2022-Mar-27: Fourth Sunday in Lent

 

Joshua 5:9-12

With the entry of the Jews into the promised land of Canaan  (Genesis 12:1-4, 15:7, 13-16; 17:8) and the mass circumcision (Joshua 5:2-8) as a sign of Jewish fealty to Yahweh (Genesis 17:9-14). According to Pentateuchal law, every male who participated in Passover had to be circumcised (Exodus 12:48). Yahweh allows the celebration of the Passover to show that the exodus from slavery was over. So too the cessation of manna signified the forty year wandering in the wilderness was officially over. The two central events at Gilgal, circumcision and Passover, become the final acts of the nation prior to possession of the land. 

Like the Israelites, we are called to remember God’s provision of deliverance and freedom. In such moments, we celebrate the fulfillment of God’s promises and our new life as God’s people. 

The people had arrived and they feast on the plenty of the land - but who planted/toiled to produce that plenty? The Canaanites of course.

Even though this story does not contain the violence often associated with the book of Joshua, it is important to note that the arrival of Israel into the land is both a fulfillment of a promise and the source of great violence for the people who already live in this land. We cannot read these stories as if the land is empty, as if the Israelites found themselves in unoccupied territory that is free for the taking. We must acknowledge the presence of the Canaanites even if they are not explicitly present in today’s story.

Psalm 34

Psalm 34 is one of 15 psalms classified as an Individual Hymn of Thanksgiving to give thanks to God for deliverance from various life-threatening situations: illness, enemies, and dangers

In Psalm 34, David praises God for deliverance from a life-threatening situation, while fleeing for his life from Saul, took refuge in the neighbouring enemy territory of the Philistines, David has an his encounter with King Achish of Gath, later remembered as Abimelech, who recognises David who feigns madness to indicate that he is no threat to the King.

2 Corinthians 5:16-21

The first message: Through the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ we have, in the power of the Spirit, become new creations - we are no longer  Jew or Greek, a slave or free. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is relevant.

The second important theme in this brief passage, therefore, is reconciliation or katallasso. Reconciliation is about putting things in right order and restoring balance. People are no longer divided but reconciled to one another through God.

Becoming a new creation means the creation of new dimensions of love and desire for righteousness and justice within our lives and the lives of others. (The Greek word, dikaiosune, used here means both righteousness and justice.) It takes a new creation to become people and communities whose reach outside our walls of comfort and security to reach out to the fringes matching the reach of the love of God.

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32 - God’s prodigal love

Like the lost sheep (Luke 15:3-7) and lost coin parables (Luke 15:8-10), Jesus tells the parable of the prodigal love of a father (Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32) to respond to the Pharisees and the scribes who grumble about Jesus mingling with sinners and tax collectors and eating with them (Luke 15:1-2). Jesus uses the three parables to respond to his critics who focused on the sins of the tax collectors and sinners. The most common understanding of these three parables refers to unbelievers who repent and come back to  God who readily welcomes them. Jesus demonstrates that God cares about the sinners and rejoices when they repent. Jesus eating and partying with the sinners symbolizes the feast and joy in heaven over one sinner who repents (Luke 15:7, 10). Jesus’ critics act like the elder son who refuses to rejoice with God over the repentant sinners. God begs them to join the celebration like the prodigal father in the parable begging his elder son who is angry.

This parable resounds with us, because at times we have been like the wasteful younger son and at others like the dutiful albeit resentful older son. Who among us has not squandered the love we have been given? Who among us has not felt the bitter sting of insecurity and fear at being left out?

Both sons are needed for the party to be complete for the Father. The father crosses the threshold twice. He leaves it once to run and welcome the younger son home, and he leaves it a second time to invite the elder son to join the party. 

1. The younger son asking his father for his share of his inheritance would be seen as wishing his father dead. Socially unacceptable.

2. Traveling to a far away land signifies an attempt to cut all ties with the family.

3. Falling in status to a point where he not only looks after pigs (a problem for any Jew) but being desperate enough to eat from the troughs is really the lowest of low

4. Realising how far he had fallen the son decides to go back to his father - maybe out of true remorse or may be out of desperation. But the Father on seeing him from far runs out to greet him - an old man running in public is an anomaly. The father brushes aside the repentant sons speech and orders a party to be thrown

5. The older son is outraged at this uncalled for lavishness. In his pettiness he refuses to join the party, forcing his father to come looking for him to reason why he did what he did.

- Be careful not to portray the older son as Jews who are resentful to God welcoming home the repentant Gentiles who lived outside the rules of the Father - 

Reflection on the readings: 

In both Joshua 5 and Luke 15, the theme of wandering is paramount. The nation wanders in the wilderness, abounding in disobedience. The youngest son wanders in a different sort of wilderness, nevertheless, lost in disgrace. In both stories, the wanderers make their way back home out of the wilderness, but in both stories neither the nation nor the youngest son is able to shake the disgrace that has resulted from disobedience and wandering. It is only the pronouncement by the “other” (God in Joshua 5; the father in Luke 15) that redeems them from their past.