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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Historically speaking, today, the Fourth Sunday in Lent (historically called Laetare) and the Third Sunday of Advent (historically called Gaudete) lighten a little bit their seasons’ emphasis on repentance, evident in part by their essentially synonymous titles from the first Latin words of their historical Introits, which right from the start of the service call all those gathered for worship to “Rejoice” (Isaiah 66:10 and Philippians 4:4, respectively). You may know that the Third Sunday of Advent is associated with the rose, or “pink”, colored candle on the Advent wreath, and, if Pilgrim had them, we would also use rose‑colored paraments not only on that Third Sunday of Advent but also today, the Fourth Sunday in Lent. While the Readings and Psalm appointed for today might suggest rejoicing over any number of things—such as our great God’s presence with His people and His forgiving sins—today’s Gospel Reading in its full original context emphasizes joy as in heaven over even one sinner who repents (Luke 15:7, 10; confer v.32). Similarly, in the parable we heard, particularly notable are the four mentions of “celebrating”: (1) the father’s call to celebrate (specifically, to celebrate his younger son’s having been dead but being alive again, his having been lost but being found), (2) the household’s beginning to celebrate, (3) the older son’s wanting to celebrate with his friends, and (4) the father’s statement about the Divine necessity of celebrating (specifically, celebrating the dead who are alive, the lost who are found). Thus, this morning as we consider primarily the Gospel Reading, we direct our thoughts to the theme, “Celebrating Repentant Sinners”.
Some of you have heard me talk about—and some of you also have experienced for yourselves—the spectacular special-effects that the Sight & Sound Theatres in both Branson, Missouri, and Lancaster, Pennsylvania, use in staging their production titled “Jesus” (you can also watch the show on-line). Those spectacular special-effects were especially noticeable during the show’s telling the parable that we heard in today’s Gospel Reading. For example, the trees outside the father’s house dropped, sprouted, and grew leaves to indicate the passage of time before the younger son returned. But, the playwrights changed the context of the parable, and they split it up into two parables, and so in many ways they really missed the parable’s main point as the Divinely-inspired St. Luke uniquely records Jesus’s telling it.
As we heard, all the tax collectors and sinners were drawing near to hear Jesus, but the Pharisees and scribes grumbled that Jesus received sinners and ate with them. So, Jesus told them—arguably the Pharisees and scribes primarily, and the tax collectors and sinners secondarily—Jesus told them first a parable about a man’s calling his friends and neighbors to rejoice with him over his finding one lost sheep out of his 100 sheep (Luke 15:4-7), second a parable about a woman’s calling her friends and neighbors to rejoice with her over her finding one lost coin out of her ten coins (Luke 15:8-10), and third, as we heard, the parable about the father’s calling his whole household to celebrate with him over his finding one lost son out of his two sons. The Pharisees and scribes should have been rejoicing that the tax collectors and sinners were repenting, but, instead, the Pharisees and scribes grumbled. Apparently like the older brother in the parable, instead of showing compassion, they were angry, and, at least at first, they refused to go into the celebration. Seemingly they thought of themselves as not sinning, and perhaps they also thought of themselves as deserving some sort of reward so that they could have their own celebration. The Pharisees and scribes essentially impenitently rejected Jesus over what He did.
You and I are like the Pharisees and scribes by nature, and too often you and I are like the Pharisees and scribes also by thought, word, and deed. We may grumble and not rejoice over sinners who repent. We may be angry for some reason and stay away from our Father’s celebratory meal. We may think of ourselves as not sinning and as deserving some sort of reward so that we can have our own celebration. We may impenitently reject Jesus over what He does. Instead, as led by God, we should recognize that we are sinners, those who do not just disagree with someone else’s religious teaching but those who are genuinely guilty (Rengstorf, TDNT 1:328-329), those whose ways of life apart from God fundamentally and perpetually contradict God’s demands (Michel, TDNT 8:104).
In the parable of the Gospel Reading, the younger brother was led to such a repentant recognition, and he rehearsed and then made his individual confession to his earthly and heavenly fathers, and so the younger brother effectively received individual absolution: he was received back into his father’s household. Jesus does not say whether or not the older brother stayed apart from the family or eventually came in to the celebration, and that open‑endedness is a way of leaving us to think about ourselves, whether we as older brothers stay apart angry or come in to the father’s celebration and rejoice.
In the compassion of God our Heavenly Father, He sent His Son born of the Virgin Mary. As Jesus earlier in His ministry had told the Pharisees and scribes, when they grumbled about his eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners, He came to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance (Luke 5:29-32; confer Matthew 9:13; Mark 2:17). As Jesus later in His ministry told those grumbling about His associating with sinners, He came to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:1-10). Jesus loved the Pharisees and scribes, loved the tax collectors and sinners, loves you and me, and loves all people, to death, even death on a cross (Schrenk, TDNT 5:995). On the cross, Jesus died for all people, in our place, the death that we deserved. As the Divinely‑inspired St. Paul said in the Epistle Reading (2 Corinthians 5:16-21), in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting our trespasses against us. As we prayed in the Collect, though we deserve only punishment, our Heavenly Father receives us as His children. We who were dead in our trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1, 5) are made alive; we who were lost are found. When you repent, then God, as it were, runs and embraces you, kisses you, clothes you in Christ’s righteousness, and gives you all the other blessings of being a child in and heir of His household.
We look to the Baptismal Font as the first place where most people, including little children and even babies (Luke 18:15-17), are lovingly and graciously welcomed in Christ. In the words of today’s Old Testament Reading (Isaiah 12:1-6), with joy we draw water from the wells of salvation! Our human eyes may see only water, and our human ears may hear only the Word, but our God‑given faith sees miraculous effects: our being put into Christ and made a new creation, our being brought from death to life (Romans 6:13), our being adopted as children and heirs, with the Holy Spirit sent into our hearts to cry out to our Father (confer Galatians 4:5‑6). And, our Father hears that Spirit-motivated cry and answers it! He and His Son welcome us at the Rail in the table fellowship of the family meal of the Sacrament of the Altar, bread that is the Body of Christ given for us and wine that is the Blood of Christ shed for us and so forgive our sins and give us life and salvation.
Rose-colored paraments or not, especially here, in the Sacrament of the Altar, we are, as is Divinely necessary, “Celebrating Repentant Sinners”, rejoicing in the Body of Christ that is the Church, with at least the beginnings of the joy of the Last Day. Heaven and earth together rejoice in what God the Father in Christ by the Holy Spirit has done, is doing, and will do for us (confer Bultmann, TDNT 2:772‑775). As the antiphon of today’s Psalm put it (Psalm 32; antiphon: v.11), Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +