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Forgiveness

 Helen Jacobi explores the concept of forgiveness found in the parable of the Prodigal Son Luke 15:1-3, 11-32 in light of the Christchurch Mosque shootings 
Rev Cate Thorn

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Forgiveness

Transcript
On Friday morning. During the national memorial service for the victims of the Christchurch attack, the crowd, stood, and clapped and clapped. They applauded the words of compassion and forgiveness, offered by Fareed Ahmed, who was a survivor of the attack and whose wife was killed by the gunman. Mr. Ahmed preached. A sermon he preached a sermon on forgiveness. With a strong voice. With a compassionate voice, he chanted verses of the Quran and explain them to the crowd. he said some plea if I want to be a person of Faith, then I have to forgive If I do not show mercy and forgive then I cannot be a true follower of the Prophet Muhammad and the prophets who came before him including Jesus peace be upon them. He said, I do not want to have a heart boiling like a volcano boiling like a volcano with hatred and fury and rage burning within and then burning the surroundings. He said, I want a heart that will be full of love and care. And mercy, I want a heart that will forgive lavishly. Then he went on to say. Each human being is my brother. And my sister, including the gunman. This is my faith. He said, incredibly challenging words. The gunman is also his brother. How could he possibly forgive him so soon? The Challenge and the shock of these words as similar to the way that the crowd would have reacted listening to Jesus, story of the father, and his two sons because this story, this Parable is about leverage forgiveness, forgiveness, that makes no sense at all. Today's Parable is usually called The Prodigal Son prodigal, meaning wasteful or extravagant irresponsible self-indulgent. But naming the parable that way focuses our attention on the son, who asks for the sheer of his inheritance and then goes and spends it all that Focus fits our Western worldview, where we focus on income work, ethics and contributing to the economy and nothing wrong with those things. But it is just one focus of a very complex story. If we take a step back and look, instead with the worldview of Jesus, our We're going to see some other things as well, so just set aside that prodigal son title in your minds and think simply of a story about a father and two sons. The son who was the younger son comes to the father and asks for his inheritance, which is basically like saying dad, I wish you were dead but since you're not dead. Can I have my inheritance anyway? Great family, Dynamic going on there, Barbara Brown Taylor calls. This passage the parable of the dysfunctional. Family, another writer, mmm. Ich Ziggler asks, what is so broken in this family that the Second Son chooses to leave? Where is his mother are there? Other brothers are their sisters. Why does the father give in keighley says that if you are the ones seen in your family as the bit of the black sheep, the one, Lost. Then you might want to ask? Why did the father not do more to keep the sun close? Why did he let him go? And if you're a farmer, you would certainly ask why anyone would carve up their land and sell it to meet the demands of one son. The farmers of Jesus time would certainly have been shocked by that, who would do such a ridiculous and crazy thing? But they do and the son goes off and surprise, surprise, he lives it all up spins all all he has and he ends up penniless. Think for a moment, about what you remember from the reading of the parable and just answer the question to yourself. Why does the sun began to be in need as the parable puts it? Why is he in need? Why is he starving? Is it a? Because he wasted everything? Be because there was a famine or see because no one helped him. Mark Powell, who's a writer and who writes about preaching tested? This question on students in different cultures and countries and discovered that the answer to the question, depends on your context. If you are an American, you tend to answer a because the sun wasted everything, if you are Russian and you're from st. Petersburg with the memory of the 1941 Siege and famine in your heritage, you answer B because there was a famine If you're a student from Tanzania schooled and Hospitality of the stranger, you answer C because no one helped him. All three answers are in the text for all of these reasons. The younger son is starving and travels home, maybe I can work on My Father's Farm. He thinks he has his confession all worked out, but before he can speak the words, the father runs to him and calls for the best robe and ring took to be put on him and to clothe him and orders a feast, the son of mine who was lost is now found. Forgot the father's forgiveness is lavish. Now, that would be a great ending. But the story doesn't end there, the Elder son, enters the story, the son who has stayed with his father, who worked hard, who's done all the right things. And he cannot accept that as father forgives his brother. He's probably been building resentment all this time seeing a portion of the farm sold while he continued to work. And he also can, it cannot accept that the father loves him lavishly as well. The father pleads with him to come and join the party. You are always with me. All that is, mine is yours. We have to celebrate and rejoice. This brother of yours was dead and has come to life. He was lost and has been found and that's where the story ends. And so we're left with a question. Will did the brother go inside or not? Did the brother joined the party or did he stay outside? Jesus does not say. The parable is address to the Pharisees who were complaining about Jesus eating with sinners. So Jesus is inviting the Pharisees to come join the party and eat with him and the so-called Sinners, the choice is theirs. The invitation is open. So the ending to the parable will be provided by their actions by what they do. Do they say yes and come and sit at the table or do they say no and stay standing in the courtyard was all their resentment Brewing? And away the ending to this. Parable is to be found on Good Friday when the Pharisees take their resentment to the extreme and crucified Jesus. And God's answer to their ending is to provide a different one and answer involving life and resurrection and an invitation to come again to the table. The cross and God's forgiveness, and God's. Embracing of evil with new life is at the heart of our faith. Is that what we would say? If we had to face the worst imaginable thing and found ourselves on that stage and Christchurch speaking to the crowd? What would our Creed be that we would say what would we include to say? This is my faith. Mr. Ahmed chanted verses from the Quran. We could perhaps choose the story of a father and two sons who were equally loved and who both in their own way rejected. That love, we might say how they were both forgiven and welcomed with rejoicing. Any way we could say our God is like that our God, welcomes us back again and again no matter how hard we resist and no matter how often we fail. Our God, welcomes us to a table where the feast is Bread and Wine and offering of simple things which represent life itself. And we could say, how we come every week to hear the invitation to the table and to share in the feast together and that is how we live out our faith. On Friday. Our prime minister said do not leave the job of combating hate to the government alone. We each hold the power in our words and in our actions and in our daily acts of kindness. so, in order to answer that call to combat hate, we come here to seek forgiveness, forgiveness, which is offered a lavishly We come to seek the support of our community as we live as best, we can. Our lives of Faith, and Hope. And We Gather at the table. And we Rejoice together. Because we were lost and we have been found.