Luke 15: 11-32

Laterally Luke…Lent 4…New 2019

[Please note: Next week’s Gospel is Johannine, so go to jottingsonjohn.blogspot.com]

When Jesus tells a story like today’s, He must surely hope His hearers will go home wondering how this applies to what’s going on in their home & to their family. When we preach the story today, it needs to be with that same expectation, but in today time; not back in Jesus’ time. How does what Jesus says apply in our home, in our family? To the lostness apparent in so many families, & communities? Can we make the Gospel present to our hearers in such ways as will help them ‘return’ in some sense, from any lostness they’re experiencing. And, in the process, be more aware of & compassionate towards others in theirs. In other words, how can we preach God’s unique kind of ‘foundness’?

In Jesus’ story, the father loses a son; in fact, two sons! The ‘prodigal’ loses the plot, & his family, till he comes to his senses & returns home to his father’s (unexpected) welcoming love. I find myself asking further questions of that family & its relation-ships. Is mother long ‘gone to God’, or simply watching from behind the curtains where biblical stories often hide the womenfolk? Are there sisters, too, but out of camera shot? Or other women in their lives? What about in ours, today?

Today’s families, in a far more complicated world, are themselves more complicated than what Jesus presents to us as a simple farming family engaged in basic farming. Even such a family, if it exists today, will be finding life more complicated. Whoever we are, however we live, some of the relationships we live with & maybe struggle with today are complex indeed. As well as fathers & mothers & sisters & brothers we have in-laws (& out-of-laws!) same-sex relationships, mixed relationships of many kinds. Whom can we see when we look from our pulpits? What about Jim, here, & Betty there? Tom & Tom, there? And the rest? Or are we being deliberately blind?

Peter Gomes¹ gives us insight into preaching this or other parables: ‘A parable invites us in… turns us around, & it sends us right on out again; that is what a parable is all about.’ 

So, we preach this parable, we hear this parable, we enter into this parable. How is it going to turn us around? Yes, us; not someone else long ago & far away, or even a contemporary? How is it going to send us ‘right on out again’? In better shape for the rest of our journey back to our true Home? ‘What must I do to be found’ is at least as important a question as, ’What must I do to be saved?’!

Brian 

Afterthought: Are, ‘this son of yours’ the saddest, unkindest, most dismissive words in Scripture? May we never use expressions as hurtful as this! In any case; to anyone!

¹ Strength for the Journey, Harper San Francisco, 2003

LK 13: 31-35 

Laterally Luke…Lent 3…2019

Like so many others, I’m much impressed by NZ Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, & her handling of the monstrous situation created by the terrorist in Christchurch. In doing so, she’s holding up a model of leadership sorely lacking in many of our lands & their politics. She is, first & foremost, caring for her people, beginning with the Muslim victims & their families. Moving among them as she’s doing, I can’t recall seeing any other politician doing it in such a way as to keep the victims & their needs at the centre of life, rather than what’s in it for them at the next election. No one less fox-like than JA!

In preaching this passage, I’d choose to preach about the politics of God, versus the politics of our human societies, of whatever kind. The epithet 'fox' brands Herod, like the rest of that family, as ‘crafty’; willing do anything to grab power & stay in power. Over anyone & everyone’s dead bodies, literally or figuratively! How many of our local politicians come to mind when the issue of ‘craftiness’ comes up? Too many politicians are more interested in the power over others they can gain, & the sense of entitlement, the perks that go with it, than in the good of their people. More & more ordinary people are feeling disenfranchised & powerless as a result. This is showing up virtually all over the world except where such demonstrations are prevented.

Why the Pharisees take it upon themselves to warn Jesus isn't clear. They're His sworn enemies! What’s in it for them? Is it as simple as them hating the Herods even more than they hate this upstart, would-be Messiah, Jesus! If so, they’re bringing their own brand of craftiness to bear. These Pharisees, their approach to Jesus, & His response to them, is a timely reminder of how complicated life with its make & break alliances can get if we take only the short-sighted view!

In the alliances we make & break - in family, community, church, etc., are we crafty as foxes in any sense? If so, we need to beware the politics of God breaking in on us & our craftinesses! As disciples we’re not called to be Jesus’ allies only when there’s something in it for us; when it suits us & any craftiness we may have drifted into! Our call is to be constant, committed, & doggedly Jesus' friends! What about our own 'today, tomorrow, & the third day'? Let’s preach them as gifts of God’s Grace to us. Live out our own personal resurrection each & every day. 

 Brian

Afterthought: It’s an inspired idea, no matter who originated it, that tomorrow’s (Friday March 22nd) call to prayer from one of the devastated mosques will be broadcast live throughout NZ to mark the burials taking place, an act of solidarity across all faiths & none, of brother & sisterhood, & of defiance to evil of any & every brand. Can we join in, in some way, & pray for those who are victims in any sense, & for NZ as its people as they move forward together to their own ‘third day’? 

LK 13: 1-9 

Laterally Luke…Lent 2…Revised 2019

Today, Jesus is at His most enigmatic! (Oxford: riddle, obscure speech.) Might this be a good starting point for exploring the passage as a whole? Both sections of the text are equally enigmatic. Elgar’s ‘Enigma Variations’ may help those who enjoy music. Those who prefer thrillers may respond more to the Enigma Code & its cracking that helped end WW2! 

Perhaps the Greatest Enigma of all is that God can be Divine & Human at the same time in the Person of Jesus on earth, & now, by Holy Spirit living out Jesus in us! Christians of various stripes believe in & worship a God who is such an Enigma.

Does Jesus intend His references to Pilate massacring innocent Galileans, & then, telling of those killed by a falling tower in Siloam to be understood as portents of His own death as an Innocent? Does He want us to ponder the enigma that He’s soon going to become the most wholly innocent of all innocents? On our behalf? 

The question of innocence won’t go away for those who know about Pilate killing the Galileans. Everyone in this first case is someone’s husband, father, son, or grandson (on the assumption it was a massacre of males). Herod’s massacre of the young male innocents at Bethlehem comes into the picture here, too. Nor will this pondering the death of innocents go away for those who know about that tower in Siloam collapsing & killing 18 people. In the case of the tower, it’s more likely women, men, & why not children, too, are caught up. Each of them has a name & a face; known to those in their family & community. Just as you & I & all those in our congregations know people we regard as innocents in some way. More, we are all known to God as His children, whoever else we happen to be!

There's not a congregation to whom we preach, that won’t have within it somebody who's been hurt when something bad's happened to them, or happened to someone close to them. We may not have identified them, but it’s important to preach that God has! I suggest it’s also important to preach that it’s OK to lament the ‘injustice’ of all these wrongs on the way to ‘growing in God’. ‘Injustice’, though, comes with the territory of being human. It’s no good blaming God, though, even for ‘allowing bad things to happen to good people’. We’ll find nothing to prop up our humanity, or God, in that direction!

             

Brian

Afterthought: Threatening people with 'the axe' doesn't translate well into Gospel, does it? But investing more of ourself in each other, nurturing more intensely, does. It fits exactly with Jesus' other imageries of shepherding, sowing, viticulture, etc. And, I suspect, helps us on the way to resolving the enigmas above.

LUKE 4:1-15

Laterally Luke…Lent 1…2019

For years now I’ve been a keen follower of U.S.A. Lutheran Preacher / Teacher David Lose. First on his ‘Working Preacher’ site, &, more recently, on his ‘In the Meantime’. Three years ago, when this same passage arose, David posted, with what I consider to be extraordinary insight, ‘This passage is really about identity theft’. That’s what I’d like to explore now, & commend you to consider, too. I can’t imagine a congregation not responding to such a today issue. You may just find connecting it, as David does, with our Lord’s testing in the wilderness different but irresistible!  

In these last years ‘identity theft’ has exploded all over the world, not least here in OZ. People have had their identities stolen through online scams, telephone, bank cards, passport, credit card thefts & numerous other ways. Not long ago a home-owner in Western Australia found their house sold over their heads by someone who had stolen their identity & scammed a real-estate agent. A bit scary? As Jesus finds out there in that desert place as He battles to prevent Himself stealing an identity - Son of God & Messiah - He may not be entitled to! His resistance to the ‘devil’, though, proves He is exactly who He thinks He is! If this seems too odd a twist on our usual approaches to preaching this passage, ponder it discerningly! The risk may be rewarding!

How does the ‘devil’ - however we may understand that term - attempting to steal Jesus’ true identity from Him out there in that wilderness apply to today situations? In particular, to our own identity as disciples? 

I’m not big on devil-centred stuff. For me the devil has long been that dark side of myself which is always trying to steal my true identity as a child of God & pervert it to whatever identity I find convenient to myself at the time. Tempting me away from true discipleship to ‘turning stones into bread’, ‘ruling my world’ by any means at my disposal or, ‘pulling off stunts’ to attract followers of my own. 

Can our congregation identify with any of these present-day goings-on? In their own lives, or, maybe in ours?! It may be a testing experience in itself, for those of us who preach, to present today’s Gospel in new & living ways more relevant to our people than just repeating old ideas, or, dare I say, old sermons, about Jesus’ testings in their oft-repeated ancient context! Jesus’ answers to the devil out there remain the pattern for the responses we need to make in our own testings & temptations.

Brian 

Afterthought: I heard of a parish where sermons always seemed ‘old hat’. One day the priest left his notes in the pulpit. Some suspected he was preaching his priest-father’s old sermons. No such thing; they turned out to be his priest-grandfather’s! Jesus unashamedly preached sermons from His Father, but they were always as new as God is!