The
readings on
which this
sermon is
based can be
found at:
http://frsparky.net/a/r156.htm
s156g16
Fourth Sunday in Lent
6/3/2016
‘bring out a robe -- the best
one -- and put it on
him‘
Luke 15:22
These words remind me of the
end of the parable of the
wedding feast: ‘when the king
came in to see the guests, he
noticed a man there who was
not wearing a wedding robe,
and he said to him, “Friend,
how did you get in here
without a wedding
robe?” And he was
speechless. Then
the king said to the
attendants, “Bind him hand and
foot, and throw him into the
outer darkness, where there
will be weeping and gnashing
of teeth.” For
many are called, but few are
chosen.’ (1)
The parable of the prodigal
Father is set within the
context of the Pharisees and
the scribes grumbling about
the company Jesus was
keeping. In their
estimation, ’real’ religious
leaders would be avoiding
these sort of people, not
associating with
them. Their
grumbling for me parallels the
man without the wedding robe -
he didn’t want to be in a
kingdom that included others,
where his superiority was not
acknowledged and
highlighted. So he
was weeping and gnashing his
teeth even before he is
ejected. Like the
elder of the sons in the
parable, the one who refused
to join in the celebrations;
he prefers his self-righteous
solitude. He
didn’t want to join in the
celebration when his brother
was wearing the robe
rightfully his!
Or, to go back to the one who
refused the wedding robe, he
relegated himself to his
chosen religious minority,
weeping and gnashing their
teeth in unison .. or in
harmony :-)
So again, everyone is called;
those who are deluded to think
they are chosen, find
themselves desperate to be
elsewhere!
I do apologise - one of the
realities is that people from
Christchurch have only one
topic of conversation:
earthquakes .. I
know that the suffering of
those in the Sendai prefecture
of Japan in 2011 suffered far
more than us (2), as well as
more recently the nation of
Fiji where Cyclone Winston has
caused so much devastation.
(3) We here
in Christchurch were rudely
reminded again last
Valentine’s Day that we
haven’t ceased to be evolving.
(4) When we began
this protracted series of
shakes over five years ago,
some conservative evangelical
‘christians’ attributed the
destruction as God’s
punishment on those in the
‘red-light’ district of the
city and on liberal Anglicans
and others propounding
marriage equality.
How convenient for
them! But two
weeks ago (before that
Valentine’s Day quake) I
wrote: ‘Woven throughout the
fabric of the Old Testament is
the fact that the Lord uses
secular authorities to execute
divine judgement and
restoration on the ancient
people of God.’ (5) - not
earthquakes.
Earthquakes merely give an
indication of when things
occurred. (6) In a
society where there weren’t
calendars and newspapers to
tell us the date, it was the
beginning and end of the reign
of kings and significant
events like earthquakes that
were the only things which
place other events
historically. Indeed we
are told: ‘the LORD was not in
the earthquake’ (7) but in the
‘still small voice’.
God uses secular society to
judge the church and if
secular society finds the
church judgemental and
exclusive rather than a force
for inclusion and acceptance
then their judgement is just.
As St Paul, quoting Isaiah,
writes of his religious
persecutors: ‘The name of God
is blasphemed among the
Gentiles because of you.’
(8) If secular
society finds the church
denying incarnation rather
than proclaiming and
instrumental in incarnation
then their judgement is just.
The reaction of the prodigal
father to the return of his
wayward son is the same as the
response of Abraham who sees
those three travellers
approaching his camp in the
wilderness - welcome!
(9) Unconditional
welcome. And the
first thing that both Abraham
and the prodigal Father do is
to arrange a
feast. The parable
of the prodigal Father makes
it clear that
self-recrimination is entirely
unnecessary, indeed
irrelevant. There
is plain and simple joy of
communion; whether
unexpectedly new or longed-for
restoration, made explicit by
eating together.
And it is this welcome, this
plain and simple joy of
communion with all others that
is the stumbling block of the
gospel for the devout and the
orthodox; the gifting of the
wedding garment to others as
well as to themselves, they
refuse to accept.
And this reaction of welcome
ought to be the first, last
and lasting impression of our
services of Holy
Communion. They
ought to be known for the
welcome afforded to others,
irrespective of
self-recrimination,
irrespective of the particular
name used to address the
divine, irrespective of the
other’s perception of the
nature of the divine,
irrespective of the race,
belief or the gender of the
person the other chooses to
share intimacy.
Indeed the whole reason for
the feast in the parable of
the prodigal Father is the
return of the son.
The father didn’t hold a feast
weekly in the hope of enticing
the lad back to the
fold. Similarly
Abraham in the wilderness
didn't hold weekly feasts in
the hope of attracting
visitors to his part of the
wilderness! No
matter how lovely our weekly
celebrations, they have become
routine rather than welcoming;
others are routinely
criticised for not
attending. The
feast prepared for the son and
the strangers was to honour
them .. not to reassert the
divine prerogative of the
host.
So perhaps we oughtn’t to
celebrate the Holy Communion
unless there is someone who
isn’t a straight, baptised,
confirmed, communicant,
tithing Anglican of my
particular variety newly
come! Or, to put
it the other way, unless there
is someone who isn’t a
straight, baptised, confirmed,
communicant, tithing Anglican
of my particular variety
newcomer present, our Holy
Communion is but a façade.
And as Abraham didn’t expect,
or particularly want the three
travellers to stay, so also
the prodigal Father didn’t
elicit promises of everlasting
fidelity from the wayward son
before arranging the
festivities. They
were simply welcomed without
expectation.
It is this sort of welcome; a
welcome without hesitation,
without discrimination,
without expectation, a welcome
in the hope that these others
will contribute to our
understanding of the broadness
of God’s mercy (10); it is
this sort of welcome that will
lead others to welcome the
divine that inspires this sort
of welcome.
And if we hold a feast for the
one who comes or returns, the
feast is offered in the hope
that the other will enrich us
by recounting his or her
experiences, which will
involve us
listening. And
again, as I so often say, we
might do this on a personal
level and we will certainly be
blessed; but if the church
corporate were to be known for
listening to society rather
than pontificating at it, what
would our society and our
church look like?
What might our services of
Holy Communion look like if
they involved two-way
communication? The
commonwealth of God
perhaps? I was
amused seeing the play
‘Winston’s birthday’ at the
fabulous Christchurch ‘Court
Theatre’ (11) to hear the
socially inept Dr Jenkins
saying to the 88 year old
Winston Churchill in
exasperation at the family
dysfunction, words to the
effect: ‘You’re all talking
but no one is listening to the
other.’ Churchill
replies, again words to the
effect: ‘Of course not, that’s
the Westminster system!’
Would our reaction be much the
same as the elder son, if we
found in the end atheists
exalted above Christians?
At breakfast this morning (26
or 27/2 depending on US or NZ
time) Mary (being American by
birth) commented that it was
the 57th day of this year and
it seems there have already
been 33 mass shootings in the
USA. (12) I wonder
if this would be happening in
the world if the church was
seen to be an instigator of
unconditional welcome rather
than a propounder of mostly
self-evident truths.
There is little point in
‘christians’ demonising people
like Donald Trump when the
church continues to be a force
for division rather than
inclusion; when the church has
really not even begun to
welcome others ready with ‘gay
apparel’ (13) for all.
1. Matthew 22:11-14
2.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_T%C5%8Dhoku_earthquake_and_tsunami
3.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/south-pacific/77119362/fiji-storm-death-toll-rises-in-wake-of-cyclone-winston
4.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/76880264/The-moment-the-Valentines-Day-earthquake-struck
5.
frsparky.net/a/154g16.htm,
Isaiah 67:13-16, Jeremiah 4:6,
Ezekiel 23:24; Isaiah 44:28
6. Joel 4:1
7. 1 Kings 19:11
8. Romans 2:24
Isaiah 52:5
9.
frsparky.net/a/153g16.htm
Genesis 18:1-3
10. Ephesians 3:18-19
11.
https://courttheatre.org.nz/show/winstons-birthday/
12. #notonemore
13.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deck_the_Halls