First Presbyterian Church

A Magnet for Ministry

Links

Site Information

Thomas E.S. (Ted) Miller
September 16, 2007

Our Common Lot
Luke 15:1-10, 1 Timothy 1:12-17

This is the first weekend of a new year, according to the Jewish religion. The rising full moon and sundown September 12 th marked the beginning of the year 5768 and the month of Tishri Jewish Calendar. Rosh Hashana which means the "head of the year" is the start of a seven day period often referred to as the High Holy Days in the Jewish faith. Not just a time for celebrating as we think of New Years on the 31 st of December, Jewish New Year is the beginning of a period of introspection - when the Book of Life is opened and all whose name are inscribed within have the opportunity to make recompense for any sins written there. The Day of Atonement ends the seven day period, and then the book is shut - whether one has sought forgiveness or not and the record stands for the sin and the sinner for another year.

If we hearken back to the Judaism practiced during Jesus Day, the holidays would have had similar meaning.and yet the notion of sin, apparently, particularly in the eyes of the Pharisees was that the taint of sin is not easily put aside - whether one atones or not. Pharisees, as we meet them over and over again in the Gospels were basically the main-stream religious leaders of the 1 st Century. Theirs was a newly emerging form of Judaism in that it relied heavily on a tradition of codes and religious practices which we often think of as the Jewish Law.

One way of understanding the Pharisaic mind is to think of them as being dependent upon structure; looking for conformity as a way of preserving the Jewish heritage and culture in the face of the foreign occupation; first the Greeks and then the Romans - European cultures which did not mesh easily with Middle Eastern ways of thinking.

Does that sound familiar? It seems clear to me, at least that we continue to experience a disconnect between the mind of the Euro-American culture and that of the Middle East and Central Asia. In short, the Pharisees, I think, would in many ways be sympathetic with some of the more conservative voices of Islam as they address the need for Muslims to conform to a way of life that is distinct and separate from the dominant culture of the west. (In fact, fundamentalism , whether it be experienced in Islam, Christianity, or Judaism, is really just a manifestation of fear among cultural leaders that cherished traditions and practices will be lost in the rush of modernity and change. In knee jerk reaction, fundamentalists try to lay down the law in order to stave off change. [i] )

One still finds threads of Pharisaism here and there. In his published work over a decade ago, Jewish, existential psychotherapist, Irvin D. Yalom , talks about the evidence for human sin in contemporary American culture in ways that would do a Pharisee proud:

But what would Freud emphasize were he to examine contemporary American culture - especially in California.? Natural instinctual strivings are given considerable free expression; sexual permissiveness, beginning in early adolescence is, as many surveys have demonstrated, a reality. A generation of young adults have been nursed and spoon-fed according to a compulsively permissive regimen. Structure, ritual, boundaries of every type, are being relentlessly dismantled.Where are the forbidden dirty words, he asks, the professional titles, the manuals of manners, the dress codes? [One might characterize the new California permissive] culture by describing an incident that occurred [to a friend of his] on his first visit to Southern California.

He stopped at a fast-food drive-in and was given, with his hamburger, a small plastic container of ketchup. Elsewhere these containers have a dotted line and the notation to "tear here"; the California container had no dotted lines, only the simple inscription "tear anywhere." [ii] Talk about lack of structure!

There is a lot of despair and anger among those who feel appointed to be cultural watch dogs. Reliable touch-stones seem to be disappearing - those moral truths we thought were sacrosanct are questioned with impunity. The best way to tell a sinner has always been by observing the ways in which they act. That was surely the way the Pharisees saw things:

By this time a lot of men and women of doubtful reputation were hanging around Jesus, listening intently. The Pharisees and religion scholars were not pleased, not at all pleased. They growled, "He takes in sinners and eats meals with them, treating them like old friends."

Their grumbling triggered this story.. "Suppose one of you had a hundred sheep and lost one. Wouldn't you leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until you found it? When found, you can be sure you would put it across your shoulders, rejoicing ,. [iii]

These have always been favorite stories, haven't they. People around my age who went to Sunday school can immediately conjure up a picture of Jesus with a lamb on his shoulder heading back to the sheep fold, returning the lost to the flock. Lovely metaphors about the Jesus the kindly shepherd are built around this image which is melded in our minds with the wonderful words of the 23rd Psalm: "The Lord is my shepherd..."

Story teller John Shea recalls communion service in which a pastor witnessed two parishioners, a thief, recently released from incarceration, and a judge kneeling at the communion rail. After the service, the judge was walking home with the pastor and said, "Did you notice who was kneeling beside me at the Communion rail this morning?"

The pastor replied, "Yes, but I didn't know that you noticed."

The two walked along in silence for a few moments, and then the judge said, "What a miracle of grace."

The pastor nodded in agreement. "Yes, what a marvelous miracle of grace."

Then the judge said "But to whom do you refer?" And the pastor said, "Why, to the conversion of that convict."

The judge said, "But I was not referring to him. I was thinking of myself."

The pastor, surprised, replied: "You were thinking of yourself? I don't understand."

"Yes," the judge replied, "it did not cost that burglar much to get converted when he came out of jail. He had nothing but a history of crime behind him, and when he saw Jesus as his Savior he knew there was salvation and hope and joy for him. And he knew how much he needed that help. But look at me. I was taught from earliest infancy to live as a gentleman; that my word was to be my bond; that I was to say my prayers, go to church, take Communion and so on. I went through Oxford, took my degrees, was called to the bar and eventually became a judge. Pastor, nothing but the grace of God could have caused me to admit that I was a sinner on a level with that burglar. It took much more grace to forgive me for all my pride and self-deception, to get me to admit that I was no better in the eyes of God than that convict that I sent to prison." [iv]

We are all sinners, we can't help it, John Calvin reminded us. Our own Calvinist traditions urge us to listen to these parables and identify that our common lot is with the lost - not with the 99 - not with the religious observers, but with those in peril. As Muslims observe Ramadan this month and acknowledge the commonality of human dependence on the love of God and as Jews observe high holy days, we too could benefit from taking stock of our common lot. This irrationally loving God is the one who continually reaches out to our human communities and enjoins us to break down the walls of presumptive judgment which divide the so called "good" or religious people from the bad. "Theologically, this kind of peace building requires seeing people and upholding their human dignity, even that of the enemy." So writes John Paul Lederach of the University of Notre Dame. The return of the one sinner is a cause of greater joy than the continuing presence of the righteous, proclaimed Jesus.

We do not "naively believe in the inherent goodness of people who have shown little remorse in the worst use of violence," Lederach from Notre Dame again points out. What we do believe in is the God given human capacity to change.and " the hard journey of change comes by way of constructive, patient, and responsible engagement" even with those most hardened by hate. [v]

One could not have found a more vehement enemy of the church than the Pharisee named Saul of Tarsus. The portion of Paul's letter to Timothy we read today is his own confession that he had been a violent and hateful man who found forgiveness in Jesus - forgiveness which motivated and called him minister in the very name of the one he had previously persecuted. . Sin is a universal phenomenon and we are all caught up in it. The Good News is that God, in Christ, has chosen to love us anyway - to seek us out at those moments when we are lost - and help us find a new vocation.

It is not easy to find the lost lamb...or to take the time to find the lost coin, but a failure to do so, breeds a kind of evil that we saw on Sept 11, 2001 or see nearly every day in places we have come to know by reputation like El Anbar or Samarra or dozens of neighborhoods of Bagdad. Those who are lost to the systems of success and fulfillment in modern culture become so easily prey for the vengeful who spin a concept of a judgmental God bent on retribution. Religious fanatics feed the resentments of the lost and offer only hope in death - as if there were no other options.

The lost come to believe that they have a choice to either disappear or to overcome their invisibility by acting out in ways that shake us into looking at them - for them - and at their reality.

We have a choice, as Christians seeking to be faithful - a choice it seems to me to wait until the next blast happens or with forethought and with patience to seek to break down the barriers and other obstacles which block the Shepherd's vision of a community where all who are lost are restored. This new community, which seems so out of reach is, I believe, the vision of our God in Christ, a vision expressed in the Koran, and is at the heart of Isaiah's dream of swords beat into plowshares when war is to be studied no more.

An irrational hope , yes, but God' love for the common lot - the lost and the longing is an irrational love. It is the stuff of faith. Amen

[i] The Battle for God by Karen Armstrong is an excellent source for understanding fundamentalism operating in major world relgions. (Ballantine (Random House) 2000) Go Back

[ii] (Irvin D. Yalom , Existential Psychotherapy, Basic Books, 1980.) Go Back

[iv] John Shea's story quoted on Dim Lamp, Weblog of the Rev. Garth Wehrfritz -Hanson. Go Back

[v] John Paul Lederach , the Kroc Institute of Peace Building at University of Notre Dame, author of The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace (Oxford University Press, 2005), Go Back

Return to Sermon List

First Presbyterian Church of Cedar Rapids
310 Fifth Street SE Cedar Rapids, IA 52401
Phone: 319-364-6148
E-mail: church@fpccr.org