4C Lent
27 Mar 2022
I am glad we are not singing Amazing Grace today. I don’t think I could quite bear it. Not that I do not love the hymn; it always moves me to tears, but I believe the meaning of the Gospel itself would be lost in the wondrous hymn.
Next to the parable of the Good Samaritan, today’s Gospel reading must be the most well-known, and beloved, of all the stories Jesus told. What is not to love about a person who comes home and finds forgiveness and welcome?
It is grace.
Grace is describable but undefinable. Grace is that which allows us to live together; without it we would be no more than rampaging individuals in a brutal world.
If you have ever made a mistake, and (be honest) who has not erred, grace is what let’s you move forward. Perhaps that is why I keep thinking about the older son. If he were English, he would likely have a name like John or Edward or Charles. Expectations would have been placed on him. But, it seems, this father is not like a patriarch of a family; he values relationship about all else. John, as I shall call him, is dutiful and at least outwardly loyal. He works with the goal of keeping the family estate together and thriving, despite the loss of a good chunk of it when his younger sibling left. It seems that all he does is work, if I am reading between the lines, and expects the same from everyone else. I wonder if he ever learned to dance. Did he ever get drunk? Was there a girlfriend in his life?
One thing he lacked, and it was not the need to give away his riches. He lacked grace. He could not see the breach, the chasm that had been created in no small measure because of his jealousy and indignation. I dare say there are few among us who at some point in their lives have not been “un-graceful”. Not the grace of the athlete or artist, but the grace that demands we embrace those deemed in some fashion unembraceable. Quarrels between siblings carried beyond the funerals of their parents. Haven’t we all seen enough of that? Pastors often dread funerals more for the lack of grace of one family member to another than for grief and mourning.
The older brother lived in a world where one worked oneself into favor, where one succeeded by pulling on their own boot straps (or sandal straps in this case). We fanaticize this nation is one where one gets ahead by hard work and that a failure to do so is a failure of the self rather than realizing this society favors some and not others from the moment of their birth. But I am digresses from the idea of grace as recognizing the intrinsic worth of a person because they are a person. The father saw both sons through the lens of grace, something the older son could not do.
Despots often are able to divide peoples by their views on religion, politics, or morality. Divide and conquer by denying grace to those whom you wish to “other.”
The younger brother did not directly threaten the older one, yet we are often in a position where we are called upon to show grace to someone who truly had done wrong. What then? Luke tells us we are to forgive our enemies, in other words show them grace, regardless of how heinous their actions.
When I was a child and argued with someone, I literally got into a fist fight with them. Since I was fairly good sized I usually won; they would go home crying, albeit not seriously hurt, and my parents would have to figure out how to make peace. What gives me thanks now is that I realize they gave me grace, even when it was clear there needed to be consequences for my actions. They loved me and gave me grace (and when I remember some of the fights I am even more thankful.) I had betrayed the trust my parents had placed in me, yet I remained loved and graced.
Grace can bind us together; a lack of grace will continue to pull us apart. I am the older brother when I lash out on a personal level at others who do not see the world as I do. It is one thing to call out injustice (even the older brother was right in condemning the action his younger brother took) but quite another to vilify and condemn a person or persons. I will not stifle my beliefs and passions, yet if our society and our world are to mend, we need grace in such abundance as has perhaps never been seen. One essayist said grace can crack open, till, and plant. With the desert in which we find ourselves, we need all of the fertile grace.
“The goal of grace is not to erase differences. Rather, grace helps us navigate those differences while honoring the humanity of others and ourselves.” (Kirsten Powers)
"Grace means that you can actually look at the other person recognizing that there's not only things that you don't like — but there’s things that you hate — and still ask yourself: can I be open to the possibility that something can be created where there's nothing right now?" Dr. Willie James Jennings, Yale theologian.
So if the older brother could not show grace to his brother, what then? The world becomes and smaller and uglier place. The younger brother likely expected the reaction of his older sibling, but not that of his father. He walked home, perhaps at first with no real thought of real repentance, just hoping for a story that would sound good. Yet surely he was overwhelmed by grace, by the open and unreserved love of his father. To what can I compare the kingdom of heaven? The lost sheep, the lost coin, the prodigal son. All are the cause of great celebration.
Grace is the antidote for the cancer of hatred and disdain and of our “holier than thou” stance. Grace is the antidote for almost everything.
Paul said, “We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them.”
It seems to me that if we practice Grace we are at the very heart of our faith.
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