The Prodigious Love of God
Three American hikers supposedly crossed the border from Kurdistan, a northern region in Iraq, into Iran on July 31, 2009. Joshua (27), Sarah (31), and Shane (27) were arrested for “illegal entry” into Iran. In November, Iran’s chief prosecutor had said they were accused of being spies. As of mid-December, Iran had stated that the hikers will be tried in court. However, as of today, there have been no formal charges.
The American hikers were friends who all graduated from UC Berkeley. They had planned a short trip to Sulaimaniya, a resort area in Kurdistan, where many other Westerners have traveled. While there, the three decided to take a hike to Ahmed Awa. It’s an area known for its beautiful waterfall. And it is also near the Iranian border so it’s pretty easy to cross over without realizing it. Iranian officials claim the hikers crossed the border into Iran on purpose. The hikers’ families and friends state the three had no intention of entering Iran for any reason. The Kurdish regional government issued a statement saying the hikers had “lost their way due to their lack of familiarity with the location, and entered Iranian territory.” Since then they have been held in Evin Prison in Iran. Because America and Iran do not have diplomatic ties it is hard to negotiate for their release. The only one who has seen the three is the Swiss Ambassador who said they were physically healthy. The families of the detained hikers have sent letters and video messages asking for their children’s release to people such as the Iranian Ambassador to the United Nations and to President Ahmadinejad. The hikers have not been released. Their families have been allowed one phone call and that was just this past week, after 7½ months. U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton has expressed the hope that they will be freed on a “humanitarian and compassionate basis as soon as possible.” People have held vigils for the three hikers and have signed petitions. Influential individuals have called for their release. With no other options in sight, all three mothers applied for visas to travel to Iran to plead their case themselves and to be allowed to see their children, one of the mothers said. They have not gotten word back on their applications. In the meantime, hundreds of letters of support have poured in, many of which the families have forwarded to their imprisoned children. We can't say enough how important the letters are to them the mom said. "We found a way to get the letters straight to the prison, and we hear they do get them." But they haven't been able to write a letter to anybody…," she added. "They don't know what's going on. That's horror enough right there.” We know in our bones that these mothers will not give up until the children come home. It is a frightening situation we would not wish on any mom or dad… We might compare the situation of these families with one of the stories in our Gospel today. Bright children, endowed with the hopes and dreams of a family, possessing top quality educations and looking to bright futures, head off into unknown territory, taking all that their parents have been able to endow them with. Likewise, the prodigal son took what his father had to give him in terms of life experience and worldly goods and headed off into the unknown.
Maybe we can’t imagine exactly how the parents feel but at the same time we can share their loss and pain. Being a mother or father is something very special – from living in extreme joy to living in hell. The connection with the child is never broken no matter what happens, no matter how far the child strays. Sometimes the child leaves and goes physically far away like those young people in Iran, or sometimes they are lost in the depths of their own minds, like the young man with the promising future as an electrical engineer who was killed at the Pentagon the other day. He had bi-polar disorder. His mother, and no doubt his father, too, traveled with him to the depths of his soul. And now they live forever with his violent death.
Of course a mother or father is not always someone who gives birth to the child. A mothering relationship exists wherever a selfless love enfolds someone who is in need of this kind of love. And we all need this kind of love.
In our gospel for today, we have three examples of self-giving love that seemingly go beyond the bounds of reasonable behavior. The most familiar story is the one I have already mentioned, the Prodigal Son. I looked up the word “prodigal” in Webster’s dictionary and I was really surprised by what I found there. I always thought prodigal meant “wayward” or “selfish” but in actuality prodigal means Lavish, Luxuriant and Profuse – including the meaning of wasteful and spendthrift, but also including the meaning of abundance. The words “prodigious” (meaning huge, wonderful and marvelous) and “prodigy” (meaning extraordinary or surprising) are related to the word prodigal. So it might be a little confusing then, who in our story of the prodigal son is actually the prodigal. The father’s gift of half his worldly goods is really prodigal in the sense of being abundant. Maybe recklessly abundant. And so is his lavish welcome on the son’s return. Prodigious, we might even say. And there were two other stories in our Gospel today - do these readings also have something to say about the abundant, lavish and even reckless self-giving God-like love?
In the first story the shepherd realizes that one of his sheep is missing. He looks around but doesn’t see the curious and exploring sheep nearby, so he leaves the other sheep, who are equally defenseless and in need of care, to go and search for the one that wondered off the beaten path looking for adventure or a midnight snack. The shepherd searches everywhere until he finds the lost one, scoops it up onto his shoulders and carries it tenderly home. Christ, as the good shepherd, is the great example of tender, loving, even lavish protective care: this is God our mother, who loves us and will not let us get lost out there in the cold and dangerous world, who will recklessly abandon whatever else is at home and if she can’t find us, will not let anyone forget us if we do. This feminine aspect of God is willing to go where we go even if we end up in trouble. And even more, God our Mother and our human mothers, are willing to forgive us even before we are sorry and repent. Jesus was a known visitor to the homes of tax collectors and sinners and was seen eating with women of ill repute, all who might be considered unrepentant sinners. Some of the religious people didn’t understand Jesus, like the Pharisees and scribes, who called him a glutton and a drunkard, but Jesus went to the hellish places that people can create for themselves to bring his abundant message of love and acceptance. Mothers, fathers, ministers, friends, teachers, nurses, aunts and uncles - and self-giving people of all kinds -know this willingness to go to the dark places of the human soul in order to comfort and encourage the lost ones. This lavish and abundant outpouring of love is of God. Archdeacon Anthony Turney preached a sermon at ordination one year telling the newly ordained to “go to hell” – to go where Jesus went – to find the souls who need the message of loving acceptance the most. And to love them abundantly, even before they repent. When those souls are brought back into the fold, there is rejoicing in heaven and the party begins. We might even call such a party a prodigal display of joy and love.
The second story in our gospel today is a vision of an industrious housewife, who having done her accounts, discovers one of ten silver coins she had in her charge is missing. She lights a lamp, and begins to search diligently for it. She alerts the neighborhood of her loss and maybe some of them come out to help her look. The lamp and the neighbors are key to this story – she doesn’t dig around in the corners looking for the coin -miserably alone and in the dark. She doesn’t try to hide the fact that she lost the coin, or make excuses, she brings all the light she has to bear and the light illuminates her search and she brings others into the search and they all celebrate when the coin is found. God our Mother gives us the never ending light of the Gospel to help us find the lost one and celebrates in putting all the pieces back together again! God is the woman and we are the coin, a part of God’s profuse treasure who alone can make the treasury complete. By the light of the Words of the Gospel we are found and restored to our rightful place in God’s overflowing and luxuriant love.
And then, of course the third story in our gospel today is the prodigal son. We can talk about the recklessness of the son, his insulting request to have the goods and money he would have if his father were already dead, the lavish response of the father in giving in to his son’s demands, the selfish attitude of the brother, who resents the warm welcome that his returning brother receives…but the most striking and touching part of this story for me is the image of the father running towards his son, he can’t get there fast enough. The father loves and forgives him before he knows even that the son has repented! What kind of lavish radical love is this? It is the love of a mother who can wait for years for a child to return from the far corners of the world not knowing the real story of what happened and if the child will ever come back. It is prodigal in the sense of being abundant and overflowing. If we can imagine the depth of love the parent has for the prodigal son then can we also imagine the love that God has for us? That we could wander into the worst places of the mind and soul, into the most addictive habits and destructive behavior, and still God our Father & God our Mother would run so fast to greet us, even when we are far off and possibly not yet repenting of our sins? Martin Luther in his sermon on this gospel reading says that to be a Christian means to get down into the mire of the “sinner” just as deeply as he or she sticks himself there – and taking that difficult situation upon ourselves and floundering out of it with that person just as if it were our own problem. Getting down into the mire with the one who has been lost, giving that one a hand up, covering them with our own love and piety instead of judging them, and helping by the light of the Gospel, to bring reconciliation with God and each other, that is the true work of the Christian, according to Martin Luther. The prodigal, prodigious – abundantly marvelous love of God is the light that we live in every day. And it is also the work that we are called to do as Christians – to love abundantly, recklessly, and surprisingly those who wander from our fold into life’s dangers just as God our Mother loves us when we stray.
Amen.
Three American hikers supposedly crossed the border from Kurdistan, a northern region in Iraq, into Iran on July 31, 2009. Joshua (27), Sarah (31), and Shane (27) were arrested for “illegal entry” into Iran. In November, Iran’s chief prosecutor had said they were accused of being spies. As of mid-December, Iran had stated that the hikers will be tried in court. However, as of today, there have been no formal charges.
The American hikers were friends who all graduated from UC Berkeley. They had planned a short trip to Sulaimaniya, a resort area in Kurdistan, where many other Westerners have traveled. While there, the three decided to take a hike to Ahmed Awa. It’s an area known for its beautiful waterfall. And it is also near the Iranian border so it’s pretty easy to cross over without realizing it. Iranian officials claim the hikers crossed the border into Iran on purpose. The hikers’ families and friends state the three had no intention of entering Iran for any reason. The Kurdish regional government issued a statement saying the hikers had “lost their way due to their lack of familiarity with the location, and entered Iranian territory.” Since then they have been held in Evin Prison in Iran. Because America and Iran do not have diplomatic ties it is hard to negotiate for their release. The only one who has seen the three is the Swiss Ambassador who said they were physically healthy. The families of the detained hikers have sent letters and video messages asking for their children’s release to people such as the Iranian Ambassador to the United Nations and to President Ahmadinejad. The hikers have not been released. Their families have been allowed one phone call and that was just this past week, after 7½ months. U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton has expressed the hope that they will be freed on a “humanitarian and compassionate basis as soon as possible.” People have held vigils for the three hikers and have signed petitions. Influential individuals have called for their release. With no other options in sight, all three mothers applied for visas to travel to Iran to plead their case themselves and to be allowed to see their children, one of the mothers said. They have not gotten word back on their applications. In the meantime, hundreds of letters of support have poured in, many of which the families have forwarded to their imprisoned children. We can't say enough how important the letters are to them the mom said. "We found a way to get the letters straight to the prison, and we hear they do get them." But they haven't been able to write a letter to anybody…," she added. "They don't know what's going on. That's horror enough right there.” We know in our bones that these mothers will not give up until the children come home. It is a frightening situation we would not wish on any mom or dad… We might compare the situation of these families with one of the stories in our Gospel today. Bright children, endowed with the hopes and dreams of a family, possessing top quality educations and looking to bright futures, head off into unknown territory, taking all that their parents have been able to endow them with. Likewise, the prodigal son took what his father had to give him in terms of life experience and worldly goods and headed off into the unknown.
Maybe we can’t imagine exactly how the parents feel but at the same time we can share their loss and pain. Being a mother or father is something very special – from living in extreme joy to living in hell. The connection with the child is never broken no matter what happens, no matter how far the child strays. Sometimes the child leaves and goes physically far away like those young people in Iran, or sometimes they are lost in the depths of their own minds, like the young man with the promising future as an electrical engineer who was killed at the Pentagon the other day. He had bi-polar disorder. His mother, and no doubt his father, too, traveled with him to the depths of his soul. And now they live forever with his violent death.
Of course a mother or father is not always someone who gives birth to the child. A mothering relationship exists wherever a selfless love enfolds someone who is in need of this kind of love. And we all need this kind of love.
In our gospel for today, we have three examples of self-giving love that seemingly go beyond the bounds of reasonable behavior. The most familiar story is the one I have already mentioned, the Prodigal Son. I looked up the word “prodigal” in Webster’s dictionary and I was really surprised by what I found there. I always thought prodigal meant “wayward” or “selfish” but in actuality prodigal means Lavish, Luxuriant and Profuse – including the meaning of wasteful and spendthrift, but also including the meaning of abundance. The words “prodigious” (meaning huge, wonderful and marvelous) and “prodigy” (meaning extraordinary or surprising) are related to the word prodigal. So it might be a little confusing then, who in our story of the prodigal son is actually the prodigal. The father’s gift of half his worldly goods is really prodigal in the sense of being abundant. Maybe recklessly abundant. And so is his lavish welcome on the son’s return. Prodigious, we might even say. And there were two other stories in our Gospel today - do these readings also have something to say about the abundant, lavish and even reckless self-giving God-like love?
In the first story the shepherd realizes that one of his sheep is missing. He looks around but doesn’t see the curious and exploring sheep nearby, so he leaves the other sheep, who are equally defenseless and in need of care, to go and search for the one that wondered off the beaten path looking for adventure or a midnight snack. The shepherd searches everywhere until he finds the lost one, scoops it up onto his shoulders and carries it tenderly home. Christ, as the good shepherd, is the great example of tender, loving, even lavish protective care: this is God our mother, who loves us and will not let us get lost out there in the cold and dangerous world, who will recklessly abandon whatever else is at home and if she can’t find us, will not let anyone forget us if we do. This feminine aspect of God is willing to go where we go even if we end up in trouble. And even more, God our Mother and our human mothers, are willing to forgive us even before we are sorry and repent. Jesus was a known visitor to the homes of tax collectors and sinners and was seen eating with women of ill repute, all who might be considered unrepentant sinners. Some of the religious people didn’t understand Jesus, like the Pharisees and scribes, who called him a glutton and a drunkard, but Jesus went to the hellish places that people can create for themselves to bring his abundant message of love and acceptance. Mothers, fathers, ministers, friends, teachers, nurses, aunts and uncles - and self-giving people of all kinds -know this willingness to go to the dark places of the human soul in order to comfort and encourage the lost ones. This lavish and abundant outpouring of love is of God. Archdeacon Anthony Turney preached a sermon at ordination one year telling the newly ordained to “go to hell” – to go where Jesus went – to find the souls who need the message of loving acceptance the most. And to love them abundantly, even before they repent. When those souls are brought back into the fold, there is rejoicing in heaven and the party begins. We might even call such a party a prodigal display of joy and love.
The second story in our gospel today is a vision of an industrious housewife, who having done her accounts, discovers one of ten silver coins she had in her charge is missing. She lights a lamp, and begins to search diligently for it. She alerts the neighborhood of her loss and maybe some of them come out to help her look. The lamp and the neighbors are key to this story – she doesn’t dig around in the corners looking for the coin -miserably alone and in the dark. She doesn’t try to hide the fact that she lost the coin, or make excuses, she brings all the light she has to bear and the light illuminates her search and she brings others into the search and they all celebrate when the coin is found. God our Mother gives us the never ending light of the Gospel to help us find the lost one and celebrates in putting all the pieces back together again! God is the woman and we are the coin, a part of God’s profuse treasure who alone can make the treasury complete. By the light of the Words of the Gospel we are found and restored to our rightful place in God’s overflowing and luxuriant love.
And then, of course the third story in our gospel today is the prodigal son. We can talk about the recklessness of the son, his insulting request to have the goods and money he would have if his father were already dead, the lavish response of the father in giving in to his son’s demands, the selfish attitude of the brother, who resents the warm welcome that his returning brother receives…but the most striking and touching part of this story for me is the image of the father running towards his son, he can’t get there fast enough. The father loves and forgives him before he knows even that the son has repented! What kind of lavish radical love is this? It is the love of a mother who can wait for years for a child to return from the far corners of the world not knowing the real story of what happened and if the child will ever come back. It is prodigal in the sense of being abundant and overflowing. If we can imagine the depth of love the parent has for the prodigal son then can we also imagine the love that God has for us? That we could wander into the worst places of the mind and soul, into the most addictive habits and destructive behavior, and still God our Father & God our Mother would run so fast to greet us, even when we are far off and possibly not yet repenting of our sins? Martin Luther in his sermon on this gospel reading says that to be a Christian means to get down into the mire of the “sinner” just as deeply as he or she sticks himself there – and taking that difficult situation upon ourselves and floundering out of it with that person just as if it were our own problem. Getting down into the mire with the one who has been lost, giving that one a hand up, covering them with our own love and piety instead of judging them, and helping by the light of the Gospel, to bring reconciliation with God and each other, that is the true work of the Christian, according to Martin Luther. The prodigal, prodigious – abundantly marvelous love of God is the light that we live in every day. And it is also the work that we are called to do as Christians – to love abundantly, recklessly, and surprisingly those who wander from our fold into life’s dangers just as God our Mother loves us when we stray.
Amen.
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