“Watch out for the Pharisee in your head”

Luke 15:1-3; 11b-32  

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus.  And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”  So he told them this parable:…

There was a man who had two sons.  The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’  So he divided his property between them.  A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living.  When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need.  So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs.  He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything.  But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough to spare, but here I am dying of hunger!  I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.”  So he set off and went to his father.  But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him.  Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’  But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.  And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’  And they began to celebrate.

Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing.  He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on.  He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.  Then he became angry and refused to go in.  His father came out and began to plead with him.  But he answered his father, ‘Listen!  For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends.  But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’  Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.  But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’”

Here’s a story that Jesus told to the Pharisees and scribes in response to their grumbling and criticisms when he was welcoming sinners and sitting down to eat with them.  I’m thinking the story of the Prodigal Son is familiar to most of us.  Incidentally, it’s also known as the Parable of the Loving Father.  …I just love this story …MOST of the time.

The picture of the wayward son coming home to his father’s loving welcome just warms my heart to the core.  I’ve often thought, I wish I could have been at that party. 

…That is, until that nasty little Pharisee inside me begins to whisper in my ear saying things like, “Well, what did that guy do except blow all his dad’s money and make a fool of himself and then come crawling back in shame and, instead of treating him shamefully (like he deserved), his father threw him that big old party.  Come on now, you know that wasn’t fair at all.  The older brother followed all the rules, and he’s the one that deserved the party, for crying out loud.”  …This is the truth about what the Pharisee in my head thinks.

That’s what it’s like when the Pharisee voice comes and takes over a perfectly good party.  That’s what it’s like when the rule-keepers try to overrule God’s love and mercy.

Here are some of the things that the Pharisee inside us might complain about in today’s world, “Why should those people who are having all those babies get government help when I’m having only the number of children I can support?” or “Why did my parents give so much money to my brother when he could have been making his own way?”  or “Why should we spend money on those Californians who lose their houses to wildfires when they know good and well they live in a dangerous place?”  “Or what about those people who live on the beach?  Florida is going to be sliding into the ocean anyway what with climate change.”  Or “Why do we give supplemental money to farmers in the Midwest?  If they can’t make it on their own, so be it.” Or “Why should these people get student loan forgiveness?  The rest of us have paid our way through college?”  Or “Why do some people in churches get a pass from volunteering when the rest of us are doing it all?  Don’t they know what their membership vows say?”  Or there is Pharasaic talk going on in Ohio’s governor’s office as they want to attach a work requirement to getting Medicaid.  Number 1, this has proven to not work and it is a compassionless move that targets “the least of these.”  Jesus would have pushed back against a move like this.      

Now, you may have heard talk like all of that, or you may have thought some of those things yourself, but I’m calling it Pharisee talk because it’s the kind of thing that Jesus was standing up against.  The thing is, it is the inner voice that we all have at one time or another.  It’s the “what’s in it for me” voice, the “somebody’s trying to get something they don’t deserve” voice, the “I’m better than those people” voice, “the God-loves-me best” voice, the “THEY don’t belong in our club” voice, or the “I know that God thinks like me” voice or the “IT’S NOT FAIR” voice.

Jesus was fighting against this with the Scribes and the Pharisees, but he wasn’t suggesting that they just do a better job of following the rules.  He was asking them to completely change their traditions, their behavior, and their thoughts about other people.  He was turning the status quo upside down.  He was asking them (and, of course, us) to change our way of thinking and living. 

The tax collectors and sinners were coming to see Jesus because he was welcoming them into the fellowship.  These folks were essentially among the “untouchables” as far as the religious officials were concerned.  The Pharisees truly were resisting this because, in their minds, by welcoming “sinners,” Jesus was lowering the bar for membership, and there’s no way they were gonna allow that. 

The outcasts of this Jewish society were flocking after Jesus because he was willing to sit down to eat with them.  He was redefining what it means to be part of God’s household.  Jesus was demonstrating how God treats ALL people.   To illustrate this, he told the parable of the prodigal son.  As I said earlier there is a part of me that adores this story.  It’s a story about God that simply resonates with my very being.  It’s the unconditionally loving father who always leaves the light on for us, no matter how far out of line we have gotten, how completely lost we are. 

The story paints a picture for us of what amazing grace is all about.  It describes what it is to feel completely lost, to be without hope, what it is like to hit bottom, to have only one last resort.  The story of the Prodigal Son, the Loving Father, reminds us what it feels like to be at our wit’s end, knowing that we need to completely humble ourselves and tell the truth about who we really are and what we really have done. 

I think that this story will resonate with each and every one of us; it will remind us of those times when we’ve messed up, when we’ve come to the end of our ropes, when we have to admit to ourselves and to God what we’ve been up to and what we have done. 

And—it’s a word of hope that is beyond anything we can possibly dream up in our little pea brains.  Against all odds, this man’s father welcomes him back into the fold.  He exclaims, “This son of mine who was dead is alive again!”

My friends, this is what the Kingdom of God is like.  This is what it’s like to live in the Jesus House.  It is shockingly wonderful, loving beyond our imaginations, forgiving in a way that boggles our minds.  And, though we can never measure up, we are embraced into this kind of love in the Jesus House.

Oh, there are times when we’re going to relapse into older brother behavior.  We’re going to sound like Pharisees sometimes, but Jesus has challenged us to witness to a Kingdom of God that is run by a wonderfully forgiving Parent.  Jesus has called us to a life in which the head of our household, our Savior, welcomes and sits at the table with sinners, thank God.  Otherwise, none of us would be allowed in the door, let alone welcomed at the table. 

And so, lucky us!  We get to call ourselves Gospel people; we get to learn how to be more forgiving, more grace-filled. Our challenge is that we are to be more loving.  And our gift is that we get to be more loving.   

Lucky us to be able to serve a God who welcomes us home after we have done our worst, not as second-class citizens, but as beloved children whose status has not changed. 

Lucky us, though we were lost, now we are found!  Lucky us, knowing that we can start all over again with a clean slate!  Thanks be to God.  Amen.