4 Lent Yr B

Last week, Virginia taught us about a word we tend to dislike, obedience. She helped us to see that obedience is about listening receptively to God's word in our lives. It is what we do when we are on a pilgrimage, we make camp, pitch our tents, and listen receptively to the word who is Jesus.

Today we hear another word we don't like much, judgment. I recently read a novel, called The High Flyer, (by Susan Howatch) in which a character, Nicholas Darrow, tells a story that his father, an Anglican priest, would tell. Once upon a time, a man and his small son were on holiday and they saw a sign directing them along a road to some sheepdog trials which were being held on a nearby hillside. The little boy said: 'O, I'd like to see a trial!' so his father agreed to take him, but when they arrived at the scene the little boy was very disappointed. He said to his father: 'But where's the jury? And where's the judge in the black cap, like the judge at the Old Bailey who sentences murderers to hang?' Then the father had to explain that it wasn't that kind of trial. No dog was going to be condemned to death or sentenced to prison. Every one of them was there to be affirmed and valued and encouraged, and if some of them didn't come up to the mark they were always told they were welcome to come back later on when they had learned how to be more skillful." You see, God is like the judge of the sheepdog trials, not condemning to hell, but loving the creation so totally and absolutely, that our lives are transformed by that Love.

In a book many people were reading a couple years ago, The Shack, the author illustrated judgment in this way. The scene involves our protagonist, Mack, and he is in conversation with an unnamed character, who calls him into thinking about how he views God as judge. It is a compelling scene, and she invites Mack to recognize that he is blaming God for all his pain, for his Great Sadness as Mack describes it. She says to Mack, "if you are able to judge God so easily, then you certainly can judge the world." She asks Mack to choose two of his children to spend eternity in God's new heavens and new earth, and the other three he will sentence to hell. Of course Mack is alarmed at this, but isn't it exactly what some have led us to believe, that God so easily can condemn God's children to hell. Mack pleads with her, and finally says to her, "Could I go instead?" Mack was willing to put himself in his children's place and be condemned, so they didn't have to. But you see, that has already been done for us. God has judged us worthy of love, and it cost God everything.

You see, the purpose of judgment is inclusion, not exclusion. It is not that God is so warm and fuzzy that anything goes, that we can do no wrong, indeed, we all miss the mark, we are all judged guilty, but, according to Eugene Peterson, judgment means the "decisive word by which God straightens things out and puts things right. Judgment puts love in motion, applies mercy, nullifies wrong, orders goodness." We are guilty but we are forgiven. God's love and God's grace call us into mercy, repentance, and we are forgiven and transformed.

So we hear in the gospel today, Eugene Peterson's translation, "This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life." Again, the purpose of judgment is inclusion, not exclusion, it is about transformation, not damnation. Love does indeed win.

Again, with all of this said, it is Love that calls us into a whole and lasting life. Love calls us into mercy and compassion and away from the judgment of others. And Rob Bell writes in Love wins, "...there are strong, shocking images of judgment and separation in which people miss out on rewards and celebrations and opportunities. Jesus tells us these stories to wake us up to the timeless truth that history moves forward, not backward or sideways...While we continually find grace waiting to pick us up off the ground after we have fallen, there are realities to our choices. While we may get other opportunities, we won't get the one right in front of us again...Jesus reminds us in a number of ways that it is vitally important we take our choices here and now as seriously as we possibly can because they matter more than we can begin to imagine. Whatever you've been told about the end-- the end of your life, the end of time, the end of the world-- Jesus passionately urges us to live like the end is here, now, today."

Live as if you are fully and completely loved, right here and right now, today is the day you have, how are you going to show forth God's amazing love and grace. How does your life tell this story of Jesus, this story that Love wins?

Here is one story, it's not my story, but it's a great story about how Love wins. "Last weekend, Chase and I were grocery shopping in the produce section and he was having a blast weighing each new bag of vegetables I collected. I handed him a bag of tomatoes and he walked over to the scale and waited patiently in line. As I watched, a man walked up behind Chase, scowled at him for a moment, and stepped in front of him, bumping Chase out of the way. Chase looked shocked and scared. I left my cart and walked over to Chase, stood by him and said loudly, "Are you all right honey? I saw what that man did to you. That was very, very wrong and rude." Chase said nothing, the Grumpy Old man said nothing. Chase and I held hands and waited.

When the man was finished weighing his bag, he turned around quickly and all of his onions spilled out of his bag and on to the dirty floor. The three of us froze for a moment. Then Chase looked up at me and I motioned toward the floor. Chase and I got down on our hands and knees and started collecting onions while the old man grouchily and grudgingly accepted them from our hands and put them back into his bag. After Chase and I retrieved the last onion, the man walked away. Chase and I did too, and we didn't discuss the event until we got back in the car.

On the drive home, Chase said through tears, "Mommy, I've had a frustrating day. That man cut right in front of me and that was wrong. And we had to help him pick up his onions! Why did we do that? That didn't make any sense." I took a deep breath and said, "Chase, that man was acting horribly wasn't he? He seemed to have a very angry heart. I'm so sorry that happened to you. But if we didn't help him with his onions, do you think we would have made his heart softer or angrier?" "Angrier," Chase said. "Since we did help him, do you think that might have made his heart softer?" "Maybe," Chase said. "But you know what, Chase? I understand how you feel. I didn't want to help that man with his onions. You know what I wanted to do?" "What?" "I wanted to kick him really hard in the shin. I was very angry with that man for treating you badly. But sometimes doing what we really want to do, if it's going to add more anger, isn't the right thing to do. Even if it feels good at the time. If we wouldn't have helped that old man, we might have felt good for a second, but then I bet we would have felt really, really yucky about ourselves for a long time. You and I, we have a lot of love to share. Maybe that man doesn't have much. Maybe we offered him some today. People who behave badly still need love."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/glennon-melton/best-mommy-moment_b_1334708.html?ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false

Many people in our lives behave badly. Many people in the public arena as we have seen recently, behave badly. We, at times behave badly. But judgment is about inclusion, not exclusion, because Love wins, every time.