Pentecost+14/Proper+19C (Luke 15:1-10)

Have you ever met someone warm, kind, and understanding in one’s heart that you are so drawn to? It’s a blessing to encounter such a person. In the gospel story this morning, tax collectors and sinners are coming near to listen to Jesus. If we think of Jesus as some kind of authority figures like a priest or a bishop, our conception of him is far from the truth. The fact that tax collectors and sinners can approach Jesus quite shamelessly challenges us to imagine Jesus differently. There’s something special about him that there’s no fear or insecurity around him. One feels so good and welcome that there’s no need to be someone else. No masks are required!

One way to re-imagine Jesus is to consider a person around you who you feel very comfortable with. That person in your mind wouldn’t necessarily be wealthy or highly educated or morally superior. That person may just be a simple, ordinary human being. But not that simple in the sense that that person is warm, kind, non-judgmental, empathetic, compassionate, and always willing to be where you are. You enjoy that person’s company. Jesus has that presence. This is the presence of God’s love and grace that tax collectors and sinners are experiencing. 

We don’t know why St. Luke labels these people as “sinners” in the lesson yet we can reasonably speculate that these are the folks who are “lost” in the eyes of the Pharisees. The Pharisees might be correct in their judgment that these people don’t follow the Law and there’s no virtue in their lifestyle. There’s a clear boundary between them and the lost. Though it's easy to criticize the Pharisees for being self-righteous, it’s hard to deny that their lifestyles are more orderly in line with the Jewish teachings at that time. For example, tax collectors in Jesus’ time are Jews who work for the Roman Empire. To the ones who fight for the independence of ancient Israel, these were traitors who not only secure their place under Roman governance but also make profits out of their own people. (The Pharisees have their reason to dislike Jesus hanging out with them!)

So, what is it that Jesus sees but the Pharisees don’t? What is that these tax collectors and sinners see in Jesus but not in the Pharisees? I would call it “the nth chance” that they can become better. Note that Jesus doesn’t condone their lifestyles. What we want to look at is how he does it. It’s not by chastisement or criticism. It’s his presence of compassion that they can somehow experience in themselves. This sparks the light in us that we begin to change ourselves with the help of the Spirit. Jesus’ presence itself becomes the good news that the inner presence of God’s kingdom is always within us despite our unskillful behaviors. 

In this cultivation of the inner presence of God’s kingdom, there’s always a joy. Joy in heaven and joy in our lives. There’s no joy in being lost but in realizing and accepting one’s lost state because that’s when we are found. If we feel like we’re lost, that’s when we can be found. How we can be found is simple. Don’t look further. Look within. 

I would like to conclude my reflection with the words of Meister Eckhart: 
“…He [God] wants the soul to be capacious, so as to hold the largesse He is ready to bestow. No one should think it is hard to come to this, even though it sounds hard and a great matter. It is true that it is a little difficult in the beginning in becoming detached. But when one has got into it, no life is easier, more delightful, or lovelier: and God is at great pains to be always with a man and to lead him inward if only he is ready to follow. No man ever wanted anything so much as God wants to bring a man to the knowledge of Himself. God is always ready, but we are unready. God is near to us, but we are far from Him. God is in, we are out. God is at home (in us), we are abroad.” (from Sermon 69)

Our Christian life, this nth chance is always about returning to the loving presence of the prodigal Father in our hearts.