On the Way to Wonder

First Reading: Isaiah 43:16-21

 ¹⁶Thus says the Lord,
  who makes a way in the sea,
  a path in the mighty waters,
 ¹⁷who brings out chariot and horse,
  army and warrior;
 they lie down, they cannot rise,
  they are extinguished, quenched like a wick:
 ¹⁸Do not remember the former things,
  or consider the things of old.
 ¹⁹I am about to do a new thing;
  now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
 I will make a way in the wilderness
  and rivers in the desert.
 ²⁰The wild animals will honor me,
  the jackals and the ostriches;
 for I give water in the wilderness,
  rivers in the desert,
 to give drink to my chosen people,
  ²¹the people whom I formed for myself
 so that they might declare my praise.

Psalm: Psalm 126

 ¹When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,
  then were we like those who dream.
 ²Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy.
  Then they said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.”
 ³The Lord has done great things for us,
  and we are glad indeed.
 ⁴Restore our fortunes, O Lord,
  like the watercourses of the Negeb.
 ⁵Those who sowed with tears
  will reap with songs of joy.
 ⁶Those who go out weeping, carrying the seed,
  will come again with joy, shouldering their sheaves.

Second Reading: Philippians 3:4b-14

 [Paul writes:] ^4bIf anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: ⁵circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; ⁶as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
 ⁷Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. ⁸More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ ⁹and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. ¹⁰I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, ¹¹if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
 ¹²Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. ¹³Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

Gospel: John 12:1-8

¹Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. ²There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. ³Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. ⁴But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, ⁵“Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” ⁶(He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) ⁷Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. ⁸You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”

CHILDREN’S SERMON:  Share with your neighbor, your first experience with death.  Was it a pet, a grandparent or perhaps a newsworthy person?

Let us pray.   Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, my Rock and my Redeemer

SERMON

Today’s text is our last text in Lent before next Sunday, Palm Sunday, and the beginning of Passion Week.  I want to look at the text through the eyes of Lent and the journey to the cross, to death.  I will not focus on Mary and her extravagant gift of perfume.  I want to focus on how Jesus’ walked to death and how that helps us as we face our mortality?  Nobody in our text knows this is Jesus last week, but Jesus does.  Standing at his side is Lazarus, his friend, whom Jesus raised from the dead in the previous chapter of John, a quiet hint that there is life beyond death. 

         I am going to look at the text through the modern phrase being used in my world, “age in place.”  The Internet defines the phrase this way, “The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines aging in place as: “the ability to live in one’s own home and community safely.”  “Aging in  place” while used with elders to talk about taking preventative measures to avoid institutionalization due to mostly age and family or community related complications, actually does not have an age parameter. Accidents, disease, and life complications can affect any age group.  Perhaps a less cliché way of phrasing it is to ask ourselves what do we need to do to live life to its fullest, as long as possible, in the setting of our choosing, safely?  I would suggest to you today that our passage speaks to “aging in place.”

Six days before Passover

According to the Gospel of John, our scenario today occurs six days before the Passover.  The next day will be the entry into Jerusalem.  Next week we will wave branches in commemoration to welcome a Messiah.  The people in Jerusalem did not realize what the week would hold.  We do not know what tomorrow will bring either.  Life is a bit like that.  We embrace life hoping for Passover celebrations and never counting on the Garden of Gethsemane or the Cross.  When I was probably in kindergarten or first grade I had a pet turtle named George that disappeared into the couch somehow and when found, was rushed to the vet and died.   We named our pet turtle in Kenya, George, and fed him flies.  He died too.  Our second son at age four developed juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.  Every evening his temperature rose.  I remember him asking me, “Mom, does God hate me?  Am I going to die?”  Tough times! Death is part of life but it is always something we think about as future.

         Some of us have had a person close to us die not so long ago but for me, my grandparents lived across the country and all my friends were healthy.  I led a shielded life.  But certainly in places like Ukraine, in the famine relief camps where we worked, death and disease are daily realities and threats.  I suspect many of us are like the disciples at the celebration unfolding in our text, hoping for the best in a very chaotic world.  Jesus is with us and death is a thing for “tomorrow.”  Jesus knows it is “six day before” the inevitable.  How does Jesus use his time to age in place?  What is his strategy?

“Jesus came to Bethany”

         First, Jesus positions himself geographically in Bethany, close to Jerusalem.  He is not avoiding and running in fear.  Jesus positions himself socially with friends that have been his support team.  Jesus is emotionally enjoying a dinner celebration with friends and not overcome with anxiety about what tomorrow might bring.  Jesus accepts the love of his friends.

As we age, we go from insulation from death, innocently protected by our birth family and community.  As we grow, we venture out to chase a job, an education or perhaps a spouse.  We learn to drive with the dangers that involves.  Now, some of us are retired and getting around to those fix-it-up tasks we have put off.  For many baby boomers we are making decisions about positioning ourselves for that last lap to age in place or to help our loved one age in place as long as possible.  Jesus positioned himself.  He positioned himself in the home of Lazarus, Martha and Mary, his beloved friends. We too want to be in supportive community. 

         So perhaps the first question confronting us today in our text is to reflect on how supportive we are for each other, as friends, as community, and as part of our world, as we face tomorrow and its challenges with the always-present aging process.  Are people who come to Bethany “safe” from snarky remarks, from gossip, from embarrassment?  Just askin”? If someone visited my home as Jesus did, would the person be able to age in place safely. Comfortably?

^“2There they gave a dinner for him”

         With Jerusalem on the horizon, just miles away geographically and possibly closer emotionally, Jesus is in the middle at a dinner party. The disciples are there.  Friends like Mary, Martha, and Lazarus are there.  Surely there were others too.  Jesus is surrounded by friends doing their thing.  Martha is serving … as usual.  Lazarus is reclined at the table with Jesus.  Jesus while knowing the future is inevitable, is embracing the present moment.

         In reading the story, we tend to forget that Roman soldiers are enforcing a fragile peace a few miles away.  We forget the poverty people lived in like slaves and second-class citizens.  We forget that women had no status.  Unemployment was real.  Diseases like leprosy had people quarantined on the edge of town.  Passover for the Jews was a time when they remembered their captivity in Egypt and their miraculous deliverance.  Passover was a time when the angel of death passed over and did not claim the life of the first born because a lamb had been slaughtered and the blood was on the door-posts.  The coming dinner was historically significant because it was a time when hearts and minds turned to topics of deliverance and God’s action. Preparations are being made for that celebration.  We can imagine an animated conversation even as we have a week before Christmas.

         Perhaps one of the secrets to aging in place successfully is to remember that we are not only with friends but also to remember how far we have come and what the presence of God has meant in our lives.  We need to remember all we have to celebrate that remind us of God’s presence and enabling through our lives. 

         So what are we celebrating today when we are with our friends?  Perhaps you have heard the joke that the celebration at a retirement center is like an organ recital.  Everyone shares his or her medical woes and most recent medical visits.  We want to be with our friends but what is the content of our friendship as we spend time together?  We do not know what everyone was discussing at this dinner party for John shifts our attention to the actions of two people, Mary and Judas Iscariot.

Anointing

         Mary does the unexpected, the culturally questionable, the deed that raises eye brows.  Mary does not follow social etiquette and is not helping Martha serve. But Mary becomes transparent.  She goes beyond sitting at Jesus’ feet, soaking in all his teaching and instead she takes a pint of perfume worth a year’s wages and pours it on Jesus’ feet, and wipes the feet with her hair.  Hmmmm.  Houston, we have a problem.  That was a conversation stopper for sure.  Can you feel the tension in that room?  Fun celebration has become a tense silence as the scene unfolds and the scent of the perfume wafts through the air.  This is a very intimate, tender moment and some have tried to make it sexual.  That just is not said.  But something extraordinary has occurred.  Jesus has been anointed.

         Bodies are anointed after death but kings are anointed before.  In the face of possible death, at funerals we try to allow time for testimonies either in the service or at the gathering afterwards. We have wakes that allow people to wail and grieve or to line up and express condolences to the family.  We focus on good moments and history is retold through a lens of gratitude.  Mary has acted out tangibly her love of Jesus before his death.  It is extravagant and it is extraordinary.  The perfume scent fills the room.  We do not know if she knew he would die for Jesus had been saying he was going to die but it seems no one understood.  They are expecting a conquering Messiah.  Perhaps Mary understood.  Jesus hints that might be the meaning of her actions.  How does Jesus respond?

         I find the interesting point is that Jesus accepts her act of love and defends her.  Affirmation of our life and its impact on others is a deeply affirming experience.  Too often we wait til the person is gone to say our words of affirmation.  Too often when complimented, we become embarrassed and say, “Gosh, it was nothing.”  Jesus accepts the love of those around him and does not dismiss it or diminish it. Perhaps the affirmation strengthened him for the coming trial.

         As we age in place, the extravagant expressions of love are appropriate and should not be dismissed.  As we age in place, are we making those extravagant expressions of love to those who have meant so much to us?  Is our life characterized by an attitude of gratitude?  Jesus not only faced death by being with friends, by fellowshipping with them but he also accepted their love, no strings attached.

“But…”

         As Jesus places himself in a safe space to age in place, the voice of doubt undermines the gifts of the moment.  Judas Iscariot points out the extravagance of Mary’s gift, the inappropriateness of Jesus’ response, the needs of the world and the writer comments on Judas’ possible greedy  motives.  Judas pours cold water on the scene and is what we call a “party pooper.”  John has pulled us right back to Lent.  In Lent we walk with Jesus to the cross.  I suspect that we think more about our journey to heaven and try to avoid thinking about death and the cross. The cross, the brokenness of place, community, and love expressions are part of the journey.  Judas reminds us that we are broken people in a broken world.  As much as we try to position ourselves in Bethany, a community of friends, we are on the edge of Jerusalem, the political capital occupied by a foreign power, wrecking havoc on our world.  As much as we try to fellowship with our friends, there is often that interaction that pushes our buttons and challenges our boundaries of what is acceptable.  And as people reach out to affirm us, often it is so hard to trust motives.  Aging in place is the dream, the goal, and we pray it will be safe but the truth is that we are aging. 

         Aging does not have the last word, though, Jesus does.

“Leave her alone.

She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial.

 ⁸You always have the poor with you,

but you do not always have me.”

         Jesus steps in and shields Mary and us from evil.  He tells Judas and evil to leave her and us alone.  He accepts our intentions that might not be perfect or the exact right timing.  He reminds us that the important focus is to focus on God. 

         Next week is Passion Week.  Let us not forget to meet together to affirm the Lenten story that defines our communities, our gatherings, and our expressions of love!

The people of God said, “Amen!”

First Reading: Joshua 5:9-12

⁹The Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away from you the disgrace of Egypt.” And so that place is called Gilgal to this day.
  ¹⁰While the Israelites were camped in Gilgal they kept the passover in the evening on the fourteenth day of the month in the plains of Jericho. ¹¹On the day after the passover, on that very day, they ate the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. ¹²The manna ceased on the day they ate the produce of the land, and the Israelites no longer had manna; they ate the crops of the land of Canaan that year.

Psalm: Psalm 32

 ¹Happy are they whose transgressions are forgiven,
  and whose sin is put away!
 ²Happy are they to whom the Lord imputes no guilt,
  and in whose spirit there is no guile!
 ³While I held my tongue, my bones withered away,
  because of my groaning all day long.
 ⁴For your hand was heavy upon me day and night;
  my moisture was dried up as in the heat of summer.
 ⁵Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and did not conceal my guilt.
  I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.” Then you forgave  me the guilt of my sin.
 ⁶Therefore all the faithful will make their prayers to you in time of trouble; when the great waters overflow, they ^| shall not reach them. 
 ⁷You are my hiding-place; you preserve me from trouble;
  you surround me with shouts of deliverance.
 ⁸“I will instruct you and teach you in the way that you should go;
  I will guide you with my eye.
 ⁹Do not be like horse or mule, which have no understanding;
  who must be fitted with bit and bridle, or else they will not stay near you.”
 ¹⁰Great are the tribulations of the wicked;
  but mercy embraces those who trust in the Lord.
 ¹¹Be glad, you righteous, and rejoice in the Lord;
  shout for joy, all who are true of heart.

Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 5:16-21

¹⁶From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. ¹⁷So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! ¹⁸All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; ¹⁹that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. ²⁰So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. ²¹For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Gospel: Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

¹Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to [Jesus.] ²And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
  ³So he told them this parable: ^11b“There was a man who had two sons. ¹²The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’ So he divided his property between them. ¹³A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. ¹⁴When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. ¹⁵So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. ¹⁶He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. ¹⁷But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! ¹⁸I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; ¹⁹I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.” ’ ²⁰So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. ²¹Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ ²²But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. ²³And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; ²⁴for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.
  ²⁵“Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. ²⁶He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. ²⁷He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.’ ²⁸Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. ²⁹But he answered his father, ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. ³⁰But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’ ³¹Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. ³²But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’ ”

CHILDREN’S SERMON:  I think we all know the story of the hare and the tortoise by Aesop.  They race and surprisingly the tortoise wins.  Why do you think we expect the hare to win?  What slowed the hare down?  Why was the tortoise slow?  Share a few thoughts with your neighbor.

Let us pray.  Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, my Rock and my Redeemer.

SERMON

Today’s text is very familiar but it is not being read during Epiphany when we are discovering who our God is and what his character is like. We are reading the Parable of the Prodigal Son two weeks before Palm Sunday, winding down the Lenten Season.  Some of the questions we bring to the text today are about how this text sheds light on our Lenten journey to the cross.  I see three crosses in the text that we all carry: the cross of the younger son, the cross of the older son, and the cross of the father.  In full disclosure I realized as I write this sermon that I am not looking at the text through the eyes of a young adult or young married or even as a middle aged parent seeking to know God but I am looking at the text as an elder looking back on a life blessed by children, some who grew up making choices I didn’t agree with and some who seem to be doing ok.  I am also that kid who had my wayward days and my conforming days.  Oh my, so much to unpack.  As we listen to the news about a world at war arguing about how to be a good leader, be more like the father figure, I pray that looking at the parable of the Prodigal Son through the lens of crosses blesses us all.

         So perhaps I best define how I understand “cross.”  Jesus is headed to Jerusalem, to headquarters, where criminals were killed by crucifixion.  At this point in the Gospel no one is expecting the crucifixion of Jesus but rather expecting the unveiling of a triumphant messiah.  We look for happy endings.  Normally when a baby is born, it is born surrounded by the dreams of parents and prayers for its future.  When we stand and say “I do” we have no idea what the future holds.  In fact, none of us know what news tomorrow will bring.  Jesus presents a parable of a father who has two sons.  I think it could have just as easily been two daughters or two siblings. Perhaps “crosses” are the things we carry that define us and how we live.  For Jesus it was the cross of dealing with our sins and brokenness but let’s see how it plays out here.  Like the tortoise and the hare we are running the race of life.

THE CROSS OF UNFAIRNESS

¹²The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’

         The younger son was carrying a burden.  He would never, under Jewish tradition, inherit the same as his older brother. His older brother was number one and he was number two through no fault of his own.  Life was and is unfair.  It was not his fault he was the younger.  It was not his fault that he was Jewish.  Perhaps I should write in capital letters, LIFE IS UNFAIR!  We know this so very well.  It is not my fault I am a woman or I am black or I am Ukrainian or challenged in some way.  It may not even be my fault that I am poor or that my spouse left me or that the drunk driver hit my car.  Life happens. We are broken people in a broken world that needs a savior.  The journey through life often involves carrying that cross of unfairness.

         The younger brother breaks with cultural norms and demands his fair share of the inheritance early.  In the face of the unfairness of life, we make decisions on how to move forward.  He says, “Give me.”   This sounds to my ears like a demand.  When we first went to the mission field we worked in a former famine relief camp where people, wiped out by drought and famine, would line up at our door and say, “give me.”  One of their favorite jokes was to take my infant into their hands, in-front of the older brother who was three, and say very clearly, “Give me your brother.”  Then they would laugh as my oldest son cried.  I never understood.  Their language had no words for “please” and “thank you.” One solution to unfairness is to demand what life has to offer now.  The younger brother asks for his share and departs to “live the dream.”

         In the face of the unfairness of life, the younger brother takes his future into his own hands and seeks the “goodies” this world has to offer.  The text says “he squandered his property in dissolute living.”  He chased his dream but then the cross of unfairness reared its ugly head yet again.  With his money spent, life happened.  Perhaps rents went up.  Perhaps that beautiful young thing drifted to another guy.  Perhaps the company went belly up.  Perhaps Putin decided that Ukraine belonged to him.  Life happens and innocent people are crushed in the process.  Life is unfair.

         Hard times strip us to a version of ourselves we do not recognize.  We work feeding pigs and long to eat their food.  We are humiliated and feel dehumanized.  The dreams of this world are “fools gold” and often leave us empty. The younger son comes to a point where life forces him to pivot.  Like the tortoise, he carries a heavy shell, a heavy burden, so how to go forward. After the temper tantrum of demanding comes the moment of truth.  In the Disney movie, Lion King, I love the scene where the father, Mufasa, speaks from a cloud to his son Simba, “Remember who you are.  You are more than you have become!”

         The text says the younger brother came to himself and realized he could humble himself before his father.  Unfairness can drive us to demanding, to tantrums and bitterness, but it can also clarify for us our options.  The world offers us the cross of unfairness.  The kingdom of God offers us the journey of Lent to the cross of Christ.  We cannot imagine death and resurrection when weighed down with unfairness but we do have options.  We do have resources.  We do have a God who cares.

THE CROSS OF RESPONSIBILITY

‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goatso that I might celebrate with my friends.”

         The older brother is carrying a burden too.  He is the first-born son.  He has worked hard.  He has been faithful.  He has honored his father.  He has carried the responsibility of the family business.  He has executed his responsibilities but he feels unrecognized, invisible, unappreciated perhaps even taken for granted.  I suspect some of us know the burden of carrying responsibility because of our position as eldest child, as spouse, as corporate employee, or as faithful worker in some business.  We have tried our best to do our best but somehow we don’t feel we have received an attitude of gratitude from our “boss.”  We have run hard like the hare but we are tired.

         When appreciation is not expressed, it is so easy to feel sorry for ourselves. The parable has the older son outside, not going in to the party for his wayward brother’s return home.  Perhaps he was busy burning the midnight oil.  Perhaps he was waiting to be explicitly included, invited, or seen.  It does not seem he was included in the planning of the party and he is …. You name the adjective, forgotten, overlooked, excluded or bitter.  A root of bitterness is growing in his heart.  Bitterness, resentment, and grudges are hard crosses to carry.  They destroy our enthusiasm for life. Perhaps the hare began to feel the insult of being raced against a tortoise and knowing he could win he took a nap.

         We are back to Cain and Abel in Genesis 4, the beginning.  Cain the eldest of the first two sons, becomes angry when his younger brother Abel offers a sacrifice pleasing to God.  He too became angry.  In fact he killed his brother.  OK, perhaps we have not killed anyone but we do know anger or hate that kills in our hearts and which Jesus calls murder in the Sermon on the Mount.  God says to Cain,

         “Why are you angry?  Why is your face downcast?  If you do what is right will you not be accepted?  But if you do not do what is right sin is      crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over        it.”

          Not only is the older brother carrying a cross with anger in his heart but the burden blurts out of his mouth.  He speaks sharply with his father. The younger brother spiraled down from squandering his wealth and life into servitude and despair.  The older brother spirals down through works that are not rewarded into bitterness and harshness. The journey of Lent is not the journey of “ah ha moments,” epiphanies of insights into the wonderfulness of our God who incarnates and comes in search of us.  The journey of Lent is the journey to the cross and death for we cannot save ourselves either as the younger brother tries by embracing life or as the older brother tries by embracing good works.  Both end in a dark place.

THE CROSS OF LOVE

The Father’s Love

         So… The third person in this parable often equated with God is the father figure.  I think we would be wrong to jump over the cross that the father figure pays for his children and that we pay for those we love.  The father carries a burden in this parable.  He loves the younger son who insults him by asking for his inheritance, not trusting him, not willing to wait and not willing to live with him.  Some of us know that rejection, that insult of the kid who does not understand our parenting, that kid that wanders into places we would never have chosen for them.  Love cries and carries the brokenness of our own humiliation and rejection.  The father knows those feelings and I suspect Jesus is telling us that God understands that burden also and carries it with us.

         The father allows the child free-will to choose to leave.  Love cannot demand to be reciprocal and must wait for the other to come to himself.  Sometimes that happens for us and sometimes it doesn’t.  But the father does not stop being alert, looking for the wayward child to return.  Those prayers are hard.  The father picks up his robes and runs to meet the wayward.  Elders do not run.  Elders are not particularly known for being partiers.  The father is willing to incur the ridicule or gossip of the community by associating with the lost come home.  That is not easy.  Likewise, it is not easy to forgive insults and rejection.  We do not know how this all played out over time but the point seems to be that the burden that love carries is the challenge to pride and the challenge to forgive.

         The father also goes after the elder son and does not allow the son to wallow in self-pity.  The father braves the anger of his son to restore relationship and to affirm his love.  I believe the father in our parable understood the cry of Christ from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.”  That’s not the end of the story but it is part of the story of Lent, of the journey of the cross.

         Some of us today are lost in a foreign country, trying to correct the unfairness of life, trying to find in worldly pleasures the happiness we feel we have been denied due to no fault of our own.  Lent calls us to come to ourselves and return to God.  In his house, even servants live like kings.  Some of us today are lost in bitterness and grudges against this person or that who has hurt us perhaps with intention and perhaps accidentally, but we got hurt.  Those memories of how hard we tried to do everything right and then life went bottom up, haunts us, and we must come to a point of confessing our bitterness this Lent.  We have been invited to a party and all God’s resources are ours, not just a goat!  And then there are those of us who carry the cross of love, love rejected, love unappreciated.  Like the father we wait, watch and pray and we do not know how the story is going to play out.  Grief and sorrow are part of love.  God waits to embrace us and celebrate with you and me!

         The truth is that we probably have a bit of each character within ourselves.  We carry burdens.  We carry burdens of unfairness, of responsibility unappreciated, and of love waiting.  As we bow our heads in prayer these remaining weeks of Lent, may we sense the always-present God who like the father, runs to meet us and embrace us and also invites us to join the party.  Thank you, Lord.

The people of God said, “AMEN!”