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As Close As... Forgiveness A sermon
preached by Rev. Ginger Gaines-Cirelli at Capitol Hill United Methodist
Church March 18, 2007, Fourth Sunday of Lent. Text: Luke 15:1-3,11-32 --------------- The parable that we've just heard is among the most well-known of Jesus' parables. It's been allegorized, philosophized, pulled apart, put together, painted, and looked at from pretty much every phenomenological angle. I, myself-in order to try to open up the story in a fresh way- have preached from the perspective of the fatted calf! But at the end of the day, Jesus is telling a story about a family-a family whose relationships are broken. And the story is about a father and two sons. Neither of the sons are particularly appealing characters and the father seems to make less-than-wise choices himself. Understood in the cultural context of Jesus' time, the actions of every character in the story are shameful: the younger son disrespects his father in every possible way. The father would have been seen as weak and despicable for granting the younger son's impudent demands. The elder son also disrespects his father-first by accepting the early inheritance (instead of rejecting this in protest of his younger brother's behavior) and secondly by refusing his father's invitation to share in the celebration when the younger son had returned. The bottom line is that both sons were estranged from their father. The father must have gone over in his mind again and again where he'd gone wrong: Why do both my sons fail to see how much I love them and want to provide for them? Where did I fail? Some will appreciate the way that the father would have watched that road every day in the off-chance that the younger son would come home-who knows?-maybe the father's regret and fear over the younger son contributed to the elder son's resentment. That certainly isn't hard to imagine. In any case, when the day comes and the younger son appears at the end of the road, the father is out the door like a flash…the son who he'd imagined as gone forever is back! It is a time for rejoicing. Regardless of what would be considered appropriate behavior, the father just loves the son-offers grace and embrace and forgiveness. And when the elder son throws his temper tantrum about it, the father extends the same love and tenderness to him-he wants the family to be reconciled, the father wants to embrace his children and to rejoice that there is the possibility of being family together…relationship renewed… Some of our frustration with this story is that we have no proof that the younger child really reformed and stayed home and was truly reconciled with his family (maybe this return home was not real repentance, but just another taking advantage of his father's love). We don't know whether the elder child ever accepted the love that his father offered him and let go of his jealousy and self-righteousness. For all we know, the cycles of alienation and abuse continued in this family, with the father getting burned again and again. At the end of the day, all we know for sure is that even when the children were at their worst, the father loved them and forgave them. As with any form of love and grace, all you can do is offer it, it's up to the other to respond… // There's a Spanish story of a father and son who had become estranged. The son ran away, and the father set off to find him. He searched for months to no avail. Finally, in a last desperate effort to find him, the father put an ad in a Madrid newspaper. The ad read: "Dear Paco, meet me in front of this newspaper office at noon on Saturday. All is forgiven. I love you. Your Father." On Saturday 800 Pacos showed up, looking for forgiveness and love from their fathers. Forgiveness
is something that we all crave-and yet it can be so difficult to offer
or receive. Jesus's parable shows that the father "sets his sons free" by extending forgiveness to sons who don't deserve it, who haven't earned it, who may misuse it. The father accepts his children instead of demanding repayment for the wrong done; the father releases the other instead of exacting revenge; the father reaches out in love instead of relinquishing resentments. It occurs to me that, just as we are surrounded by these broken shards of mirrors in which we see bits and pieces of our own image, we can see bits and pieces of our own image in the parable today. We each have a little shard of the younger son, a shard of independence and self-centeredness-that spiritually sophomoric child who presumes that we are perfectly free, who wants to take from life and not count the cost, who wants to do whatever we want when we want, regardless of the price to ourselves or others. We each hold a jagged piece of the elder son, the demanding critic, the rigidly, resentfully dutiful child, who keeps score and demands payment and gold stars for doing exactly what she is supposed to do. We each also have, deep within, the fractured bit of another voice…the voice that has compassion, that understands the struggle between freedom and duty, the struggle of trust and fear. It is this part of ourselves that knows intuitively that we are all just human beings, trying to find our way-doing the best we can-and that sometimes that isn't saying much. This sliver of ourselves, this compassionate, gracious part of ourselves, reflects light in a powerful way when we allow ourselves to handle it-it sees the truth and is able to bear it with gentleness and love. It is the part of our soul from which we can offer forgiveness-because it is a place of deep and abiding love. What if we found that sliver of grace within that could offer forgiveness and compassion to others, to ourselves? Yes, slivers can cut and wound and make us bleed. But in taking up the broken pieces of our lives-whether that be in our families or in our own souls, we begin to see the possibility of wholeness, the ways that the pieces might fit together and begin to be less fractured, less sharp and dangerous. As I've been writing this reflection, the movie "Little Miss Sunshine" keeps popping into my mind. That film chronicles the journey of the Hoover family from alienation to something resembling love. The family is made up of a motley crew of characters, each with his or her own issues-from the drug-sniffing, foul-mouthed grandfather to the Nietsche-obsessed, vow-of-silence taking older brother who hates everyone, to the "nine steps to not being a loser" father, to the mother who's holding things-including herself-together by a thread, to the lovelorn, suicidal, academic of an uncle…all these characters are part of this one fractured family. But there is another part…the smallest, yet most powerful part of the family- little Olive. She asks questions and wants to hear the truth. She is without guile. She loves her family. Light simply radiates from her. She doesn't seem to hold anything against anyone, but accepts them-even as she tries to accept herself. And, while the journey that this family takes is different from the one in the parable today, both stories end in celebration. As Olive performs at the Little Miss Sunshine contest, her family-beginning with her father, not worrying anymore about not being a "loser"-not worrying about what is considered appropriate behavior, joins in the dance in an act of love and support that takes your breath away even as you laugh with delight. The broken, jagged edges of alienation, disappointment, and rage come together around the love of little Olive-and one another. They are family and they claim it and they jump back in their VW bus after its all over and you can't help but cheer that they're still on the journey together… We don't
know if the elder son in Jesus' parable ever joined the dance and we don't
know whether the younger son stayed past the moment of initial delight.
But we do know that wherever there is even a sliver of the compassion
and grace of God, there is the possibility for forgiveness, for reconciliation,
for healing of brokenness. It's difficult and even painful sometimes to
be about that work, but it's the only way to be healed, whole…it's
the only way to truly experience the celebration, the dance! Renewed relationship,
healing for the jagged edges of brokenness…are as close as forgiveness.
Are as close as your own soul….
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Sermons from other years:
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Capitol Hill United Methodist
Church is a Reconciling Congregation. |
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