Richard Bollman, S.J.
24th SUNDAY, C
SCRIPTURE: Exodus 32:1,7-14; 1 Timothy 1:12-17; Luke 15:1-32
Today’s Gospel parables arise from a specific situation,
another one of Luke’s accounts of Jesus at table.
Here he is known for his habit of receiving sinners and eating with them.
And as always, from such complaints
the essential teachings of Jesus become clarified.
This is a theme of Paul’s letter today to a young co-worker, Timothy.
He declares that the core of his story is
to have been a sinner, claimed and reclaimed by Christ
for the sake of mission.
So sinners are not just received by Jesus,
they are actually called and sent.
An Old Testament background begins our liturgy,
the account from Exodus of the pilgrim people
returning to their pagan ways, throwing away their allegiance
to the great work of Yahweh saving them from Egypt.
Moses makes an interesting claim on their behalf.
Yes, they are sinners, but you, God, have made promises to them.
Despite their wayward behavior, you must be true to yourself
and accept them, never abandon them, because that is your promise.
HOMILY: Luke 15 "Jesus’ Table Fellowship with Sinners"
So, what just happened here, at the end of the story?
Father and elder son reveal their hearts to each other.
They open a world of value and feeling perhaps neither realized before.
All these years, the elder boy believed
that what made him worth something on the farm
was his willingness to do all that was required,
never complaining, never asking for preferment.
He believed that without this kind of purity of intention
and follow through with behavior,
he would have no place at the table, no home or rights.
And now his world of belief has crashed.
For he sees the other son has just been welcomed at the table,
with ceremony and celebration and good food.
And this other son has not been keeping up with the obligations of belonging.
He has not even been living with good Jews.
He has been wasting his inheritance on prostitutes . . . .
And at this point the elder boy goes off into some speculation,
about what happened in a distant country,
none of it verified. All that happened is that the younger son went broke.
So you see, a kind of bitterness grows up quickly,
which leads to negativity against his brother, projections,
which lead to a great refusal to join in the feast.
The older son would prefer to gnash his teeth outside.
That’s a form of resentment that turns up in a number of stories
about celebration and salvation in the Gospels.
When our world of righteousness and self-estimation comes crashing down,
we can do this in resentment: we cut ourselves off from the banquet.
This could not have escaped the notice of the listeners,
because the story got started when they complained
about Jesus and banquets, how he welcomed sinners and ate with them.
It was a banquet the teachers and lawyers wanted no part of.
Against this world of pain and bitterness,
the resentments that have grown up in a well-intentioned person,
the father of the household reveals his heart.
"Yes, good son, you have been at work, you have been loyal,
and even beyond that, everything I have is yours,
two thirds of my possessions given over already,
and I’ve never not intended to include you.
I include you in the life that is here for all of us.
The celebration for your brother is meant for the household, for everybody.
Because I am just so glad that he has been found.
I do not want to lose people, least of all a goof like that!"
And so do the listeners discover something of the motivation
of Jesus and his desire to eat with sinners:
he likes them, wants them to come in and be there. Welcoming them is his delight.
Inclusion is what he’s after. Indeed, how else will people grow and transform?
The only thing that will keep any of us away from the table
is a refusal to go in.
Such a refusal comes from an insistence
on the part of the elder brother
that the world is divided between two kinds of folks,
the righteous and the unworthy.
And such a world arises from a notion
that the universe is divided into two kinds of regions,
the great place of God and God’s angels, and then this other place
where we struggle to survive and to please God and to get somewhere.
But Jesus does not acknowledge that divided world,
where we’re HERE and God is THERE.
He behaves in a different way, and he teaches a different lesson.
The heart of God is deeply present now,
welcoming and full of loving service toward us, and kindness,
preparing a meal where we are no longer to be strangers to one another.
This banquet is not merited by our being good.
It is open to us because that’s the way God is,
and Jesus is the revelation of God’s way.
We may need to mature in our life of behavior and faith,
we may need to pass through our sinful ways,
but we have to do it from the banquet table
where we are welcomed, clothed, and fed,
and we don’t have to judge anybody who is crowding in there with us.
in order to be taught and fed at our side.
From that place, we can all change!
The heart of God, in other words, is like the shepherd
who will not rest till all the sheep are home;
like the woman of the house, who brings enough light
until all the coins are in her purse again.
Now, did anyone notice what I left out of the reading?
I left out two verses that most scholars believe
are additions from a later interpreter, not Jesus’ own thinking.
These are the lines about the heavens rejoicing over one repentant sinner.
It comes in at the end of the parable of the lost sheep and the lost coin.
The sheep and the coin have nothing to do with repentant sinners.
They did not get lost out of sinfulness,
nor did they get found because they repented.
The sheep got lost because the terrain is rugged,
the coin slipped from sight because the floor is dusty,
and they got found because God, shepherd God, housewife God,
kept relentlessly looking for them.
Has God found you? Will you accept a welcome,
and then the restless and lonely feelings we have, even our bad behavior,
will be healed and we can go on with life
nourished and belonging together.