Growing in God

Proper 19, Year C
 
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28 or         Exodus 32:7-14
Psalm 14                         or         Psalm 51:1-10
1 Timothy 1:12-17                                             
Luke 15:1-10
 

I grew up in a house that was only a few hundred feet from Highway 59, a busy road that connected Milwaukee with Waukesha.  As I look back on those early years, I realize what a challenging job my mother had trying to keep watch over four young sons who constantly tested their boundaries, undoubtedly often making the neighbors wish that they, or we, lived somewhere else, far away.
 
To keep us as safe as she could, mother had a rule about Highway 59: "Don't cross that road until you're 15 years old!  Don't even go near it!"  She said this with the authority of Moses coming down from Mt. Sinai carrying the Word of God, and backed it up with the fear of Grandma Hilma. If we boys got out of line, our mother would skip past the power of the county sheriff and the power of God, and call directly on Grandma.
 
I don't have many memories of Grandma Hilma, but I do remember that she was someone to fear.  If we got too close to Highway 59 (or committed some other heinous offense), it would trigger an appearance by Grandma at our front door that would startle the devil.
 
The four of us lads all made it into adulthood with few scars, and we kept all our fingers and toes, and we never did "poke our eyes out with that stick."  The strict rules, and harsh consequences for violating them, were expertly administered out of love for us immature, but fast-growing boys.
 
There had to be rules, and there had to be a force behind them, or we might not have made it past puberty.  The rules aptly fit the situation.  It didn't always seem that it was loving to us at the time, but it was indeed.  As we grew older, the rules changed, and the expression of love changed with it.  Eventually the rules faded away, and were replaced by adult expectations of mutual love and respect.
 
The story of God's love for mankind follows a similar pattern.  Early on, in Old Testament times, strict rules were given to an emerging nation so that they, too, didn't cross the forbidden highway of life until they were mature enough.  The patriarchs and prophets put the fear of God into the people's young hearts, something that they might best understand at that point in their journey to human wholeness.
 
Over time, hundreds of years actually, the fear of God was gradually replaced with a deeper understanding of His love for us – just as I eventually realized that the occasional harshness of my mother and grandmother was based on love.  The tender, loving and sensitive moments far outnumbered the less comfortable times.
 
At the appropriate time in history, God Himself came to us in the person of Jesus.  This loving parent wanted to be with us to teach us, to heal us, and to demonstrate how this love between us all should work.  He came at a time when his words and life story could be recorded and shared with others, and passed down through all time.  His earthly life and spiritual ascension also opened our hearts, even today, for His words about love through His advocate and teacher, the Holy Spirit.
 
The readings for this Sunday actually give us some deeper insight into what His love is really like.  We turn first to the Gospel reading in Luke 15, where the action taken by the shepherd defies economic and mathematical sense.  Who would chase after one lost sheep while leaving the other 99?  Doesn't it make more sense to cut your losses and stay with the 99?  Aren't we taught that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few?
 
Not so with God.  The math of God is 1 = 99.   Or 1 = 1,000,000 for that matter.  Each and every person has an equal worth to Him.  Any one person is important enough to Him that He will continue to pursue that person to bring him or her back into the flock.  No hesitation, no weighing the costs.
 
Even Paul, in writing to Timothy, states that he (Paul) received mercy because he had acted ignorantly in unbelief.  He was a blasphemer, a persecutor of the early Christians, and a man of violence.  But passing judgment is not as clear cut as we may think it is in our world of justice today.  God's love and mercy considers the context of a situation, not just the situation itself.  His judgment considers the background of a person, the circumstances surrounding the behavior, and the extent of remorse.  It is a far more complex decision than what we usually care to deal with.
 
Psalm 51 has sometimes been called the Psalm of Final Judgment.  It may actually be a description of what we refer to as the Day of Judgment.  The psalmist asks for mercy, according to God's steadfast love: "According to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions."  He begs to be washed thoroughly, and cleansed from his sin. 
 
On that day, the full realizations of his life become openly known to him – he realizes how both his good actions and his bad actions have impacted others in deep ways.  He understands the joy and the pain that came from these. "You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart," he asks.  "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me."
 
Someday, perhaps, we will even look to the Day of Judgment as a good thing, as we grow in the understanding of God's love.  We will come to realize that this Day will not be one of punishment and retribution, but one of renewal, reconciliation, and revival for every soul.  It may actually be the beginning of a new life of love and service to God, one that goes on forever in a mutual understanding of what love is really all about.
 
The core of this love is best described by Paul in Romans 8: "For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."