Joshua 5:9-12; 2 Corinthians 5:16-21; Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

The Reverend Paul DeLain Allick, St. George’s Episcopal Church, March 14, 2010

 

 

The religious professionals are grumbling again. They are always grumbling at Jesus. Today in our Gospel story they are upset that He is welcoming and eating with sinners. The sinners being those who aren’t in line with the religious rules. These folks regularly break the moral codes; they have no understanding of the grand theological systems created by the religious professionals.

 

 

In our day they might be those who never go to Church. They could be those who live by their own rules and pay no attention to religious instruction in good moral behavior.

 

 

Why does Jesus welcome them and eat with them? They of all people understand grace. This what Jesus is teaching in this famous parable we have come to call “The Prodigal Son.” Jesus is teaching this parable not to the “sinners” but to the religious.

 

 

Both sons were given everything they needed by their father. One son wastes all of it and lives by his own rules. The other son takes it and stays put. But really neither of them appreciate the gift. One son sees the gift as something to take for granted; he has a sense of entitlement. The other son accepts the gift as a responsibility. He holds onto it very tightly and works very hard to seem good in his father’s eyes.

 

 

The father sees no distinction between the two sons. He loves both of them equally. When the wasteful son returns the father celebrates and expects his responsible son to do the same. But the responsible son has no sense of grace. He only has a sense of responsibility. His acceptance of his father’s gift has become a burden to him; in order to appreciate it he thinks he has to work for it.

 

 

The wasteful son now comes to appreciate the depth of his father’s grace. We don’t know if the responsible son ever comes to understand it.

 

 

 

 

 

Several times a week I am out in public in my clerical collar. I am both entertained and educated by the reactions I get from people. The collar is a powerful symbol. When I wear it I cease to be a person and become a symbol of the Church and I think in a subconscious way a symbol of God. The reactions come in three main ways. Some people give me a warm smile and treat me special. Others glare and me; their disdain is obvious. I think these must be the ones seeing me as a symbol of the institutional Church.

 

 

The third reaction is the most fascinating. These folks seem fearful or embarrassed or at least very uncomfortable. These are the people that I make a point of reaching out to. I try to joke with them. I express deep kindness. I try to show forth some grace. And I am here to testify that it works every time. For this symbol to show forth humor and kindness puts those who feel unworthy at ease. Its going to stick with them. Its going to open a place in their hearts and minds that God loves them.

 

 

We, the religious, often forget about grace and think only of the responsibility that comes with knowing and loving God. We forget how much God loves us and more tragically we have forgotten how much God loves everyone.

 

 

St. Paul teaches us in his Epistle today that “from now on we regard no one from a human point of view.” Now that we are in Christ we are a new creation. Just as God reconciled Himself to us through Jesus Christ we now reconcile with others. We are all ambassadors of Christ.

 

 

God in Christ does not count our trespasses against us. We must do the same for others even the stranger. Grace means being forgiven for something that we do not deserve to be forgiven for. And we pay no debts for it. In Christ God just gives us the forgiveness if we ask for it.

 

 

 

 

How can that be? I don’t know because I can’t turn off my human way of seeing these things but I do trust in it. I have a whole host of persons that I have not forgiven yet but I am working on it. I am confessing it to God. I have all eternity to work it out and I trust that God is with me in it.

 

 

We are an Eucharistic people. We gather here each week to share in this Sacrament which is an act of reconciliation. In Christ’s body broken and his blood poured forth we are reconciled to God. It would be just too ironic if we weren’t trying to live lives of reconciliation each day. It would be too hypocritical if we weren’t doing our self-examination to see where we are being selfish or unfair to others.

 

 

And yet the miracle of the Eucharist is that even as we are being ironic and hypocritical God in Christ is waiting for us to turn around. God is waiting for us to see within ourselves that we have been wasteful with the gifts He has given us. And for those of us who are being overly responsible and holding on tight to all that God has given us, thinking that we are making Him love us more, He is waiting for us to let go and just enjoy His grace.

 

 

Like that bread in the wilderness and the bread of Christ, the grace of God is always here waiting for us to come home.