Monday 9 April 2007

This week we will look at three parables in chapter 15 in Luke's gospel. But first the incident that brings them all into the picture.

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them." (Luke 15:1-2)

When the lines are drawn between people - lines as basic as us and them - there are certain actions that will be allowed and there are others that will not be allowed. This scenario has not changed throughout time. These introductory sentences need only have a word or a name changed and we could be talking about life within a religious group - most any religious group - today. This being the day after the Sunday of the Resurrection of our Lord and having heard Paul write about a resurrection life in which there is no partiality is good reason to use these verse in Luke to look at ourselves - the people who show no partiality and yet spend time and money making sure we are indeed noted by our partiality. In fact to the world around us, we are better known by our partiality - our exclusion - than we are known by our life together. This is not to say that we don't feed the poor, clothe the homeless, help build homes for the families in need, care for people with AIDS...we do all of that. But too have them mix with us...to have them as people who are welcome to be with us and sit at table with us...that can be a bit much. You may already feel the disgust in these introductory lines in chapter 15. It is disgust. It is disappointment. It is and will grow into anger. The grumbling will generate shouts and when that starts, someone is going to get hurt. It is usually the ones invited to sit near someone like Jesus...or it will be the ones who, like Jesus, invite...make room...will not live according to bias and fear and anxieties. So what do we do when the church does not have the willingness or the ability to have its doors open and to let the grace of our God be embodied in, with and under our lives so that the world is absolutely amazed at our living presence. We may have to go back to telling parables.

Connection: We all hear many words of exclusion and we may see just as many of these words put into action. It may do us well to ask why. And when we are told why, wonder or say out loud, "What does that have to do with the life in the Reign of God in these post-Easter times. Gee....I thought there was no partiality among us." Chances are our voices and questions will be laughed at.

Lord of the Resurrection, if it is not one person it is another person and if not that person then another. We cannot seem to be set free from our need to control the reins of your Reign. Touch our hearts so that your love that affirmed Jesus' radical notion of life might fire up our days. Amen.