Sunday, August 12, 2012

Who's Story Do You Believe? by Rev Steven R Mitchell, Mountain View United, Aurora, CO 8-12-2012

Who’s Story Do You Believe?
(Love Wins Series)
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
Mountain View United, Aurora 8/12/2012
Based on Luke 15: 11-32
 For those of you who haven’t noticed thus far, we are entering another season of political campaigning.  We will be hearing more and more ads from our candidates about all the marvelous wonders they are going to perform once they are elected or re-elected into the office that they are seeking.  One says that they can balance the budget!  What they fail to tell us is how they intend to balance the budget.  One tells us how concerned they are about the middle class.  Yet, they don’t really give any information as to how they are going to show this concern.  Our candidates are even so bold as to tell us they are going to “change” things once in office.  But truthfully do they even have the power in that “office” to actually make major changes if given the opportunity? 
Who’s story are you going to believe, candidate “A” or candidate “B”?  Here is some practical election advice to consider when choosing a candidate.   First off, just know that every candidate will say whatever they think you want to hear in order to be elected.  It’s been that way in the past, it’s that way in the present, and it will be that way in the future.  So don’t base your choice on “what they say they will do”, rather look at the history of what they have done.  Chances are that what they have done in the past will be a pretty good indication as to what they will be doing if given the opportunity in whatever office they are seeking.
We have the same issue at a personal level as well.  We are told many things about ourselves through many sources, conflicting information many times.  Let me give you a recent example.  Last week while visiting my sister in Kansas, I had the marvelous experience of spending time with her grand-daughter, Caylynn.  Caylynn is a beautiful young lady of almost 15 years old, who is starting her freshman year of high school.  Caylynn is a little chunky, which at her age isn’t unusual.  What I learned about this young lady through our visits is just how poor a self-image she has of herself.  She has learned through her junior high years that to be a part of the “in crowd”, you have to be thin and your family needs to have a good amount of money, so you can be seen in the latest designer fashions and have the latest electronics. 
The things that she has been told during junior high have had a great influence on her behavior, her academic achievements, and the type of friends that she seeks out.  She doesn’t come from a family with lots of disposable income, as her mother has always been a single parent.  This places her in an area where gangs have control of not only the neighborhood, but also the surrounding schools.  Most of her friends have parents who are involved in these gangs and all that goes along with that culture.
I also observed this past the amount of effort that my sister puts toward her grand-daughter in telling her how smart she is, how attractive she is, and how she can have a great life living without all the designer stuff or latest electronics.  Caylynn seems to like her great uncle Steven, so I had some very in-depth discussions with her about how she perceives herself.  So here is a young girl who has been taught by her surroundings that she doesn’t disserve a certain quality of life that many of us take for granite.  This is her story.  Her grandmothers story say’s she truly is physically beautiful, smart, and a gifted person.  Whose story is she going to believe; the story that has been told her over the past few years or the story that her grandmother tells her?
This is what is going on in the story of the indulging father and his two sons.  We have two sons, the older son who appears to be more stable, trust-worthy, and responsible; the other son appears to be less stable, foolish in his behavior, and immature.  I use the word “appears” because the story goes deeper than what the surface reading gives. 
I found it interesting this past Tuesday at Panera’s as the Sacred Grounds group met for the study of today’s Gospel.  I thought there was going to be a mutiny over my selection of The Prodigal Son.  When I asked why such a negative reaction to this parable, it boiled down to viewing this parable as “being unfair”.  It seems that most of us relate more easily with the older brother, thus giving us an uneasy feeling about this parable. 
So we have two sons, who like my grand-niece have their story about who they are.  The younger son’s story or understanding of himself, is that of being a failure, of not being worthy enough to be called “son” by his father, but is lower and less deserving and hopefully can be accepted as a servant.  The father has a different story about this young man.  Even before the boy gets to the gates of the estate, the father has run out to greet his son.  He has the boy cleaned up, dressed in fine clothes, and has the family ring put on his finger, indicating that he is not accepted as a servant but is only allowed to come back home with full status and privilege of standing as a member of the family.  The father makes this public by throwing a huge party for him.  This younger son has to decide which story he is going to believe, his story as being only good enough to be a servant or his father’s story of being worthy as a member of the family.
The elder son has his story – he is the loyal one, the one who never asks for anything, the one who works hard and keeps his nose to the grindstone.  He is the son who does what is right, he never does anything wrong, he is the reason why the estate continues to operate.  Scripture says:
28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.
He describes his life in his father’s house as slaving!  How opposite the image the elder son has of himself from the younger brother who feels unworthy to be called a member of the family, the elder brother who has always stayed home and counted as a family member views himself as a slave.
 The father shares with him, “31 “‘My son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.”  In just one sentence, the father tells an entirely different story about the elder son.  The elder son hasn’t been a slave, the father hasn’t been cheap, the elder son could have had whatever he wanted whenever he wanted.  The final truth is that the father never set out to be fair in the first place.  “Grace and generosity” aren’t fair; that’s their very essence.  The father sees the younger son’s return as one more occasion to practice unfairness.  We can also refer to this as “extravagant welcome.”  The younger son doesn’t deserve a party – that’s the point of the party.  That’s how things work in the father’s world.  Profound unfairness. Love Wins, pg 168   The older son now has to choose which story he is going to believe, his father’s story or his story.
 The story that Jesus has been trying to get across to this world is the truth that it isn’t about who gets “in”, but rather it is a story about whether we chose to partake in God’s love.  The older son has two options; one is to accept his truth about not being a slave but rather a member in the family and enter into the party, or he can refuse his father’s truth and in essence continue to live a life as a slave.  The younger son has the same choice, to believe his story of being “unworthy” or accept his father’s story of being a member of the family as well, and join in the party.
 In this story, heaven and hell are within each other, intertwined, interwoven, bumping up against each other.  Hell is our refusal to trust God’s retelling of our story. Love Wins, pg 170   Some of us are haunted by our past actions.  Abuse, betrayal, addictions, infidelities – secrets that have been buried for years.  For some it is our ego, our pride that keeps us from seeing our true worth in God’s eyes.  All these things are our stories, these are the things that keep us from entering into the party that God has for us.  What the stories in scripture do is confront our version of our stories with God’s version of our story.  What is God’s version of your story?  “You are always with me, and everything I have is yours.”  Our challenge is to accept God’s version over our own.  Amen

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