This morning at Advent Lutheran Church (ELCA) we continued the Lenten Challenges series.
Sermon
My message, “Love Wastefully” is based on the narrative lectionary passage: Luke 15:1-32.
You can watch below (due to technical difficulties only the audio is available) or read the manuscript.
Excerpt
Three parables all teach us the same truth. Rather than centering lostness and foundness, they center love.
- Wasteful love.
- Extravagant love.
- Lavish love.
Friends, I know many people who work demanding blue-collar jobs. In these roles they are asked to keep track of far more than any person really can. Not one of them has loved his inventory so much that when he temporarily lost or misplaced an item then found it again, he called me up along with all of his other friends to celebrate. For many these difficult jobs are means to an end – a necessary economic reality that puts food on the table. This is the rational way to think about their work and what happens when things get lost at work then found again.
And, I know far too many people who have limited savings. Those who are working are always anxious there will be more month than money. Those who are retired are worried that there will be more years left to live than they can possibly afford. When these frugal folks suddenly have less money only to realize their bank balances never changed, they don’t celebrate. The simply offer a deep sigh of relief and persist. We all know this is the normal way, the logical way, the way real people respond when things get lost at home then found again.
And then there is family. The bonds between a parent and a child are deeper than any of this. They defy logic. They don’t have to make economic sense. At their best, they offer glimpses of true unconditional love.
One of the giants of faith I learned much from for many years, Episcopalian Bishop John Shelby Spong, often called upon people to live fully and love wastefully. I was always intrigued by that invitation. This morning, I think I finally understand.
To love wastefully is to love disproportionately. To love wholeheartedly. To love as God loves.
- This kind of love isn’t expected.
- This kind of love isn’t rational.
- This kind of love isn’t conditional.
This kind of love is always countercultural.
Siblings in Christ, we are invited to emulate Jesus by loving wastefully, loving irrationally.
Did you catch the context of today’s reading? Jesus was gathering with those society had labeled less than. He was with the tax collectors and a wide range of ordinary sinners. And the religious leaders were not happy. In fact, they called his attention to this reality.
In response Jesus told three parables that are really three versions of the same story. They are three reminders that that the Way of Jesus is the way of love.
May we have ears to hear and the courage to respond in faith by living fully and loving wastefully to the glory of God.
Amen.