Preferring Nothing to Christ

Joshua 5:9-12
Luke 15: 1-3, 11-32

This is the second time this Lent that he hear the parable of the Lost Son. I find it helpful to read the three parables of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin and the Lost Son together. Luke’s narrative skill invites us into each scene, and we almost have no choice but to respond. With each parable the invitation goes deeper. We know these stories so well.

If you are preaching today or listening to a sermon there’s sure to be something said about repentance, mercy and God. We need this message more than ever in our world today. But there’s something else which links these parables: each scene ends in an invitation to rejoice and celebrate. Each parable encapsulates that special joy you feel when you find something which you thought you had lost. To feel that joy you need first to have noticed that something was missing. Then you need to go in search of it. In Luke’s parables this joy finds communal expression. I have always loved the phrase ‘we are going to have feast, a celebration’. Joy is almost always doubled when you invite others to share it.

These parables all speak to me of the centrality of celebration in the story of our salvation. The quality of our love and mercy are mirrored in our capacity to rejoice and to celebrate. I’ve come to value the people in my life who naturally rejoice or who make the simplest of gatherings a celebration. It’s worth quoting Amy J Levine a second time here:

‘Do whatever it takes to find the lost and then celebrate with others, both so that you can share the joy and so that the others will help prevent the recovered from ever being lost again. Don’t wait until you receive an apology; you may never get one. Don’t wait until you can muster the ability to forgive; you may never find it. Don’t stew in your sense of being ignored, for there is nothing that can be done to retrieve the past.

Instead, go have lunch. Go celebrate, and invite others to join you. If the repenting and the forgiving come later, so much the better. And if not, you still will have done what is necessary. You will have begun a process that might lead to reconciliation. You will have opened a second chance for wholeness. Take advantage of resurrection—it is unlikely to happen twice.’

— Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi by Amy-Jill Levine

Are things in this past week for which you can say ‘we are going to have feast, a celebration’?

Hosea 5:15-6:6
Luke 18:9-14

The prophets were all called to deliver challenging messages to people who found themselves in crisis. It was largely a crisis of faith. One question occupied the hearts and minds of the people: Has God abandoned us? As political alliances failed and the prospect of exile loomed, Hosea speaks to the injustices present in daily life and worship.

His message is uncompromising, but there is always a glimmer of hope. God promises to be faithful and that he will come to their aid is ‘as certain as the dawn.’ Israel has its part to play. The covenantal relationship relies on their co-operation. It relies on a type of love that is deep and true. But Israel is half hearted:

What am I to do with you, Ephraim?
What am I to do with you, Judah?
This love of yours is like a morning cloud,
like the dew that quickly disappears.

It’s all too easy to become half-hearted about so many things in our lives. Lent offers us the opportunity to look closely at our hearts. The promise of the dawn is God’s pledge that all we most deeply need and desire is held in his love. For those places in our lives where love seems to quickly disappear, Lent offers the chance to change our hearts.

How is God calling you to deepen your love this Lent?

Hosea 14: 2-10
Mark 12:28-34

‘One of the scribes came up to Jesus and put this question to him, ‘Which is the first of all the commandments?’ Jesus replied, ‘This is the first: Listen, Israel. the Lord our God is the one Lord, and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and all your mind, and with all your strength.’

heart
soul
mind
strength

It’s in the person of Jesus that we see what this commandment means. As we journey with Jesus towards Jerusalem we will see the depth of his love and just how much his heart, soul, mind and strength are focused on his Father.

Whenever I hear these verses from Mark I think of words I read by Sr Joan Chittister osb:

To live a religious life takes all the life we have.
To live a religious life takes the heart of a hermit,
the soul of a mountain climber,
the eyes of a lover,
the hands of a healer,
and the mind of a rabbi.

What would it mean for you to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength?

Jeremiah 7:23-28
Luke 11:14-23

‘Every kingdom divided against itself is heading for ruin, and a household divided against itself collapses.’

The onlookers in today’s Gospel challenge the very nature of Jesus’ power to work miracles. Jesus has cast out a devil and rather than accepting this as a miracle, the onlookers set up a polarity: Jesus has either done this through the power of God or Beelzebul. They want proof of Jesus’ power, but he won’t give it. He turns their reasoning back on them. I suspect his warning about households being divided rather goes over their heads. They have already categorised Jesus.

In our daily lives it takes grace and faith to work against division and to assume the good. It is so easy to close a conversation before it begins. We don’t have to look far to see ‘households divided’. Our press is able to pit one group against another with remarkable ease. Social media adds layer upon layer of division where an erroneous opinion can spread like wild fire.

The Gospel today is a personal challenge to us to examine the seeds of division which take root in our own hearts. Christ asks us to be with him and not against him.

How can you be with Christ today?

Deuteronomy 4:1, 5-9
Matthew 5:17-19

Moses said to the people; Now, Israel, take notice of the laws and customs that I teach you today, and observe them, that you may have life and may enter and take possession of the land that the Lord God of your Fathers is giving you.

Scripture scholar, Walter Brueggemann, sees the whole of salvation history through the lens of ‘land’. His book -The Land: Place as Gift, Promise and Challenge in Biblical Faith- has given me some useful insights. As landless Israel wanders in the wilderness it is the promise of land which keeps them going. Our text from Deuteronomy today more than hints at the fact that with land comes responsibility. For the writers of Deuteronomy faithfulness to God and God’s commands is everything. Entering and being able to stay in the land both depend on this faithfulness.

For the Israelites the experience of the Exodus and the giving of the Law were concrete experiences on which they could draw when the way ahead seemed hard. Just as Israel will learn to cultivate and guard the land they have been given, so too they will learn to cultivate and guard their hearts. The Law is a safeguard of love and guarantee of God’s presence.

How do you safeguard love in your life?

Isaiah 7:10-14,8:10
Luke 1:26-38

‘Mary, do not be afraid; you have won God’s favour. Listen! You are to conceive and bear a son, and you must name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High.’

Do you ever stop and wonder how different our faith might be if Jesus had just appeared on earth, fully grown and ready to start his mission? We would lose a great deal in terms of our understanding of the mystery of the Incarnation. There would be no need for Mary or Joseph or visits from angels.

When Luke tells the story of the Incarnation he paints a scene for us with a few sentences and over the centuries artists have supplied the things that the text doesn’t tell us. Whether it is a stylised icon depiction of Mary poised and assured or a contemporary scene of Mary in her kitchen, the artist captures this defining moment in salvation history.

Mary’s ‘yes’ is our ‘yes’ too. Our whole faith journey, begun at baptism, is an invitation to say ‘yes’ to God. Every small ‘yes’ has the potential to prepare us for a big ‘Yes’. All we can do is try to be open and ready to do what is asked.

How can you say ‘yes’ to God today?

2 Kings 5:1-15 
Luke 4:24-30

Jesus starts his preaching ministry in his home town of Nazareth. He doesn’t start gently with an engaging story, but boldly he unrolls the Isaiah scroll and announces that these prophecies are being fulfilled.

A huge leap of faith is required on the part of the people in the synagogue. The people are being asked to believe that everything they have heard and read in the ancient prophecies is being fulfilled in the person of Jesus.

It’s little wonder his home town couldn’t accept his message. Jesus stands in a long line of prophets whose messaged disturbed and challenged.

We often long for prophetic voices, but don’t always recognise them when they come.

Who are the people who challenge you today?
Who are the prophetic voices in your own life?

Exodus 3:1-8, 13-15
Luke 13:1-9

This week the Church lays before us a parable that can challenge and comfort us in equal measure. The parable of the Fig tree is particular to Luke and its message comes at a stage in Lent when my initial fervour is usually starting to wane a little.

A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came looking for fruit on it but found none. He said to the man who looked after the vineyard, ‘Look here, for three years now I have been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and finding none. Cut it down: why should it be taking up the ground?’ ‘Sir,’ the man replied ‘leave it one more year and give me time to dig round it and manure it: it may bear fruit next year; if not, then you can cut it down.’

We have probably all had the experience of something that has flourished despite the fact that we didn’t give it the attention that it needed. Likewise some plants and shrubs can look as if they are dead and then they surprise us with a spurt of growth. The parable is in a slightly different mode, things aren’t being left to chance, there is oversight from the gardener and expectation from the vineyard owner. As with many parables, our instinct can be to work out which character represents God and to work from there. I am resisting doing this here and focusing instead on the gentleness and humility of the gardener. The gardener has his own methods. There is no overnight solution. The gardener knows his craft.

I am put in mind here of the Rule of St Benedict and his implicit teaching on mercy. In Chapters 27& 28 on the excommunicated St Benedict speaks of the Abbot being a wise physician. As any doctor would, he is to try a number of remedies. The abbot is to use ‘compresses, the ointment of encouragement, the medicine of divine Scripture.’ You get a real sense of Benedict being interested in the body and the soul. Drastic action can be needed for the good of the whole. Clearly one size does not fit all and the abbot is to adapt himself to each monk as is needed.

The more I turn this parable over in my heart and my mind, the more dimensions I discover. The phrase ‘leave it one more year’ resonates very much with me. A year speaks to me of several seasonal cycles, several opportunities for something to happen. I can see myself as the fig tree, the soil, the vineyard owner and the gardener. Each one of these says something to me about the opportunity for pruning and growth during Lent.

Are there situations in your own life that you are be invited to ‘leave one more year’?

Micah 7:14-15, 18-20
Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

My son, you are with me always, and all I have is yours. But it was only right we should celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life; he was lost and is found.

These are some of my favourite verses from the Parable of the Lost Son. The father has in fact lost both of his sons. He has welcomed one son back with great festivity, but things won’t be whole or complete until all the family are together. The story leaves us hanging. It is such a powerful story both in what it says and what it leaves unsaid. Did it ever resolve?

Classically the parable is framed in terms of repentance and forgiveness. But Jewish New Testament Scholar, Amy J Levine, sees another strand: counting and searching. She sees the parable as a call to us to count and recognise those we have lost.

‘Recognize that the one you have lost may be right in your own household. Do whatever it takes to find the lost and then celebrate with others, both so that you can share the joy and so that the others will help prevent the recovered from ever being lost again. Don’t wait until you receive an apology; you may never get one. Don’t wait until you can muster the ability to forgive; you may never find it. Don’t stew in your sense of being ignored, for there is nothing that can be done to retrieve the past.

Instead, go have lunch. Go celebrate, and invite others to join you. If the repenting and the forgiving come later, so much the better. And if not, you still will have done what is necessary. You will have begun a process that might lead to reconciliation. You will have opened a second chance for wholeness. Take advantage of resurrection—it is unlikely to happen twice.’

— Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi by Amy-Jill Levine

Who or what are you called to search for this Lent?

Genesis 37:3-4, 12-13a, 17b-28a
Matthew 21:33-43, 45-46

In just one verse the writers of Genesis paint for us a scene that so easily strikes a chord. We can imagine the first time Joseph appears in his special coat. We can imagine the looks and the mutterings. We just know things aren’t going to turn out too well for anyone in this scene.

In the story of Joseph and his brothers there is outright deception, meanness and the uncomfortable feeling that Joseph may have been a bit of a show off. And yet, through all the twists and turns God’s promise prevails. Co-operation and forgiveness are required on the part of Joseph AND his brothers and then God supplies the rest. All twelve brothers avoid a severe famine and God’s plan inches a little further along.

Where can you see God’s promise in the twists and turns of your life?