“Eternal Life”

“Eternal Life”

Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, September 11, 2022 RM

1 Timothy 1:12-17        Luke 15:1-10

First Presbyterian Church of Sandpoint, Idaho

Pastor Andy Kennaly

Arithmetic has addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication. These basic functions each have their terminology when it comes to their answers. Addition leads us to the “sum” total. The sum. Subtraction shows us the “difference” between two numbers. The difference. Quotient is what you come up with through division. Quotient. Multiplication leads us to an answer called, a “Product.” Two times two is four, and four is the product. But a product is more than a math solution.

I’ve been working on my website, honeyframeplace.com and on this site one of the pages involves displaying things that are for sale, such as honey, and the honey comes in two different sized jars. Because it’s from my Slovenian A-Z hives that produce a honey with a lower moisture content than American Langstroth hives, I can charge a bit more for this high quality “product.”

There’s that word again, “Product,” describing something that is for sale, an item that Farmer Humble (that’s me) of Honey Frame Place (that’s what we call our property), has produced (with the help of several thousand bees). A product is an answer to multiplication, and a product is something that is produced to be sold or used in some tangible way.

But there is another product. We are the product. We are the product of something that multiplies. We are the product of something created and shaped in contextual ways. What creates us is our image of God. We are the product of our faith assumptions, our thoughts and beliefs, and traditions.

Kind of like those Pharisees, a product of the exile as the Assyrians removed the Jewish people from the Promised Land, to take them as captives into foreign territory over 700 years before Jesus was born. The Pharisees were a sect of Judaism that helped the Jewish people retain their identity while in exile. They wrote down rules, things that are important to reflect their religious understanding. The Pharisees saved the Jewish faith from getting assimilated by the Assyrians. They helped the people know what it is that distinguishes them in their unique calling as a covenant people with God.

By the time Luke writes this story, the loyalty of warrior faith and the defining qualities of tribal religion had shifted from the healthy, creative energy that inspired, included, and gave hope to a people who looked for deliverance, to a rigid gatekeeping, rule-based qualifier that perpetuated exclusivity based on purity laws and judgement against that which was deemed opposed to God. The Pharisees were a product of their times, important; but now Jesus challenges their answers and assumptions.

We too, are products of our context. There are many identities we cling to and assign power over us. We’ve already mentioned one this morning, a piece of fabric that has a certain design to it. The American flag. It’s more than a piece of fabric, but is a product of intangibles. For many it has very symbolic meaning. The flag represents a variety of things, like pride, sacrifice, freedom, and devotion. A flag is a visual used to define identity, that which shapes a people into a nation. If you mess with the flag, there’s going to be trouble because people ling to it for identity. Like Jesus stirring up trouble because he’s me3ssing with the Pharisees to show their distinctions are hollow, that relationship and connection are more defining as he includes those they exclude.

In his book, Integral Christianity, The Spirit’s Call to Evolve, Paul Smith talks about spiritual development in terms of stages. This runs the danger of sounding hierarchical, as if one stage is better than another and we need to evolve into something better. But it also recognizes that there is a need for individuals and even entire cultures to continue to learn, to grow in wisdom and understanding, and build a capacity for compassion. This usually happens through experience, often times linked to struggle.

As stages unfold, the very broad, inclusive, expansive love of God is revealed, and each stage focuses on different qualities. Stages such as tribal religion and warrior faith view God as judge, one that is good at condemning, fierce with anger, and yet able to share blessing with those who merit good behavior, even while cursing those who do what is viewed as evil.

Paul Smith wrote this book, Integral Christianity, over the seventh anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.  Speaking of Warrior Church, he says, “It was warrior consciousness that conceived, planned, and launched those attacks. We must expose terrorism for what it is and protect ourselves against it. But in doing so we must operate from a much higher level than the terrorists. The warrior stage of culture is about who is the most powerful. Aggression, impulsive behavior, pleasure, and violence rule. We fight to be in control. The world is like a jungle where the tough win and the weak lose. At this station in life…there is an absolute authority that is outside of me such as a parent, a teacher, a boss, a minister, or a God who makes the rules that I follow without question. “My teacher says…”  “The Bible says…”  “The government says…” The world is black and white, good or evil, with no need to reflect on the nuances in between…. Fight aggressively without any guilt. After all, you are the center of the world.”

People at this stage proudly call themselves “fundamentalists.”  Lists of laws, the need for order, to follow rules, purity codes; these are valued, and backed up by external authority. There is anger toward those who are viewed as not measuring up, or people who challenge or question those sources of authority, so they get excluded. If you’re not int, you’re out. Notice in the story from Luke, the scribes and Pharisees are grumbling. Jesus welcomes tax collectors and sinners, even goes so far as eating with them, which is a way to honor God’s presence among them. The Pharisees and Scribes are angry, and they resist the teachings Jesus embodies, because Jesus calls their beliefs into question.

Jesus in these parables stretches us because he reveals other structures, shows new levels, or stages that are unfolding. As Luke (15:1-10) shares two of three stories involving a search for something lost, there is great joy when it’s found. Through these stories, Jesus challenges the scribes and Pharisees to expand their understanding of their image of God, just as Jesus invites us to recognize that our image of God is often a product of our times. But then comes the stories of the lost sheep and lost coin.

Sometimes, we wander off. What once helped us no longer does, so we go on a search. This can feel like a wilderness, like we are lost.

The Pharisees heard Jesus describe God using two metaphors. One as a shepherd who searches for that one lost sheep. Also, God as a woman who sweeps by lamplight for a lost silver coin. These characters in themselves would stretch the thinking of tribal religion and warrior faith. The Pharisees and Scribes would have a difficult time with this, and likely asked, God as a shepherd? Society’s bottom shelf? God as a poor woman?

And yet these male and female images show a God who searches, seeks out the most vulnerable and least valuable so they may be included. When they are found the shepherd and the woman rejoice, they call everyone else to rejoice with them. They want to have a party and celebrate, and even God’s angels share in the joy.

Are we like the scribes, more interested in grumbling about people who are different than us?  Are we like the Pharisees, focused on our own interpretations of who God considers worthy?  Do we prefer to judge through dualistic religion that categorizes good and bad based on our interpretations, on our own terms, and in doing so, reenforce barriers and divisions? Are we like the lost sheep, where things don’t fit anymore so we’re searching?

Jesus shows us a God who isn’t interested in barriers, who is more interested in joy, to find, heal, and restore. Jesus tells us and shows us God’s mercy in action, which is inclusive joy. This is life eternal, not so much as duration, but in quality. Eternal life is a qualitative description; participation in relational, divine union.
May we learn to thank God for loving Presence, to heed the Spirit’s call to release anger and exclusion, to enter joy’s deep experience. May we live with gratitude, hold identities loosely, and trust restorative promises that surround us each day.

Thanks be to God for eternal life in Christ, both now, and forever. Amen.