{"id":9836,"date":"2021-02-07T19:49:30","date_gmt":"2021-02-07T19:49:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theologie.whp.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/?p=9836"},"modified":"2022-10-27T09:04:30","modified_gmt":"2022-10-27T07:04:30","slug":"psalm-11-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/psalm-11-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Psalm 1,1-2"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Is God Fair?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hear the Word of the Lord:<\/p>\n

„Blessed is the man who does not walk in the council of the wicked,
\nor stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers. But his
\ndelight is in the Law of the Lord and on his law he meditates day and
\nnight.“ Psalm 1, verses 1 and 2.<\/p>\n

Now the tax collectors and „sinners“ were all gathering around
\nto hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, „This
\nman not only hosts sinners but he also has fellowship with them.“<\/p>\n

So Jesus told a story to explain what he was doing.<\/p>\n

Well, who of us hasn’t wanted to sow a few wild oats? Who of us hasn’t
\nsown at least some wild oats? You, say it was just a little? No? OK,
\nit was a lot of wild oats. Some of you have done that. Some of you may
\nbe doing that at full blast today, even though you’re here today.<\/p>\n

Some participated in the free sex of the ’60ties, ’70ties, or whenever.
\nWe drank ourselves silly, experienced all the highs we could get from
\nwhatever came along. We spent all the money we had to give us the appearance
\nof being with it–so we would look good, look „in.“ We were
\nthere with the“in“ people of that day, or week. We didn’t give
\na hot-damn about anything, any authority, or what anyone thought. Sowing
\nwild oats–we thought that was fun, fun, fun!<\/p>\n

Of course, it is a little difficult to tell your son, worse, your daughter
\njust how many persons you slept with or what substance we ingested or
\nwhat you want them to do. After all, it just a bit difficult to say: „Do
\nwhat I say; not what I did.“<\/p>\n

But you’re here today. Here in the Father’s house. Home again. And all
\nof that simply doesn’t matter it seems. Accepted, loved, cared for, perhaps
\nsought after by some for advice and help, responsible, a family person.
\nIsn’t the Father’s house great? Imagine (and who doesn’t remember what
\nyou have done?), imagine that Someone wants you, still sees something
\ngood in you (you don’t know what), accepts you without blame, without
\nreprisal, without making amends, without explanations, without excuses–just
\nloved, just wanted back. Home in the family again.<\/p>\n

It’s even better than that! You get embraced despite the fact that you’ve
\nbeen with the pigs. You get new clothes, that cover all the needle marks,
\nthe scars, the signs of deprivation you’ve done to yourself. You get
\nriches, although you’ve wasted so much on nothing (now you know that,
\nof course). You get riches that will never go away. And the food! The
\nbest food in all the world. A festival every week of bread and wine (don’t
\never make fun of bread, if you’ve never been hungry). And people who
\nlove you, don’t ask about your past, don’t think you’re anything but
\nacceptable.<\/p>\n

Why does this happen? Because the Father, well, the Father gave this
\nson his life to begin with. A Father, at least this Father, would not
\nwant any of his children ever to be lost, to die, to be gone. He gave
\nhim life and he will restore him to full rights in the family when the
\nSon wants to be back in the family.<\/p>\n

All that is possible because of the Oldest Son, the One not mentioned
\nin Jesus‘ story. He is the One who got it from the Father. He was lashed
\nand beaten, and spit on. The Father took all his anger, his indignation,
\nhis sense of justice out on this Oldest Son of all. The Father finally
\nlet him hang out there, despised, rejected, alone. Now loathed by the
\nFather. He tore the life from that Oldest of all sons. He handed it to
\nthose who had not a chance of ever really living. He took all the right
\nstuff that belonged to this Oldest and gave it to the beggars to cover
\ntheir sin and shame. He literally gave that renegade son everything the
\nOldest had, and now calls these returned prodigals his sons, his daughter,
\nhis family, his holy ones, the church.<\/p>\n

I know this story is hard to hear by many of us. Were you ever a disgrace
\nto your parents? Oh, sure, a few minor things, but we didn’t shack up
\nwith whomever. We were loyal to the Father. We stayed in the church.
\nWe were here. We worked hard for all this.<\/p>\n

Now these upstarts, these new people who have given so little while
\nwe have given so much over the years want to take over. (Over my dead
\nbody!) Do they even have the faintest idea of how hard we’ve worked,
\nof how much we’ve sacrificed? They, with their music, their ideas, their
\nnew ways of wanting to do things, taking over. How dare they? What is
\nGod thinking about anyway? Why should we share anything with these new
\npeople? Why should we want new people? Let them go back to their life
\nwhich they thought was so great. Let them keep whoring around until they
\ndie of disease. Why should any of us ever want to be in the same room
\nwith these people who have done everything in their life to poke fun
\nat us, ridicule us, and tell others how old-fashioned and out of date
\nwe were?<\/p>\n

Have we ever gotten any recognition for what we’ve done? One extra blessing?
\nOne special embrace? They get what belongs to us. It’s ours.<\/p>\n

It is a haunting voice we hear, because we know it is true. „My
\nson, my daughter. You have always been here in this house with me and
\nall I have is yours. My life I gave to you, and my life is yours. But
\nshouldn’t we be glad, shouldn’t we celebrate, should we rejoice because
\na sinner comes to the light and is rescued from misery and hell. Shouldn’t
\nwe be glad that your brother, made of the same stuff I made you is alive
\nand we can see him again?“<\/p>\n

Is God fair?<\/p>\n

Surely the man is blessed who has not fallen into the ways of evil,
\ngone down a road which would lead to destruction, or felt close to those
\nwho look at religious folks as bubble heads.<\/p>\n

Surely the man is blessed who returns from the ways of evil, who has
\nbeen able to remember that God is good, all the time to all, who wants
\nlife, hope and peace, a future, a covering for sin, and a place where
\nthis is taught, preached, learned and practiced.<\/p>\n

Is God fair?<\/p>\n

God is not fair. Look at what he did to his Oldest Son? Call that fair?
\nNo, call that love for every single one of us here, and every one out
\nthere. And when you can understand how God could do that to his Oldest,
\nperhaps then you will understand how he loves and acts toward young and
\nold sons and daughters.<\/p>\n

Perhaps then you will know whether God is fair or not.<\/p>\n

Perhaps we have to go a long way before we get an answer to that. Amen.<\/p>\n

Walter W. Harms, retired pastor
\nAustin, Texas
\nComments? <\/strong>Waltpast@AOL.com<\/strong><\/a>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is God Fair? Hear the Word of the Lord: „Blessed is the man who does not walk in the council of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the Law of the Lord and on his law he meditates day and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8543,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,2,727,108,110,1086,109],"tags":[],"beitragende":[],"predigtform":[],"predigtreihe":[],"bibelstelle":[],"class_list":["post-9836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-psalmen","category-at","category-archiv","category-current","category-engl","category-kapitel-01-chapter-01-psalmen","category-predigten"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9836"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14415,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9836\/revisions\/14415"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9836"},{"taxonomy":"beitragende","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/beitragende?post=9836"},{"taxonomy":"predigtform","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtform?post=9836"},{"taxonomy":"predigtreihe","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtreihe?post=9836"},{"taxonomy":"bibelstelle","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bibelstelle?post=9836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}