Bishop Craig Schweitzer

Hebrews 8:1-13, 9:11-15

Brothers and sisters in Christ, grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ.

How are you doing so far in our Lenten journey through the book of Hebrews? Hopefully you’ve been able to participate beyond our times together in worship. And hopefully you have grown in your relationship with each other and with God through our time in this challenging book of the New Testament. Today, our worship theme is Jesus is Greater Than Our Sacrifice.

Sacrifice – it’s kind of tough word, isn’t it? Sacrifice. It just sounds tough. But sacrifice is a fairly normal part of our language and life in many ways.

A great athlete might sacrifice to be the best athlete in their sport – even at a cost of destroying their body.

A brilliant business person might sacrifice in order to stay on top of the business world – even at a cost of destroying other people or making unethical decisions in the quest for profit and power.

A successful salesperson might sacrifice in order to build enormous wealth – even at a cost of healthy relationships with their family or friends.

The challenge with the idea of sacrifice, whether it’s as we think about our relationship with God or our general understanding of relationship with others is that it’s never enough. One theologian said that “The idea of sacrifice is always a spiral and cycle that does not end with us ever giving or sacrificing enough” (Pastor Rob Bell, The Gods Aren’t Angry).

There are no less than 200 references to sacrifice in one way or another in the bible. The book of Leviticus – which if you have ever studied and read in its entirety, well…first of all – good for you! That’s not an easy thing to do! “Leviticus claims to contain the ‘statutes and ordinances and laws’ that God gives to Israel through Moses” (Lutheran Study Bible, pg. 189).

So, if you’ve read the book of Leviticus, you may have noticed that in the first 7 chapters, the writers lift up 5 different kinds of sacrifices or offerings that were important to the people of Israel. The burnt offering. The grain offering. The peace offering. The sin offering. And the guilt offering. If you own the Lutheran Study Bible you can learn more about these offerings and the sacrifices that relate to each of them on page 197.

In relation to that, I am quite certain that I’ve never received a male sheep or goat without blemish as an offering during worship. An offering that would then involve me killing the animal and burning it on the altar for the forgiveness of sin. Which would have to happen if we are staying true to the instructions from God found in Leviticus. This sacrifice supposedly creates an odor in the tent of meeting that is pleasing and honoring to God. If you think burning the palms on Ash Wednesday stinks a little, imagine what burning a goat on the altar during worship might smell like.

It’s said that during the festival of Passover there would be 100’s of thousands of people bringing something to be sacrificed on the temple’s altar. So much so that the streets of Jerusalem and rivers around it would be red with the blood of sacrifices being made throughout the festival.

For literally thousands of years, the altar was not an artistic piece of fine furniture in a holy space dedicated to worship. The altar was a place of great brutality and blood with sacrifices and offerings that ranged from grain to animals to even first-born children. And in spite of the altar’s extreme brutality, it was also big business for people like the Sadducees who ran the temple and collected the sacrifices that people brought.

Into this story of brutality and profiteering in the temple steps Jesus. It happens near the end in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke and near the beginning in John. Upon entering the temple, turning over tables, and chasing out the money changers Jesus proclaims, “My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers” (Matthew 21:12-17).

In one fail swoop, Jesus forever destroyed the idea that blood thirsty sacrifices in the temple were needed in order to keep God happy. Of course this was incredibly confusing to those who saw sacrifice as a way of faithful living. In many ways, I think it still confuses us today as we continue to think we have to sacrifice something in order to be successful or feel like we are loved. After all, the idea of sacrifice was something that God had commanded God’s people to do in the first place! Why wouldn’t this still be true today. But as God comes to us in Jesus – the temple is now to be a place of healing and prayer. Peace. Not blood.

In every instance of Jesus being challenged by anyone – he responds with non-violence. Maybe this is first and foremost because the altar in the temple was seen as a place of violence. And rulers controlled everyday people with violence for centuries in order to keep control. And in many ways, that is still true today.

Jesus doesn’t come swinging swords and leaving a trail of blood in his path. Jesus, came as an infant in a manger. Jesus came in peace. And Jesus changed the idea of sacrifice as it connects to our relationship with God – forever.

If you’d like to dig a little deeper into our theme today of Jesus is Greater Than Our Sacrifice, I can’t recommend to you strongly enough a DVD lecture by Pastor Rob Bell called The Gods Aren’t Angry. You can find it on YouTube or on Pastor Rob’s website. I think it is just fantastic.

During this lecture, Pastor Rob references the writer of the book of Hebrews many times. He says that one of the most difficult questions that has plagued humankind since the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is, “What do I have to sacrifice or offer so God will love me and look upon me with favor? The reality is that God loves you and looks upon you with favor because of what God has done for you, and for me, through Jesus.”

It’s no longer possible for us to think that the blood of bulls and goats will take away sin.

Only Jesus Christ, the savior of the world – who lived, died, and rose from the dead can forgive sin.

God has made peace with all things in heaven and on earth through Jesus.

And maybe that will cause you and I to sacrifice a few hours this week in order to spend a few precious extra minutes with family or friends. That’s a sacrifice that may even bring you closer to your savior. And for the change that kind of sacrifice can bring to our faith journey and the crazy world in which we live today, I give God thanks and praise. Amen.

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32 • March 6, 2016

Brothers and sisters in Christ grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Savior Jesus the Christ. Amen.

A Church School leader was reading the story of the Prodigal Son to his class, trying to be very clear about how upset the older brother was about the return of the wild and crazy younger brother. When he finished telling the story, he asked the class, “Now who do you think was really sad that the prodigal son had come home?” Silence filled the room. After what seemed like an eternity, one little boy spoke up and confidently said, “I think it was the fatted calf.”

How many of you have heard today’s gospel reading before?
That’s kind of what I thought.

Even if you are scared to death to read the bible or do anything resembling a bible study, there is still a pretty good chance that you have heard this parable before today. There are countless pieces of art focused on it, thousands of pages written about it from hundreds of authors, and I would even argue that this parable reveals a theme that is part of many Disney films, among others.

It’s interesting to note that the Parable of the Prodigal Son only appears in the gospel of Saint Luke. And if we take a second to look around this section of Luke, we’ll notice that it’s not the only parable with a similar theme. And I’m actually not sure giving this parable the title of Prodigal Son is all that helpful. The parables that precede this one are the Parable of the Lost Sheep and the Parable of the Lost Coin. Author and Pastor Timothy Keller in his exceptional book The Prodigal God thinks that we should maybe call this parable, the Parable of the Two Lost Sons. I like that. The Parable of the Two Lost Sons.

Anyway, one question I’ve asked a lot this week is…what does today’s parable have to do with Lent and our journey to the cross of Good Friday? For an answer to that question, I needed to turn once again to what theologian, professor, pastor, and seminary president David Lose said about the cross as it relates to the gospel parable before us. “The cross,” offers Dr. Lose, “is not a means of payment but rather shows us just how far our prodigal God will go to tell us of God’s immeasurable love. Period.”

In many ways, that’s very difficult – if not almost impossible – for us to understand and imagine in our world today. God’s immeasurable love. The world in which you and I live sees life as a game with winners and losers, points and playbooks, republicans and democrats, offense and defense, black and white. Things that are definitely not a reflection of God’s immeasurable love expressed most directly for us on the cross of Good Friday.

I think Jesus is challenging us to open our hearts and minds to hear today’s humbling good news – God’s immeasurable love. Are you and I open to that good news? The good news of our prodigal God’s immeasurable love that is freely and extravagantly shared with all: love that we cannot earn, love that we do not deserve. And our response to God’s grace and mercy encourages and invites us, even pleads with us, to share God’s perfect love with others. Even when those others look and act a whole lot like the two sons in today’s parable. (This section was inspired by the writing in Day Resources, Sundays & Seasons.com)

Eric Barreto was one of the main speakers at last summer’s National Youth Gathering in Detroit. Pastor Barreto said that “The story of the prodigal is about God’s ever expanding grace, a grace that will offend our sensibilities and our collective sense of fairness. God’s grace cares little for our reputation in this world. And God’s grace ought to change us if we are its recipients.”

Here’s one way to look at this. I’m not a big fan of the NBA, but I’ve been intrigued for a few years about the story of basketball great LeBron James. In 2010, he made the decision to leave Cleveland and head to Miami to play. Many thought that it was only in pursuit of an NBA championship ring. As he left Cleveland, the media showed pictures and videos of fan after fan burning LeBron’s jersey in disgust over his decision to leave. The native son had betrayed his hometown. Four years later, the native son returned home and told Sports Illustrated this, “Before anyone ever cared where I would play basketball, I was a kid from Northeast Ohio. It’s where I walked. It’s where I ran. It’s where I cried. It’s where I bled…my relationship with Northeast Ohio is bigger than basketball. I didn’t realize that four years ago. I do now.”

Even though there are only male characters in our parable, the two sons reflect every one of us sitting in worship today – male and female. At times, you and I are the foolish runaway who wastes what God has provided. At other times, you and I are the arrogant good guy who condemns the outsider. And, here’s the thing brothers and sisters, God’s love and grace is always bigger than either one of those characters.

So…the one thing that I hope you and I hear from Jesus today through this much loved and well-known parable in Holy Scripture is this…God loves you.

God loves you if you are someone who has ignored or messed up every opportunity presented to you. And God loves you if you have worked diligently all of your life in the hope that someone might eventually notice even though they never do.

God loves you if you have been a faithful tither to God’s work happening through places like the church all of your life. And God loves you if you’ve never given a penny away because you still believe your money and your stuff are yours and yours alone.

God loves you if you are sitting in worship today because someone is forcing you to be here. And God loves you if blessing a sanctuary with your presence is something that you have done without fail every week of your life.

That is how great God’s immeasurable love is for us. Love…most fully expressed on the cross where Jesus is crucified.

During one of my morning devotions this week, I was struck by an essay written by New Testament Professor Barbara Reid. It moved me, so much so, that I want to share it with you today. Professor Reid wrote, “The father, as a figure of the divine, offers a gift of reconciliation that shatters the too narrow vision of children vying for a bigger piece of the pie, when all along the whole of the inheritance is offered to each and all, with no bounds. This gift begins a process of healing that expands our puny estimation of our inheritance and opens our capacity to be transformed by the Giver, enlarging our capacity to pass on that heritage to others.

[The Apostle] Paul talks about this process as a “new creation.” The One who created an ever-expanding universe is ever drawing us deeper into the divine embrace, so as to extend that heritage outward in ever-widening circles. The question that is left unanswered at the end of the gospel parable is whether or not the older son can accept the inheritance being offered to him. The father will not give up on his son, who is filled with joyless resentment as he calculates what is owed him. The Source of grace and compassion will wait as long as it takes for transformative love to do its re-creative work.”

Brothers and sisters in Christ, you and I are embraced by God’s transformative love that is alive and ever un-folding before us. May we not keep the source of that love waiting. Instead, let’s joyfully join God’s re-creative work in the world. Confidently knowing and believing that we are loved. Because our prodigal God will never stop loving us! Thanks be to God. Amen.