on those subtleties people passed or failed. I gather the test is all on computer and what you are asked depends on how you are doing so not everyone writes the exact same exam. Health care needs nurses that are more than “passable” but there is no fixed percentage. My family is filled with nurses - but I took another path.
What is required of us? It seems that Jesus, through his teaching and this little parade deliberately tried to present an alternative to the power of Rome. He would have known first-hand what it was like to be occupied by the Romans. His parents would have told him stories about escaping in the middle of the night when he was very young to escape the wrath of Herod.
As far as we know, Jesus carried no weapons of war and chose a beast of burden, not a war horse - I suppose one is as good as the other if all you want is transportation but the symbolism was very important. Jesus was all about showing God’s vision of a new way, and it was not the way of war and violence. The prophets of old had talked about this “messiah” and how he would be different from the armies that had defeated them, taken them captive, released them and taken therm captive again. The small nation of Israel longed to be great again, like they were in the days of King David.
There is a great deal of rhetoric these days in the aftermath of Donald Trump becoming the American President and in the midst of our own Canadian election. Advisor to Donald Trump, Elon Musk, has said that one of the impediments to progress is empathy.” The more I think about that statement and that vision, the more I shiver. That is not my vision of a great community or a great country. As people of faith we should be asking, “What do any promises of greatness mean for the poor and the disadvantaged?” If the promises of any prospective leader are not for everyone or if they are for the elites at the expense of the poor, they are not, “of Christ.” That’s why the parade of Jesus included a donkey and no weapons. Jesus knew that the prosperity of only the elites held no promise for the poor and the marginalized.
It is up to each of us to determine what goals we want for our future.
Many countries of the world have gone through great unrest in recent years. Often what we see on the news can inspire us where we are to work for justice and for change.
You may remember the Tiananmen Square event in 1989 in China. The most iconic of the pictures being of a young man bravely standing in front of an advancing tank. We don’t know what happened to “tank man” but we will always remember his brave resistence.
We are hearing lots of visions of Canada and lots of election promises these days. Jesus was not a “party line” kind of person, his speeches were not comprised of “talking points.” Jesus had other ideas; he called people to see the ancient teachings in a new way - love of God, neighbour and self. Being Prodigal with love as a response to God’s prodigal love, turning the other cheek, going the second mile. The people would be “saved” by adopting a new way - a way of peace -not war. Jesus wanted to win people’s hearts because if he did not have their hearts it would not matter if Rome was defeated or not. His teaching and parables spoke of a completely different way. If we look at a picture of the ideal society and it does not include everyone, it is not of Jesus.
In these last days of lent we are called to form a picture of what we are reaching for and then commit to walking toward it. We know that Good Friday is coming, but we have an advantage that the first disciples do not have - we know about “the third day.”
Will you stay with Jesus for the rest of the journey? Will you grasp his vision and make it yours?
Amen!