The Parable of the Rule-Breaking Family

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First Lutheran Church, Detroit Lakes, MN

Lent 4 | 03.27.2022 | Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Today’s parable, a famous one, is the Parable of the Prodigal Son.

There’s always a danger in labeling Jesus’ parables, though. For instance, The Prodigal Son means the reckless or lost son, which no doubt is a main theme here, but there’s much more to this story than just the younger son.

For instance, the parable opens up with the fact that there’re TWO sons (Luke 15:11). I wonder why we only emphasize the younger. The older son has a MAJOR role in the story. Maybe we should name this The Parable of the Two Sons.

And what about the father in the parable? Perhaps Jesus’ main character in the story was the dad. Why not, The Parable of a Loving Dad?

This is all to say, titling a parable leads us into a certain focus – which is fine! We just need to remember that Jesus’ parables are dynamic with multiple emphases. So, to shift our focus on this famous parable, I want to offer us a different title today: instead of the Prodigal Son, let’s call it, The Parable of the Rule Breaking Family.

With that label in mind, let’s recap:

There’re three characters: a father, an older son, and a younger son.

The younger son tells his father that he wants his inheritance early. This is the first breaking of the rules in the story. As was ancient custom in “Jewish families, sons inherited goods and property from their fathers…only after a father’s death;” so, according to one scholar, “the younger son’s request [was] unusual,”[1] if not downright rude.

Equally as odd…the father then allows it and offers his son the inheritance! More rule-breaking. The father is not supposed to do this. In one ancient text, the Book of Sirach, it says that fathers are not to give their property up before they die [quote]:

²⁴ …in the hour of death, [then]distribute your inheritance.

-Sirach 33 (20, 23-24)

In Jesus’ parable the father is breaking this rule.

At that point, the younger son takes the inheritance and blows it on what the passage calls, “dissolute living” (15:13), or a selfish lifestyle. He takes ‘treating yourself’ a little too far. More rule-breaking.

After spending all his money, the younger son picks up a job in the fields feeding pigs (v. 15). This may seem a harmless detail, but the younger son’s choice of occupation is, in fact, another moment of rule-breaking.

In ancient Jewish custom the pig was considered unclean. This was not an honorable occupation chosen by the younger son.[2]

So, at this point, the younger son has dishonored his father by demanding his inheritance before he dies, blown the money on a high-octane superficial lifestyle. Then he got a job working with pigs, disgracing his Jewish heritage and family religion.

For Jesus’ original audience, this younger son would not have just been a flawed character, but a multi-layered screw-up, if not loathsome.

At this point in the parable, the younger son hits rock bottom. He loses his job and goes into poverty. He becomes desperate in this mess of his own making, so he decides to return to his father and plead with him (v. 18). He gets to the outskirts of his father’s property and begins rehearsing his apology and plea for mercy. We have ZERO indication that he was even being sincere.

What happened next is CRITICAL. Before the younger son could even give his rehearsed confession, and certainly before he’d cleaned up his act, the father spotted him in the distance. What did his dad do? It says that the father was “filled with compassion”, and he ran to his son, “put his arms around him and kissed him” (v. 20).

It’s beautiful, but outrageous. Also, it’s more rule-breaking!

First of all, you’d think the father would demand an apology and for the son to “make it right.” In Ezekiel 18 (32), a misbehaving son like this was put to death for such nonsense. But, here? Nope. The father embraces his reckless son…without even so much as an apology.

Also, the father ran to him. This is an interesting detail, because one of my NT professors (Arland Hultgren) explained that, according to ancient norms, esteemed men did not run.[3] More rule breaking! He did what foolish men did. The father showed no composure.

The father, showed no restraint and ran to embrace this loathsome son. Oh, and then…he threw him a lavish party.

Meanwhile, the older, responsible son must have felt like he was in the twilight zone watching all this unfold. The text says, understandably, that “he became angry” and scolded his father (also a no-no: you don’t scold your dad in first century Israel): “Listen!” he said, “For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command…But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you [throw him a party!?]” (vv. 28-30) Are you kidding me!?

I sympathize with the older son, but still, according the rules, the father should’ve then laid into the older son—“Okay, first of all, don’t be jealous! Thou shall not covet. Second, don’t you ever talk to me like that! Honor your father and mother.”

But no, the father doesn’t do any of that. As one scholar highlights:

…when the son makes his case, the father does not disagree or belittle…[instead, he responds,] ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours’ (v. 31).

It’s stunning.

The generosity lavished on the son who was lost…is now extended also to the [older] son…The father’s love knows no limitations.[4]

And that, right there, is a major thrust of this parable: the father’s love knows no limitations.

If the dad in the parable represents God, then God is willing to break all the rules in order to love and be merciful to God’s children…even when we break the rules.

This has a lot of implications for us.

For instance, perhaps some of us identify with the younger son, that we’ve broken too many rules and feel we’ve got a lot of work to do in order to be accepted again. But here Jesus says that God is willing to sprint towards mercy for us, and not wait for us ‘to make it right.’

Perhaps some of us identify with the older son – we’re trying our best, we’re doing things as right as we can, and we watch others get more than us, and we don’t like it. And God says to us: “I love them. And I love you, too.”

That may not always be logical by our standards, but this famous parable reveals to us a God who is willing to break all the rules in the name of love. Amen.

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     [1] Richard W. Swanson, “Luke,” in Lutheran Study Bible (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2009), 1731. (*emphasis mine). 

     [2] Charles B. Cousar, Beverly R. Gaventa, J. Clinton McCann, Jr., James D. Newsome, Texts for Preaching: A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV—Year C (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994), 226.

     [3] Cf. David Lose, “Lent 4 C: The Prodigal God,” In the Meantime, http://www.davidlose.net/2016/02/lent-4-c-the-prodigal-god/

     [4] Cousar, Gaventa, McCann, Jr., Newsome, Texts for Preaching, 227.

Jesus, the Mother Hen

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First Lutheran Church, Detroit Lakes, MN

Lent 2 | 03.13.2022 | Luke 13:31-35

In today’s Gospel we have a potential showdown between the Son of Man and the Roman ruler over Galilee, Herod.

But before I get to that, I want to catch us up to where we are in Luke, since you remember from last week, we pressed rewind on the story of Jesus.

So, relocating ourselves in the story of Jesus: after his baptism by John the Baptist, he went into the wilderness and had his temptation experience; after that, he went and called his first disciples, and together they began his ministry while en route to the region of Galilee.

While in Galilee Jesus did all kinds of ministry: preaching, teaching, healing, and feeding. Then, while in Galilee, a turning point event took place. The turning point event being the Transfiguration of Jesus on a mountaintop, where he was confirmed as the Beloved Son of God. Then he descended that mountain, turned his compass towards Jerusalem, and continued his ministry along the way.

Our Gospel text today is located on that route to Jerusalem. It says in the Gospel of Luke that Jesus went “through one town and village after another” (13:22) …and along that way he was approached by “some Pharisees” (13:31), some religious leaders.  

And these Pharisees told Jesus something quite startling. They told him that Herod of Galilee, a Roman official, wanted to kill him.

This is a staggering announcement, because this Herod is a very real threat; this is the same Herod that imprisoned and beheaded John the Baptist, and was quoted just a few chapters ago saying, specifically, “‘John I beheaded; but who is this [Jesus] about whom I hear such things?’,” and Herod wanted Jesus brought to him (Luke 9:9). Here, these Pharisees were warning Jesus.

Now, we might wonder why these Pharisees would seek to give Jesus this ‘heads up.’ Up to this point in the Gospel the Pharisees have been really combative with Jesus, calling him a blasphemer, ripping him for hanging out with the wrong crowds (5:21, 30; 6:2) and they’ve explicitly revealed that they couldn’t wait to “catch him in something he might say” or do (11:54), to get him into trouble.

Not only that, Jesus hadn’t held back on the Pharisees either; he frequently (and very publicly!) called them out, often denouncing them as ‘hypocrites’ (11:37-44, 12:1).

So, it’s odd that the Pharisees would be concerned for Jesus’ safety. They were not friends. Again, we might wonder about their intentions here. Perhaps they were sincere in their concern for their Jewish brother? Or, one biblical scholar ponders, maybe they were scheming to scare Jesus, and get him to run away[1]; or maybe they wanted to bait Jesus into actually going head-to-head with the Roman ruler in hopes that the Empire would finally just silence him.

Nevertheless, one scholar comments, “We don’t know” what motivates the Pharisees here, “and it doesn’t…matter.”[2] What matters here is how Jesus responds to the threat.

Again, here’s the scene: “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you” (13:31), said the Pharisees, and Jesus responded: “Tell that fox for me, ‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day, I will finish my work…I must be on my way”; Jesus continued, “How often I have desired to gather Jerusalem together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings…” (13:32-34).

The power of Jesus’ response is in the details.

In calling Herod a fox, Jesus slams the ruler as a wild animal, and not just a wild animal, a predator. And notice the contrast. What animal does Jesus refer to himself as? A mother hen. One animal is an image of violence, the other, an animal of motherly love.

This imagery of the hen is really important, and it’s not a random choice by Jesus. “The image of a bird mothering her young” is used all over the Old Testament to describe God. I intentionally picked the other readings today so that you could see that (Exodus, Deuteronomy, the Psalms, Isaiah, etc.), and here Jesus responds by applying that great divine imagery to himself, revealing that despite imperial bullying, he will continue the mission from of old, of “motherly love and protection.”[3] I must be on my way (v. 13:33).

Like with the Temptation last week, his committed determination is on full display here…and that is what matters—like a mother, Jesus is determined to love and save his people. That is what matters in this story – this is another example that God’s love will not be derailed, not even by death threats from the Empire.

This sort of bold persistence of Jesus reminds me of a story about the Archbishop Oscar Romero when his life was being threatened due to his challenges to authority on behalf of the poor in El Salvador:

Just before he died, in an interview with a Mexican newspaper…Romero reportedly said: ‘I have frequently been threatened with death. I ought to say that, as a Christian, I do not believe in death without resurrection. If they kill me I will rise again in the people of El Salvador…my blood…the seed of liberty…[So, to the death threats] I wish that they could realise that they’re wasting their time.

[4]

In a sense, this is what Jesus was saying here in the face of his death threats: Tell Herod he’s wasting his time. I have work to do...

Jesus will not be sidetracked, and such Divine commitment to love is the theme of the entire Bible: God persists in order to love. Over and over again despite rejection, despite fickle faith, despite politics, despite the brokenness of this world, again and again God is the mother hen who “draws her young under her wing.”[5]

And NOTHING deters God from doing that, because you are just too important. He is on his way. Amen.

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     [1] Charles B. Cousar, Beverly R. Gaventa, J. Clinton McCann, Jr., James D. Newsome, Texts for Preaching: A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV—Year C (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994), 206.

     [2] David Lose, “Lent 2 C: Courage and Vulnerability,” In the Meantime, http://www.davidlose.net/2016/02/lent-2-c-courage-and-vulnerability/.

     [3] R. Alan Culpepper, The Gospel of Luke, The New Interpreter’s Bible, ed. Leander Keck (Nashville, Abingdon Press, 1995), v.9, 282.

     [4] Quoted [sic]in—Julian Filochowski, “The Violence of Love Working for Justice to Achieve Peace The Life and Legacy of the Martyred Archbishop Oscar Romero,” Lecture: Houston – Final Text, http://www.romerotrust.org.uk/documents/anniversary%20homilies/working%20for%20justice%20to%20achieve%20peace.pdf.

     [5] Ibid., 282-283.

The Temptation of Jesus

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First Lutheran Church, Detroit Lakes, MN

Lent 1 | 03.06.2022 | Luke 4

The Temptation of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke.

Having the First Sunday in Lent start with the Temptation of Jesus can actually be kind of confusing because we’re going backwards in the story of Jesus with respect to how we have been tracking it since Christmas.

Now, it says that Jesus spent forty days in the wilderness/temptation experience, and Lent is a forty-day season, so, sure, there is some playful numerical theme going on here, but…in terms of tracking Jesus’ story, starting Lent with his Temptation is still kind of confusing.

For instance, last week Pr. Lauryl preached on the Transfiguration to conclude the season of Epiphany in Luke, chapter 9, and then we start Lent by rewinding to Luke, chapter 4.

The Temptation happens really early on in Jesus’ story: it happens right after he was baptized, and at a time where he hadn’t even called his disciples yet.

It’s really important to know that if we are going to grasp the Temptation experience: that this event in Jesus’ life happens before he really even gets started.

Knowing that helps us understand that the Temptation was a grueling preparation for his rigorous ministry to come. This is to say what I’ll tell the confirmation students: to think of the Temptation of Jesus as sort of the ‘two-a-days’ practice that football or volleyball teams go through in the heat of summer preparing them for the season ahead, or to think of Jesus Temptation as basic training or bootcamp, to prepare a service member for the mission.

The Temptation prepared Jesus for his mission.

In fact, what Jesus went through in the Temptation experience represented almost exactly what he would go through later in his life: for instance, his experience of hunger prepared him to empathize with the hungry, the thirsty, and those in need of healing that he would encounter in his daily ministry. It made him a God who’s “been there before.”

His experience with the tempter prepared him for the clever and crafty tricks he would face from his powerful oppositions, like the Pharisees and Roman leadership.

Also in the Temptation, Jesus would be offered an opportunity to forsake his identity for self-protection – later in his life he would exactly that opportunity when the Roman guards in the garden asked him to self-identify before his arrest.

Also in the Temptation, the devil’s mocking him to ‘save himself’ prepared him for what he would later face on the cross with the sneering words of Roman soldiers who also dared him to ‘save himself’ (4:5-6; cf. Luke 23:36-37).

The Temptation experience in the desert truly was a preparation for what Jesus would later experience.

So, this is whatthe Temptation was, but what does it tell us about who God is? Remember, we should be asking that question any time we read the Bible – what does this tell us about who God is?

On that, take this line from Last Days in the Desert, a 2016 movie on the Temptation of Jesus:

The desert is ruthless. It strips you of your vanities, your illusions, gives you the opportunity to see yourself for who you are.

I think Jesus’ experience in the desert gives us an opportunity to see for ourselves who Jesus really is, and here is what we can see:

We can see that Jesus is truly committed to us. In the Temptation, we see Jesus’ unshakable commitment to his mission—time and time again he is given ways out and attractive opportunities from the ‘tempter’ to misuse his power, to use it for vanity, wealth, and domination…and, does Jesus use that power for is own gain, does“he compromise [one] bit to enjoy the headiness of power and the thrill of [worldly] control…?”[1] Not once.

Jesus is tempted while he was at his weakest and he was offered unparalleled political power, and he stayed the course. Not once did he balk…and with that, writes one scholar, Jesus “has proven worthy of trust.”[2] Based on what we see in the Temptation, you can trust that Jesus is committed to loving and fighting for his people.

And that may seem an obvious thing, but I cannot overstate the importance of knowing and seeing Jesus’ commitment to his mission, to us, his people. I think each and every one of us struggle with how much we are worth. I also think there are a ton of religions and theologies out there that seem to say that you and I are the ones who have to survive and pass some temptation experience in order to be loved by God.

And yet, here, we find that it is JESUS who goes through these grueling tests, all in order to love us. Rather than putting us through the trials and tests, it is Jesus who goes through them, because we are worth that much to him.

So, rest assured, my friends, you have an indomitable Savior. As one of my professors said, this is a story that says, “there will be no compromise in the Triune God’s bid to redeem all of Creation…and that’s good news.”[3]

And starting this way makes Lent an incredibly hopeful season. Sometimes Lent can and should come with solemn and darker connotations…and,it is also a season that continuously emphasizes and reveals to us the meddle, the resolve, and the determination of Jesus to love and save his people, a season that shows us just how much you and I are worth to God.

Amen.

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     [1] Walter Brueggemann, Charles B. Cousar, Beverly R. Gaventa, Jr., James D. Newsome, Texts for Preaching: A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV—Year A (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1995), 189 (*emphasis mine).

     [2] Ibid., 190.

     [3] Rolf Jacobson, “Podcast #652 – First Sunday in Lent,” Sermon Brainwave, Workingpreacher.org, http://www.workingpreacher.org/brainwave.aspx?podcast_id=1111.

#Blessed?

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First Lutheran Church, Detroit Lakes, MN

Epiphany 6 | 02.13.2022 | Luke 6:17-26

Imagine with me a city street. On one side of the street is an encampment of people who are homeless—tents, cardboard boxes, shopping carts, huddled bodies, and a barrel fire. Next to it is a bus stop with one man asleep on the bench clutching a bottle in a brown bag, next to him is a woman waiting for the bus while reviewing her WIC card, her “food stamps,” and a 10-year-old boy is sipping soda next to the sleeping man on the bench.

On the other side of the street is parking lot for both an office complex and a city park. The lot is full with nice cars. Next to the building is a bike rack full of road and mountain bikes. People lean on the sign for the park trail entrance and stretch as they ready for a workout. Some sit on a picnic table with smoothies in hand cooling down from a walk in the park, while others sit having a coffee dressed in fine and casual business attire.

Which side of the street do YOU think society as a general whole would say has more dignity?

Which side of the street do you think would be given the caption, ‘‘#blessed’?

Which side of the street receives more negative attention?

Which side is assumed a higher morality and work ethic?

Which side is often given the benefit of the doubt?

Which side do think gets made fun of more?

Or to use Jesus’ language from our Gospel: which side that gets our blessings and which side gets our woes.

We all know this answer. The picturesque side of comfort, leisure, and affluence is the side of blessing. We know what is said about the other side of the street:

“They should really clean that place up. What an eyesore.”

“Maybe if he wasn’t spending all his money on booze, he’d be able to take care of himself!”

“They need to get a job!”

“I wish I could just sit around all day and receive handouts.”

“Why isn’t that kid in school? Where are his parents?”

“They only have themselves to blame.”

These are common assumptions, and widely held beliefs about the poor, and these are examples of what Jesus calls revilement.

Society consistently and constantly says, “Woe to the poor.” We disproportionately judge, alienate, and punish the poor now and throughout history. We don’t like the poor.

How do I know this is true? I’ll give one specific example where this plays out societally: the oft proposed policy to drug test food stamp recipients.

Now…I get it. We don’t want tax payer dollars to free the recipient’s income up for drug use. That’s logical and I understand that logic. I’m not here to debate the policy from this pulpit. But in the name of Jesus, I do ask why have we only thought to require this testing on the poor? When we bailed out Wall Street, was anyone calling for them to receive drug tests? When FLC got a PPP loan, did our Vision Council get drug tested? How about recipients of federal student loans—I never had to take a drug test. How about stadium owners who receive public dollars to build? Test ‘em! Oh that’s right…Woe to the poor. We don’t like the poor.

Or if you don’t like that example, just spend 15 minutes observing our church office guide people coming through our doors seeking assistance, and you’ll become aware of how few resources are available to them, and how many asinine obstacles they have to go through to get those minimal resources.

So, again, we all know which side of the street generally garners more positive attention and benefit of the doubt. I think we all know which side of the street gets the caption #blessed, and which does not, and that’s what makes Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel of Luke so astonishing.

In our text today, Jesus stands on a Palestinian prairie, in what is called the Sermon on the Plain, and he makes very clear…that he is sick and tired of “Woe to the poor.”

His sermon is a stunning reminder [on this confirmation day,] that the movement Jesus started was not just about confirming a faith that makes us feel good, but is also a faith that involves a radical way of viewing the world. [You confirm a faith today that proclaims that each and every one of you are loved forever, and you confirm a faith today that sends you into this world with concern for the poor and the suffering].

This is isn’t a merely sentimental faith, but also an active faith. Make no mistake, Jesus was a rebel. He was a rebel against the system. The Roman Empire didn’t kill him because he would someday inspire the Footprints poem or end up on Hallmark cards. They killed Jesus because he wanted to turn the world’s value systems on their heads – starting right here in the Sermon on the Plain where he redefines who deserves blessing and attention.

In his sermon, Jesus flips the way the world should value people. So, he says things like, “Blessed are the hungry” (cf. Lk 6:21) and “Blessed are the poor” (6:20). Woe to the comfortable (v. 24-25).

And as we reflect on this, I wonder if some of us are having this reaction or dilemma: “Well, am I not blessed, just because I have worked hard and labored my way into comfort? Am I not blessed?” Perhaps some of us may even wonder: “Aren’t all of us blessed by your affection Jesus!?”

I, too have asked these things, and here’s a hard truth: I think these are questions born out of insecurity. So, hear this: yes, by Christ’s love for the WHOLE world, yes, you are blessed. Absolutely and eternally, and you need to know that…AND, Jesus is saying that suffering people really need attention; the poor REALLY need to hear that they are valuable, especially in a world that tells them nothing of the sort.

To explain, here’s an analogy from Lutheran Pastor, Kelly Chatman: imagine four houses on a block, and one is on fire. The first responders come and they give the burning house particular attention. I think we’d all agree that that is good and necessary. It would be absurd for one of the homeowners of the other houses, which are safe and intact, to come out and say, “Why does this house get all the attention!? Aren’t our houses important?”

Based on Pr Kelly’s analogy, we would do well to understand that Jesus is saying, “Blessed are the houses that are on fire”, and woe to those who come out of intact houses and show no regard.

Jesus is pointing to the poor and suffering side of the street and saying:

THIS side of the street has my attention.

THIS side of the street has dignity.

THIS side of the street is valuable.

THIS side of the street shall not be made fun of.

THIS side of the street is not society’s trash.

THIS side of the street is blessed.

This is Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain.

And for what it’s worth, again, Jesus does this for all of us. When we are riddled with suffering, judgement, and disparagement, God in Christ Jesus counters those voices and says, ‘Blessed are you…” So, indeed, each of you are defined by love and divine blessing. Being a disciple means offering this to the poor, too. Amen.