Episode 123147: 3/1/26 Autobiography: Title

I hope today's homily inspires and motivates you, and I also hope that it leaves you hungry

for the one who gave everything to feed you.

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up at ascensionpress.com/sunday, or by texting Sunday 2-3-3-7-7-7-7. You can also follow or subscribe on your podcast app for weekly notifications. God bless. The Lord be with you. A reading from the Holy Gospel, according to Matthew.

Chapter 17 verses one through nine. Jesus took Peter, James and his brother John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves, and he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, conversing with them.

Then Peter said to Jesus and reply, "Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I'll make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah." While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud cast a shadow over them, and then from the cloud came a voice that said, "This is my beloved son. With whom I am well pleased, listen to him."

When the disciples heard this, they fell prostrate, and were very much afraid. But Jesus came and touched them saying, "Rise, and do not be afraid." And when the disciples raised their eyes, they saw no one else, but Jesus alone. As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, do not tell the vision to anyone until the son of man has been raised from the dead.

The Gospel looked the Lord. Praise to you, Lord, Jesus Christ. May you have a seat. So last week we started our Lenton series, a Lenton series called autobiography.

“The reason we did this is because the reality, of course, is that every life is a story.”

Every person is an author, and the only question is, "Who will you and I become at the end of the story?" That's the theme as we're doing after this whole Lenton, for all of pray 40. As we're following these stories, the story of the prodigal son, the story of the brother of the car. The story of Scripture, we recognize this, we recognize that every person, every life is a story, every person is an author.

The question is, "Who will you be at the end of the story?" The question is, "What does it, who will you become?" And so last week we talked about the fact that every story has a beginning, that there's this moment when we have to choose to act, if they choose to move, we have to choose to write, and we can either write a part from God.

Sometimes that's our choice, right? I want to do this on my own. I want to be happy apart from God, which every sin has its root, or we can let God be our co-author. But not just only this every story of the beginning, this we're going to talk about this fact that every story has a title.

Every story has a title, and what does the title do? The title summarizes the theme that runs throughout your tire story. So you're thinking about your autobiography. What would the title be? What would be the theme that you would say? This is the lens through which I understand all the circumstances of my life,

because that's what the title is, right? The title is the summary of this speech that's going through our minds.

It's going through our hearts that basically is the filter.

It's the perspective from which if you say, "Here's someone else." If you want to know who I am, you want to know my story. If you want to understand who I am, you want to understand my story. This is the lens. This is the speech that runs through my mind. This is the title that names my story, names my autobiography.

“Two couple years ago, I don't remember that two years ago, in fact, during length.”

During the same season, during the same series, during pray 40. We followed the story of a man named Father Walter Chiseck. Father Walter Chiseck was, I think, born in Pennsylvania in 1904, immigrant parents. And he became a priest. And in this man was driven, if you remember his story, he's just driven.

He wanted to bring the gospel to the world, particularly he wanted to bring the gospel to Russia. That was under the communist oppression at the time. So he essentially, long story short, became a priest. To Europe was in Poland, Poland gets invaded by Russia. He's now in Russia. Immediately almost, almost immediately, he was taken prisoner.

He was being a Vatican spy. He was imprisoned in solitary confinement for over one year. He was tortured, physically, tortured mentally.

Finally, after a year, he broke, I mean, broke spiritually.

He broke mentally. And then he was sent to the Gulags for almost two decades. And in all of this time, you can imagine that the story, the speech going through his head is, God, I chose all these things for you, and what do you give me? You can imagine the speech going through Father Walter Chiseck's head is, I try and I fail.

You imagine the speech going through Father Walter Chiseck's head is, "God doesn't care." But that's not the speech going through his mind, that's not the title of his book.

that even though he was stripped of so many things, he never lost his trust in God's love for him.

And one of the lines that just struck me two years ago, and I've been trying to carry it in my heart for the last two years. He said this, he said, "There will be a tomorrow, and we have to live in it." And God will be there as well. That even in all these devastation, what could have made him bitter, what could have brought up resentment in his heart, the title of Father Walter Chiseck's book, his spiritual autobiography, wasn't bitterness, wasn't resentment.

The title of his book was, "He leadeth me."

“That's how he saw, he's like, "You want the perspective of the lens to which I interpret everything that happens to me."”

The lens is, "He leads me." That speech is, there will be a tomorrow, and we have to live in it, and God will be there as well. Because there's a speech that lives inside every one of us. I mean, the reality, of course, is this, there's a speech that's in every one of us,

and that speech can become the title of our autobiography.

That speech is that title is how we see ourselves, it's how we see others, it's how we see God. And so, that's part of the one story we're following all throughout length, Luke chapter 15, the parable of the particle Sun. So, I don't know if you know this, the context for the parable of the particle Sun starts out with Luke 15. And Luke 15, it says this, it says, "The tax collectors and sinners are all drawing near to listen to Jesus." But the scribes and Pharisees began to complain saying, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them."

So, this is the context for why Jesus even tells us parable. Tax collectors and sinners are all drawing near to listen to Jesus. The scribes and Pharisees are upset about this. So, here's the context, the context is, Jesus is spending time with the bad kids. And the good kids are upset.

Like Jesus is spending time with the kids who are smoking behind the school under the bleachers. And the church kids, they're really upset that Jesus wants to spend time with these people. And so, it says this, it says, "So, to them, he addressed this parable." So, those people who were like, "Okay, they're failures." They've been, they've repeled against God, the tax collectors, sinners.

They regret what they've done. But, also, Jesus is speaking to the scribes and Pharisees. He's also speaking to the church kids. He's also speaking to those who, like, "No, they did everything right." So, again, he says, "So, to them, he addressed this parable to who to both groups of people." This is very important for us, because why? Because both groups of people have a speech living inside of them.

Both groups of people have a title to the autobiography.

“And the first group, the group of tax collectors and sinners, they're like the younger son, right?”

Remember the story of the younger son? We talked about it a little bit last week. The younger son goes to his father and says, "Father, give me this share of your estate that should come to me." His father gives it to him. He takes it and he leaves. And Jesus says, "And what's he do? He squanders it on a life of dissipation." Just waste it, waste the gift his father gave him. He just absolutely waste it.

And he says, "This, when he spent everything he had freely, a severe famine struck that place and he found himself in dire need." The only job he could get was to attend this swine. Again, as a Jewish person, it's pretty low. And then he remembered his father's goodness, but this last week, he remembered it. How many of my father's higher workers have more than enough food to eat, here I am dying of hunger. And then he said, "I'll get up, I'll go to my father and I'll say to my father, this is his speech.

I'll get up, I'll go to my father and I'll say to my father, "Father, I've sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son, treat me as you would treat one of your hired servants." That's his speech. His speech is, "I no longer deserve to be called your son, I'll be your slave." You can imagine if he gets up and he heads off to his father's house, this is the speech he's rehearsing it again. And again, it's the line, it's the words, it's the belief that's running through his mind.

"I no longer deserve to be called your son, I'm only a slave." Imagine, over and over again, this temptation of this speech to become his title. "I no longer deserve this, I'm no longer a son." Maybe his title would be "Fatherless." Maybe his title would be "I'm just a disappointment."

Maybe his title would be disqualified. Remember, Jesus speaking to all those people who had rebuilt, they had said, "I don't want to write a story with God as my co-author." They'd all said, "I want to be happy, but I want to be happy apart from God." And I mentioned a lot of those tax collectors and sinners now, they regret it.

And they're in pain. You just like that younger son, they're alone. And they're like, "This is my speech. This is the title of my story." Disappointment.

Disqualified. Fatherless.

“And I think this is interesting because it says, well, the someone still a long way off.”

His father spotted him. And ran to his son. This is so important. He runs to his son.

And it says, falling on his neck, basically embracing him with this incredible embrace,

He says, "Get the finest rope put it on him.

Put it on him. Put it on his finger. Sandalon is feet." This slatter of the fatten calf. Let's rejoice and celebrate.

“And he says these words, "Because this son of mine was dead.”

And has come to life again." He was lost and has been found. This is the key. The title of the younger sons. The speech going the younger sons' mind is, "I no longer deserve to be called a son."

The speech is, "Treat me as a slave." The title is, "I'm fatherless." The title is, "I'm disqualified." What's the father's say? He says, "No, you're claimed."

His father says, "This is my son. He says, "No, you're claimed." His father says, "This son of mine was dead, and now he's alive." He was lost and he's found. The father does this.

The father steps into the sons' speech. And he rewrites the speech. And he rewrites the title.

A couple years ago, he was able to meet this amazing woman.

Her name was Immaculate Ilibegiza. And Immaculate story is one of just devastation. She's from Rwanda in 1994. She was visiting back her home village from east to break. When the two kind of tribes in Rwanda or Hutus and Tutsis at one point,

McLeod is a Hutu and the Tutsis rose up. And basically, it was this thing across the entire country for 91 days. Almost 100 days, the Tutsis just slaughtered their neighbors. The neighbor, the neighbor, the neighbor and the Tutsis went from house to house, killing their neighbors with shovels and pickaxes and machetes and their bare hands and rocks.

Immaculate, she fled to this Lutheran pastor's house. And she was Lutheran pastor. Hit her and seven other women in a three-foot by four-foot bathroom. Where they couldn't even lie down, they just had to stand there. They could kind of squat at times and they could took turns doing this.

For 91 days, they had to be absolutely quiet. Eight women in a three-foot by four-foot bathroom. Meanwhile, these Tutsis are outside looking for her, looking for the other seven women. They come to Lutheran pastor's house. They think that they're going to get exposed this whole time.

All Immaculate could do. We should all she could do was pray the rose. We pray the rose again and again and again. All she even said that she even said, "I can't pray the other father."

“Because if you have to say, "Father, forgive us our trespasses."”

As we forgive those who trespass against us, she said, "I got to that line." And she was like, "No, I will not forgive them." So I can't pray this prayer until somewhere in those 91 days. She allowed the father to speak to her, over her, about her. She experienced the father's forgiveness.

She experienced the father's love in her own life. And so that she could say, "Okay, Father, forgive us our trespasses." As we forgive those who trespass against us, she escaped. When she escaped, she discovered that virtually her entire family had been killed by their neighbors. Once again, you can imagine that her speech in her mind,

that her title of her story would be brokenness. The title of her story would be orphaned. The title of her story would be devastation. The title of her story is literally the title of her autobiography is left to tell. And it's not just the story of violence and brutality.

The story that says this, "I'm here. I've been left to tell the power of forgiveness." She's basically looking herself and saying, "No, I've been left to tell the power of God's mercy." "I've been every one of my family members is killed.

“I'm left to tell that new life is possible."”

Because when you're claimed, new life is possible. For the younger son, for that group of tax lectures and sinners, Jesus is speaking in there and saying, "No, this speech going through your mind does not have to become the title of your story." But remember, he's also talking to the scribes and Pharisees.

He's also talking to the church because he's also talking to the good kids because here's the thing.

It's one thing to rebel and regret it. It's another thing to resist. He's just loving the father's love and resent him for it. Because that's the story, the older son. The story of the older son is what it says.

It says, "Now, the older son is not working in the field." And he comes back to the house and he hears sound of music and dancing. And so what does he do? He goes to one of his servants and inquires what this might mean. And the servant says, "Your brother is back."

And then it says, "When he refused to go in, because here's the older son."

“He says, "Wait a second. I'm not going to go in there.”

When he refused to go in, his father comes out and pleaded with him." And the older son says to his father, "Look, all these years I have saved for you." And now, once did he disobey one of your orders. But when this son of yours comes back, who has swallowed it for property with prostitutes, for him you slaughtered the fat and calf.

See, this is the remarkable thing about the older son, about the good kids and church kids. This is one of the, one of the most deadly thing that can happen in the heart of the church kid. One of the most deadly thing that happened in the heart of someone who says, "No, actually I'm trying." One of the most deadly things that can happen in the heart of someone who's trying to be good is resentment. You see, other people who are rebellious and they're not disqualified.

Other people who have turned away from the Lord and they're being pursued. Other people who have done the wrong thing and they're still loved. They're not only loved, they're restored, not only that, they're celebrated. And here you go, look at yourself and say, "I've never rebelled."

But the reality is, the older son, he could say, "I've never rebelled."

But it looks like he wanted the exact same thing as the younger brother. The younger brother, what did he want? He wanted a life apart from the father. The older son, he also wanted a life apart from the father. You realize this, it's possible to stay at home and remain lost. This is every one of us, it's possible.

I dead, there's no outward rebellion.

“I was there's no leaving, but it's possible to stay home and remain lost.”

You can realize, you see all these hints, the Jesus is telling the story. Write the script and the Pharisees. They are resenting the fact that they did everything right. But they're not being celebrated. This resentment is so clear in the older son.

I mean, think about this, he comes in, here's a party. Doesn't walk into the party and say, "What's going on, you guys?" He doesn't even go to the father and ask him, "He goes to one of the servants." Why? Because he identifies more as a servant than as a son. He hears about his brother being alive.

He hears about his father celebrating. He hears that the younger son comes back. Because he remembers his father's love. The older son hears about his father's love and resents it. So I'm going to come out and please with him.

He refuses to go in. And what his speech is, just like the younger son, the speech of the younger son, is, "I no longer deserve to be called your son. The speech of the older son is, "Look, all these years I have saved for you."

“Number one, today there's a bay, one of your orders.”

The line going through his mind, the speech going through his mind, all these years, nothing more than a slave.

But he goes on and he says, "And never did you even give me a kid

to feast down with my friends." This reveals the older son's heart. He doesn't say, "Never once did you celebrate a feast with me?" Because he doesn't want to celebrate a feast with his father. He wants to, can you give me a kid, so I can go off on my own as well.

I want to celebrate with my friends. I don't want to celebrate with you. Here is the resentment of the older son. And this is the lie that the speech has gone and the mind of every good kid.

My value lies in not being a problem. My worth lies in the fact that I'm not a problem. As you may have said before, I'm the fourth of six kids. I love the fact that I'm not the first. I'm grateful for the way that my older siblings pave the way for me.

Like, I just, I don't understand many times in my life. I was like, "Wow, I'm really glad. I would have to do. I looked at my older sisters, old my older brother." And I was like, "Okay, just don't do that.

I saw that making all these dumb mistakes." Like, "Oh, life is easy. Just see what they're doing and do something else." Like, see what they're doing. See how they're messing up.

And just, it's really, really easy. Just don't do that. And I still maintain that that is wise. That is a wise way to live. But also, that could lead to a lie.

That could lead to resentment.

That could lead to the fact that wait a second.

They've done all these bad things. And my mom and dad still love them so much. My value lies in the fact that I'm not a problem. That to go bail them out of trouble. My value lies in the fact that they don't have to bail me out of trouble.

And that lie can give rise to resentment. And there are a few things more deadly than resentment. Why? Because resentment does this. Resetments slowly rewrites the story of what happened.

So that your wound becomes the lens to which you interpret everything. So we hear this speech over and over again. And what are the older sons say? Basically, I'm the victim hero. The older son says, "I'm the victim.

I'm the victim hero of my story. I've stayed. I've saved. I've never just obeyed." This is, and that's in father that's all you care about.

All you care about is the fact that I'm here.

Resetment is what happens to us when we let one chapter become the title of the whole book. There's something painful happens. And yes, it's real and it's painful. It deserves a paragraph. Maybe it deserves a chapter, but resentment turns it into this is my story.

And that just remembering what happened. I'm letting it narrate who I am. If you realize, of course, healthy autobiography would integrate the worst chapter that resentment canonizes it. Resetment turns a chapter into a monument. Again, resentment names the book after your wound.

A few years ago, Prince Harry wrote a memoir. You were the autobiography. And the title of his autobiography is named after his wound. He's named after a pain that is named after a speech that must have become his identity. It must have been the lens that which he understood himself.

The title of Prince Harry's book is "Spare." And I imagine the title that the speech running through his mind is this. He's basically as the second son to Prince Charles as the second son to Princess Diana. I'm the backup plan to the one who matters. On the second son, I don't matter.

So he named his book the title of his autobiography "Spare."

“If you want to understand who I am, that's the lens.”

On the backup plan to the one who matters. And that's the older son. And that's us. And that's the power of resentment.

Resetment, because rhythm is powerful.

But it doesn't have the power to move. Resetment has the power to paralyze. So what's the remedy? It's the last thing. What's the remedy? That if we've let our speech write our title.

What's the remedy? It's two things. One number one is tell your speech. Tell your speech to the father. Listen, both sons go to their father.

And they both give the father their speech. That's what we have to do as well. The younger son, I no longer deserve to be called your son. And his father says, "Quick, get a robe. My son is alive. He claims him."

“The older son, all these years I've slayed for you.”

And his father hears his speech. It says, "No. My son, your brother is alive." I mean, even just to listen, he says this, he says,

"My son, you're here with me always."

This isn't the father's voice. He says, "My son, he claims him." So you're here with me always. Because everything I have is yours. Yet now we must celebrate and rejoice because your son, our son, my son, is dead.

Now he's alive. He's lost and now he's found. Imagine that the older sons' speech was my value lies and not being a problem. That all you care about is my service. What he gets to hear is the father saying,

"Oh, I wasn't trying to burden you. I was trusting you." With all this work that we did together here on this farm, I wasn't trying to put a weight on you. I was including you.

And even when he says, "But we must rejoice." He doesn't mean like the generic we like all of us. He's like, "No, you and me." We have to rejoice, why? Because we're the only two who can welcome him back.

When Jesus is speaking to those groups of people, talking to the scribes and Pharisees, who resent the fact that God loves tax lectures and sinners. He's telling them, "Listen, you and I.

You've been good church kids. You've been doing this your whole life.

“That's why you and I have to be the ones to rejoice”

when those who have failed want to come home." I can the father says, "It wasn't trying to burden you. I was trusting you. That's the lens."

And that's the title. That's what happens in the Gospel today. Jesus goes up this high mountain. What happens? There's Moses and Elijah,

and then there's the father's voice.

That says, "Those powerful words, those words that claim him."

This is my beloved son, with whom I'm well-pleased. Why? Because all that's going to happen after this. Jesus is going to go to Jerusalem.

He'll be betrayed. He'll be denied. He'll be arrested. He'll be condemned. He'll be killed.

He'll be crucified. All of that. The father is saying, "I need you to see this through the lens of the fact that you're claimed." If resentment marks our speech,

then resentment writes our title.

We have to tell the father our speech,

and then silence. Listen to his voice.

And the father's voice is clear enough.

“And the father's voice is strong enough.”

To let you know and to let me know that we've been claimed. To tell him our honest speech, and then hear his true words,

words that are powerful enough

to undo resentment,

“and to rewrite the title of our autobiography.”

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