Here's a story we are familiar with:
“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 dissolute 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 dead and
is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to
celebrate.”
“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 slaves 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 is mine 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 15:11-32
NRSV).
Often when it comes to this passage we
are asked: “Which are you? The younger brother or the older
brother?” Our answer should be yes. Yes, we are younger brother.
Yes, we are the older brother. Yes we are the younger brother in our
self indulgence, our self centered and foolish behavior. Yes we are
the older bother in our pettiness, spitefulness, jealousy, self
righteousness, and our inability to really forgive. We are both the
younger brother and the older brother. We are both in need of grace
and are angered when grace is given to those we think do not deserve
it.
For many of us, we are accustomed to
sermons focusing on the sons and very little attention is given to
the father in the story. The sermon is poignant when we focus on the
sons, especially if you have ever found yourself faced down in pig
slop wishing to go back home. However, when we place our focus on the
sons, specifically the younger son, the beauty of the grace filled
acts of the father are missed. We miss what the father is doing. Yes,
we see him running, greeting the younger son with excitement. Yes, we
see the father placing a ring on his finger and slaughtering a cow
and throwing a party. Yes, we see the father welcoming the son back
into the family but we miss what the father is doing. We miss the
father's participation in the story.
We turn our attention to the two sons
because it is easier to see, to view the story from their perspective
but the sons are not the active participants in the story; the father
is the lone active participant. While the younger son initiates the
beginning of the parable by asking his father for his inheritance and
runs off only to find himself face down in a pen of pigs, and has a
moment of clarity, it is the father that runs to him.
“While he was still far off” Jesus
says, implies that the father is looking for his son. I may be
stretching the story but if my son has wandered away, I do not stop
looking in the direction he left. Likewise, I believe Jesus is
implying that the father has been actively watching for his youngest
son to return home. As the son approaches and is still far off, the
father is overcome with compassion and runs to him. The father does
not jog, walk, or lollygag to his son; he runs. It is here we see the
beginning of the image of God's grace in the kingdom of heaven. If
the father is wealthy as the story suggests, then we are witnessing a
man of great girth, lifting his robe up and running to greet his son
like Friar Tuck running off to Sherwood Forest. We are witnessing
something no one does in that culture, especially after your son has
wished you dead. The father's overwhelming compassion leads him to
break any form of tradition and culture propriety and run to his son.
Here we see that grace in the kingdom of heaven comes to meet us
before we even approach the throne of its king.
The grace of the father embraces the
younger son before he can even recite his practiced speech. The grace
of the father places a ring on the son's finger. The grace of the
father welcomes the son back into the family, slaughters a calf, and
throws a celebration because grace in the kingdom of heaven
recognizes the beauty of one who finds new life in the kingdom. The
grace of the kingdom of heaven is the inciting incident, the cause
for our repentance. The acts of compassion, mercy, and grace of the
father entices the son to return home. Somewhere deep inside as he is
laying there in the slop, he knows that he can return home, even if
it is just to be a hired hand. He knows the character of his father
but it is the unexpected grace and compassion of the father that
engulfs him as he is still far off. The grace of the father
accompanies the younger son as the two walk back, arm in arm,
together.
If the grace of the father embodies the
grace of God in the kingdom of heaven then the father's explanation
to the older son embodies the justice of God in the kingdom of
heaven. The most difficult aspect of Christianity, specifically for
Christians, is the relation between God's justice and God's grace.
Some believe one will always take precedence over the other; however,
I believe the story of the compassionate father and the two sons
illustrates the understanding that the two are inseparable.
As the celebration for the return of
the younger son begins, the older stands out in the field and
“pouts”. He refuses to come in so the father, again being the
activist, goes to him. It is the father who seeks out the second lost
son and in his explanation we hear God's justice, “Son, you are
always with me, and all that is mine 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.” God's grace and
justice are not absent of one another. In his explanation we hear
that the younger son has become a part of the family again; however
he will not receive another inheritance. What he has squandered is
gone and what the father has left belongs to the older son. The grace
of the father welcomes the younger son back home and back into the
family; the justice of the father comes to life by entrusting the
faithful son with all that is his. However, he is reminded as well
that the kingdom of heaven justice means extending the kingdom of
heaven grace to those who are sick; reminding us who are well to
continually extend such grace because we are children of the kingdom
of heaven.
In the kingdom of heaven, justice and
grace are not absent of one another. We cannot have God's justice
without God's grace. We cannot experience God's grace without
experiencing God's justice. The parable illustrates to us that not
only is God's grace unlimited in the kingdom of heaven but also God's
justice is unlimited. For us Christians, for us who are the church,
we must be constantly reminded of God's grace and not deny the grace
of God through Christ to anyone as the older brother sought to do
with the younger.
The justice of the kingdom of heaven
extends beyond reminding the faithful son of what he is being
entrusted with. It exudes how we are to extend such grace to those
who need it most. The kingdom of heaven's justice resides within us
who have experienced God's grace. For each one of us who found
ourselves laying where the younger son lay often find ourselves
standing where the oldest son stood. The kingdom of heaven justice
reminds us of our own grace experience and we are to celebrate this
return of the lost because God's justice and grace are not absent and
that is what the kingdom of heaven is like.
Allow me to share two more stories. The
first goes like this:
Once there was a young lady who had
attended church her entire life. She became a follower of Christ at
the age of 8 and from then on attended church faithfully with her
parents. She received the perfect attendance award in Sunday school
three years in a row. She barely missed winning it for a fourth
consecutive year due to a sudden flu. By the time she was in high
school she was the poster child for what it meant to be a good
upstanding Christian. She joined every Christian club in high school
and later on in college, even attending a good upstanding Baptist
college. As she grew into adulthood, she found herself ordained as a
deacon, Sunday school teacher, and worship leader. Everything about
her life showed what it meant to have lived the faithful Christian
life.
One day a rugged elderly man came into
the church. He's clothes were tattered, his breath smelt as if he had
frequented every local pub. He was disheveled and lowly as he took a
seat near the back pew. No one dared to greet him. They were afraid
he had mistakenly wondered in and did not want to disturb him or
bother with him. The young lady noticed him in the back corner and
informed an usher to keep an eye on him just in case. The worship
service began and the man gave no notice. The congregation sang their
hymns, the soloist brought tears to their eyes, and the sermon
appealed emotionally to their hearts.
The time came for the invitation and
our good Christian girl went down front, as she did every Sunday, to
pray at the alter. In the midst of her prayer thanking God for not
being like others and being blessed, the elderly drunk knelt down
beside her, disrupting her prayer. He began to mumble inaudibly and
getting up he staggered to the pastor. The young lady watched as the
pastor embraced the man as if he'd been a long lost brother. They
hugged and cried together until the hymn ended and held onto one
another for what seemed like ages. After a few moments of awkward
silence, the pastor introduced the newest member of the church, a new
follower of Christ and the church erupted with applause. The young
lady was furious.
The next morning she caught the pastor
in his office and demanded to know why such grace, kindness, and love
was exhibited to such a person in such a state. “If he wishes to be
a part of this church,” she yelled, “he must show up sober and
put together like the rest of us!”
The pastor smiled, invited her to sit,
and told her this story (and this is our second story):
I recently heard this story on NPR's
Morning Edition that I think
speaks to our situation: This is a story about a 31-year-old
New York City social worker named Julio Diaz. Diaz customarily
followed the same routine each evening, ending his hour-long subway
commute to the Bronx one stop early, just so he could eat at his
favorite diner. But one night a few weeks earlier, as Diaz stepped
off the No. 6 train and onto a nearly empty platform, his evening
took an unexpected turn.
He was walking toward the stairs when a
teenage boy approached and pulled out a knife and asked for his
money. So Diaz gave the boy his wallet. As his assailant began to
walk away, Diaz said, "Hey, wait a minute. You forgot something.
If you're going to be robbing people all night, you might as well
take my coat to keep you warm."
The young man looked at his victim like
he was crazy, and asked, "Why are you doing this?" Diaz
replied, "Well, if you're willing to risk your freedom for a few
dollars, then I guess you must really need the money. I mean, all I
wanted to do was get dinner... and if you want to join me... hey,
you're more than welcome." Remarkably, the boy agreed, and the
unlikely pair walked into the diner and sat in a booth.
Shortly the manager came by, the
dishwasher came by, the waiters came by to greet him. The kid asked
“You know everybody here. Do you own this place?" "No,"
Diaz replied, "I just eat here a lot."
The boy responded, "But you're
even nice to the dishwasher."
"Well, haven't you been taught
that you should be nice to everybody?" Diaz asked him.
"Yeah, but I didn't think people
actually behaved that way," the boy said.
The social worker saw an opening. He
asked the boy what he wanted out of life.” He just had almost a sad
face. He couldn't answer--or he didn't want to.
When the bill arrived, Diaz told the
teen, "Look, I guess you're going to have to pay for this bill
'cause you have my money and I can't pay for it. But if you give me
my wallet back, I'll gladly treat you."
The teen "didn't even think about
it" and handed over the wallet, Diaz said. "So, I gave him
$20... I figured maybe it would help him...." But Diaz asked for
something in return, and the boy gave it to him. It was his knife.1
The young lady starred at the pastor.
He then said, “We may not have all been where that boy was or where
our new friend was. We may not have ever needed such grace extended
to us but I would hope that if I ever fell to such a way, the grace
of God would be extended to me in such way that caused a joyous
celebration.”
Perhaps what is missing from our
churches these days are not the absence of people but the absence of
grace and justice; the grace and justice of the kingdom of the heaven
as we have seen in the grace and justice of our lord, Christ Jesus.
The parable of the prodigal son challenges the church and it's people
by saying God's grace must be extended to the oppressed and to the
oppressor so that one may find welcome, the other repentance, and
both find peace, hope, love, and forgiveness. It is a challenge of
God's grace and justice to both the lost and the saved.
1As
heard on
Morning Edition, March
28, 2008, as reported by Michael
Garofalo.
As heard in the sermon, “Which Comes First: Grace or Repentance?”
by Rev. Dr. Robert Dunham, March 14, 2010
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