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Now all
the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen
to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and
saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them."
So he told them this parable.
There
was a man who had two sons. 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. A few days later the younger son gathered
all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there
he squandered his property in loose living. When he had
spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout
that country, and he began to be in need. 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. He would gladly
have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating;
and no one gave him anything. 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!
I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him,
`Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I
am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like
one of your hired hands."' 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. 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." 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. And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let
us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was lost and
is found!" And they began to celebrate.
(What
a beautiful ending! This is where I want to stop. However,
Jesus goes on...)
Now
his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached
the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of
the servants and asked what was going on. He replied, "Your
brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted
calf, because he has got him back safe and sound."
Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came
out and began to plead with him. 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. But when this son of yours
came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes,
you killed the fatted calf for him!" Then the father
said to him, "Son, you are always with me, and all
that I have is yours. 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." Luke 15:1-2, 11-32
Let us
pray: Take my lips and speak through them. Take our thoughts
and think through them. Take our hearts and set them on fire
with love for you. Unless you speak, nothing of significance
will be spoken. Bring us your word, Lord Jesus. Amen.
*
* * * *
The Parable
of the Prodigal Son. I am a little nervous because everyone
knows the story so well, and you might want to tune me out.
We are not here just to remind ourselves of the story another
time. We are here to see what God's Holy Spirit has to say
to us today, and how to respond to him. You see, I'm worried
that we have safely tucked the Prodigal away in our brains
as the story about conversion and mercy: in the return of
the younger son, conversion of the lost; in the father's response
to him, the great mercy of God. Now for the rest of the story...
This is
the story of a family. There is a third character that we
like to leave out. He just muddies up the beautiful story
of the younger son's return. The older brother is just plain
petty, as he refuses to celebrate. Not only that, he whines.
Now I don't mind if the youth group or my own kids disagree
with me, but if they start whining, my patience goes out the
window. Well here we are left with the whining of the older
brother at the end of this parable. Did he go in to the party?
We just don't know.
You and
I know that familiarity breeds contempt. We lose out if we
"nutshell" this story, even as we "nutshell"
this worship service. We Christians need to constantly examine
our hearts and attitudes. I have learned to expect God to
do great things, even in predictable situations, and thus
I've come to experience God much more than if I didn't approach
situations with expectation.
The context
of this story is important. Jesus was speaking to a crowd
made up of two kinds of people, the scribes and Pharisees
and the publicans and sinners. The publicans and sinners saw
themselves in the prodigal; the scribes and Pharisees, to
their chagrin, saw themselves in the older brother. And that
is exactly what Jesus planned. Jesus wanted to make his listeners
uncomfortable. He wanted to challenge their thinking about
what the Kingdom of God was going to be like. He wanted to
challenge the publicans and sinners to see that God's Kingdom
was big enough for them; that God's mercy was waiting to be
poured out on them, if they but "come home" to God.
He also
wanted to challenge the scribes and Pharisees to realize God's
kingdom was God's kingdom, not something they could manipulate
and withhold for their own purposes. Both were equally lost.
Jesus was saying the religious people of his day were just
as lost as the rebellious ones-the prodigal among the pigs
and the other in his pew. How the crowd must have raged!
The problem
is we don't like to be uncomfortable. We've built our entire
culture around being comfortable. Jesus challenges us to examine
our faith convictions in an uncomfortable way. We have the
tendency to only hear what we want to hear. That's probably
why I like to leave off that last part about the older brother.
It hits too close to home. We tame the messages these stories
bring to our lives. In much the same way, we tame Christ himself.
There
is a dialogue in C.S. Lewis' book, The Lion, the Witch,
and the Wardrobe, in which Susan and Lucy ask Mr.
and Mrs. Beaver to describe Aslan. They ask if Aslan is a
man. Mr. Beaver replies: "Aslan a man? Certainly not.
I tell you he is the King of the wood and the song of the
great Emperor-beyond-the-Sea. Don't you know who is the King
of Beasts? Aslan is a lion-the Lion, the great Lion."
"Ooh!"
said Susan. "I'd thought he was a man. Is he quite safe?
I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion."
"That
you will, dearie, and make no mistake," said Mrs. Beaver,
"if there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without
their knees knocking, they're either braver than most or else
just silly."
"Then
he isn't safe?" said Lucy.
"Safe?"
said Mr. Beaver. "Don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells
you? Who said anything about being safe? `Course he isn't
safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you."
In the
Chronicles of Narnia, Aslan represents Jesus Christ. He is
depicted as the great lion, who is anything but "safe."
But, Lewis adds, he is good.
As you
wrestle with this story today, take time to examine your reaction
to Jesus. What do you think about him? Have you domesticated
him? Is he safe and non-threatening to you and the way you
want to live your life? If you have that image of Jesus-the
meek and mild Jesus who doesn't make any demands on you-then
you have a wrong image of Jesus. He is not safe. But he is
good. It takes courage-a radical commitment-to follow Jesus.
Christianity is not a religion for sissies or whiners or pew
potatoes. If we as a church are not expecting more out of
you than you are comfortable giving, then we are missing the
mark of God's calling. When you give your life to Christ,
you put your life on the line. One of my greatest fears as
a pastor is that the youth....or any people, for that matter....in
my church will only allow God in to a small portion of their
lives where God will stay manageable and no significant difference
will be made in their lives. When you allow God to get hold
of your life, it isn't safe anymore; just as, thanks to Bill
Ritter, rolltop desks aren't safe anymore.
Let us
look at each of the sons in this story to see what God is
saying to us today. The rebellious younger son and the religious
older son each show us something of God and ourselves.
We are
introduced to the rebellious son leaving home. Why did he
leave home? What was happening in that family to make him
leave? We know that he was leaving for good. He had everything
with him. We always assume he was leaving home because he
was the problem child. But you know, for many people, leaving
home may be good news. For some people, home may be a stifling
place. It may be a place of conflict and contempt, or even
abuse. It may be what holds a person back from being whole.
Not leaving home may keep a man or woman from achieving responsible
adulthood. And don't forget the millions who are forced to
leave home because of civil war, corrupt government or famine.
The Prodigal's
going-away words to his father were: "Father, give me...."
He was set on putting himself first and taking care of his
needs. The Prodigal took his goods. He partied. He broke all
the rules. He had his cake and ate it too. But it bit back.
He had out of his life just what he wanted. But it eventually
caught him.
National
Geographic aired a special one night about how eagles catch
fish in lakes. They fly high above the water but their eyesight
is so good they can spot fish in the water below. When they
see one, they fold their wings back and aim directly for the
water, going as fast as 130 mph. When they reach the water
they spread their wings, reach out their talons, grab the
fish, and begin flying back to shore.
On this
TV special, they showed film of a very unusual occurrence.
An eagle made a dive for a fish and grabbed it in its talons.
But the fish was much larger than the eagle realized. As it
began to fly to the shore you could see the strain in the
eagle's flight. It was not going to make it to shore with
this huge fish. It then tried to drop the fish, to let go
of it. But the talons of the eagle had dug into the flesh
of the fish so deeply that it could not pull them out. It
struggled, but to no avail.
Slowly
the eagle descended into the lake and drowned, unable to let
loose its catch.
Many times,
like the Prodigal and like the eagle, we grab onto something
that can be dangerous. We feel we have control and can stop
holding on any time we like. It becomes a habit or a lifestyle.
One day we try to get out or let go and discover that we no
longer have hold of it but it has hold of us. Materialism.
Addiction. Work. Selfishness. Attitudes. Sin. It only drags
us down.
Do you
see the irony Jesus used? That's like a good little Jewish
boy feeding pigs. That's when it can't get worse. That's when
the Prodigal "came to his senses" and realized he
could at least return and be a servant for his father and
be better off, and that's when he learns how incredible his
father is. He doesn't even get to finish his rehearsed speech
before the father plans the party. The banquet was a common
motif Jesus used to symbolize the coming kingdom. Jesus hearers
would have realized the significance: That sinners were entering
into the kingdom because they were coming to God. They believed
they needed to return to him and be forgiven by him. Have
you made it to the prodigal party God is throwing for you?
Are you a citizen of God's kingdom, or are you still holding
out?
Notice
the difference between the Prodigal's words to the father.
In going away, he asked, "Father, give me...," and
in coming home he asked "Father, MAKE me...." Have
your prayers and your prayer life been reduced to "God
give me this and that," or are you returning to God,
asking in prayer for him to remake you?
How different
that is from the older religious brother! The younger brother
is the most likeable, the older brother is the epitome of
all that is ugly about religious people. We really only get
to know him by his actions, argument, and attitude at the
end of the story. His actions betrayed him: "He was angry
and would not go in" to the banquet. He separated himself
from the incredible act of mercy the father showed to the
other brother. Many of the Pharisees chose to hang onto their
interpretation of the laws rather than to think God could
surprise them and act with the idea of bringing outcasts and
sinners into the kingdom. Do you not act in someone's life
because they "wouldn't fit in" at our church?
The older
brother's argument betrayed him. "You have never given
me even a young goat so I might celebrate with my friends."
The older brother was pointing to "all these years"
when he had been "working like a slave for you, and never
disobeyed your command." These words betray the fact
that the older brother thought he had a relationship with
his father because of his work. He served his father not out
of love but out of a desire for reward. He even thought of
himself as being in bondage to his father.
How often
we do things for God out of desire for reward, position or
recognition! Do you feel you are "in" because of
all the work you do around here, or because of your love relationship
with Christ? We need to re-examine our thinking. We need to
assess how much we have in common with the older brother.
Are you here because you desire to respond to God's unconditional
love for you, or are you looking for benefit and recognition?
It's a whole new way of doing church. Are you in church because
you love the Lord, or because you are trying to work your
way into relationship with God?
Notice
that the older brother's attitude is "I," "me,"
"my." The father points out that, rather than feel
angry, he (and we) should rejoice that others are joining
and will be a part of the kingdom. Jesus even makes it a point
that the father goes out and pleads with the older son. God
is very much interested in not excluding the Pharisees and
teachers of the Law from the Kingdom. The message is an invitation
to everyone.
Do
you know what "Prodigal" means? Lost? No. Prodigal
means "exceedingly or recklessly wasteful." Lavish.
Excessive.
Do
you know what the opposite of "Prodigal" is? Miserly.
Close-fisted. Stingy. Hoarding.
What we
have is an incredible story of reckless giving out of mercy
and love. The Father wants nothing but the best for his children
(the robe, the ring, the fatted calf). The younger son is
not the only prodigal in the story. The father is equally
"prodigal." Our heavenly Father is prodigal. What
a great challenge to us! We serve a prodigal God! Can we be
prodigals for Christ? We, like the younger son upon returning
home, have been caught by it. Rich Mullins, a young prophetic
songwriter who died tragically last year, penned:
There's
a wideness in God's mercy
I cannot find in my own.
And He keeps His fire burning
To melt this heart of stone.
Keeps me aching with a yearning,
Keeps me glad to have been caught,
In the reckless raging fury
That they call the love of God.
We are
the recipients of the reckless, raging fury that they call
the love of God-that reckless, raging fury that cost Jesus
his life also paid the penalty for our sins. That reckless
raging fury of love raised Jesus from the dead!
Where
are you in relation to the story of this prodigal love?
Are
you the younger son on his way down, or on his way back
to the father having yet to receive the love and mercy of
God?
Are
you the older brother, having put your faith in your works?
Are
you in a position like the prodigal father's, able to freely,
even recklessly, give out mercy and love?
Take time
now, between you and God, to commit yourself to him and his
kingdom.
Amen.
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