Sermon preached by the Reverend John E.
Kitagawa at the Celebration of the Holy Eucharist on 12 September 2010 (The Sixteenth
Sunday after Pentecost, and Welcome Sunday) at St. Philip’s In The Hills
Parish,
Did you notice who was “coming near to
listen to Jesus?” (Luke 15: 1). Luke
tells us it was “all the tax collectors” and “sinners” (Luke 15: 1). Did you pick up on the attitude of the Pharisees
and Scribes? Jesus surely did. They were the grumblers:
“This fellow
welcomes sinners and eats with them” (Luke 15: 2).
In
those days, table fellowship was a sign of social acceptance. These are key details for plumbing the depths
of today’s Gospel. Jesus has two
purposes in telling the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin. One is in direct response to the underlying
theologies of the Pharisees and Scribes.
The other is a clear message to outsiders like tax collectors and
sinners. Through the parables, Jesus
teaches profound lessons about God to both audiences.
Both stories follow the same formula. Something is lost. There is an extravagant search, joyful discovery
and community celebration. Jesus’ points
are simple and straightforward. Number
one, each and every one of us is precious in God’s sight, no exceptions. Therefore,
Jesus wants us to know, God never gives up on us. Secondly and equally important is the notion
that God’s realm, God’s universe, God’s creation, God’s family is not complete
until all the strays, all the hurt and the lost are found. Such is the divine compassionate love of God. No wonder the self-righteous Pharisees and
Scribes grumbled at Jesus’ associations and actions.
Both stories share something else in
common. In the words of one writer,
… sheep and coins
don’t repent. They don’t “come to their
senses” and “turn around” and “make a new start” on their own. Unlike the prodigal son, they don’t get
hungry, decide they have had enough, and reason out a plan to find their way
back to where they ought to be. They
don’t find themselves; they are found.
The point here is
that we are loved by God into repentance.
We are saved by grace, and not by our half-baked, quasi-successful
efforts at repentance[1].
God’s
abundant and overflowing love seeks all strays, injured, disillusioned, marginalized,
cynical, hard of heart and lost. It is
the same love that joyfully welcomes us home.
Being found by God
changes everything. Being loved by God
turns us around, reestablishes our position, [and] rewrites our address[2].
In today’s Epistle, Paul shows us how deeply
and personally he understands these truths.
He writes about the wretch he had been until he was found by God. He summarizes the experience in these words:
Such
is the true character of God. It is
God’s pleasure that all the strays, the hurt, the disillusioned, the
marginalized, the cynical, the hard of heart, and the lost be redeemed, and
find their homes in God.
It is one thing to talk about divine
compassionate love, and of the pleasure God takes in prodigals, the estranged
and the lost coming home. It is quite
another to put these words into action—to not only talk the talk, but to walk
the walk. In my view, the testing
laboratory is the parish church, like St. Philip’s. We all know the truth of the following
quotation:
There
is the example of an inner city congregation that was offered a very large sum
of money by a corporation wanting to build a parking lot. It was enough to move the congregation to
another location. Some members resisted. The congregation had a venerable history in
that spot. Denominational history had
been made within its walls; and, the building was architecturally
significant. Eventually, the
congregation decided to sell and to move into new facilities in teeming part of
the inner city. The pastor summarized
the decision-making process in this way:
As you ponder these ideas, let me share two
recent experiences. It was still dark yesterday
when Kathy and I arrived at the site for Habitat for Humanity’s Building
Freedom Day. The very first person we
encountered was Margie Rico. Her life
and her grandchildren’s lives were transformed when she became a Habitat
homeowner in 2008. Yesterday, she was
directing parking. Most of the time, we
see each other at Habitat Board meetings.
With the dawn’s early light, we saw that we were part of a large group
gathered to remember the catastrophic events of
Kathy and I have been fortunate to work with
many Habitat homeowners both here and in
A few nights ago, I participated in a
meeting where parishioners were asked why they come to St. Philip’s, and why
they give of their time, talent and treasure in leadership roles in the
parish. There were lots of good answers
that pleased me no end. However, two
stand out in my mind. Both came from
women whose husbands had died after illnesses.
One talked about having a community to go to for support, especially
during difficult years of caretaking.
The other woman talked about the meaning of having a community where
people call her by name, embrace her, and welcome her participation in several
ministries. To me, these ladies gave
eloquent testimony to the power of community to heal and transform life—a power
and ministries you carry out in hundreds of ways without credit or recognition,
but to great effect. Probably because I
had been studying the Scriptures for today’s sermon, Paul’s words echoed in the
back of my mind:
St. Philip’s is far from being the perfect
or the ideal community of faith. My two recent
experiences are but two examples of the many ways we have crossed over from
being hearers to being doers of the Word of God. If this is the first time you have come to
St. Philip’s, or if you have been here before and are interested in getting
involved, I encourage you to introduce yourself to someone and to ask why he or
she comes to St. Philip’s, what is meaningful to them, or how God has found
them and brought them closer to God and the community. To one and all, before you visit the
Galleries on the other side of the Fish Pond Garden, please note that music,
liturgy and preaching were also cited as reasons for being at St. Philip’s, and
as ways to become closer to God. Once in
the Galleries, take in as much as you can.
Talk to the people near the displays.
Try to scratch below the surface to discover how this community works
hard at being in mission, how we try to “do” creative ministry—to put God’s
word into action. We support many
programs and ministries, but like the experiences of the two women, you have to
be around to discern and appreciate many ministries that take place without
fanfare, or even direct budget support.
Our mission vision is on the bulletin cover
every week.
Like I said, we are far from perfect, but we are faithfully making the
journey from being hearers to also being doers of God’s Word. In think we are much closer to being in
mission than we are to being in a museum.
I believe we strive to be a place where people can find and be found by
God. It is ironic that we have prayed
for the past five weeks at the
Father
of all, we give you thanks and praise that when we were still far off you met
us in your Son and brought us home.
Dying and living, he declared your love, gave us grace, and opened the
gate of glory. May we who share Christ’s
body live his risen life; we who drink his cup bring life to others; we whom
the Spirit lights, give light to this world.
Keep us firm in the hope you have set before us, so we and all your
children shall be free, and the whole earth live to praise your name; through
Christ our Lord. AMEN
As we fall short of our core values and aspirations, and as our actions
sometimes expose weakness, immaturity and lack of faith, let us pray this
prayer as a reminder of how God’s redeeming love makes it possible for us to
engage in Christ’s redeeming work in the world.
AMEN.