Luke 23:42-43 "Paradise Pardon" (11-25-07)

With Thanksgiving still providing us a sense of rest and reflection, I remember that we are all a bunch of turkeys! There was a song I heard in my youth that went something like this: “If God can love TURKEYS, God can love you; you are a TURKEY, but I am one too; So if you're lonely; or if you're blue; just remember friend, if God can love TURKEYS, God can Love You!”[1]

We are all turkeys looking to Jesus to forgive and pardon us from the wages of our sins. Like any other turkey, we need to be pardoned. Her name was May, and she was pardoned on Tuesday, for the 2007 Thanksgiving Turkey Festivities in the Rose Garden by President Bush. He was then flew first class on United Airlines to Disney World in Orlando, where he was served, I mean he served as the grand marshal of “Disney’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.” After the parade, you can visit the bird in the backyard of Mickey’s Country House in Magic Kingdom Park; joining the parks permanent animal collection or zoo. In the past two years, the turkeys have gone to Disneyland![2] For eighteen years prior to that, the pardoned turkeys went to live out the rest of their lives at Frying Pan Park in Fairfax County, Virginia since 1988 to live in a safe place never threatened with having their heads chopped off.

But I like the idea of being sent to Disney World. What a great place for a turkey to go and live in this park; this garden like kingdom for pardoned turkeys! This is definitely a paradise!

WHAT IS PARADISE FOR YOU? What would paradise look like for you when you are pardoned? Your debts are canceled and you no longer have anything held against you. What is paradise for you in this day and age?

Paradise is a word which has a rich history in Greek and the Old Persian Empire. It was also has a Hebrew connection when they lived in Babylon in exile (modern day Iraq) when the word paradise referred to a walled garden that a king would build for rest and relaxation. The king would then take walks in it, ah paradise. If you were invited, you would go and walk in this beautiful garden, called a paradise! This was a large estate backyard garden that would be a blissful place of rest! The good life is what that sounds like! There is nothing like having a big backyard. We all are in the business of building our own little garden like paradise! If a king would build this walled paradise, like the European gardens such as Versailles in France, perhaps we too are in the paradise building. We have our own little yards with plants and we have our little fences and patios that we build or live in. We go out to the yard or garden to experience a bit of paradise in the midst of such a chaotic and hectic life. There is some paradise maintenance going on right now, mostly leaf picking up and perhaps bedding down the gardens for winter. We will wait now for spring and the flowers to bloom and the garden to come alive… out little paradise on earth.

But the end of paradise building and maintenance does come and we will return to the earth and our bodies will return to the soil of a different garden.

As the church calendar comes to an end, we hope for a new beginning and a new start. We look forward to a new year and a new season. Yet the end is here for Jesus as he is on the cross for six hours to die for the sins of the world in Luke, chapter 23. The end of his life, which was no paradise compared to the eternal paradise he left and will return to through the cross, in coming to an end!

Yet there are those who had a different understanding of how a KING would create a paradise on earth! They mock Jesus, these different groups of paradise builder, which included the leaders[3], the Roman soldiers and one of the two criminals. Each group taunted Jesus to prove he is a King! Their comments are barbs tossed at Jesus in the form of mockery (v. 36), sneers (v. 35) and insults (v. 39). The sign above his head taunted his messianic identity and the disappointing paradise that never takes place, "King of the Jews”!

“Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom”, the thief on cross asked! Jesus pardoned this little thief, this dying turkey and said to him, “Today you will be with me in paradise.” Jesus would remember this thief, the only one who actually sees the KING! It wasn’t the disciples; his mother; his friends or his brothers who got it! The one who sees Jesus as a real Paradise Builder on the cross is the THIEF! His request was a last minute Hail Mary that was caught by Jesus, providing this man the final peace and rest to enter into eternity, into paradise!

We remember the kind of paradise our KING wants us to see when we look into the face of the starving child; neglected elderly; overworked parents; troubled youth; workaholic co-workers; crazy commuters; or homeless people; etc.

We celebrate that on this the last Sunday of the church calendar year, we see a paradise pardon of one who was forgiven the last minute of his life and given the chance to walk in that eternal garden. We are called to remember that if this day was our last day, God gives us the chance again to ask to be forgiven, something we are called to do daily! If you have never taken the chance to ask for God’s mercy, let it be today! Let it be today that you acknowledge that you are a turkey! Jesus will remember me and you and welcome us into that final paradise where all of us turkeys will gather and worship the God of grace and mercy!

Let us pray: Gracious God, we remember our faithlessness and we remember your goodness. You re-member us so that all the parts might be brought back together into a glorious paradise. Restore our broken hearts that we may praise your name always! Amen!

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[1] Salmond & Mulder (late 70's, early 80's) popular Canadian duo sang at several youth gatherings in USA; http://www.oldlutheran.com/news/postthanks05.html

[2] http://www.tampabays10.com/news/local/article.aspx?storyid=68084

[3]http://www.homileticsonline.com/subscriber/commentary_display.asp?installment_id=3092&item_id=42795