Fourth Sunday in Lent: March 18, 2007
Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe
* * *
"There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.' So he divided his property between them. A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. …
But when he came to himself he said, 'How many of my father's hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands."' So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. …
"Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. … His father came out and began to plead with him. But he answered his father, 'Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!' Then the father said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.'"
* * *
A mother invited people to dinner. As they were about to begin, she turned to her 6-year-old daughter and asked if she would say grace. "I don't know what to say," the girl protested. "Just say what you hear Mommy say," the mother said. The girl bowed her head and said, "Lord, why on earth did I invite all these people to dinner?"
Welcoming people, even the ones you know well, is not easy. Welcoming and embracing those who are not friends or those who harmed you is near impossible.
The story we heard today is a story of welcoming – welcoming sinners. The upstanding citizens in the community fault Jesus for welcoming sinners. The Pharisees and the scribes condemn Jesus by telling one another, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them."
Jesus turns to them and tells the story of the prodigal family.
The story of the prodigal family is an impossible and an implausible story in many ways.
A younger son in a family asks his father for his share of inheritance. It was unthinkable for a son to ask a father for such a thing in the time of Jesus. Asking for inheritance while a father was alive was same as asking a father to die – for the inheritance was only given when the father can no longer function as the head of the family.
The younger son who took his share of inheritance squanders all. He returns home with a faint hope that he would be taken back to his father’s house so he would not die of hunger. After all, living in shame is far better than dying of hunger.
The father not only accepts the son but throws a feast in his honour. The reason given was simple. “His son was lost but has been found.”
The older son, the one who stayed home and worked along his father while his younger brother spent his inheritance, is upset that his father is throwing a feast. His anger is clearly stated when he describes his brother as “this son of yours” to his father.
The father replies to the elder son’s anger, “This brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.” Father emphasizes the relationship between the two brothers.
Who do you identify with the most as you hear the story?
Who would you rather identify with?
What prevents you from being the one you want to be identified with?
What do you need to be the one you want to be in the story?
What would that mean to your community if you could be that person?
If you feel that the story Jesus told was too good to be true, here is a true story from South Korea.
A father is a rice merchant in a small city in South Korea in 1950s. He buys rice from small farmers in the surrounding area of town once the harvest begins in August. He would beg and borrow money from his relatives and friends so he could buy enough rice to fill a train car and ship the bags of rice to Seoul. What is left after the sale and repayment with interests would be his profit.
A night before the father was about to purchase bags of rice from the farmers, the oldest son in the family steals money from father’s cabinet and runs away from home. Father’s business almost goes bankrupt. The boy’s siblings are angry at the brother for ruining the family. The father is silent throughout the whole ordeal. The mother, she is also silent about the whole affair.
She prepares each meal as if the oldest son is going to join the meal. There is a bowl of rice and soup, with spoon and chopsticks at the oldest brother’s place at each meal. There is a silent resentment around the table. Weeks go by and months pass but the mother continues to set a table for each meal as if she is expecting the oldest son to join the table. The children begin to tell their mother how bad the oldest brother is and that he should not be forgiven for ruining the family.
Few evenings before the New Year’s Day, while the family is about to start dinner, there is a knock at the gate. Mother runs to the gate and looks around the street. There is a shadow under a neighbour’s gate. When she walks close to the shadow, she sees a dirty boy in tattered cloth, shaking in the winter’s cold. He is her oldest son. She takes the boy’s hand and pulls him toward home. Once they are in the house, she washes his hands and face, and takes him to his seat at the family dinner table.
Father’s eyes are closed and there is a deafening silence around the table. Siblings around the table are throwing the accusing and angry looks at the oldest brother. Mother scoops rice for each member of the family. Then she opens the family Bible and passes it to her husband. The father opens his eyes and begins to read,
“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside still waters;
he restores my soul.
He leads me in right paths
for his name’s sake. …”
There are tears of repentance, forgiveness, joy, grace, and reconciliation around the table.
The oldest son becomes a minister many years after the experience of forgiveness and grace. Another son also becomes a minister as well. Their mother’s undying love for her children and her grace-filled faith helped the family to experience genuine meaning of compassion. They learned that the whole family was broken when any one member of the family was absent from them. They learned that there was always a place for them when they came back.
Who do you identify with the most as you hear the story?
Who would you rather identify with?
What prevents you from being the one you want to be identified with?
What do you need to be the one you want to be in the story?
What would that mean to your community if you could be that person?
Here is another true story of welcoming from El Salvador.
Monseñor Romero, the bishop of a rural diocese, Santiago de Maria, was chosen as the fourth Archbishop of San Salvador in February 1977, mostly due to his conservative theology and his disdain for the liberation theology that supports the impoverished farmers seeking land reform in El Salvador.
As Archbishop, he witnessed violence and brutality of the El Salvadorian government and the silence of the Church colluding in with the government. A murder of a priest, along with an old man and a young boy, becomes an experience of conversion for Romero’s life and faith.
Then, on January 22, 1979, the largest political rally in the history of El Salvador was held. As the rally reached downtown San Salvador, snipers shot at the demonstrators, killing 21 and wounding 120 men, women, and children. Oscar Romero could not ignore the fact that right-wing death squads raped, tortured and murdered with impunity.
Oscar Romero had moved from being a comfortable mouthpiece of the status quo, to a pastor, a shepherd for the people. And since the vast majority of the people of El Salvador were poor, it meant being a pastor to the poor. Being a pastor to the poor, he realized, had become a dangerous vocation.[i]
He preached his last sermon directly to the military of his country, which had become so involved in the repression of the people. These are words of Oscar Romero:
"I want to make a special appeal to soldiers, national guardsmen and policemen: each of you is one of us. The peasants you kill are your own brothers and sisters. When you hear a man telling you to kill, remember God's words, 'thou shalt not kill.' No soldier is obliged to obey a law contrary to the law of God. In the name of God, in the name of our tormented people, I beseech you, I implore you; in the name of God I command you to stop the repression."[ii]
On March 24, 1980, while he was celebrating a Mass at the Divine Providence Hospital in San Salvador, where he lived, a gun man stepped out of a car, and opened fire on Oscar Romero, hitting him in the throat. He died a martyr, a prophet, a shepherd of people of El Salvador.
March 24 this year marks the 27th year anniversary of the martyrdom of Oscar Romero. Oscar Romero lives on in the hearts of many people around the world. He has been an inspiration to those who struggle for justice around the world.
Days before his murder he told a reporter, "You can tell the people that if they succeed in killing me, that I forgive and bless those who do it. Hopefully, they will realize they are wasting their time. A bishop will die, but the church of God, which is the people, will never perish."
There is a ritual of calling the names of those who have disappeared and died while struggling for justice in Latin American countries. People gather around and shout in unison “¡Presente!” after each name is called, indicating that the dead and the disappeared are present amongst them in spirit.
Daniel Santiago writes in The Harvest of Justice, "But hope is not resignation; it is a commitment to continue to struggle even when things seem to warrant surrender, when hope flares, it allows human beings to overcome monstrous difficulties. It allows people to defy common sense and confound strategists. Hope experienced in the extreme, like faith and love, is miraculous."
To Pharisees and scribes who thought it was all right to abandon others by condemning them as sinners, Jesus reminds them that those condemned people are their brothers and sisters since all are God’s children.
We live in a world where so many live in brokenness and poverty while the rest of the society carries on as if it is normal to have so many poor amongst us. We live in a world where so many people’s lives are destroyed by epidemics such as HIV/AIDS while drug companies in the First World refuse to lower the price of the drugs that could prolong and may even save millions of lives in many developing countries. We live in a world where powerful countries still violate the freedom of weaker countries in the name of the national security.
In the midst of all these things we hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ that hope is a mother preparing each meal knowing that the son will return home one day. Hope is a father throwing a feast when the son returns home. Hope is a miraculous grace of welcome that happens with people can truly see one another as brothers and sisters in God’s love. Hope lies in each one of us waiting to be awakened by the spirit of compassion.
May we dare to live out such compassion and such welcoming grace of God.
Amen.
Welcoming people, even the ones you know well, is not easy. Welcoming and embracing those who are not friends or those who harmed you is near impossible.
The story we heard today is a story of welcoming – welcoming sinners. The upstanding citizens in the community fault Jesus for welcoming sinners. The Pharisees and the scribes condemn Jesus by telling one another, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them."
Jesus turns to them and tells the story of the prodigal family.
The story of the prodigal family is an impossible and an implausible story in many ways.
A younger son in a family asks his father for his share of inheritance. It was unthinkable for a son to ask a father for such a thing in the time of Jesus. Asking for inheritance while a father was alive was same as asking a father to die – for the inheritance was only given when the father can no longer function as the head of the family.
The younger son who took his share of inheritance squanders all. He returns home with a faint hope that he would be taken back to his father’s house so he would not die of hunger. After all, living in shame is far better than dying of hunger.
The father not only accepts the son but throws a feast in his honour. The reason given was simple. “His son was lost but has been found.”
The older son, the one who stayed home and worked along his father while his younger brother spent his inheritance, is upset that his father is throwing a feast. His anger is clearly stated when he describes his brother as “this son of yours” to his father.
The father replies to the elder son’s anger, “This brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.” Father emphasizes the relationship between the two brothers.
Who do you identify with the most as you hear the story?
Who would you rather identify with?
What prevents you from being the one you want to be identified with?
What do you need to be the one you want to be in the story?
What would that mean to your community if you could be that person?
If you feel that the story Jesus told was too good to be true, here is a true story from South Korea.
A father is a rice merchant in a small city in South Korea in 1950s. He buys rice from small farmers in the surrounding area of town once the harvest begins in August. He would beg and borrow money from his relatives and friends so he could buy enough rice to fill a train car and ship the bags of rice to Seoul. What is left after the sale and repayment with interests would be his profit.
A night before the father was about to purchase bags of rice from the farmers, the oldest son in the family steals money from father’s cabinet and runs away from home. Father’s business almost goes bankrupt. The boy’s siblings are angry at the brother for ruining the family. The father is silent throughout the whole ordeal. The mother, she is also silent about the whole affair.
She prepares each meal as if the oldest son is going to join the meal. There is a bowl of rice and soup, with spoon and chopsticks at the oldest brother’s place at each meal. There is a silent resentment around the table. Weeks go by and months pass but the mother continues to set a table for each meal as if she is expecting the oldest son to join the table. The children begin to tell their mother how bad the oldest brother is and that he should not be forgiven for ruining the family.
Few evenings before the New Year’s Day, while the family is about to start dinner, there is a knock at the gate. Mother runs to the gate and looks around the street. There is a shadow under a neighbour’s gate. When she walks close to the shadow, she sees a dirty boy in tattered cloth, shaking in the winter’s cold. He is her oldest son. She takes the boy’s hand and pulls him toward home. Once they are in the house, she washes his hands and face, and takes him to his seat at the family dinner table.
Father’s eyes are closed and there is a deafening silence around the table. Siblings around the table are throwing the accusing and angry looks at the oldest brother. Mother scoops rice for each member of the family. Then she opens the family Bible and passes it to her husband. The father opens his eyes and begins to read,
“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside still waters;
he restores my soul.
He leads me in right paths
for his name’s sake. …”
There are tears of repentance, forgiveness, joy, grace, and reconciliation around the table.
The oldest son becomes a minister many years after the experience of forgiveness and grace. Another son also becomes a minister as well. Their mother’s undying love for her children and her grace-filled faith helped the family to experience genuine meaning of compassion. They learned that the whole family was broken when any one member of the family was absent from them. They learned that there was always a place for them when they came back.
Who do you identify with the most as you hear the story?
Who would you rather identify with?
What prevents you from being the one you want to be identified with?
What do you need to be the one you want to be in the story?
What would that mean to your community if you could be that person?
Here is another true story of welcoming from El Salvador.
Monseñor Romero, the bishop of a rural diocese, Santiago de Maria, was chosen as the fourth Archbishop of San Salvador in February 1977, mostly due to his conservative theology and his disdain for the liberation theology that supports the impoverished farmers seeking land reform in El Salvador.
As Archbishop, he witnessed violence and brutality of the El Salvadorian government and the silence of the Church colluding in with the government. A murder of a priest, along with an old man and a young boy, becomes an experience of conversion for Romero’s life and faith.
Then, on January 22, 1979, the largest political rally in the history of El Salvador was held. As the rally reached downtown San Salvador, snipers shot at the demonstrators, killing 21 and wounding 120 men, women, and children. Oscar Romero could not ignore the fact that right-wing death squads raped, tortured and murdered with impunity.
Oscar Romero had moved from being a comfortable mouthpiece of the status quo, to a pastor, a shepherd for the people. And since the vast majority of the people of El Salvador were poor, it meant being a pastor to the poor. Being a pastor to the poor, he realized, had become a dangerous vocation.[i]
He preached his last sermon directly to the military of his country, which had become so involved in the repression of the people. These are words of Oscar Romero:
"I want to make a special appeal to soldiers, national guardsmen and policemen: each of you is one of us. The peasants you kill are your own brothers and sisters. When you hear a man telling you to kill, remember God's words, 'thou shalt not kill.' No soldier is obliged to obey a law contrary to the law of God. In the name of God, in the name of our tormented people, I beseech you, I implore you; in the name of God I command you to stop the repression."[ii]
On March 24, 1980, while he was celebrating a Mass at the Divine Providence Hospital in San Salvador, where he lived, a gun man stepped out of a car, and opened fire on Oscar Romero, hitting him in the throat. He died a martyr, a prophet, a shepherd of people of El Salvador.
March 24 this year marks the 27th year anniversary of the martyrdom of Oscar Romero. Oscar Romero lives on in the hearts of many people around the world. He has been an inspiration to those who struggle for justice around the world.
Days before his murder he told a reporter, "You can tell the people that if they succeed in killing me, that I forgive and bless those who do it. Hopefully, they will realize they are wasting their time. A bishop will die, but the church of God, which is the people, will never perish."
There is a ritual of calling the names of those who have disappeared and died while struggling for justice in Latin American countries. People gather around and shout in unison “¡Presente!” after each name is called, indicating that the dead and the disappeared are present amongst them in spirit.
Daniel Santiago writes in The Harvest of Justice, "But hope is not resignation; it is a commitment to continue to struggle even when things seem to warrant surrender, when hope flares, it allows human beings to overcome monstrous difficulties. It allows people to defy common sense and confound strategists. Hope experienced in the extreme, like faith and love, is miraculous."
To Pharisees and scribes who thought it was all right to abandon others by condemning them as sinners, Jesus reminds them that those condemned people are their brothers and sisters since all are God’s children.
We live in a world where so many live in brokenness and poverty while the rest of the society carries on as if it is normal to have so many poor amongst us. We live in a world where so many people’s lives are destroyed by epidemics such as HIV/AIDS while drug companies in the First World refuse to lower the price of the drugs that could prolong and may even save millions of lives in many developing countries. We live in a world where powerful countries still violate the freedom of weaker countries in the name of the national security.
In the midst of all these things we hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ that hope is a mother preparing each meal knowing that the son will return home one day. Hope is a father throwing a feast when the son returns home. Hope is a miraculous grace of welcome that happens with people can truly see one another as brothers and sisters in God’s love. Hope lies in each one of us waiting to be awakened by the spirit of compassion.
May we dare to live out such compassion and such welcoming grace of God.
Amen.
---------------------------------------------------
[i] “On the Words of Oscar Romero,” First Presbyterian Church Palo Alto (web site) http://www.fprespa.org/romero.html
[ii] “On the Words of Oscar Romero,” First Presbyterian Church Palo Alto (web site) http://www.fprespa.org/romero.html & Renny Golden, “Oscar Romero: Bishop of the Poor,” Salt of the Earth (web site) http://salt.claretianpubs.org/romero/romero.html
[i] “On the Words of Oscar Romero,” First Presbyterian Church Palo Alto (web site) http://www.fprespa.org/romero.html
[ii] “On the Words of Oscar Romero,” First Presbyterian Church Palo Alto (web site) http://www.fprespa.org/romero.html & Renny Golden, “Oscar Romero: Bishop of the Poor,” Salt of the Earth (web site) http://salt.claretianpubs.org/romero/romero.html
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