Intro to Theme – Read “Where the Wild Things Are”  (Slideshow)

Intro to reading Our New Testament lesson is from Luke. It is the story of the Prodigal Son,  It is probably the best known of all the parables told by Jesus.    I didn’t know what  “prodigal” meant until I looked it up. (anyone know?)  It means reckless extravagance.  As we hear this story,  it sounds the younger son is prodigal with his money and the father is prodigal with his love.   Let us listen for this word of Grace.  Read.   ///

In  “Where the Wild things are”  Max wanted to be where someone loved him best of all.   As he makes this discovery about himself  – everything changes for him.  He had swung through the vines, he had stomped at the moon, he had been as free as free could be but he discovered that kind of freedom wasn’t what he really wanted after all.  He wanted to be loved, and he knew where that love was to be found.   His journey to a far country concludes as he comes to discover  a deeper sense of himself and he is turned around within and he turns around literally to sail back home and find what he wanted most of all. 

The parallels to the story in scripture today are many and I’ll let you fill in all the other similarities as you like.  But I want to look at this amazing parable that Jesus tells.  Jesus certainly knew what he was doing as he taught in parables, because for 2000 years we have not exhausted the meaning and depth in these seemingly simple stories.   Every family can see something of themselves in it I believe.  This week the facet of the story that struck me was the phrase “he came to himself”  and all the inner changes that meant.  

Jesus paints a remarkable word picture with his parable.  It captures a moment that is filled with grace.  Although Jesus is using this scene to show us what God is like, in it we see a very  human situation.  We don’t have to glance very long to figure out there are dysfunctional family members here.   Jesus starts this story saying “there was a father who had two sons”.  The first son says “Dad, drop dead, or at least give me my share of what’s coming to me after you do die, so I can get going with my life.  I’ve got places to go, people to see, wild oats to sow.”  It is an amazing and brazen request.  I don’t think that would go over too well in many families at all.  What is even more amazing is that the father says OK.  I accept your rejection of me. I love you.  I will let you go with everything in the world that I have to give you.  Here, take it.  Farewell my son.  How many earthly Dads would do that?  Jesus is pointing to how God is willing to endure that.  

The younger son goes and we know what happens then.  When asked about the story a youngster said (unknowingly I hope) that “he went to town and spent half his money on women and wine.  He wasted the rest.”  This son got as far away as possible from everything that was his former life.  For a time it seemed great, then things really got desperate.  The money ran out, food was scarce and now even the pig slop looked good.  In the story it says “he came to himself”, and sought to come home.  We don’t know what changed within him, how deep his conversion was, or just how sincere he was going to be with his apology.  But we know he headed back. 

He went to start some kind of new relationship with someone he had treated as good as dead.  He did not expect it to be the same, he did not hope for what used to be – for it could never be that again.  By turning around he sought to start something over.  He had an idea of what it might be, he hoped he could be a laborer on the farm he already knew.  In our glimpse we see he is welcomed back, and a grand party thrown.  He is in the door – but will it work out, will it last?  We do know this picture would not have happened at all if the younger son had not turned around looking for something new. 

We have touched on repentance.  The question is always “what does it mean to repent?”  How do you know it when you see it or feel it?  We speak of repentance as being a turning around, the younger son literally did this.  He turned around and went now in the right direction, toward love that was willing to set him free to choose.  For him, repentance was to say “father” again.  Repentance would be to claim his role as a son in the family, and acknowledge his part in breaking things apart. 

For him, the new direction was to know that he was loved first, and figuring out how to live knowing that he was still just as free as before.  He had been lost, and he could be lost again.  This is just the beginning of the new direction.  If things were going to change, then things would have to change.  He will have to change.  It might be all too easy to go back to thinking and acting like he did before.  We don’t know what is next.  We know what is, and he is loved.  The father’s anticipation of his return and his generous actions assure this.  The father had been hoping and longing the younger son might return, that something would change.  One day it does.  We see the father running to greet his son.  Welcoming him home without question as to where he’s been, without scolding or punishment or penitence.  The love comes first.  It has always been there, and now the father can hold the one who was lost and gone.  

The older bother, was in need of repentance as well.  He was lost in different way.  He was the one who tried to do everything right and never learned to party.  He too was lost.  Lost thinking that the father’s love should be conditional, with strings attached, only after certain conditions were met.  The older one would dutifully do what needed to be done to keep things going.  But resent doing it.  The relations between himself and younger brother were obviously strained.  Things were strained between older son and his father as well.  The way that Dad was treating younger son before and after his return drove him nuts.  The older one could not make sense of breaking the rules for this no good brother of his.  To repent for him, would be to call his brother, brother once again.  And finding a way to sit a table of celebration with him.  At the end of this story he is not there yet, he can only call him his father’s son.  He is standing outside and just watching it all.  To repent, he would have to deal with a Dad who could love like that.  One who could love that no good brother, one who loved him just as much.  

Jesus paints a picture.  The loving parent goes out to meet the younger one on the road offering a chance to come home.  He goes to the older one to say come in.  You are home as well.   The offer is for each one.  It is for us.  It is more than a call to come, it is a call to conversion.  A casting off of snugness, of false righteousness, it is a setting aside of prejudice so that something can begin anew..  Each of the brothers has the invitation to change.   The picture of what happens next is up to us.  We see in this instant an entirely different way of being God’s family that is appealing and at the same time appalling to common sense understandings. Most likely we can see ourselves as one of the two brothers, perhaps the younger, having lived a little harder than we’d like to have, looking back.  Or as the older brother feeling that life has somehow shorted us out of some of the joy we had coming for the faithful work we have done.  There is a party going on.  Things can’t be like that?  Can they?

We don’t know if the younger brother has changed for good, we don’t know if the older brother ever lightened up and joined the party.  But every time someone comes back home, truly tries to draw closer to God.  God celebrates.  As we hear this story again, check your own thinking do you say, “yes let the prodigal return home”, but to bread and water, not a fatted calf.  In sack clothe, not a new robe, in tears but not merriment.  We do want people to come back, but first don’t we want them to feel pretty bad and come home with the air out of their balloons? Some say the image of the feasting and party cancels the seriousness of sin, and repentance.

There are some wonderful, frustrating tensions in this story, we don’t really know how it ends.  We don’t know whether the older brother joins in the party.  We don’t know what the younger brother does after the party.  Grace seems to supersede justice and we are left to struggle with what that means.   But as we come to ourselves, and seek to find that place where we are loved by someone best of all, we come home to find God’s love already waiting and a supper that is still hot.  Amen. 

An enchanting story is told of an elderly woman who lived her life by the motto, “if you can’t say something nice about someone don’t say anything at all.”  (I imagine we have each encountered someone like this, maybe we are someone like this.)  Somehow this kind woman could always find something nice to say about anyone, no matter who they were or what they were known for!  Now this proved to be a creative challenge for her grandchildren, and they would test her often saying “what about so and so?”, and she would come up with something nice.  Then one day, they thought they really had her.  “Grandma”, one child asked with a wicked grin, “what about the devil?, what do you have to say about him?”  She thought for a moment, the children waited and then she replied, “well, you have to say.. he’s always on the job- isn’t he!”  

If there is any biblical word that needs virtually no explanation for us today, it is “temptation”.   We know of it from biblical stories of Adam and Eve, King David, and others.  We know of it from books like the “Scarlet Letter” and from just about any “block buster” movie we may rent.  And too much so, we know of it from newspaper headlines.  Almost by instinct we come to learn that “temptation” is a negative word, meaning a desire to “be bad” or disobedient. 

Temptation today it is often thought of as an alcoholic reaching for one more drink, a teenager doing something stupid in order to fit in, someone pursuing an affair.  Often these are things that other people can clearly see would be bad for them, yet somehow they can not see it for themselves.  To those who are tempted, it can be very difficult to see the downside of what is so appealingly set before them.   

Jesus, however, could clearly see the shortfalls in what was being offered him by the devil.  His eyes were open to the reality of the consequences of his choices. As we consider the temptations before Jesus, it may seem like what he faced in no way reflects temptations we may face.  Yet every temptation has the same underlying tension.  To treat God as less than God, and treat ourselves as something more than human.  It was real for Jesus and it is real for us. 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes “the Bible is not like a book of edification, telling us many stories of temptations and their overcoming.  To be precise, the Bible tells only two temptation stories, the temptation of the first man and the temptation of Christ, that is the temptation which led to man’s fall, and the temptation which led to Satan’s fall.  All other temptations in human history have to do with the two stories of temptation.  Either the Adam in me is tempted-in which case we fall.  Or the Christ in us is tempted – in which case Satan is bound to fall.” 

A good friend of mine defines temptation as a choice between “freedom and oppression.”  

We speak of temptations as a desire to be disobedient, yet at the heart of temptation is something greater, to treat God as something less than God and to treat ourselves as something more than human.  In temptations we choose between God’s will, which leads us to live in the freedom that is intended for each of us, or choosing to live in oppression of our own design, and a distortion of the truth. 

As we consider the temptations that Jesus faced, it may be difficult for us to believe that he was truly tempted, because he never did give in.  The Christ in him responded always.  The part of him that knew his essential identity so he always put God’s will above all else.  He chose to live in the freedom of the bounds of belonging to God. 

As we face temptation, the Adam within us sometimes prevails and we find ourselves living in a form of oppression that results from our choice.  Sometimes that which looks so appealing and perhaps even freeing at first can in fact narrow our world and close in things around us. 

While we may not be tempted to turn stones to bread, are we not tempted to question whether God will give us what we need for our daily journey?  While we may not be tempted to test God and gravity by jumping off a building, don’t we at times question or doubt God’s helpfulness in times of difficulty?  Asking where was God during that last crisis?,  Do we forget God’s promise my grace is sufficient for you.

It will always be tempting to give in to the ways of the world, in an effort to achieve whatever goals we may have set for ourselves for our personal or professional lives.  There are appealing shortcuts that will present themselves.   It is hard to worship and serve God only.  That is our calling.        

We pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “lead me not into temptation”.  For good cause.  It is most difficult to be in times of temptation and choice.   Many times we are going to make the wrong decision.  Jesus was led by the holy spirit to temptation for him to gain a greater sense of his identity.  He came away knowing more fully who he was and what he was called to be and do in his ministry.  He was not going to have power and possessions and prestige, he was going to have servant hood, poverty, and humility.  

In his time of greatest temptation he was alone and hungry in the desert, standing at the edge of his ministry.  The rest of his life was before him, a book filled with only blank pages.  What will be its nature and shape?  How will he relate to God and rely on God? Temptations will come to us with the same challenging questions that will shape our identities, no matter where we are in life.  Let us not shun temptations, but acknowledge how real and trying they are, and enter these times with a trust and confidence that the Holy Spirit is among us and within us actively showing us that which is of God.  Amen.     

“Rarefied Air”  (Luke 9:28-36)

Intro to theme:  Last week I mentioned my flight instructor Jake, he used to like to joke that “altitude can change your attitude”.  It was it his house that I first time I saw poem “High Flight” and I’d like to read it for you now.   READ POEM.    “Reached out and touched the face of God.”  It can be hard to describe “mountain top experiences”  but I’d like to consider them in the sermon this morning. 

Intro to reading:  Today is Transfiguration Sunday.  The week before we start the season of Lent.  This is the familiar yet mysterious story of Jesus’ Transfiguration on the mountain top.  At this point in his ministry, Jesus knows what is before him Jerusalem, he knows his time is short and that the disciples really don’t get it yet.  He takes three disciples with him as he goes up to pray.  //

Prayer of Invocation

(Slide of Taranaki)  Who has seen this mountain?  Everyone, right?  We’ve all seen it from the ground,  right?  Has anyone climbed it?  I got this far. (SLIDE)  And those who go higher can see this.  (Slide from top of Taranaki) Great view, wow.  To get up above the clouds.  Love it.  A different perspective.  What is the view like from up there?  (Was it worth the hike?)   It can be hard to describe some events, and even when you do try you can tell people just don’t get it.   

Astronauts from around the world have tried to describe what it was like for them to voyage into space and return to Earth again.   The book’s author asked many people who had flown into space to reflect on how the journey changed them emotionally and spiritually.   Some said the experience was simply beyond words.  Some did try to describe the changes and their words are fascinating. 

An astronaut from Saudi Arabia said “the first day or so we all pointed to our countries.  The third or fourth day we were pointing to our continents.  By the fifth day we were aware of only one earth.”  A Russian writes “During a space flight the psyche of each astronaut is reshaped.  You become more full of life, softer.  You begin to look at things with greater trepidation and you begin to be more kind and patient with the people around you.”   (I have heard some people wanting to send a loved one up for a rocket trip for just this very reason).  And an American wrote:  “We left as technicians and returned as humanitarians.” 

These space travelers have seen things that not many, if any, of us will see first-hand.  They have gone beyond the veil of the earth and peeked further towards the edge of the universe than all others.  It is great and fantastic stuff and many times there are no words for the experience.  From the pictures and words we can get a glimpse of what it must have been like for them.  But we still have to use our imagination for the universe is so vast that it always defy full explanation or definition.   

Back to our mountain top with Jesus and the disciples.  The miraculous mysterious things that happened on the mountain are precursors to taking up the cross.  We can learn a great deal from how Jesus dealt with this time of transition in his life.  He knows full well what lies before him in Jerusalem.  He knows that those who follow him do not fully understand.  Yet he invites his three closest disciples to go with him up the mountain and pray with him.  It is interesting that Jesus chose to go up the mountain to pray.  We know and believe that God is everywhere and that you can pray anywhere and Jesus would know this too.  But he goes up to the mountain top.

Perhaps there is a good reason for this.  From here his line of sight, his vision would be much different.  From here one can look across the Jordan valley and see where the river flows into the dead sea, and on a clear day you can see all the way to Jerusalem.  For Moses this would have been the place to see get a view of the promised land, to see where to cross the Jordan, to dream of what could have been.  This would have been the place.  Not only is Jesus getting a glimpse of the big picture of the landscape, he is gaining a deeper insight into what his calling as the Christ means. 

Our story this morning is a moment of God most definitely reaching toward Jesus and all of us with a glimpse of heaven.  Jesus is in a time of transition and transformation as he has begun his ministry, Peter has declared that Jesus is the Christ.  Jesus has explained for the first time that to be the Christ means that he must journey to Jerusalem and die.  It will not be an easy road before him but he accepts that and know his journey to the cross will be difficult. 

In this moment, when heaven and earth touch Jesus is transfigured by a shining light and suddenly appear Moses and Elijah.  These two represent the essential parts of the Jewish faith namely the law and the prophets.  Jesus is being comforted and encouraged by his spiritual roots, his culture, his heritage comes to him in his hour of need and this becomes a timeless moment.  Don’t we at turning points in our lives take comfort from people or places from our past taking the time to look where we have been to help guide us as we go forward. 

For a movement heaven and earth do touch and Jesus shines.  Even though the disciples are sleepy they can still see it and they don’t know what to do or say.  When the moment changes and passes Peter is so swept up in it that he wants to build a set of booths and try to live up there and stay in that wonderful moment.   He wants to stay in that rarified air of the mountain top. We can understand that, the temptation to hold on those once in a lifetime moments forever.  Peter doesn’t realize the reality of what Jesus has explained that God’s work is not yet done, they most all go down together and carry on.  They must leave the mountain and go through the valleys before them and continue toward the cross. 

Here you can help me fill in the blank, what goes up? ……… Must come down, 

Hikers come down, airplanes must land, spacecraft return to earth.  OH, if only we just stay up there! 

They descend from the peak changed somehow, wondering what words will suit the experience and then God speaks saying the words uttered at Jesus baptism, this is my child, my beloved, listen to him”  It is a clear call for us to recognize Christ in our lives, to know that following Christ will mean times of ordinary moments and time of extraordinary.  Most of the time we live day to day, yet God does and God will break into our lives providing moments and glimpses that we hold on to and make sense of over time.  As we go forward into Lent we do so knowing that God is with us in all our times of transitions and transformations.  

We don’t need to leave the ground, but can we imagine our spirits soaring when we reach out to touch the face of God and we find God is already there, already touching our face ready to begin a new and intimate relationship, where we need not hide any of ourselves, and change begins.  This Lenten season we will be transformed, reflecting the light and love of our God and we will see that same light and love in our neighbor as well.  Amen.