Saturday of the Second Week of Lent - March 10, 2012
Luke 15:21
“The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’"
The full text for today is the larger parable of the lost and found son who is received back home by the father (Luke 15:1 - 3; 11 - 32). I'm going to concentrate on the son's short speech to the father after returning home.
The son makes his speech to the father assuming that his acceptance back in the father's house is all about how worthy he is. He understands -- as do we -- that he is "unworthy" of the father's house by virtue of the quality of his life to this point.
"Worthiness" is ingrained in us, as well. We fill churches and prayer-language with the language of worthiness and deserving, with conditional propositions of the "if . . . then . . ." variety. We have made the religious or spiritual quest about somehow attaining a worthiness or a state of deserving in order to receive God's bounty.
The Bible contains its own share of the language of worthiness and conditionality. We strive for it, trying desperately to attain it.
We may talk about "grace" and "unconditional love" -- we throw the words around rather cheaply in our religious culture -- but few of us really believe they are true of us at a deep-down level. Few of us trust that we are or can be loved in this unconditional, undeserved way.
Embedded within us is the feeling -- which we assume for truth -- that the spiritual life is all about who is worthy, and who is not worthy . . . who deserves love or salvation or healing, and who does not deserve it.
There are all sorts of corollaries to this thinking. For instance, if you carry this "worthiness" framework for understanding God and the world, then you can look at a person's lot in life and determine what goes on behind closed doors. Suffering and difficulty must mean that a person is undeserving of God's blessing, whereas prosperity and good health mean a person is worthy or deserving of good.
I think most of us intuit that these worthiness formulas and deserving systems are shams, but we find it hard to break free of them.
In the economy of God, if grace, love and mercy mean anything at all, then worthiness and deserving are not viable categories. Grace, love and mercy come toward us because of who God is, not because of what humans have or have not done.
Regularly we say at the Communion Table, as we hold the Bread and Cup, "Lord, I am not worthy to receive you." When we say those words, we state only a bare, base fact. We are unworthy. But our receiving the Body of Christ at the Table is not determined by our worthiness, just as our coming back to the Father's house is not conditioned by our worthiness.
It is God's initiative, God's prerogative and God's character to receive us, whether we are deserving or not.
“The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’"
The full text for today is the larger parable of the lost and found son who is received back home by the father (Luke 15:1 - 3; 11 - 32). I'm going to concentrate on the son's short speech to the father after returning home.
The son makes his speech to the father assuming that his acceptance back in the father's house is all about how worthy he is. He understands -- as do we -- that he is "unworthy" of the father's house by virtue of the quality of his life to this point.
"Worthiness" is ingrained in us, as well. We fill churches and prayer-language with the language of worthiness and deserving, with conditional propositions of the "if . . . then . . ." variety. We have made the religious or spiritual quest about somehow attaining a worthiness or a state of deserving in order to receive God's bounty.
The Bible contains its own share of the language of worthiness and conditionality. We strive for it, trying desperately to attain it.
We may talk about "grace" and "unconditional love" -- we throw the words around rather cheaply in our religious culture -- but few of us really believe they are true of us at a deep-down level. Few of us trust that we are or can be loved in this unconditional, undeserved way.
Embedded within us is the feeling -- which we assume for truth -- that the spiritual life is all about who is worthy, and who is not worthy . . . who deserves love or salvation or healing, and who does not deserve it.
There are all sorts of corollaries to this thinking. For instance, if you carry this "worthiness" framework for understanding God and the world, then you can look at a person's lot in life and determine what goes on behind closed doors. Suffering and difficulty must mean that a person is undeserving of God's blessing, whereas prosperity and good health mean a person is worthy or deserving of good.
I think most of us intuit that these worthiness formulas and deserving systems are shams, but we find it hard to break free of them.
In the economy of God, if grace, love and mercy mean anything at all, then worthiness and deserving are not viable categories. Grace, love and mercy come toward us because of who God is, not because of what humans have or have not done.
Regularly we say at the Communion Table, as we hold the Bread and Cup, "Lord, I am not worthy to receive you." When we say those words, we state only a bare, base fact. We are unworthy. But our receiving the Body of Christ at the Table is not determined by our worthiness, just as our coming back to the Father's house is not conditioned by our worthiness.
It is God's initiative, God's prerogative and God's character to receive us, whether we are deserving or not.
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