"Learning Learned Lessons" March 10, 2013

Joshua 5:8 -15 Luke 15:1-3 & 11-32 The problem with appropriation of each of our texts this morning is that we are too familiar, we know the conclusion before we begin. The people of Israel had been promised the Land of Israel for hundreds of years, eventually the Jews would be ripped from Judah; here with Joshua they prepare to take possession of the Land. The Prodigal is not a Prodigal until he comes home, the Elder son is no longer an Elder, until the Prodigal returns... However, the point of each story is the telling, let the story seep in, allow yourself not only to know but to feel the change you already know takes place. Adam and Eve had been created to serve as Companions to God, Companions for each other, Companions with all Creation. But instead of seeking that relationship, each person broke communion. The history of the Old Testament, the history of all peoples of faith, the history of humanity, has been that we turned on one another, we abandoned responsibility for the world taking of her resources without creating, we defiantly professed: I AM the Ruler of my life, and have no need of God or anyone! Hundreds of years before this passage, Abram and Sarai had been Called to remembrance by God. They had wandered the land as Nomads, in search of a Promise, a Promise of Land, an Heir, a Name. After leaving everything and wandering after God, doing every thing that they were commanded to do, Abram and all the men of his company were Called to be set apart, to be made holy, commanded to be Circumcised. In their most intimate parts to be cut, to be set apart. Abraham and Sarah and their descendants after them, lived among other peoples. Calling upon Eve and Adam's original lesson of Free Will, that we were to choose to be companions with God, other people were intended to see Israel, to observe their blessings and their life with God and freely choose to change, choose to live in companionship with Israel with one another, with God. But under Pharaoh in Egypt, Pharaoh proclaimed himself God, not only this he denied Israel the ability for them to worship God. All the Ten Plagues occurred to break Pharaoh's self-will, but his heart was hardened. Moses listened to God and instituted the Passover meal. With Lambs sacrificed and their doorposts marred in blood, the first born of everyone else died. For the next generations, forty years in the wilderness, Israel itself was purified. The people had to be called to remembrance that everything, daily life, daily bread, water, all came from God. In these few verses, Joshua calls the people of faith to remember: Moses is dead, Abram is dead, but God is Alive and Real and God is still God, the people are still Holy, set apart and therefore circumcised, to live and act that through Israel all would be Called to God. Like Abraham before him, Joshua has all the men of the Nation circumcised. Like Moses before him, Joshua has the entire Nation prepare the Passover meal. The following day they ate of the produce of the land. This was the last time, the very last, that people ate manna from the wilderness. Faith is an all or nothing proposition, you cannot sort of believe, or choose to accept this part about God and not all the rest. But even so, with all Joshua and the people had gone through, still they had not learned the lessons learned. Joshua has had to follow through on everything God commanded. Joshua has had to circumcise the penis of every male. Joshua has had to sacrifice all of the lambs for the passover. Joshua is the new Abraham and the new Moses to the people. Yet Joshua rose early and saw a stranger. And as a human being, as a son of Adam his first thought was not who is this companion but is this stranger my enemy? Joshua, whose name means GOD IS MY LORD AND SAVIOR, questioned the stranger do I fight you to the death, or will you follow me? And the stranger says “NO, you will follow God!” Joshua had been at Moses' side all along. Joshua had fulfilled everything Moses had been commanded to do. Joshua had called the people to remember the Covenant of Circumcision; Joshua had called the People to remember the Passover and all they had learned in forty years of dependence in the wilderness; but still Joshua needed to learn: he was not alone. There is a God who is Savior and Lord. What the Prodigal Son did was not choosing to make his fortune, choosing to leave home. Selfishly, what the child demanded was his share of his inheritance. The problem was not simply that he had not yet come of age; his father was still alive. What this child was demanding, was: “I wish you were dead.” Then half of everything you have made in life, and half of the lands of our heritage would be my possession. He has insulted his father, his family, his community, and their ancestry, cutting himself off. Later, when all the money was gone and famine had made life hard for everyone, the Prodigal who has been reduced to living with and feeding pigs and even the pigs will not share with him, realizes his father's paid servants had it better than he does. Often times preachers will insert something here that is not in the Bible, about the boy repenting. We want everything neat and tidy, sinners suffer and say they are sorry before being granted forgiveness. But what the Bible does say, is that realizing he could have a better deal, the young man turns toward home, as he walked day after day, mile upon mile he rehearsed the words he would have to say. Words of contrition. He could never presume to return to the relationship, the companionship, he had taken for granted. He himself had declared their relationship dead. The best he could hope for, would be to throw himself upon his father's mercy, and ask to be treated as an employee. Everything measured in being paid for what he does. Custom dictated that when the sinner returned, the whole community should turn out to spit upon him, to curse him for daring to come back, they should make him suffer. When he had made it through this gauntlet of ridicule, he should bow down outside the door to what once had been his family's home, and he should have to knock. When the knock came at the door, the Father with arms crossed and jaw set, eyes shut, his back to the door was to ignore the plea. A servant was to answer the door and describe to the Master that his son had come home, to which the father would respond “I have no son. My son is dead to me.” That is what culture said should happen. The Elder brother was right to be offended. When the father divided the inheritance giving half to the younger brother, everything that was left would belong to the Elder. Killing the Fatted Calf, the rings and slippers and robes, all belonged to the Elder, but only if he too claimed the Father was Dead. If the elder child deferred to the father, if he accepted what the father was doing, it would be recognition that the father still had authority. More than anything about the younger, it was whether the father was still alive. But remember, Jesus told this parable in response to the Pharisees, about God's forgiveness of sinners, of prostitutes and tax collectors. Remember that the parable was not the story of two brothers, but of a Father with two sons. When God is the Father, and we as Prodigals each start for home, whatever the reason, God comes running to fall upon us, thankful we are alive. Forgiveness, celebration of resurrection (a return from death to life) is not about atonement or apology, or what words to say, but all about belief in the power of God to love. Over and over again, we have learned lessons already learned. Faith is not about mastering the basics, so as to go higher and have greater power or authority. Faith is being called to remembrance of lessons learned and going ever deeper. Learning that what we had been taught is true, is real in our lives, and relearning all over again the depths of love, the limitless nature of what it means to be companions with one another, companions with the world around us, to live life as companions with God, choosing God in free will.