C216 Lent 4

[00:00:05] Speaker A: You're listening to by the well, a lectionary based podcast for preachers recorded on the land of the Wurundjeri people. Hello, everyone, I'm Fran Barber. [00:00:18] Speaker B: And I'm Monica Melanchthon. [00:00:20] Speaker A: And this week, Monica and I, for Lent 4, are focusing on Joshua 5, 9, 12, Psalm 32, and the Gospel of Luke, chapter 15, verses 1 to 3. So let's begin with Joshua, Monica and everyone. Monica is in the throes of writing an article just on this passage. So she's got a lot to tell us, but not everything. No, don't tell us everything in your article. [00:00:50] Speaker B: No, no, I think it's a very interesting chapter. And I should begin by saying that the chapter functions as a transitional one that transitions the people of Israel from the Exodus to. Or the wilderness to the conquest. Okay. So they have now, you know, and it serves as an introduction to the story of how Israel occupied the land that had been promised to their ancestors by Yahweh in Genesis chapter 12. [00:01:22] Speaker A: So in traditional language, the promised land. [00:01:24] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah. So they arrive at the land and, you know, they commemorate the crossing by piling a bunch of stones. And they now arrive in Gilgal and they perform a couple of ceremonial acts. Right. And so in a sense, this is. The ceremonial acts function as rituals. They are rituals, of course. And one would ask, well, why did they need to be circumcised? Well, a lot of children perhaps born along the way, were not circumcised. They also talk about incomplete circumcision. I don't know exactly what that means. And they had to correct that. But circumcision was. Was mandatory because. Because that is a mark of inclusion and you could not actually participate in the Passover unless you were circumcised. [00:02:20] Speaker A: And yes, as you say, the practice fell out of. Well, fell out over the. During the wilderness period. [00:02:27] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So. So, so Joshua demands that all the males are circumcised. And I think, and I think, you know, it gives them a breather from 40 years of wandering. They. They now are circumcised. They can rest. And while they are resting, the men are bonding with each other. Maybe they are now thinking about, okay, how do we proceed after this in order to, you know, move to the next stage. Yeah. And taking over the. Taking over the land. So if you read the scholarship, you know, on this particular passage, you know, they, they. It's a pause. It's a pause, but it's also a pause to perform these two meaningful ceremonies. [00:03:10] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:03:11] Speaker B: Circumcision and the Passover, and both the ceremonies, I would think, function as a, as an expression of obedience to Yahweh. Okay. In the context of dissension. And so rites of circumcision are performed, the Passover feast is observed, and both are powerful signifiers of obedience to Yahweh. So for me, in a way, these liturgical. They are liturgical acts. They are liturgical acts that sanctify the land, and they are liturgical acts that bring or give expression to the fact that God is with us. We are obedient to this God and God is a God of history who is, who is present. Present in all, in all our. In all the things that we do. And as I was telling you earlier, you know, it's. For me, it's an. It's interesting that in a way we have a lot of national events and I don't know in Australia, for example, if churches meet to celebrate or to commemorate certain key moments in the history of Australia. Whereas in India, our Independence Day, our Republic Day, we have, we always have prayer services, theological institutions, sometimes even churches will have a brief. So in a way it is giving expression to, you know, that we are here because of our relationship to God. All right. Yeah. So, yeah. [00:04:55] Speaker A: Which obviously at this time there's no division between civic and holy where, you know, in secular and sacred, it's all under God. So in that sense it's very different. [00:05:06] Speaker B: Yeah. So they were, of course, perhaps also afraid because the future was uncertain, unknown. They didn't know what the, what the Canaanites were like. And if you remember the story in Numbers 11, these people who went to spy on the land come back and. Is it numbers 11? [00:05:26] Speaker A: Sorry, 13. [00:05:27] Speaker B: Yeah. Come back and say that these are very powerful people, they are big in stature, etc, etc. We can't fight them. So maybe that memory, memory still lingers in their minds, you know, and in a way these, these ceremonies are, are a prayer to God to, to ensure that they will achieve victory over these people. Yeah. [00:05:53] Speaker A: I'd just make one couple of points about what we're presented here for the lectionary reading this week. Verse 9. Actually, I can see why it's been included for this week, but it actually belongs to the story you've been outlining prior around the circumcision ceremony. So the Lord said to Joshua, today I have rolled away from you the disgrace of Egypt, which I looked into a couple of sources about that. It's suggesting that it's not so referring so much to the oppression in Egypt, but Israel's disobedience as you say. So. So this ritual has, as you said, created a moment of transition from the old and a holy forgetting of the sin and the beginning, a new moment. [00:06:43] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I think to add to that also, I would say that, you know, the commands, in a way, you know, to circumcise and to celebrate the Passover reinforce the fact that Yahweh is present, has been journeying along with them, accompanying the Israelites. And, you know, Yahweh gives instructions, and these people carry them out. So the Jordan crossing here is, according to some scholars, is liturgized. Yeah, right. Yeah. So as you. When you read through the narrative, you hear about the fact that the ark is present and the leadership of the. Of priests is also quite pivotal and crucial in this story. And so it is a liturgical narrative, and the crossing is a sacral act and affirming Israel's loyalty to. To Yahweh. [00:07:36] Speaker A: And so in. In all liturgical acts, I see. What I see happening is a remembering of one's as a. The group's identity, a recalling to the roots. And I guess there is in liturgy a flow that leads out, that leads to the future, that leads people to cast their minds to a height, to a horizon. All liturgy does that and sends us out again. [00:08:11] Speaker B: So it is. Yes, it is actually a preparation for the conquest. But if I were to see this text from. From a purely secular perspective, it reminds me of the fact that most invading peoples perform some ritual. You know, it may not be religious necessarily, some much more ritualized, others less, but they perform. They do something in order to commemorate the arrival. [00:08:42] Speaker A: And the most benign image of that might be just sticking a flag in the. [00:08:46] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So. So I just wonder, you know, whether these are in. In a way, yes, they are religious rituals, but they are also ceremonies of arrival. We have come and we are here to stay. And the circumcision, in a way, yeah, I talk about the fact that, you know, the circumcision is then. All the skins, the foreskins are then buried on this hill of foreskins, literally. So that is an offering to the land. It is also symbolic of. Of the conquest. [00:09:20] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:09:20] Speaker B: This land is now ours, you know, and it reminds me of some cultures where. Where children are circumcised by, you know, it's just a part of the routine. And their foreskins are buried, and that is. That is home where you. You know, so. And it reminds me also of the fact when. When Saul, I think, demands a certain hundred number of foreskins from. From David, these are all. So circumcision here, which is a religious ritual, has a lot of political significance as well. It is used. It reminds me of the Genesis 34 narrative where the Shechemites are asked to be circumcised and then they are. They are killed while they are in pain. So Israel has used circumcision in varied ways. [00:10:09] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:10:10] Speaker B: One would claim that it is mainly to symbolically ensure that, you know, the mark of Jewishness. But I think. Yeah, I think the ritual itself has been exploited for other reasons. [00:10:26] Speaker A: Yeah. As we want to do with liturgies sometimes as a people. As people. You can see the transition occurring here too, in that people of the land, they are going to eat the produce of the land. They ate the crops of the land, it says, and so the time in the wilderness, they were dependent upon divine provision. And now they are people of the land and will grow crops and they own it, as you say. So around this conversation, of course, we have to be mindful of the violence that's inherent in what's going on here. I understand from some scholars that's not a new observation, that there might be some hyperbole or exaggeration that is going on in the narrative. For example, in Deuteronomy 7, they drive. They're told. The Israelites are told to drive out the Canaanites and to destroy them. And then later on they're told not to marry them or go into business with them, which would suggest that the killing they were invited to doing was actually not literal. [00:11:31] Speaker B: And also, to be honest, you know, they didn't succeed. [00:11:35] Speaker A: No. And Canaanites converted a number of them. And so God would, you know, the Israelites were to be open to those people. So I feel like these days there's a sense in which we must name what you have, the invasion and the act going on here. But also be mindful to people listening to us that there is some exaggeration here in how it's depicted. The other thing I'd want to say before we move on too is how so how, you know, what's the good news here? To put it glibly. And I have to think through the other readings that are set for this week. And we have Psalm 32, which we'll move on to in a moment. That's about a call to confession and the relief and happiness one finds when God declares the sin covered up. And in the so called, the story of the so called prodigal son or the waiting Father, you know, there's the joy and rejoicing at the return of this recalcitrant son whose sin is forgotten in the sense the Father just says, we're here to celebrate. I thought you were dead. And this Passover is a feast as well. So I can see some echoes through these readings where in this. Joshua 1. Israel's disgrace, as it's named here, is covered up by Yahweh in this command for circumcision of this new generation. And it's a time of feasting and a time of having abundant land. So there is a flow through these three readings in particular, and 2 Corinthians which we're not gonna touch on, but the new creation. So there's death and resurrection and sin and forgiveness weaving through these passages. So I think in terms of a preaching focus, that for this particular passage, that's where I would go. [00:13:36] Speaker B: Yeah, I guess you're right. And I think if you take that particular verse about the removal of the shame of. Of Israel, you know, of Israel, you know, one can use that theme and to see how it flows through the readings for the week. So, as you said, the shame could be just the experience of slavery in Egypt. It can also be the. The rebellion along the way in the wilderness, maybe renunciation of Egyptian goddesses or gods. Sorry, an inferior form of circumcision. All of this is now removed by. By the. By this. The circumcision. But I think a word about the Passover, since we've talked, said a fair bit about circumcision. The. The Passover. The. The commemoration of the Passover also is. Is kind of like the bookend, because they left Egypt after celebrating the Passover. They arrive now, and the first thing they do is, you know, after the circumcision is celebrate. Celebrate the Passover as well. So, you know, so there it is, you know, they are being delivered, the memory of deliverance from oppression and slavery. And here it is a renewal of their new identity as a freed. Freed people, liberated and redeemed, you know, so. And all of this is possible because of the intervention and the acts of God, who is. Who is mighty liberator and on whom. [00:15:13] Speaker A: They and we are dependent. [00:15:14] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:15:15] Speaker A: Yeah. Are we ready? Shall we move on to Psalm 32, Monica? [00:15:19] Speaker B: Okay. [00:15:20] Speaker A: Oh, we're not. [00:15:20] Speaker B: Oh, no, we are. [00:15:22] Speaker A: I'm just looking at the clock. [00:15:23] Speaker B: Yeah, sure. [00:15:25] Speaker A: So this is a call to confession, and I understand one of the penitential psalms. [00:15:30] Speaker B: Yes. [00:15:31] Speaker A: Of how many of them are they? [00:15:35] Speaker B: Six or. [00:15:36] Speaker A: Six or. I was gonna say half a dozen. [00:15:37] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:15:38] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:15:38] Speaker B: So, yeah. You read it as a, as a penitential psalm. And that's, that is fine for me. Even before I try to identify the, the genre, one thing that struck me was, was how the psalm begins. And so in the first two verses of the psalm you have the, the psalmist is using four different words or nouns to talk about sin. Okay. There are four different terms in Hebrew that are used. And here, you know, in the. Depending on. I don't know which translation you would use, but you will find the word transgression, sin, iniquity, deceit. Okay. And so I think we need to unpack what, what, what is the distinction between. So it is not a generic form of sin, but just there are different kinds or different. So in the Hebrew there are different types of sin. And so here the psalmist is using those, those you know, or four types of sin. So, so transgression. The first one, as I said is, is transgression, which is basically rebellion, rebellion against, against authorities, against family, like children rebelling against parents, against God. The second is S here hata, meaning to miss the target. So, so and the third one is iniquity, which is being crooked and twisted and choked. So and, and deceit, which is treachery. Yeah. So in, so in response to all these four types of wrongdoing, the psalmist is asking for forgiveness. [00:17:23] Speaker A: And to my mind, that's a fairly comprehensive list of the things we might go astray with. [00:17:30] Speaker B: Yes, that is true. And in a way, you know the psalm also the opening verse of the psalm, Happy is the one or blessed is the one. You know, and I guess, you know, the word is indicative of the fact that what is it that makes us a blessed community? What is it that will make us happy? So you know, there is a movie called the Pursuit of Happiness, right? [00:18:00] Speaker A: I haven't seen it. [00:18:01] Speaker B: Okay. Anyway, so, so, so in a way here the psalmist is saying this is how you achieve some sort of happiness or this is how you might achieve a blessing from God. And so the first two verses are about, about the types of sin. And then, and verses three to five talk about what, what the, what sin. [00:18:25] Speaker A: Does to your body, which I found incredibly evocative. And you know, that is just my body wasted away. There's groaning day and night. I mean, there's a never endingness to it. [00:18:36] Speaker B: And that verse four, you know, where I kept all that is myself. My bones ached so your hand was heavy upon me. I mean, I think we have all experienced that not because of sin always, but when we are worried and tense. [00:18:51] Speaker A: Well, and when we keep silent, I mean, yes, we need silence, but the holding to oneself only of distress or sorrow or self doubt or confession eats away at one. [00:19:09] Speaker B: And so actually there in these, in those three to five, there is an invitation to confess, to speak out, to let it go, you know. And then in verses 6 to 11, the Psalmist is talking about how we should. How we should live. Yeah. [00:19:30] Speaker A: And there are echoes for Israel here in the Exodus, with the rush of the mighty waters, you know, not reaching. You know, if you confess and you are open to God in your time of distress, you won't be engulfed. [00:19:46] Speaker B: And so you see that there are some instructions being given here about how you. How you might achieve or experience this happiness or blessedness. So confession. Yes. And this is what you need to do to, To. To experience happiness. And then the psalm ends with, With. With repentance as well. [00:20:09] Speaker A: Do not be like a horse or a mule without understanding. His temper must be curbed with bit and bridle. It's also quite, Quite a funny one, I guess. [00:20:18] Speaker B: My. [00:20:19] Speaker A: And this is a linguistic thing around the word happy. I feel like it's a very overly diluted translation of what the Hebrew word there needs to evoke. Happiness is kind of a fleeting. I mean, blessedness or joy or contentment. So I don't know if it's a personal aversion I have or whether others would share it, that happiness is insufficiently evocative and deep for me as a word in English to describe the reality that is being invited into when you confess, when you are open with God and one another. [00:20:56] Speaker B: Yeah, I guess one can. One needs to unpack what that word actually means. You know, I'm thinking of happy feet and the song I am Happy. So it is a word that we throw around a lot. Yes, that's true. And it needs to be unpacked because it is not. It is quite frequently used. There are several psalms that, you know, use the word happy. Yeah, happy. And. And I'm thinking whether. I don't know. I. I didn't check whether the Beatitudes, you know, happy is the one. [00:21:30] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:21:30] Speaker B: You know, so. Or blessed is the one there too. [00:21:34] Speaker A: Well, I know there's been conversation over the centuries around whether that should be happiness or blessedness. In English, it's. It's conf. I would go with blessedness because there's a lot more depth to that person. [00:21:49] Speaker B: That's an appropriate translation as well. Yeah, yeah. But what do we mean by blessedness then? [00:21:56] Speaker A: Well, I don't know whether you want me to answer that's rhetorical. But there's something here about honesty at the heart of everything with God and not hiding that which one that one feels shame about. And a posture. And in Lent, you know, we're invited afresh into this posture to recognize our dependence upon God and that we have that we can't. I mean, to put it glibly, we can't save ourselves so that we are in deep relationship. We might wish to deny we are children of God, but we are. And that's the good news. Flat truth. And I think blessedness is a tussle into the re. Recognition of that. And then the rejoicing that we see in the prodigal in the Gospel is our. And the feast at the pass, you know, is our invitation and our joy when we accept that invitation in those moments that we do. [00:22:55] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think what links also Psalm 32 with the Joshua reading is this is. Is the. Is the person who will enable you to experience that blessing or experience happiness, you know, is God. And so there's a recognition of what God has done for. For them through their wandering and what God will do through those rituals. And here there's. There is an invitation to. To consider how much better your life would be if you let go and allow your. Yourself to be under the care of. Of God. Yeah. [00:23:32] Speaker A: Which leads us into the Gospel of Luke, chapter. What are we? [00:23:39] Speaker B: 15? [00:23:40] Speaker A: 15. [00:23:40] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:23:48] Speaker A: So here we have a super familiar story to all of us which should invite every preacher to reinvestigate it even harder so that we don't domesticate it too much. But moving, continuing on that theme of rejoicing and joy that we finished just earlier, that is a key feature of this story, but it is one that causes huge offense to the older son. And why, what is that offence? The offence is. Well, we have a set idea of how the world works and that there's a quid pro quo to everything and we do a certain thing and we are therefore owed another thing. And if you think about even our gift culture in the west, anyway, from my experience, we give gifts at Christmas and birthday and at other times. But I myself have felt the shame and stress when someone presents me with a gift and I haven't. Like, I had no idea they were gonna bring me a Christmas gift and I don't have one, you know, and that how. Actually that thinking that I do and others do is not treating that thing that I was. That I've been given as a gift, but as some sort of token of exchange that I need to make good with my own. And so even our gift giving is not really as free and graceful filled as it should be. And indeed, as this story tells us, as God actually operates. [00:25:24] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. For me the parable, you know, is quite, is fascinating and reminds me of all the lovely movies we have produced by Hollywood. You know, Finding Nemo, Happy Feet, all of these where the father goes looking for, for the son. But at the same time, you know, the parable. And the parable, yes, often is read in, in conjunction with the other two stories in the same chapter, the Lost Coin and the Lost Sheep. And so in a way the theme of being lost and being found is, you know, is something that links all these three narratives. [00:26:04] Speaker A: Yeah. And that God should go after what we might consider to be the smallest thing that could be overlooked, you know, but no God will doggedly go after this lost. Yeah. [00:26:14] Speaker B: So. So here you have a story of the younger son wanting a share of his wealth so he can leave home. So just want to say, I will say it for whoever, for whoever might want to hear this. And that is, yes, it's a wealthy family that had, and the father had wealth to give, you know, to, to, to his children and he asks for the wealth even before the father has died. And you had something to say? [00:26:44] Speaker A: Oh, well, only, I mean we've psychologised this reading over the centuries a lot and then that's not enough for me anymore, if it ever were. And a question of whether the much punchier themes of death and resurrection as well as sin and forgiveness are going on here. Because to ask for an inheritance means you're effectively metaphorically seeing dead the person already. And then the death is referred to again by the father in verse 24, who took the son to be dead himself when he went off into the far country. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again. So I think it's hinting at the massive disruption that resurrection or forgiveness actually is to our normal course of events. And you know, as I've said, we have a rule and order of how the world works and ideas of justice and judgment and we need those and they help our society run effectively some of the time, but they get us tied up in knots of self righteousness as well. And you know, God here is rejoicing at God's at the mercy, that actually that is open to us. [00:28:00] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's true. And it is, you know, for me, I think another thing that really strikes me is that when the younger son articulated his, his desire to leave Home and take his wealth with his share of the wealth with him. The older son, of course, reacts negatively. He's upset. So I just wonder what the relationship was like between the brothers as to what the older brother was upset that the younger one was leaving home. In some ways, it's like Martha complaining about Mary. I. I don't know. [00:28:42] Speaker A: Well, I don't know. I mean, preachers will read it differently depending on the birth order. I will own up to being firstborn. [00:28:48] Speaker B: Yes. And. And, you know, and there has been research done in. In South Asia about the oldest. The old. The oldest daughter syndrome, which is basically where they take responsibility for the family and, and. And watch the younger ones squandering the wealth of the home and. Yeah. Yeah. Something similar, I think. [00:29:07] Speaker A: So there's huge challenge. Yeah. To that if, if we're reading this theologically. [00:29:12] Speaker B: What. Yeah, I also noticed the absence of the. Of the mother. [00:29:17] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:29:17] Speaker B: In, in the story and whether how the mother would have responded. Maybe there is no mother in the story, but if there was a mother, how would she have responded? Would she have negotiated, you know, between the. Between the children and brought about a different outcome? [00:29:36] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a good question. I mean, women have been quite absent from our readings today. [00:29:41] Speaker B: Yes, that's true. Yes. Yes. Because they cannot be circumcised. [00:29:45] Speaker A: No. [00:29:45] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, they can. [00:29:47] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:29:49] Speaker B: Yeah. And. And, and so here he goes out and he. He ends up eating with the pigs. [00:29:57] Speaker A: That is very offensive. [00:30:00] Speaker B: Okay. [00:30:00] Speaker A: I would assume. [00:30:01] Speaker B: Okay. [00:30:02] Speaker A: For people reading this. [00:30:03] Speaker B: Yeah. He ends up with the pigs. And, and the only food he has to eat is what the pigs are eating. And, and so what. What is. Is it his bodily needs now that suddenly allowed him to appreciate what he has left? [00:30:22] Speaker A: Presumably. But also his. His perhaps cut off. He's cut off from community, from his people and from context in that way. [00:30:30] Speaker B: Yeah. I'm also hoping. I'm also hoping that. And here I'm using my imagination that this young man in the city now, without. Without money, without a home, you know, suddenly not only realizes what he has missed in his father's, but. But maybe has noticed how the world operates. You know, how did he lose all his money? Did he gamble? Gamble it away? Was he robbed? Was he. Did he make some bad investments? You know, I guess I'd like to imagine that he experienced something that not only led to an appreciation of what he has left at home, but maybe also has become. Become more aware of what. Of the structures of society and. Yeah. [00:31:24] Speaker A: Yeah. I'm thinking two things. Just before we wrap up. And one is. And I often bring this up that people need to look up if they're interested, of course, Ben Meyer's 10 Rules for Preaching Parables, they're fantastic. They include, don't assume that God is necessarily one of the characters in the Bible. Don't assume that the parable is trying to tell you how to improve your life. If you preach it without mentioning the kingdom of God, you're probably doing it wrong, et cetera, et cetera. But also thinking about allegorizing these, which, you know, one can do and ask perhaps, is Israel the older son or the younger son? Like Israel is the older son and the Gentiles are the younger son. So is this a story about. I don't know. I'm not saying that it is, but that's. These are the big questions that we can ask of this passage. But I do invite people, if they're interested, to go and have a look at those rules, too. Provoke, questioning, and to. He does finish off by saying, finally, if you've preached a lousy sermon, just remember, as long as the parable was read aloud before you started, it won't have all been lost. [00:32:21] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. And my. I think I would like to add to what Ben Meyer says and that that is, you know, who look for the absent figures in the parable. You know, so we talked about the mother, but, you know, there are. There's a mention made of, of the, Of. Of the prostitutes or, you know, what kind of circumstances would have led these women to do what they're doing. And so I once read a very, very provocative article which says, you know, who is there to speak for these. For these women? Okay, here's the father who accepts the son when he comes back, but who is there to receive these women if they want to go? [00:33:04] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:33:05] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:33:05] Speaker A: That's a good. [00:33:06] Speaker B: Well, yeah. [00:33:06] Speaker A: We've come to the end of our time. Thank you, Monica. [00:33:09] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:33:13] Speaker A: By the well is brought to you by Pilgrim Theological College and the Uniting Church in Australia. It's produced by Adrian Jackson. Thanks for listening.