Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time C

November 3, 2013

Scripture readings for today can be found here.

Many of us struggle to imagine that God would just forgive sin, apart from some meaningful repentance.

After all, if God just forgave us, what would become of God's justice?

(Truth be told, I don't think this Gospel passage is about sin and forgiveness -- at least Luke doesn't use those terms -- but I think it nevertheless seems like a related and fair question.)

What if, however, God doesn't care as much about justice as we do?

That is, what if justice wasn't the primary category God uses all along?

Maybe justice is our way of tracking each other, our way of defining each other, of keeping count, of keeping score, of following who's in and who's out, who's up and who's down.

If this is so, if God's love regularly trumps God's justice -- and I believe Jesus dies precisely to show us that it is -- then we're operating with flawed categories.

God, Jesus, the whole biblical story, as it turns out, isn't primarily about justice ( give time for them to come up with one word which would describe for them what the whole biblical story really is about.

It’s all ablut relationship!

God's deep, abiding, tenacious desire to be in relationship with each and all of us.

Which, when you think about it, was pretty much what the Reformation was all about -- declaring that God is a lot more like a loving parent than a tyrannical monarch,

a lot more interested in relationship with us than righteous over us.

Luther's great insight into Romans, in fact, is that Paul's phrase "the righteousness of God" (Rom. 1:17) isn't the righteousness God expects from us and by which God judges us,

but rather is the righteousness God gives us freely and unconditionally in Christ,

so that we -- whether tax collector or teacher, cleric or homemaker -- can hear and believe that salvation has come to us through Christ.

So perhaps that's our task this week,: to proclaim that against all odds and expectations God “can” just forgive sin, and that God “can”  pronounce salvation apart from repentance.

Why? Because it's “God” who is doing it.

And because this God is determined, even desperate, to be in relationship with all of us so that, in turn, we might be in relationship with each other.

This may not be easy for many of us to hear.

We like our formulas because, truth be told, they give us a way to manage the illusion that maybe we're still in control,

at least a little bit;

that maybe God isn't quite so wildly free as the Bible portrays;

 that maybe there are rules we can know and follow and hold others accountable to.

All that disappears when God just forgives sin and pronounces blessing.

But maybe that's exactly why Jesus again shocks the crowds and disciples alike by seeking out this rich tax collector, honoring him, affirming him, naming him a child of God and declaring that, indeed, salvation has come this very day to his household.

Maybe it's to remind us that we never were in control in the first place.

Which, while hard to take, proves in the long run to be a good thing as God's mercy so greatly exceeds either our need or our expectations.