September 23, 2001
Luke 15:11-32
"Seeking Justice and Finding Grace"
As the Irish say, "I want to say something before I speak." I want to take just a moment before the sermon, tothank each of you of this congregation for your wonderful response in rebuilding a sense of caring and happiness in thisbody. You have dealt with the financial difficulty successfully, together we have come through a hellish week in our country’slife and we are coping. I truly believe that we are on the road, not just to a successful recovery, but also to being aChurch that is integral to the growth of this congregation and others in this geographical area who may come and share withus. You have certainly made this aging cleric very proud to be associated with you.
You have heard the text again. Most of you are familiar with it. It is one of the most read and discussed portionsof the Bible. Most Sunday school members are well aware of the story. We call it, incorrectly, I think, the story ofthe Prodigal son.
Look to the scripture - you can follow, if you wish - Luke 15 :11- "A man had two sons-" This is a story about afather; a story that involves his two sons. This is also a story that will leave you very frustrated because, like many ofthe stories that Jesus told, there is no nice tidy conclusion. You are left to wrestle with a story that endsunanswered. Jesus knew that’s the way life is, usually it is no this is right or that is wrong. Usually, it is greyand you are forced to deal with at least two possibilities, both of which are either satisfactory or unsatisfactory.
This is one of three stories told by Jesus after he is accused of eating and drinking with sinners. Jesus doesn’trespond directly to the criticism, instead he tells three stories. He talks about sheep and the shepherd who leaves theflock behind and goes and seeks the one sheep that is lost. He talks about the woman who loses a coin and scours the houseuntil she has found it. Lastly, Jesus tells this story about a father who loves his two, very different sons equally butrejoices when the wayward son returns home.
None of the stories really answer the accusation of the scribes and Pharisees. The point is God is too busy celebratingand rejoicing over a lost sheep that was found, a lost coin the reappears and a son who comes to his senses to worry about howthey got lost in the first place.
Like so many of the parables of Jesus, the reason for the despair is quickly lost in the rejoicing over that which is found andin the party that follows.
You remember the story: the younger son is tired of the routine of Wisconsin farm life-tired of milking cows and working in thefields. He boldly goes to his father and says, "I want to see the world. I don’t want to work on the farm, mayI have my share of the family inheritance so that I can travel" amazingly, as the story goes, his Father gives him the money.
The young man leaves the green rolling hills and trees of Wisconsin and travels to Las Vegas. There, in a very short timehe succumbs to the myriad of temptations available in that city and in short order, because of stupid spending and dumbpriorities, he is broke.
He scours around the desert country until finally he finds a job feeding the hogs at a huge lot preparing them forslaughter. He is so depressed because of his choices and so embarrassed that the workers, like him, are making less thefarmhands on his father’s Wisconsin farm that he decides he will go home.
There is still some honor in this young man, so he decides, I will go and say to my Father - "I have been stupid and Ihave wasted what you gave me. I am no longer worthy to be called your son, let me work as a hired hand on thefarm." Mean while, his older brother is still at home and working hard at making the farm productive. From alloutward appearances, he is the model son: loyal, hard working, causing few problems.
The younger son finds his way home and slowly walks up then lane way to the house, carefully rehearsing his lines - father, Ihave sinned, I am no longer worthy to be your son, make me one of your hired hands…..Father I…..
Before he can even say his words, his father sees him, runs to greet him, kisses him and begins to prepare for a greathomecoming.
Mean while, the older brother is out working in the fields when suddenly he hears the noise of happiness and knows that a partyis taking place. What’s going on? When he hears, he is furious. He demands to meet his Father.
"I’ve been here for years, working as hard as I can and you’ve never told me how good I have been, never even me agoat, let alone the best calf, so I could give a party for my friends. Yet, your son, (note not my brother), your son whowent away and blew his money on booze, gambling and women comes home and you throw a great big party". You can hear theanger in his voice, can’t you? And he does have a point; don’t you think?
Now, I don’t know about you but most of the sermons I have heard deal with the younger brother. Somehow or another, werelate to the younger brother. I don’t know if it’s the rebellious behavior or the repentance acceptance by the father -but we relate.
I’ve heard preachers go on about the reliability of the older brother and thereby, I think, they miss the point of the storythat Jesus told. Some clergy preach about the loving and accepting father, which is why the parable probably should becalled the parable of the loving parent. Still, most dwell on this rebellious younger brother who wastes his money and agood portion of his life on stupid emphasis.
When I was a teenager and the minister stared on that routine, I wanted to shout out, enough man, I’ve heard more than I careto know about riotous living, gambling drinking and the like. I’ve hear it from my parents, my Sunday school teacher myelementary school teachers, I don’t need another lesson on that! What intrigues me is this elder brother because; he’sjust as guilty as the prodigal brother.
Elder brother reminds me of people I have known in Churches that I have served - people who parade their piety in attendanceand in words but who refuse to get to know or sit with people they don’t know. He reminds me of people who have a lovelyhome, a good job and a comfortable lifestyle yet complain about those ne’er do wells on welfare.
Elder brother reminds me of Church people who want God to love them and embrace their views and only others who believe thesame way; people who are all to willing to tell you whom God loves and whom God does not love.
I for one am continually amazed at those for whom Hell and punishment is more important than love and grace. I regretthat for some, God is a cosmic cop and not a loving parent.
Friends, placing ourselves in place of God; trying to say whom God loves and forgives or whom God should love or forgive isjust a wrong as stupid and unwise living. One wastes a life and money; the other wastes potential by being spirituallyarrogant and judgmental.
The father hears the complaint and says to the elder brother, "son, you have always been with me and what is mine isyours; we are making merry because your younger brother was dead and now he’s alive; he was lost but now he isfound." Remember how the story began, there once was a man who had two sons -. The truth is, each son is loved by thefather - both are forgiven and accepted by the father.
But, we don’t like it that way. Deep down, we don’t like the fact that Jesus leaves it there, unanswered; leaving usto answer for ourselves. We want the Father to accept the younger brother, but he’s got to do penance. "He hasgot to earn his place in the family"---the way we did. You and I have heard it many times- "he can’t serve onthe board yet, he’s new, doesn’t have any experience or she can’t do that, we want to make sure she has really changed, lether prove herself.
Let’s admit it, we’re not happy with this younger kid getting off without there even being a heart to heart talk with thefather and some terms laid out - it’ s too easy. You mean those newcomers are just as important as me when I’ve beenhere through all the years and all the turmoil?
I’m the elder brother in my family. I know what it’s like. We are the one’s who have had to break our parentsin. I remember, on one occasion, that I wanted to go into the nearby town on a weekend to attend a party with my, ’live onthe edge’ friends. When I was told no, I was mad and I stormed out of the house and kicked the bottom of the screen doorso hard that it snapped in the middle. Now I had the added duty of buying a new door with my own money.
My younger brother, the one who is smarter than me, asked if he could go to town to see some friends. He was told hecould, so he went and he attended the party. I was mad!
Only later did I understand that I was punished for the manner in which I received the message from my Father. I was alsomad because I wanted my Father to treat my brother the way in which I had been treated, in fact, I’d have been happy if myFather had punished my brother at all. He didn’t.
The truth, of course is, both of us were loved equally by a loving Father. We were loved not because we deserved it butbecause of who our Father was. Elder brother wanted to be loved because of who he was - a loyal hard worker who didn’tcause much trouble. The Father loves him, but not for that reason.
Younger brother wants to be loved because he knows that he has screwed up. He is guilt and he is afraid that because ofwhat he has done, he won’t be loved. The glory of the story is that BOTH are loved. They are loved not because ofwho they are or what they have done; they are loved because of who the Father is. Because of the Father and his love, one issaved from foolish living, then other from empty righteousness.
The story leaves us dangling in mid air. Until we examine it closely. Acceptance you see, is not our decision forGod; the tough part, the real stumbling block is that, long before we accepted God, God had already accepted us. The storyleaves us there: "Son, you have always been with me and what is mine is yours but your brother was dead, now he’salive. He was lost, now he is found."
If you want justice, you will identify with elder brother. If you embrace grace, you will identify with the youngerbrother who was loved, forgiven and accepted not because he deserved it but because of who the Father is.
The great theologian teacher and writer, Henry Nouwen put it this way, "the point of the story is not the returning home,it is the call to become the Father. The hands that forgive, console, heal and offer a festive meal must become my hands….andyours."
This Church is to become the community of the loved and the loving….the fellowship of the forgiven and the forgiving. The God we worship and adore loves and accepts us but this God also loves the world’s prodigals.
Understand it or not, our task is to take the privileges that we have received and embrace the love of the Father who welcomeshome the less fortunate and the one’s who have not chosen wisely. We must allow the love of God, revealed in Jesus Christto flow through us so that they feel accepted as equals in the household of God.
Richard Selzer, a teacher at the Yale Medical School, says,
"I stand by the bed where a young woman lies, her face, postoperative, her mouth twisted in palsy, clownish. A tinytwig of the facial nerve, the one to the muscles of her mouth, has been severed. She will be thus from now on. Thesurgeon had followed with religious fervor the curve of her flesh; I promise you that. Nevertheless, to remove the tumor inher cheek, I had cut the little nerve.
Her young husband is in the room. He stands on the opposite side of the bed, and together they seem to dwell in theevening lamplight, isolated from me, private. Who are they, I ask myself, he and this wry-mouth I have made, who gaze at andtouch each other so generously, greedily? The young woman speaks.
‘Will my mouth always be like this?’ she asks.
‘yes’, I say, ‘It will. It is because the nerve was cut.’
She nods and is silent. But the young man smiles. ‘I like it,’ he says. ‘It is kind of cute.’
All at once I know who he is. I understand, and I lower my gaze. One is not bold in an encounter with a god. Unmindful, he bends to kiss her crooked mouth, and I am so close I can see how he twists his own lips to accommodate to hers, toshow that their kiss still works."
Isn't that what the incarnation is all about: God accommodating himself to our condition to save us? Can wenot, as God’s people, right here, run to greet the wayward returning ones and show them, that the kiss still works?