Lent 4 - readings for March 14, 2010

What emotion do you perceive in the father's eyes?

Take a moment as you centre yourself in prayer:

O God of outstretched arms, you welcome us to times of deeper reflection – that we might find once again our wholeness and our peace in you. Expand our hearts, O God, breathe into our thinking, that we might find in your word, the courage to shape the world around us. Amen

READ Luke 15:1-3

Today’s gospel reading is the last parable in a series of 3 (including the lost sheep, lost coin) which portray God as seeking the lost. These first three verses give us the background of Jesus’ explanation – they contrast his understanding of “right relationship” according to certain “Pharisees and scribes.”

This is not an attack on all Jews – Amy Jill Levine writes that when Christians hear Pharisee, we think “evil, self-righteous, hypocrites” – that is Luke’s influence, not Jesus’. Luke rejected the Pharisees because they refused to follow Paul to Jesus.
- Jesus accepted their invitations to supper; and they warned him about Herod; so there was a certain collegiality between them.
- Jesus might have recognized they were good, holy people, and certainly did not condemn them personally, only an attitude of self-righteousness (in general)
- Amy Jill Levine even suggests that their over-abundance of faith overflowed and might even have helped the “sinners” that Luke shows them putting down.

Question for reflection:
Who would be our contemporary sinners and our contemporary Pharisees?

READ Luke 15:11b-24

What is the name usually given this parable? Prodigal Son. Yet the word prodigal means spending freely, even wastefully. So it could as well be called the parable of the Prodigal Father, who pours out his love in an abundant, wasteful way, like God.

Verse 11b: “There was a man who had two sons…” Think of similar stories of two brothers from Hebrew scripture and you will find family conflict: Cain and Abel, Ishmael and Isaac, Esau and Jacob – first century Jewish ears were primed for conflict to follow.

v. 12 – Inheritance was usually divided in 3 for 2 sons: 1 third of the estate for each son, the third part going to elder son as birthright after his father’s death. When the younger son leaves, and demands his inheritance liquidated, it is as if he is saying his father is dead to him. “Gimme” is the attitude we are supposed to grow out of, and yet “inheritance” can be interpreted as a sign of how much we are worth to that person. He demands proof that his father loves him.

v.13 – selling ancestral lands was shocking behavior, disrespectful to family and God.

v.14 Famine is a reversal of the usual formula, where Israel went looking for food in other nations. It would shock the audience and send the message this is not your usual parable.

v.15 A swine-keeper was not only lowly, but unclean in Jewish law.

v. 17 “But when he came to himself…” The words suggest he began to see himself as he really was, in the wrong place, but not completely worthless – he could still work in his father’s household, if not return as a son.

Question for Reflection:
Have you ever had one of those moments, where you “came to yourself?”

v.18 “I will go and say to my father…” he has his strategy worked out, knows his place. “I have sinned against heaven and you.” His wrongdoing not just personal but cosmic.

v.20 – Father runs, loses all decorum, makes plans to celebrate, honour him as a son, not hire him as a worker.

v. 23 A fatted calf was usually kept for a family celebration like a wedding. Was it the elder son’s wedding?

READ Luke 15:25-31

The elder son asks the question we are all wondering: What did my brother ever do to deserve this?

Father’s perspective: If we are to forgive, we are to forgive utterly and completely.

A story about giving love and being able to receive it in the right spirit – not because we deserve it, or it is our right.

Lenten season – prepares us for the story of Easter and the miracle of moving from death to new life; loss to reconciliation.

Question for Reflection: Who do you relate to? Why?

READ Joshua 5:9-12

An unusual passage without much context, chosen because it is a homecoming.

Preparations to take promised land: (1) affirm new leader, Joshua; (2) spies make alliance with Rahab; (3) ark of the covenant leads parade into promised land; (4) 12 stones set up as holy markers for 12 tribes; (5) all males circumcized

v.9 Gilgal means “rolled away” usually referring to circle of stones with holy significance. Play on words, YHWH “rolls away” the disgrace of Egypt.

v.10-12 The Israelites celebrate passover, old tradition. They also begin to rely on the food of the land, instead of manna from heaven, but it doesn’t change in significance, it is still God who is feeding them, new tradition. They are celebrating the familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.

Question for Reflection:
Rites of passage, like baptism, marriage, funerals, are constantly changing, and yet contain some elements that never change. How do you feel about them being changed, or never changing?

READ 2 Corinthians 5:16-21

The great debate: “human point of view” vs. “God’s perspective”.
Not world, flesh vs psyche, soul, heaven – too simplistic. Instead it is, “humanity in the world, without God” vs “humanity in the world, with God”.

v.17 Relationship with Jesus is life-altering, changes our point of view.
We are invited to become truly who we are meant to be.

v.18 The death of Christ is holy, not tragic, because it teaches us about unconditional love, forgiving whole-heartedly, being reconciled.

Closing Reflection:

Psalm 32:1-7 by James Taylor Everyday Psalms, (Wood Lake Books, 1994) which he introduces this way:
A friend, a Roman Catholic, once said: You Protestants have no idea how good it feels to be able to confess something and get it off your chest!

Happy are those who have nothing to hide;
Even happier those whose slate has been wiped clean.
I used to lie awake, worrying about things I had done;
And during the day, about things I had not cdone.
My conscience tormented me, I couldn’t concentrate.
I was terrified of being exposed.
So I went to God and confessed.
I made no excuses for myself; I didn’t hide anything.
And God forgave me.

What a relief it is to share a gnawing secret!
Forgiveness is like a cool drink on a hot day,
Like a warm fire in a winter blizzard.
God’s grace renews my strength; it gives me a second chance.