Joshua 5:9-12 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
Pop quiz! Who can tell me what tolerance means? (Answers are repeated for all to hear.) Outstanding!
Here are a few of the definitions from Merriam-Webster.com:
- 1. the capacity to endure pain or hardship
2. a. sympathy or indulgence for beliefs or practices differing from or conflicting with
one's own b. the act of allowing something
Last week we talked about tolerance as the result of repentance. When we repent, we not only turn from our own self-centeredness. We also turn toward a worldview that values others equally in the eyes of God.
Next question. What about acceptance? (Answers are repeated for all to hear.) For this one, Merriam-Webster.com says:
- Status of having been given admittance or approval to
- an agreeing either expressly or by conduct to the act or offer of another so that a contract is concluded and the parties become legally bound
So we have moved in Luke’s theology of Jubilee – of everything returning to God and God’s people celebrating the abundance of God’s grace and providence together – toward the expectation of tolerance and now the invitation of acceptance.
Jesus told stories to help us understand the power of God’s jubilant acceptance, and I’ve got one too. There’s another story I’ve heard about a young man returning home that has been told in so many variations that I have no idea of the origin. The basic idea is that he’s estranged from his family. Unfortunately there are lots of reasons this can happen. Sometimes it’s over an unkind word. Sometimes it’s over an inability to understand when a child expresses themselves differently than the parents who raised her or him. There’s always addiction and mental health to consider, but in this story all we know is that the traveler is out of options and asks to go home.
He wrote his parents a letter, because he couldn’t bear talking to them any other way. In the letter he wrote, “Dear Mom and Dad, I need to come home. I’m out of options. I’m heading that way on the bus next week. You have every right to refuse me, but if it’s OK to come in, just hang something white outside so I’ll know I can come in.”
On the bus ride home he told his seat mate about his story. He begged, “You can see my parents’ house from the bus stop. I can’t bear to look. Can you please just look for me when we get close?” The old woman kindly agreed, and he fell asleep.
Suddenly she woke him, but they were still three miles out! His parents had asked their neighbors to help, and there were white sheets and pillow cases and t-shirts lining the road for three miles up to his house! All he could do was weep when his parents met him at the bus stop to welcome him home.
I love that story. It reminds me of how God’s love works when we realize our need for it. It also takes out that pesky older brother, right? Unfortunately we need him. We need him, because he reminds us that we live in a world with conflicts that are real and imagined. Recent studies from the Pew Research Center show an increasing animosity over politics that includes the belief that those in the other party are not only wrong but actively causing harm to our society.
If that weren’t enough, what do we do with real problems where we have become actual combatants and enemies with one another? What do we do when the other has done the unforgivable, or when the relationship has become harmful?
These very real problems are why our Biblical witness matters. Joshua begins his story with the Passover – the recognition that God saved them from death – and it moves from providence to conquest. That was certainly their worldview at the time, but it begs the question for us – what is our response to providence?
According to Paul it should be reconciliation, and that starts by recognizing that we who follow Jesus look at the world through his eyes. We look at the world and we see it being made new. Not only that, it’s our job to tell everyone else! Apparently one of our children heard this recently and told her mom that I had given her, and all of us, and assignment to love everyone.
I’m so glad she heard that! I’m glad, because we all need to hear it and remember it in those times when there are people that are harder to love. That’s why Jesus tells the story of the prodigal as a part of his message of Jubilee! Yes, repentance does move us toward tolerance of others, and it throws us into the arms of acceptance.
Fun fact: the Father was already running to him before he repented. What we see here is that the work of redemption is really not about us. We want it to be, but it’s really about what God is doing in, through, and even apart from us.
It includes us. It involves us, but the reality is that reconciliation is what God is moving all of creation toward together. The beautiful thing about that is that we can realize that there are limits to what we can do. There are people who have harmed us so deeply that it may not be safe to be around. It may be that some aspects of reconciliation are more ultimate than immediate, but that doesn’t mean that we aren’t called to try.
What matters most is that we recognize that the invitation to this party is not about our worthiness or theirs. It’s about God’s willingness to love. God’s love is for the whole self – mind, body, and soul – and it brings us into alignment with God, ourselves, and one another.
These passages do not speak specially of healing, but they do speak of wholeness. We are going to explore God’s invitation to the party in a few minutes by the opportunity to pray for wholeness and the healing it brings. I’ll be joined by our Member Care Deacons, and you’ll be invited to come forward for them to pray for you. Those who would like can be reminded of God’s embrace through the anointing of oil, just as the prodigal himself was anointed.
Regardless of whether you come forward or not, I want you to know that God has invited you to become reconciled. Don’t let the fact that there will be some that don’t deserve it at the party stop you from coming in, because none of us do! It was never about your worthiness or theirs. It has always been about God’s willingness.
Coming into the party does mean that you’re willing to see yourself and others in a new way, and perhaps change your views of self and other over and over again, but it’s a really great party. Even though the cause is to celebrate the one who seems unworthy, it’s a party that’s for the older brother, too. So, come. Celebrate! Be made new. Amen.
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