I must confess something.  I am totally and completely dependent upon my GPS.  And, I must confess, not only do I get geographically lost as I travel from place to place, I have also been figuratively lost at various points in my life.  There have been times in life when I have truly felt emotionally and spiritually lost.  Today, Jesus speaks to us about getting lost and, of all the parables Jesus told, the story of the Prodigal Son is perhaps the most profound.  

Today’s gospel reading tells of a father who had two sons.  The younger son, wanting to get away from home, asks for his future inheritance, a share of his father's estate.  He wants his own life apart. This younger son seems cocky, confident, arrogant and self-reliant as he essentially says: "Give me my part of your stuff, Dad. I'm going to take off and live by myself."  His father willingly gives it to him, and the young man runs off to a distant country, quickly squandering his inheritance.  Soon he finds himself knee deep in pig slop, feeling very hungry and destitute.  And, he finds himself chastened by his intemperate actions.

So, he returns home, prepared to acknowledge to his father that he has failed and no longer deserves to be called his father’s son. The younger son has finally come to his senses. He is content, even eager, to be treated as no more than a slave or hired worker. But, he is in for a big surprise.  And, Luke’s telling of the story at this point is so beautiful.  Luke writes that while the younger son "was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him." He calls for a feast to be prepared in celebration of his son's return.

Well, this celebration does not go over well with the older son.  He protests that he has never disobeyed his father and he has never given him cause for grief. This is true, but the older son is trying to find his legitimacy in obedience instead of love. He doesn't know about simple relationship – and you know what?  The Bible is all about relationship.  God is all about relationship!  One of the deep truths we need to learn is this: when we don't have a living, life-giving relationship with God, we often try to substitute with duty and obligation.

Now, while this parable is called the story of the Prodigal Son, it probably should be called the story of the Prodigal Father.  The word prodigal means lavish or extravagant, and it is really the Father who is extravagant when it comes to his sons. The sons are prodigal in failure; the father is prodigal in generosity.  And, in this story, we get an amazing glimpse of what God is like.  The father says to the returning son, "Everything I have is yours."  What a marvelous response, and what an amazing image of God!  God is always greater than our sins.  According to Jesus, God is like a Prodigal Father who welcomes home his son without explanation.  No questions are asked about why the son is returning home and no apology is even asked for. He throws his arms around his son.  And he invites everyone to celebrate because his son who "was dead has come to life again; he was lost and has been found."

This is not just a son. He's a returned son.  You see, after being lost, it is when we come back that we know how important union is, what strength and joy relationship gives. It is one of the most consistent messages of the Bible: It is in losing that we discover what we have. Alienation isn't the end of the world; it's the way we commonly come to God. Almost all biblical figures are transformed "sinners," not people who walk a straight line to God. That is not the path.

This parable of the Prodigal Son, or Prodigal Father, has the power to change us because it names human relationships so perfectly and we see ourselves in both sons.  Like the younger son, we try to live our life apart and autonomously, and yet that leads to an eventual alienation and unhappiness. Slowly we gather our truth and our identity. But we are also capable of being the older son who prides himself on his orthodoxy.  The elder son projects a small-minded, moralistic image of arrogant superiority derived from his perceived selfless, sacrificial life of service to his father.  And, he is unable to celebrate and enjoy a free gift!  There is a real sense that of the two sons, the younger son ends up being spiritually healthier at the end of the story, while the elder son remains spiritually sick.  So, we end with an amazing story of one son who seems to do it all right but is wrong, and another son who seems to do it all wrong but is right!

At the end of the parable we never learn whether the older son comes to the banquet, but we do know that the Father continues hoping his older son will join the party and not live in resentment or continue to have a sense of superiority toward the brother who has done it all wrong. It is an invitation to all of us who have perhaps been good Christians, "older sons – and daughters," but can also lack compassion, forgiveness, mercy and love.

It is fascinating that this is the end of the story.  Jesus leaves the parable open ended.  We really do not know what happens next.  We do not know what the elder son finally does.  But, in this open-ended story, we see a Father who never gives up.  Behind Jesus’ parable “lies profound and overwhelming truth about God and God’s kingdom.  We humans, we all were lost, mired in sins of sensuality and greed and self-referential resentment, hip-deep in the pig slop of envy.  Before we knew it, God reached out in the people Israel and then again in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus.  God has raised us up and called us home.  It is just not about you or me, or my sin or your sin, or my deserts or your deserts.  It is all about God and God’s life-giving love and mercy.  Every time God’s active, stretching, searching, healing love finds someone and calls that person back home,” we discover the overwhelming scandal of God’s extravagant grace, God’s prodigal love for humanity and this world, and it is cause for great rejoicing!  So, come and join the party, and live in relationship with God and one another.  That is where real, deep, lasting joy is found. (Feasting on the Word, Rodney Clapp, p. 120)

This is a special musical presentation of Don't My Lord Deliver Daniel by the Faith Lutheran Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

Today, Tula Ngasala shares with us more news about the water project in Tanzania. Faith Lutheran has been instrumental in the development of this project. Tula will update us on the work that has been done and what still needs to be done. This project represents one of the ways our congregation is participating in giving life to a community as well as working to diligently be good stewards of our earthly environment

This is a special musical performance of Come to the Water by the Faith Lutheran Church's Chancel Choir. 

This is a special musical performance of Children of the Heavenly Father by the Faith Lutheran Church Faith Bells Bell Choir.

This is a special musical performance of Jerusalem by the Faith Lutheran Church Chancel Choir.

Today, Pastor Ellen Shoepf and Rev. Dr. Niklaus C. Schillack talk about Samaritas and the work of our church.

The Rev. Dr. Niklaus C. Schillack (Pastor Nik) serves as the Director of
Congregational Engagement for Samaritas. He was previously a pastor on the prairies of Minnesota, a pastor developer in an exurban Michigan community, and most recently a pastor and head of staff in a suburban Detroit congregation. A native of Ann Arbor, Michigan, his degrees include a B.B.A. in Accounting from Eastern Michigan University, an M.Div. from Trinity Lutheran Seminary, and a D.Min. in Congregational Mission and Leadership from Luther Seminary. Pastor Nik is married to Whitney and they have two daughters. He enjoys history, economics, gardening, travel, kayaking, and miniature golf.

This is a special musical presentation of a number of songs from the Flutes of Faith at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan. 

This is a special musical presentation of Mercy by the Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

There is a focus in present culture on what some call mindfulness.  Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are, aware of what we are doing, and not be overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us.  I think mindfulness requires an element of intentionality in which one is directly focused toward some object or situation.  As we begin this Lenten season, we are invited to be mindful of where Jesus is leading us and embrace an intentional way of living and being in this world.

If given a choice, most of us are not going to be intentional about choosing a path in life that is filled with difficulty.  However, I must say that spiritual depth and growth happen as we mindfully respond to the trials, troubles, temptations, testing and fear that arise in life.  For many of us, it is in those times of challenge that we truly learn dependence on God.  In such times we find that God graciously provides for all our needs in all of life’s seasons.

As we begin our forty-day Lenten journey, we intentionally take time for reflection and repentance.  We do this as we follow the example of Jesus.  And, as we meet up with Jesus today, we find he was “led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil.”  Note that the Spirit does not just drop Jesus off in the wilderness to fend for himself; the Spirit continues to abide with him and enable him to grow stronger through this season. 

As the devil tempts Jesus, I can imagine Jesus is in a state, both mentally and physically, of utter desperation. He hasn’t eaten for weeks. He is likely hallucinating. He is probably thirsty and tired, and feeling empty and powerless. He likely feels as though he is about to die; vulnerable and alone, gaunt and weak. He’s probably even scared.  But, he responds to these temptations with a sense of intentional mindfulness, rooted in the foundation of scripture and faith.  First, Jesus is tempted with food, and Jesus says, “one does not live by bread alone.” Then, Jesus is tempted with power over all the kingdoms of the world.  And Jesus answers, essentially saying, “I worship God, not power.” And finally, the devil tempts him to prove who he is by throwing himself down, and Jesus refuses saying that we should not be in the business of trying to test God, or make God prove anything to us.   Jesus passes every test by interpreting scripture, not by the Letter of the Law but by the Law of Love.

Now, you and I are not Jesus.  We are far more vulnerable to being tempted by evil when we are weak and tired and hungry and alone and, maybe most of all fearful.  And, fear creates much anxiety.  Our culture is ridden with fear and anxiety and stress.  Studies show that when people are under stressful conditions: like the anxiety of losing wealth or status, like illness, like worry over the decline of the middle class, like poverty, like fear of terrorism or war – people are less likely to love the stranger. In other words, when you and I are in the wilderness of perceived powerlessness – we adopt xenophobic tendencies to fear those different than us.  We adopt tendencies to scapegoat, to blame, to become more tribalistic, and surround ourselves with people we perceive to share the same values and the same characteristics.   So, it should come as no surprise that we are most apt to be tempted by power when we are feeling powerless. We are tempted to believe we can control terrorism and violence through religious persecution. We are tempted to believe that our comfort level and safety is more secure if we move to a geographical place where there is little racial, ethnic and economic diversity. We are tempted to believe that we can control an insecure economy by hoarding our own wealth, and by excluding and demonizing various groups of people like immigrants, welfare recipients, or any considered “other.” 

The fact of the matter is we are less likely to welcome the stranger when we are afraid.  We are most vulnerable to being tempted by evil when we see the world in terms of scarcity rather than abundance; when we see people in the world as objects to be feared and despised rather than as God’s own beloved. And so, we exploit the worst stereotypes we can think of about each other, so that we can no longer see one another; so that we can no longer see God in one another.  And yet, Jesus reminds us: “It is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’” Which, as we know, means simply this: love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind and with all your soul, and love your neighbor as you love yourself. 

I like to follow blogger, Glennon Doyle Melton.  A while back she wrote a blog post called “How to use your fear to make something beautiful.” I just love that title.  You see, we all face fear, whether we want to admit it or not.  But, our job is to abide and live by the law of Love anyway, and transform fear into beauty.  I think that is one of the reasons why we come to church: so that we can use our fear to make something beautiful together.  I think that is also what we as a Faith community have done through our refugee project.  That’s how we use our fear to make something beautiful.

We also use our fear to make something beautiful when we apply God’s grace to our very selves.  You see, if we are not starting our Lenten journey knowing we are beloved children of God, we won’t get very far. Lutheran pastor, Nadia Bolz Weber, says: “When voices other than God’s try to tell you your worth – when the categories of late stage capitalism or the siren song of professional advancement or the various ridiculous ranking systems in society, or your own head tries to tell you your value and trust me, this will happen--but when it does may you again remember your baptism – remember that you have renounced the Devil and all his empty promises and are marked with the cross of Christ and sealed by the Holy Spirit and that you belong to God, because nothing…nothing else gets to tell you who you are.”  Lent gives us yet another time to live into this baptismal identity we have been given. 

Lent can be a time to take stock in our lives, and to really begin to come clean about those things that tempt us.  As Pastor Brian McClaren says, Lent can be a time when might rethink everything or flip the script on some of the harmful, inherited stories of our very own lives. This Lenten journey is a time when we can let go of all pretense and allow ourselves to be honest and vulnerable.  It is a time when we can take a real look at the way we try to hide our pain and our fear and the brokenness that shapes our entire being.  Lent can be a time when we find the freedom to confess the messiness of our lives.  Jesus’ intentionality and his receptivity to God’s grace show us the way to turn toward God, rather than away from God during our trials and temptations.  And, if we choose the Lenten struggle to be intentional, to be mindful of God’s presence to us, and receptive to the grace of God, we will encounter a faithful God who leads us through the wilderness to new life.  

This is a special musical performance of Masterpiece For Handbells by  Faith Lutheran's Bell Choir

This is a special musical performance of Awesome God by the Faith Lutheran Joyful Noise Children's Choir

The transfiguration is frustrating for disciples—past and present—who long for an unmediated experience of God. Jesus’ glory is revealed, and then, just as suddenly, a cloud descends and the vision fades. And even though Paul contrasts the Christian’s experience of God with Moses’s veiled experience of God, he notes that we see the glory of the Lord “as though reflected in a mirror” (2 Cor. 3:18). Even with unveiled faces, we don’t see directly, or even clearly. Even when God is revealed in shining glory, much remains veiled and hidden.

As he witnesses Jesus’ transfiguration, Peter’s understanding remains veiled; ours does too. The glimpses we get of God’s glory—through the veil or reflected in the mirror—are expectation-shattering, alarming, overwhelming, and awesome. The love of God shines too brightly to view directly, and yet we do have the privilege of directly experiencing that love in baptism, in communion, in service to God, and in relationship with God’s creation and our neighbors in need. The veils we contend with daily are the barriers that prevent us from truly loving those neighbors, caring for creation, and seeing the shining face of Jesus in the faces of people who are different, hungry, difficult, enemy, invisible, or poor. God is always revealed in ways that surprise and confuse us, whether shining on the mountaintop or dying on the cross.

This is a special musical performance of Days of Elijah by the Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos Michigan's Chance Choir.