Christ Lutheran Church

1701 Arroyo Chamiso

Santa Fe, NM 87505-4775

(505) 983-9461

church@clcsantafe.com

  

Sunday, March 14, 2010
Fourth Sunday in Lent

 

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

 

Now 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."

 

[omitted in the Lectionary]

[3So he told them this parable: 4Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? 5When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. 6And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.' 7Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

8Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? 9When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.' 10Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."]

 

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.'"

 Prodigals

 

+ In nomine Domini.  Amen.

I wish to tell you two modern-day parables.

Parable #1

Once upon a time there was a father and a son who both lived in Santa Fe.  They were good people, both of them but it so happened that there came a period when they were not having a good time in life, things were going badly for them.  Their relationship was in turmoil, the father looked at the son and saw disaster, the son looked at the father and saw hopelessness.  The joy of childhood abandon had turned into a downward spiral of adolescence.  Argument replaced conversation, anger replaced understanding … and one day the son left the father’s home … it was a mutual leaving actually, the son left and the father threw him out, no longer could they live together under one roof.

Immediately the father and son regretted what had happened, but the damage was too great to be repaired.  The son went to live among his friends.  For a while he was doing ok, until the money he had in his pocket ran out, and then he began to beg.  He went to the homes of people he did not even know and asked them for help.  He ate from places we would not even talk about in polite conversation.  His life was a mess.  Despair became his constant companion.

Meanwhile the father was not doing very well.  He regretted what had happened.  The worst part of it all was that he did not know where his son was, he did not know if his was ok or not.  Every night … every night he got into his car and drove to the plaza, and there slowly he went around it looking as hard as he could among the young people who at night met there … trying with middle-aged eyes to see if there was a shape, a form, some recognizable shirt or jeans that would indicate the presence of his son who was lost from his home.

After a very long time, it could have been months but felt like years for both the father and the son … a phone call came one day.  “I want to come home,” said the voice on the other end.  “Of course!” wept the voice on the other end.  And so it happened.  

The reunion was joyful, it was a feast of love.  The son wept on the shoulder of the father, and the father wept on the shoulder of the son.  When he could speak the father said, “I never thought I would ever see you again!”  And the son said simply, “I love you.”  And they never stopped telling each other how much they loved each other.

The end.

+++

Parable #2

Once upon a time there was a woman not in Santa Fe.  It was somewhere else, not a pleasant place at all.  She had, for far too many years, been in a relationship without “form or void”.  Her life was going nowhere.  Her life, she thought was a mistake.  In fact, she believed that she was a mistake.  She had entered into the relationship because of family pressure, because it was expected, because it was the thing to do.  “Think of the neighbors,” her mother had said.  “What could you possibly want?” her father had said.  “Maybe I can make myself happy,” her inner-self said to her own inner-self.

And it all worked somewhat … until the day when she had to leave to save herself.  She had been eating of the pods of sorrow far too long and wallowing in the muck of a failure too long.  And so she did, she left, and “Thank God!” said her mother, “at least they didn’t have children.” 

And the neighbors began to talk, too much.  And her friends began to talk, not enough.  And even her church forgot that she existed, too often.  In fact that church, the one she had grown up in, the one she had been married in, cast her off as a … sinner.

And off she went with that stigma, that curse, into a life that spiraled down into the depths not only of despair but also of the darkness of a future that was going nowhere and that nowhere was rushing toward her far too quickly.

She tired to drown the sorrow, and for a while it worked, with chemical solutions, and chemical compounds, and chemical  formulas … until there came a time when nothing worked.

And in that dark time, in that murkiness of nothingness of sadness and hopelessness and a future that was nowhere visible, in that time she turned one day to the open door of another church which said that everyone could come in, no matter what, and so she did.  She took a chance, one last chance.  And there in that congregation she found not only a place, but a home, and a family, who knew her not for what she had not done, who knew her not for what she had mis-done, but knew her for who she was … a child of God, and that is what they kept telling her over and over and over again, as long as it need to be said.

The end.

+++

One day, writes Luke, this Gospel Writer who never knew Jesus except by the stories about this Jesus that he or she had heard from a time nearly 50 years before … One day, writes Luke, this Gospel Writer who wanted only to convey to anyone who would hear or read what he or she was writing … convey that there was and is One, a holy One in whom the presence of God was and is so full and so loving and so complete that to follow anyone else would be a missed opportunity of the greatest proportions … One day, writes Luke, this Gospel Writer who had himself/herself turned from a life of darkness and despair and misdeeds and become a follower of the One he called in his/her most excellent Greek in which he/she could write so well … Iesous   … One day, writes Luke, Iesous, walking about and being confronted by so many negative people who challenged not only his words, but the God for whom his words were spoken, one day Iesous after having had enough of being criticized for his impiety and disregard of keeping himself pure and not getting close to the dregs of society … One day, writes Luke, this Iesous, began to tell a story that grabbed the hearts of everyone in the marketplace, in the plaza, in the open air, wherever it was that he was speaking … it was about a father and a son and about a turning, a repentance, and an acceptance, an unconditional loving acceptance and forgiveness, unconditional love at its very best.  And everyone knew, says Luke the Gospel Writer, everyone knew that this Iesous was speaking himself about God and God’s unconditional loving acceptance and forgiveness, unconditional love at its very best.  And all one had to do to receive that love was to come back to the arms of that Holy One.  And in the coming back was the embrace, the love, the unconditional forgiveness.

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

Let us pray. 

God, we give you thanks for the wideness of your mercy and the extravagance of your welcome. Remind us of the ways in which our arms can embrace others who may feel excluded from the circle of your love. Amen.

The Rev. Benjamin Larzelere III
Pastor, Christ Lutheran Church
Santa Fe, NM

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