|
Sermon from March 7, 2010
"Hot and Bothered, Part 1"
Luke 15:1-32
I
hate this story. I hate it. I hate
it. It’s not fair. She told
me repeatedly as we tried to do a Bible study on the prodigal son. I hate this
passage. A pastor friend of mine told me once that a person in his congregation
refused to sing the song, Amazing Grace, whenever it came up in church. I hate
that song, she said. Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like
me. I’m not a wretch I never was a wretch and I never will be a wretch
I hate that song! The title of today’s sermon is, “Hot and Bothered,
Part 1.”
This Lent we are looking at the concept of “Cheap Grace NOT,” in other words, how not to take God’s
costly extravagant mercy in Christ for granted as if it were something cheap. And
this morning I want to share with you a KNOW SOMETHING--DO SOMETHING message. We
can know something about God and do something about it. And it will specifically
help us to overcome what I am calling here the older brothers dilemma which is really what those two women were expressing.
From a certain perspective there is a legitimate dilemma here and it really is expressed throughout the gospel
of Luke. It goes something like this: if you are materially blessed and well
behaved then it seems in this book of the Bible you just can’t catch a break.
The materially blessed and well behaved are just always seeming to get dumped on.
Back in Luke 6 Jesus says woe to you who are rich now for you’re already getting yours, and woe to you who are
happy and blessed right now because you are in for a rude awakening and so on and so forth.
And yet there is an invitation that follows that we’ll look at. And
here in Luke 15 he says there is more joy in heaven over one sinner, one wretch who repents than over 99 people who don’t
need to repent. Well, what about us who have been busting our derriers to be
well behaved now. What’s the use if that lousy squeaky wheel over there
is getting all the grease of heaven? Why should we 99 bother if that’s
all the appreciation we are going to get?
If you’ve ever had that kind of thought it’s especially important to understand
something fundamental about God. It’s what Jesus is communicating here
in this parable and would sublimely demonstrate in the cross and resurrection. The
simplest way to put this is: when it comes to God and the Kingdom, it’s not about competitive deserving, its all about
shared rejoicing. When it comes to relating to God and each other in the Kingdom
it has almost nothing to do with competitive deserving. It has everything to
do with shared rejoicing.
You see, what we are used to in this world is mercy limited by justice/fairness.
What God in Jesus is always moving us toward is justice expanded and ultimately defined by mercy. Let me explain. I read recently about a conversation with
Christian and Muslim participants and they were sharing about their practices of showing mercy and help for the suffering
(David Neff, "A Perfect Pearl," ChristianityToday.com). Obviously that was a very important part of Christian
practice, and the Muslims there shared that relieving suffering was also an important aspect of their faith. Yet when the conversation turned to helping people who had contributed to their own misfortune by bad decisions
or behavior, the Muslim participants said we do not show mercy to those persons and the Christians said our mercy is given
indiscriminately. Now I would say that it most likely is not just those Muslim
participants, but also a good many Christians and most of the world who actually operates by this philosophy that says yeah,
have mercy, be nice to people, as long as they deserve it, but if they don’t deserve it, than its best to distance yourself
from them. For them loving others, mercy, is fundamental, but it is ultimately
defined by and limited by justice. In other words you only give mercy to the
extent to which it is deserved. And so everything in life revolves around competitive
deserving of rewards. Yet what Jesus speaks of in this parable is far different. For God in Christ, justice fairness is the fundamental thing. God never stops being fair. He says to the older brother you’ve
always been with me and all I have is yours. And yet his justice is ultimately
defined, never abandoned yet expanded by mercy. We had to rejoice he tells him,
this guy was dead now he is alive, he was lost, now is found. It’s not
about competitive deserving. It’s about shared rejoicing.
Notice here how the manner in which the father shares his power lovingly with both sons. Yes, he’s got
all kinds of power here yet he refuses to manipulate or control anybody. He could
have said to the younger son “You can’t wait until I’m in the ground” and refused him his inheritance. When he was messing up in the far country he could have sent brought him back or sent
police, “Didn’t I tell you that would happen.” He could have
let the son feel his power when he came back, “Now you can work as a servant for a few years and see how it feels.” It’s true he didn’t do any of that instead he went out running and threw
a party. But look also at the older son.
When the older son got hot and bothered he could have sent servants out to manhandle the son into the house and said
look I don’t owe you any explanations, if I’m having a party you’re coming whether you like it or not!” Instead what does he do? Verse 28 the
father goes to the son to entreat him, to invite him, not by coercion, not by force, but by love. Do you see here the invitation he is giving to the son and to all of us, to join him in sharing power lovingly
to improve lives for eternity? Its not mercy limited by deserving justice, its
justice expanded by loving mercy. Back in Luke 6 Jesus said, look if you’re
materially blessed, share it, give and it will be given to you pressed down shaken together, blessings will overflow. Life with God is not about competitive deserving, it’s about shared rejoicing
in the justice and mercy of God. Sometimes all we can do to share our power lovingly
is to rejoice that people are getting their lives back and lost are being found.
Two points of reference to see if you get this: one give yourself this test.
When you get to heaven, and be honest here -- if you get there and find that there is somebody there that you don’t
think deserves to be there, will you be hot and bothered with God about that? If
you are, you haven’t got this yet, but God hasn’t given up on you yet, no more than he gave up on the older son. The other thing is this. The best way
not to take God’s mercy for granted is to always make room for others. When
you can consciously make room for others because of what God has done for you in Jesus you’re getting this. Doesn’t mean anything goes. Doesn’t mean we enable
abuse or injustice. Sometimes we let people go.
A community that values repentance always believes and expects the best from each other. We expect the best but always leave space for grace. We know
that our church will always be alive and well as long as there is room in our hearts, room in our building, room at our table
for one more.
Do you ever find yourself hot and bothered like the older son in this parable? The Father is entreating you to rejoice, and share and make room for others. Come on in, he says. All of us in one way or another find
ourselves outside the house. We have to rejoice, he says, dead people are being
raised to new life, lost people and being found. It’s happening in your
midst. In fact whenever we make room for the dead, the raised and the found,
we will ultimately find that we are they. Come on in the house, folks, come to
the table. There is always room for one more -- always room – for you.
O Lord help
us, we pray, to join you in sharing power lovingly to improve lives for eternity. Help
us rejoice in our church, in our homes, at our table, and in our hearts, by always making room for one more.
Rev. David B. Humphrey
Asbury United Methodist Church
Smyrna, DE
March 7, 2010
Sermon from February 28, 2010
Luke 13:31-35
How does a penguin say thanks?
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brook under her wings, and
you would not. O Smyrna Clayton Smyrna Clayton, O Asbury O Asbury, O we who tend
to take the costly mercy of God for granted, your house is left to you, the ball is in your court, so to speak, what will
you do? How does a penguin say thanks?
In the documentary film, the March of the Penguins, it shows how adult penguin couples bear a single egg each
season. The mother delivers it then the father secures the egg on top of its
feet sheltering it against howling wind and cold temperatures as low as 80 below zero.
Morgan Freeman narrates: “Now begins one of natures most incredible and endearing role reversals. It is the penguin male who will tend the couple’s single egg.
While the mother feeds and gathers food to bring back for the newborn, it is the father who will shield the egg from
the violent winds and cold. He will make a nest for the egg atop his own claws,
keeping it safe and warm beneath a flap of skin on his belly. And he will do
this for more than two months… As the winter progresses, both parents will be severely tested. By the time their vigil on top of the egg is over, the penguin fathers will have gone without food of any
kind for twenty-five days, and they will have endured one of the most violent and deadly winters on earth, all for the chick”
(March of the Penguins, Warner Brothers, 2005, written by Jordan Roberts, directed by Luc Jacquet). O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, O Smyrna-Clayton, Smyrna-Clayton, O Asbury, Asbury, all for you, all for the chick. How does a chick say thanks?
What you have here is a picture of drastic, costly mercy, even before the recipient is aware of it. But it reveals a truth about life. Drastic mercy reveals
desperate need.
Coast Guard Helicopter pilot Iain McConnell was summoned at 4 a.m. on the morning of August 30, 2005 to begin
flying round the clock rescue missions for hurricane Katrina relief. In most
of the places he went he was the first help devastated persons saw. On his first
three missions he and his crew saved 89 people, 3 dogs and a cat, but then people started turning him down and refused to
be evacuated. They tried to explain the unhealthy conditions and that the water
would stay roof high for a long time. Still they refused. He says, “I felt angry and frustrated, since we had used up precious time and fuel, and had put ourselves
at risk during each rescue attempt. I felt like they were ungrateful. But, in truth, they also didn’t know how desperate their situation was” (as told to Jacelyn
C. Green, “A Rescuer’s Journal,” Today’s Christian, January/February 2006). The drastic mercy of God in Jesus reveals our desperate need for grace.
But Jesus says, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, behold your house is left to you; the ball’s in your court, I’m
going to Jerusalem any way. I’m going to the gulf coast anyway. I always protect the egg anyway. You don’t understand
it yet but some day you might, what will you do? How do penguins and Jerusalemites
and disciples like you and me say thanks?
Have you ever said to anyone, wow, I just can’t thank you enough?
Are we not all in that position with respect to the drastic mercy of God in Jesus?
And yet what Jesus says here in verse 35 opens up the possibility that there is a way we can respond, there is a way
we can say thanks, and not take his mercy for granted. I say to you, you will
not see me until you say blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. This
is just as much an invitation as a warning. In the Greek grammar its called an
eventual relative clause. It means the issue is not whether it will happen, its
simply when. We will say thank you, blessed is the one who comes in the name
of the Lord. The issue is when and how.
O Asbury, Asbury, how can we say desperate thanks, for drastic mercy right now?
Drastic mercy calls forth desperate thanks. Desperate thanks, not
shallow or trivial, but desperate and deep. How can we do that? There is a beautiful hint here in the gospel of Luke simply by observing that this passage comes right
in the middle of two sections where Jesus speaks beautifully and encouragingly about the concept of repentance. The short version is we say thanks, we say blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord by entering
into a lifestyle of repentance. Repentance is any change in direction that involves
our whole being, right down to the see it, hear it, feel it, do it habits of life. It’s
being constantly flexible before God. Repentance is making constant course corrections
because of what we ultimately love.
Think of it this way. When you really love somebody or something
it sinks down deep into your heart and imagination and body. You don’t
really feel like doing some task at the time but you love this person or thing so much that you do it anyway. Repentance is constant flexibility before God who deserves our trust.
Repentance is aiming our love at what really matters even at the level of our daily, see it feel it do it habits. What do you do every few hours, every day, every week.
What are the things you do every few hours, every day, every week that defines you as a lover of God and the drastic,
costly mercy of Jesus. I would submit to you that your every day every week habits
reveal who or what you ultimately love. Repentance is course corrections at that
level, where you constantly re-aim your love at what really matters.
Back in 1989 when Michigan played Wisconsin in basketball early in the season Michigan’s Rumeal Robinson
missed two crucial free throws toward the end of the game when his team was down 1 point.
It cost his team the game and the favored Michigan was upset. Rumeal felt
terrible about costing his team the game but he didn’t just wallow in that. After
each practice for the rest of the season he shot 100 extra foul shots. Thus,
Rumeal was ready when he stepped to the foul line to shoot two shots with three seconds left in overtime in the national championship
game. Swish went the first shot, swish went the second (Charles Edward White,
Spring Arbor, Michigan, Leadership, Vol. 11, No. 1). I suggest that Robinson’s
repentance wasn’t motivated merely by trying to avoid another failure – that only lasts so long. I suggest it was a love for the game and the excellence of having a team play to its potential that sustained
him in that habit. His love for the game found its way into his daily practices. How does your “I can’t thank you enough” love for God and the mercy
of Jesus find its way into your daily habits? What can you do every few hours,
every day, every week to express such love? What or who you really love will
find its way into your daily see it, feel it, do it habits.
Tim Keller talks about going to visit his brother in law and it would frustrate him that his brother in law never
wore his seat belt. But one time his brother picked him up at the airport and
he had both the shoulder harness strapped on. Tim said to him, what happened? What changed you? He said I went to go
see a friend of mine in the hospital he was in an accident and went through the windshield and had over 200 stitches in his
face I said I think I better wear my seat belt. Tim said to him, wait a minute,
you knew before you went to see him that if you don’t wear a seat belt you go through the windshield in an accident? He said, of course I knew it. “When
I went to the hospital to see my friend any new information, but the information I had became new. The information got real to my heart and finally sank down and affected the way I live” (from the
audio workshop “Unintentional Preaching Models,” Preaching to the Heart, CD 3, Ockenga Institute, Gordon-Conwell
Theological Seminary).
You know, folks, there are 35 days left till Easter. If Tim’s
brother in law started wearing his seatbelt just because he loved his own unstitched face, and Rumeal Robinson could shoot
foul shots every day because he loved the game and his team, what little change, what daily habit will you adopt over the
next 35 days simply because you love God and don’t want to take his mercy for granted?
I can’t give you that answer. its between you and the Lord. It might be as simple as doing what I suggested on ash Wednesday, every day for the
next 35 days find someone and tell them some aspect of God’s grace you’ve appreciated and/or seen that day. I can’t tell you what to do but I promise it will be powerful.
Drastic mercy reveals drastic need and calls forth desperate thanks.
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her. O Smyrna Clayton, Smyrna Clayton, Asbury, Asbury, and all we present day Jerusalemites, penguins and disciples,
how will we not take the mercy of Jesus for granted? How will we say thanks in
the nitty-gritty of your every day habits?
How does a penguin say thanks? I don’t really know what penguins
do, but I do know what disciples do. And over the next 35 days I think I’m
going to see it right before my eyes. O Asbury, Asbury, you could not possibly
be more deeply loved.
Rev. David B. Humphrey, Asbury United Methodist Church, Smyrna, DE,
February 28, 2010
|
