Luke 15:11-24 The Heart of God - Loving the Younger Brother Sermon preached January 13, 2013 Scripture

introduction Some years ago, I had a friend with dramatic training recite this passage from memory and the congregation, me too - we were so blown away by the power of the story that we sat there stunned for a few moments - I really didnt need to preach a sermon on it. Its a story so good that were going to spend two weeks on it - and hear today about the younger brother - known as the prodigal - and next week, the older brother: Opening Christmas day Susan and I flew out to Colorado to see our son and daughter-in-law Peter and Melissa, but really to see our brand-new grandson Noah. Peter and Melissa are both Ph.D molecular biologists, very precise - and theyre now parents for the first time and trying to learn how to care for little baby Noah. Plenty of advice out there on how to raise children. But what nobody warns you about, are the many small humiliations of parenthood Like, the incident that happened to my friend Jeff last year - he had a beautiful little baby daughter and Jeff was changing her diaper, and shes there on the changing table in-between diapers but she had not finished her business and Jeff turns back after throwing her dirty diaper away and he gets fire-hosed with baby business. Like, right around when they turn 13 or 14 - they suddenly discover that they possess vast wisdom and knowledge, and youre a complete idiot, and they roll their eyes at everything you say. And maybe even earlier than that - they bring home their math homework and ask you for help and you have no idea, and you are diminished a little in their eyes. Like when the child your birthed and snuggled and nursed and loved - wants you to walk fifteen feet behind her when youre at the mall. The small humiliations of being a parent. But did you know that God the Father, suffers humiliation at the hands of his children - meaning us? Repeatedly, and yet willingly. For that is the cost God is willing to pay to bring his lost and wayward children back to him. Recap of setting of telling of the parable 1

Last week - Jesus was criticized for hanging out with wrong people and so he told the parables of lost sheep and lost coin - and then he launches into this parable - what some have called the greatest story ever told. First humiliation of the Father Hard to understand this parable unless you understand the world of Jesus hearers. Much of what follows I learned from Kenneth Bailey, a New Testament Scholar who was a Presbyterian missionary to the Middle East for years and who did great work helping us understand the world of Jesus hearers. The parables setting in a traditional society, where familial roles were everything, where honor and shame are everything. And the parable begins with the son asking for his inheritance - Bailey wanted to know what that meant in a traditional Middle Easter society - and he asked villagers and the conversations usually went like this: Has anyone ever made such a request in your village? Never! Could anyone make such a request? Impossible! If anyone ever did, what would happen? His father would beat him, of course! Why? This request means - he wants his father to die! Bailey goes on to say that in the hundreds of times he has asked this question, only twice did someone say they had heard of such a thing. In one case a pastor in a village in Iran said that one of his parishoners told him in great anguish that My son wants me to die! The pastor discovered that the son had raised the question of inheritance. And three months later, the father, a doctor who was in good health, died. The mother said, He died that night! meaning that the night the son asked for the inheritance, the father died, the shock so great that life was over that night. As teenagers, some of us have screamed at our parents, I wish you were dead....as parents, some of us have been on the receiving end of that...but this kid meant it. Imagine the knife to your heart, hearing something like this from the son you love. Bottom line, I want to be rid of you, old man, but I would like my share of your wealth 2

that is due me even though I did nothing to earn it. What kind of father is this? A father who is like God, who has suffered the humiliation of his children wanting him out of their lives - while enjoying the good things he has created life, food, the good earth. Son gets out of Dodge and heads for the city So the father, gives the boy his inheritance. And the inheritance, wasnt a trust fund - it was in the form of part of the family land. And the boy sells it quickly - because were told he sets off for the big city a few days later with a big wad of cash in his pocket - and this in itself is a huge issue because family identity and security tied up in the land - and land sales in this culture typically took months - he gets it done in a few days and probably adds further insult by taking a low price just so he can dump the land and get out of Dodge. And why? The boy wants to get away so he can define himself apart from his relationship to his father - be independent, nobody telling me what to do. He wants control over his own life and destiny - and he thinks he cant do that in his fathers house - so he goes to the far country - where he can start over as his own person. He hits bottom I love the King James translation of what happens next. He wasted his substance with riotous living. Sounds like hes down at the Gentlemens club stuffing hundred-dollar bills into g-strings and buying everyone shots of Stoli and then driving off in a new Maserati with a Cuban cigar between his fingers. But the Greek word means something different - it means that he was out of control. Kind of like, when people win the lottery - most of them end up broke, divorced and miserable - or a kid gets a huge contract for playing football or basketball and a few years after retirement theyve lost the mansion, the Escalades and the jewelry and are living on the street. The irony of the younger brother - and us - is that when we seize control in order to be in control we so often lose control. Sons alleged repentance The details of what happens next are crucial. Theres a famine. He is desperate. So gets a job. Whats the worst job youve ever had? 3

(Answers) Mine was caddying at a country club - carrying two leather Titleist golf bags in the July sun for five hours for maybe $15 if you got a good tip. Well, the young man in the story gets the worst job possible for an Israelite. Its a famine, its all he can find. Slops the hogs. But he is making starvation wages - famine causes depression, everyone competing for jobs, he wages are so low that he cant even feed himself. Is tempted to eat the pig slop, hes so hungry. Talk about losing control. So he hits bottom. And while hes slopping the pigs, the story says, He came to himself. Now, you may think it means he came to his senses and realized what a fool hed been, how badly hed treated his father, and repented. Hit bottom, and turned around. But thats not what it means. He came to himself - means hes back to his old scheming ways. Hes fallen out of control so he hatches a plan to regain control - he doesnt want to go home and asked to be restored as a son, because then he would again be under his fathers authority, and in relationship with the father. So instead, the plans to head back home and ask his father to make him a hired servant - he would then earn a wage, and would be able to live on his own. The only relationship with the father would be indirectly, through the foreman of the family farm. You see, this is a very incomplete, calculating, self-interested kind of repentance. He is not asking for forgiveness or grace. He doesnt want reconciliation with the Father. Hes going to throw himself on the mercy of his father, and take advantage of his fathers pity - the big sap - so he can create some sort of independent life for himself. May not be a great job, but it would be better than working in the pig-pen. People use this story as a model of repentance, and then from that come up with theology that says my repentance led me back to God...that I took the first step towards God...expressed in songs like Victory in Jesus that has a line Then I repented of my sin and claimed the victory. Well see in a minute thats not how it works. Second humiliation So, the boy starts walking home, practicing his memorized speech. Now remember whos listening to the story. Youve got the good religious people who were mad at Jesus for hanging out with sinners - the wrong kind of people when good religious people were supposed to shun sinners, keep themselves pure. So, the people who are listening to Jesus are perking up, nudging each other. This is 4

where its going to get good. Its payback time. They expect the father to be like Michael Corleone in the Godfather Part II, when he closes the door in his wifes Kates face and walks away. Because according to custom, the father was supposed to have cut off and forgotten about the son - hes dead to me! If you were shamed by a son like this father was, there was no coming back. Unrecoverable error. But Jesus has the story take a shocking turn. First off, the Father is waiting for the son he should have written off forever Sees him while he was yet far off. Maybe youve seen homes in Charleston or Nantucket that have a widows walk. Its a little porch off the top floor of the house or even on the roof where wives of ship captains, crew, would sit every day and watch for their husbands ship to appear off in the distance - theyd make out a set of sails first, then the hull of the ship, then it would draw closer and theyd think, that looks like his ship - their hearts would leap - it is his ship! Shed run down to the docks and her husband would walk down the gangplank and hug his wife and hoist her up and twirl her in the air! Maybe the father would venture out to the same spot every day and look for his son, pray for his son, while leaning on his staff. And one day, his prayers are answered - he sees a figure in the distance, his heart leaps, can it be him - it is him! - and he cant help himself - and he runs towards his son! Ran to him. Another shock in the story. Men of stature in that culture never ran. It is undignified. A man of stature would walk slowly to communicate his dignity and importance. Still that way today - a pastor in the Middle East known to Bailey was not accepted by the elders of his church because he walked too fast. Slaves ran, when summoned. Children ran, when their parents called. A patriarch never ran. You wore robes, and would have to pick up the hem of the robe so you wouldnt trip on it - completely undignified. A patriarch never ran. Except this one. Why does he run? To show everyone in the village that he forgave his son and was taking him back into the household - a very public reconciliation - but theres another reason. The father runs to the boy to protect him from the villagers - who would have gathered in a crowd to beat him, pelt him with stones to drive him away, maybe even try to kill him.

So the father makes a public reconciliation with the son that the boy did not even ask for and he walks the boy back into the village past the staring villagers who are open-mouthed with astonishment. The son was supposed to be the one who gets humiliated - but it is the father who suffers the humiliation due the son in order to save the son and restore him to sonship. And to show the boy is restored - the father puts a ring on the sons finger - probably a signet ring - which said the boy was restored to a position of authority in the household. He puts sandals on his feet to show that he is a son, rather than letting him go barefoot like one of the slaves. The father has the servants put the best robe in the house on the son - which no doubt was the fathers own robe. Oh by the way, did you notice that the son never got to finish his prepared speech? The father doesnt accept the son and restore the son to the family because he threw himself on his fathers mercy and admitted he was wrong - the father forgave the son BEFORE and DESPITE his charade of repentance. Rejoices It gets worse. Not only does the Father wait for the son, run to the son, escort the son back into the village, give him the signet ring he then, then, he throws a party to celebrate the return of the son. Its one thing for someone to go off and be a success and then come back to her hometown - they might throw you a parade and give you the key to the city because youve done us proud...but this guy - a party? But the father does. Has the fatted calf killed - a calf that was being raised specifically for a big party - and the fact that the father has the fatted calf killed and prepared means that whole village will be invited to celebrate because of the size of the animal - lots of meat means you need a lot of people to eat it - killing of a calf means a joy so great that it must be celebrated with the grandest banquet possible with the whole community there - and the purpose is to reconcile the boy to the whole community. So what? An ungrateful, scheming son...who has shamed his father, lost his share of the family farm, enraged his community, disgraced himself...is forgiven and restored by a father who humiliates himself to bring back his son. And the son regains, everything he threw away. Not because of the sons repentance - but because of the love of a father who humiliated himself for his sons sake. If you are a younger brother, God is waiting for you right now. And you dont have to 6

get yourself all cleaned up first before you dare approach God. Hes ready to run to you while you still stink of pigs. He doesnt demand that you repent perfectly, hell take whatever little bit you crack open the door of your heart to him. Hes ready to hug and kiss you before you get a word out of your mouth. He wants to clothe you with robes of righteousness - his perfect righteousness - where your past and shame and sin are covered and forgotten. He wants to make you a son in his household where your life is in his hands and you dont have to try to find our worth and security in your looks or abilities or anything else. Most of all, he wants you, he wants a relationship with you. And he seems to especially want a relationship with the kinds of people who have messed up their lives. God is like Erma Bombeck who once said, My favorite child is the one who messed up at the piano recital...who ran the wrong way with the football when he finally got in the game....all mothers have their favorite child and it's the one who needs her the most. God is like that. But never think this is an indulgent, winking-at-sin kind of love. There is a line in one of Thornton Wilders plays where he has King Herod say, I like committing sins. God likes forgiving them. Really the world is admirably arranged. This love cost the father in the story - the father suffered immense humiliation and shame by what the son did to him, and also through his outrageous love - running to the son, embracing and kissing and restoring a son that everyone else would have though should have been beaten and rejected. And so it is with God, who suffered the humiliation of the incarnation - becoming one of us in Christ - and the humiliation and suffering of the crucifixion - that he might bring us home. Closing There are lots of terrible mistakes we make in life. But only one, is an unrecoverable error. And thats to believe that you are stuck in the far country, and cant go home. No matter what youve done, no matter who you are, no matter how long youve been gone, there is a Father waiting for you to welcome you home. Amen.