Scripture: 2 Corinthians 8: 7-9, 13-15

Luke 15: 22-31

Texts: "Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours." Luke 15: 31

"For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich." 2 Corinthians 8: 9

We begin today a sermon series on "The Gospel and Economics", based on lectionary texts from the gospel of Luke, which beginning next Sunday will be paralleled in the 10:30 hour with a discussion class on "Jesus and Economics—Then and Now."

You will not be surprised that this introductory sermon, and I suspect the half dozen to follow planned and preached by Dr. Gramley, will be more theologically focused interpretations of the gospel than any erudite discussion of economics. In the 10:30 hour discussions to follow, we trust some of you more expert in economics will help us; and we will have the further resource of Kathryn Tanner’s recent book Economy of Grace.

Just now we begin with the good news brought by Jesus, his gospel focused this morning by the theme "Lost in Plain Sight." The good news, of course, is not primarily our being lost, but Jesus word of God’s seeking and saving love that leads us home again. Luke’s recounting of Jesus’ gospel compiles in what is now its chapter 15 some of our Lord’s most vivid stories of God’s seeking and saving love. Some of the analogies Jesus used make the finding seem easier; a lost coin in the first parable may be easily found; a bit more light and some sweeping under beds can restore it to our wallets. Of course, seeking the 10,000 coins we might have lost in a risky investment or volatile stock market takes much more than a lamp and a broom, but that is another kind of parable from a very different era. It might suggest to us, however, that what might be lost in our kind of economy may portend a much greater tragedy.

The last of Jesus’ parables in this chapter, however, from which we have read, tells of the most tragic loss any of us might suffer, no matter the era or economy—the loss of a beloved child. Some of us may have suffered such a tragic loss because of illness or accident. I never have, but I know something of how painful it is to be the minister for a child’s funeral.

Jesus, however, told a story of perhaps an even more tragic loss—of a child still in plain sight, lost perhaps to drugs, maybe to gangs and crime and prison, or to any mode of life that estranges him or her from their family. Christians often have called this the story of a prodigal son, but Jesus’ story really focuses in another way—on the utter graciousness, that is, the love and generosity, of the father of two lost sons.

The son we usually call prodigal is lost in a way not often part of the life story of worshippers like us—except perhaps for a few years of our late adolescence, or maybe for some of us in what we sometimes call a midlife crisis. Along life’s way we may have secretly wandered into some dark night escapades or anonymous vacations, but have quickly recovered our better self. We are not into squandering our property in dissolute living, as Jesus’ described the younger son in his parable.

So we have concentrated our reading of the gospel this morning on the other son, the elder son. We see ourselves more readily in his story. He is the more dutiful, more responsible, what we usually call more ethical one; but, nevertheless, for Jesus he is equally lost, maybe even more profoundly lost. Having hardened his heart against his brother, obeying only with one eye on his inheritance, his father seeks to win him back to a life based on what he could always have known: "Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours." That is the heart of the story for us this morning, and I think at least one of the master texts for our whole sermon series.

Bear with me then as I try to put this issue a bit more abstractly and theologically. What do we Christians mean by being lost? If we don’t mean what some TV evangelists seem to mean—eternal damnation in hell-- should we stop using this traditional word? No! Not if it means what I think Jesus is teaching in this parable: That we have lost the image of God in which we have been created; we have lost something we knew when we were small children--the relational love in which we were created. Unless we become like little children again, as Jesus said elsewhere, we cannot enter God’s kingdom.

To understand theologically what this means we need to go to the very heart of our Christian theology: we are created in the image of the triune God, whose very being is the relational love that unites our Creator, Savior and Holy Spirit into One God. The love of this triune God guides our creation in families and cultures, and reaches out to save us through Jesus. We are created in the image of this relational God, and when we wander away, we are sought and saved by Jesus’ incarnation of this same relational love.

This is what being lost means. We can and do lose God’s image by losing this loving relation with our families and our world. Then we are lost in plain sight. We are there, but not really there. We know where we are and what we want, but we don’t know who we are and whose we are. Like the first son, we move into a land distant from the loving relation in which we have been created, perhaps first of all twisted out of shape in our culture by peer pressures, unrelenting advertising, and TV images of pleasure. Then we are further distorted as we seek the economic success that enables us to get all we’re taught to want in a crassly competitive society. Like the first son, we then are lost in plain sight as we wander in an alienated and alienating world.

Yet some of us know better. We stay home, or closer to home. We remain obedient. We want the security of family now and perhaps our inheritance later. We probably join out parent’s church after confirmation. We are a bit afraid of that world of younger brothers and sisters out there. To all of them, we look square and boring, and perhaps we may really be square and boring, especially if we become self-righteous and judgmental.

Yet, I hope we see, if we cannot enter into the joyful love of family life, and celebrate the coming home of that younger-son-type when he or she, to the great joy of Mom and Dad, shows up occasionally and then one day comes home for good, if we cannot celebrate that we are also terribly lost. We have lost the image of relational love in which we have been created, with brothers and sisters in our own family, and with all of our brothers and sisters in that alienated and frightening world out there. We are lost in plain sight in our families, our familiar world and perhaps even our churches.

But what if, wonder of wonders, we really hear and believe what Jesus has our Creator in his parable say: "Son, Daughter, you are always with me and all that is mine is always yours." You don’t have to earn or deserve it by obedience. You don’t have to compete with your brother for it. You just have to enter into and participate in the love I always have for you. And for the whole human family-- for of course, Jesus is really teaching here of the ultimate Father who has created the whole of humanity in his relational image.

And if we don’t fully hear it through Jesus’ teaching, we can better receive it through the gracious power of Jesus’ action in life and death. As Paul put it to the Corinthians, "You know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich." That is, we may and finally must come to know Jesus the teacher more personally as our savior, who restores us and our whole world to eternal life in the gracious relational love of the Trinitarian God.

Now, finally, what does this theology have to do with economics—with our constantly producing, getting, and sometimes enjoying the many products in our society? We have time this morning only to listen in conclusion to several sentences from Kathryn Tanner who helps us begin to put this insight into more generalized economic terms:

"What if God simply gives us what we need in an utterly gracious way? And expects us to organize our lives with one another accordingly? The categories of gift and grace, then, might contrast sharply with ….a capitalist logic of property…."

To begin to understand this is to begin understanding the implication of our theology in more economic terms. Think what it means when the Father in Jesus’ story teaches his son—and us--"all that is mine is yours". The "yours" here is the whole of humanity, created in, and restored to the image of, the Creator who graciously pours out the gifts of creation on all of us.

Tanner says further, generalizing what we must learn from Jesus:

"Others are attached to, or one with you and you to them. And therefore what you have becomes theirs, and what they have becomes yours "

Could it be? If we could live in our families and with the whole human family in that spirit, we would no longer risk becoming lost in plain sight. We might recover the image of God’s relational love at the very center of our being and allow it to guide us into gracious life, yes, even gracious economic life.

May God enable us to grow in understanding and begin to make it so. Amen and Amen.