On Earth as in Heaven - Fourth Sunday in Lent
Author: Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
March 30, 2025
There’s a beautiful thread that runs through the gospel when we hear the whole set of Jesus’ teaching in response to the religious leaders. We can only it see when we hear the three “lost” stories together.
The leaders are grumbling because Jesus is hanging out with the wrong people. They’re also grumbling that Jesus isn’t just choosing them. Why is Jesus doing this? What a waste! To emphasize their division, they don’t even call Jesus or his dinner companions by name. Instead, it is “this man” and “those sinners.” When I lived in the city of Reading, whenever a crime was suspected and the individual was a Hispanic male in town, he would always be referred to as “City Man.” “City Man” did this, “City Man” stole that. As though there was one real bad dude named “City Man.” It was a subtle but effective way of keeping someone separate from the rest of us.
In the face of the grumbling in the gospel, Jesus tells three stories and the thread that runs through them is what the response is when what had been separated is restored. When the sheep is found- Rejoice!
Then Jesus says, “There will be joy in heaven over one sinner who repents and is returned.”
The thread continues with the lost coin being found. Rejoice!
Then Jesus says, “There is joy in the presence of God’s angels. All of heaven rejoicing with God over one sinner who repents and is returned.”
We don’t know why the sheep wandered or how the coin was scattered. We also don’t know exactly why anyone separated from God has wandered or was scattered. And yet God rejoices, and the angels rejoice.
Then we get to the son. When the son returns, we know exactly what he’s been up to or certainly enough, but the father exuberantly proclaims, “Let US celebrate!”
Jesus stitches together that thread from God to the angels to US. Let us celebrate on earth as it is in heaven. On earth as it is in heaven. We say that each week when we pray to OUR Father. Your kingdom come; your will be done. On earth as it is in heaven.
Easy enough when it is sheep and coins. So much trickier when it is humans.
One of the major themes in Luke is repentance. Please hear this both as someone needing to change but also that restoration is always possible. Not only that, but Luke also says that pursuing restoration and reconciliation is a priority even in spite of the presence of many others who are doing right and doing well.
In our world when we focus upon humans, we like labels. Pick your news and just look at how we talk about each other in this world. The lost sheep might be about THE LAZY SHEPHERD, the lost coin about THE IRRESPONSIBLE WOMAN. And of course, we have the SPOILED SON whose story is like something straight out of reality TV. Imagine the older son being interviewed, “Dad always played favorites. It’s not fair to just let him get away with this. Now he’s supposed to get more just because he said ‘Sorry?!’ That’s my share. Kick him out!” He’s not entirely wrong.
His hurt says, “This son of YOURS” is a waste.” But even as he tries to keep the distance, here is the father, saying, “He’s YOUR brother.” He’s yours too.
We could just keep the story there and keep a little distance for ourselves. The late Archbishop Oscar Romero once noted, “No one wants to have a sore spot touched. And a society with so many sore spots twitches when someone says, ‘You have to treat that.’”
So many of us these days are hurting and feeling estranged as people we thought we knew are saying and doing things that leave us confused and disillusioned. There is no denying that it is hard to walk back from hurting spaces and it is very easy to simply turn to sources that affirm our anger and pain but offer nothing more.
Everyone in the gospel needed stitched back together and so do we. If you tear fabric and then mend it, you can see two things- where there was damage and where there is something new and whole again. We see where we have been and what we can be. For us that stitching looks like a cross.
In today’s gospel we may see ourselves in any or all the characters at some point.
The father could probably reflect on how his actions or inactions had led to a brash and selfish son and a sullen and vengeful one.
Now there was a second chance to truly value them both. The younger son got to experience the true poverty of self-sufficiency and self-indulgence. Now a second chance to come back from isolation. The older son? This son is tempting to us because the feelings he voices are ones we want to say. It is so very tempting to just feed those feelings. He is intended to direct us to ponder any time we think someone is beyond redeeming or just a waste of time or resources. He like we can make a choice. Will we choose restoration or resentment?
As a lawyer, I represented a man who was just an angry drunk. Eventually his wife got a protective order, and a divorce ensued. Lots of folks would say he deserved it. For him it became a catalyst to get sober and start trying to show up for his kids the way he should. His ex-wife was furious. How dare he come back like this after everything he put them through? She simply could not celebrate that the very thing she prayed for finally happened. She had been the recipient of a lot of help and pity over the years (justifiably) when he made things a mess. So, she yelled “You can’t just take away my identity like that! Now who am I?”
Here's the tricky part. God loves us and wants to save us. But God wants to save us as a people, not in isolation. God is never going to stop searching, or returning, or restoring or celebrating any of God’s children even though we have an infinite capacity to get lost, to act out our worst emotions and try to separate and segregate each other because of the power sin has over us. And the pain it inflicts.
God wants to stitch us back together. And the thread runs from heaven to earth and back. Remember that the story began with why is Jesus doing this with them? What a waste! Until it is “me.” The challenge and the grace of the good news is that none of us humans are in charge of gatekeeping sinners. Not our job. Also, not our obstacle.
We have instead the blessing of receiving grace and the humbling and sometimes harrowing role of embodying forgiveness and love. And praying that we can see and celebrate others far quicker than we demonize.
Maybe today you’re sore from hurt by others. Maybe you know a sore spot you contributed to. Maybe you’re just tired of all the drama and want someone somewhere to make it stop.
Maybe it’s so easy to see the wrong in others. Maybe you really wanted to just hear “you’re right. Jesus loves you” and skip the hard stuff.
Oscar Romero was right- “we have to treat that.” This is why Jesus we need to stick around for Jesus to keep teaching us and this is why he gave his followers a prayer that prayed “on earth as in heaven.”
This is the spiritual first aid that puts us back together and helps us keep following Jesus’ lead in stitching the fabric of our world. The one thing we can always do is pray, so let’s pray the prayer Jesus gave us now:
Our Father who art in heaven
Hallowed be thy name,
Thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread
Forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory
forever and ever.
Amen.
May it be so.
Copyright Rev. Carolyn K. Hetrick, 2025 All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission.
Sermon Text: Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
1 Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to [Jesus.] 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
3 So he told them this parable: 11b “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’ So he divided his property between them. 13 A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. 14 When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. 16 He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. 17 But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! 18 I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven
and before you; 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.” ’ 20 So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. 21 Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; 24 for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.
25 “Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. 27 He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.’ 28 Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never
disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’ 31 Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’ ”
BACK