Sermon

March 25, 2001
Lent 4
Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

Celebrate the Father's Love!

(Luke 15:1-3, 11-32) Now the tax collectors and "sinners" were all gathering around to hear him.2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them."3 Then Jesus told them this parable: Jesus continued: "There was a man who had two sons.12 The younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the estate.' So he divided his property between them. 13"Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need.15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs.16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.17 "When he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.' 20So he got up and went to his father. "But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.21 "The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.'22 "But the father said to his servants, 'Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate.24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' So they began to celebrate.25 "Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing.26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on.27 'Your brother has come,' he replied, 'and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.'28 "The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him.29 But he answered his father, 'Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!'31 "'My son,' the father said, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.'"

In Christ Jesus, who found us when we sought him not, dear fellow redeemed,

Have you ever run away from home? I was four the first time I announced I was leaving. I was angry with my mother for some reason or another, and even more angry when she said, "I'll help you pack." I watched in disbelief as she filled a satchel with everything I'd need for striking out on my own. I knew she meant business when she put the bag in my hands and said, "Just a minute. You forgot your toothbrush." We parted company at the front door. I headed north, but I got just three-quarters of a block when I hit a major obstacle. You see, as a four year old, I wasn't allowed to cross the street. So there I stood at the corner of Spring and Eau Claire-angry and alone. Pride kept me from going back and fear kept me from going ahead. I have no idea how long I stayed there.

But I do know that it was a mother's love that watched me from the window that day, a mother's love that knew just how long to leave me standing there in tears and a mother's love that came to get me and hug me and carry me back home. Such love is very special, but I've come to realize that as special as it is, such love is only a dim reflection of a far greater love that has kept a watchful eye on every one of us. Today the Scriptures hold before our eyes this greatest love of all and in so doing, the Scriptures give each of us a reason to Celebrate the Father's Love-love for a son who ran away and love for a son who stayed at home.

The parable before us today has been called the "crown" of all parables-the "gospel of the gospel." Jesus spoke this parable to counter the complaints of some self-righteous Pharisees and teachers of the law who criticized Jesus for welcoming tax collectors and other sinners into his company as disciples. Jesus told this story to help the Pharisees and us to know the depth of God's amazing love for all sinners.

In the context, then, it's not hard to identify the younger son as one who represents those tax collectors and sinners of whom the Pharisees complained. Many of us have known this young man as the "Prodigal Son," an apt description of him. For the word "prodigal" means "wasteful" and so he was. Here was a young fellow who couldn't wait to get his hands on his inheritance. And as soon as he did, he left for a distant country, taking the money his father had worked so hard for and blowing it all on parties and prostitutes.

As the parable goes, it wasn't long and the son ran out of money and ran into trouble. A famine left this sinner with pangs of hunger and pangs conscience. It isn't hard to imagine that the pigs he ended up feeding and the mud they played in reminded him of the people he had called his friends and the lifestyle he had shared with them. He was ashamed and depressed. He was on the verge of despair, but one thing kept him going, the memories of his father's love, love so rich that even the father's hired men had more blessings than they could count. It was such great love on the part of the father that brought this son to his senses and led him to resolve: "I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men" (vv.18-19).

It isn't hard to see how this son represents the tax collectors and sinners who had wasted so much of their lives, living apart from God and his will. But can you see yourself in the younger son? Maybe not. Maybe you can't think of a time in your life when you've squandered everything on wild parties and sinful pleasures. But don't you see? The son's wastefulness was only a symptom of his real problem-the dead, cold heart that made him a walking corpse. More than a prodigal son, he was a lost son, lost to his father and lost to heaven. Here was a man who hated his father so much he told him, "Dad, I wish you were dead so I could have my inheritance. But since you just won't die, can I have my money anyway so I can get out of here and do what I want to do?"

Now that we've brought the son's image into sharper focus, look again. Do you see yourself now? It isn't hard. Listen to Ephesians 2:1-3 where Paul says to you and me: "...you were dead in your transgressions and sins . . . All of us also lived among [the disobedient] at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts." All of us by nature were walking corpses, just like that lost son. Just like him we were selfish, hateful people. Paul reminds us in Romans 8:7, ". . . the sinful mind is hostile to God." We came into this world with thoughts of wanting God dead. But since God refused to oblige us by dying, we settled for taking the good things he gave us, like health and wealth and running off with them to spend them on ourselves. If you think I'm exaggerating about the lost state of our natural condition, just think how often our sinful nature succeeded in getting us to satisfy its cravings and desires this past week alone. Like the prodigal, how many dollars and cents, how many moments and hours, how many talents and abilities did we waste this week, never once giving a thought as to what our Father in heaven might want to do with them, even thought they all belong to him?

How can we be so selfish? Because the sin in us and the sin around us promises us it will be enjoyable to do what we want to do. But sin is such a deceiver. It cannot deliver on its promises. Instead of bringing us real pleasure, sin haunts us with its guilt here on earth and, then, upon our death it demands we pay its wages forever in hell. This is a horrible truth, but the very fact that we have come to know and believe it, is a work of God's mercy in us. As in the case of that lost son, God has used the misery sin inflicts, together with the law he has put in us and preached to us to bring us to our senses. God's law convicts us of our sin, denouncing our every selfish thought, our every wasteful act as an offense against our Holy God that makes us deserving of nothing but his eternal punishment. And yet we do not despair, because God has shared another message with us, a message of his forgiving love that is so wonderful, so inviting that instead of running from our God we want to run to him to confess, "Father, I have sinned against you. I am not worthy to be called your child. Please take me back as a servant in your home." But even while we are still on our way to make this confession, the Father comes to meet us. He's been watching for us, not in anger. He's been waiting to welcome us back. We begin to speak our word of confession, but before we can make any offer of servitude, the Father puts a finger to our lips and promises us his full and complete forgiveness. There's no bargain for us to strike, no conditions placed on our pardon because it has been secured for us by the blood of Jesus, blood that hides our sins from our Father's eyes. And while we are still amazed by the wonder of his forgiveness, the Father clothes us with garments of salvation and arrays us in the robe of Christ's righteousness (Isaiah 61:10). He brings us back into his family, not as parolees on probation but as holy children without any sin at all on our record.

Oh how we have reason to celebrate the Father's love for a son who ran away because we are that sons. But a look at what grace has done for us! We who were dead in sin have been made alive in Christ. We who were lost to heaven have been found by God's love-love that reaches out not only to the son who ran away, but also to the son who stayed at home.

We've identified the first son. He embodies the tax collectors and sinners together with all of us. The oldest son who slaved away at home, who insisted that he never disobeyed his father's orders has a counterpart also. He represents the Pharisee of Jesus' day and the Pharisee inside of us.

From this son we learn that we don't have to pack our belongings and run away from home or from church to be lost. As in his case, it's our thoughts that can lead us far from God and far from heaven-self righteous thoughts that convince us that the time we've put in as faithful Christians now makes us deserving of God's forgiveness. With such thoughts comes a sense of smug superiority that is just as damning because this attitude looks to comfort us with the notion that we are in much better spiritual shape than our fellow Christians. We could be unfaithful like our neighbor, or a drunk like our coworker, but we're not, so God must love us more.

Have you noticed how this self-righteous thinking leads us to expect special treatment from God? Have you felt the anger toward him that comes when you're sure his goodness has passed you by in favor of someone else less deserving? If so, then like me, you've encountered the enemy within, the part of you that would commit spiritual suicide if God let it. But he doesn't. As he does for the younger son inside of us, so he does for the oldest. In love we don't deserve, he comes out to meet with us and to plead with us to bring the self-righteousness that would damn us to him in repentance. And why should we do so? Because of his loving promise: "Son, Daughter, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours" (v.31). There is no more powerful motivation for us to bring our sins to God than to know what he is going to say to us even before we make confession. He's going to forgive us, not because we earn his forgiveness by repenting, but because it is our inheritance. Imagine that! We came into this world has sinners who are hostile to God. We wanted him dead and he did oblige us. He died for us, but not before naming us in his will as heirs of his forgiveness and eternal life. And then in the same love that sent him to the cross to die for us, he rose again to see to it that the terms of his will are being enforced!

This is our reason to bring our sins to our God every day and this is our reason to Celebrate our Father's love just as often: because we are forgiven, fully and freely for Jesus' sake. Amen.