Fourth Sunday in Lent 2013

Fourth Sunday in Lent 3/10/13 Text: Luke 15:1-31 Title: The Grace of God Before I get started talking to you about today’s gospel reading, the parable of the prodigal son, I want to remind you of what a parable is. A parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. Jesus would tell a story that people could related to. And then he would usually give it a twist; that is the heavenly part; that would turn the listener upside down in their way of thinking. We read in our gospel lesson that Jesus was attracting a large group of tax collectors and sinners. They loved his teaching of forgiveness and restoration. The religious teachers were upset, for religious people of Jesus’ day did not mingle with tax collectors and sinners who were unchurched. Just having them around could make you unclean and then you had to go through a purifying rite before worshiping God in the temple. They were grumbling and so Jesus needed to teach them a truth, a truth that would rock their religious world. He tells them three parables, two of them are not in our gospel reading for today. The parable is the story of a shepherd who left his entire flock to find one sheep that had wandered off. When he found it Jesus tells those he speaking to, “He lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.'7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance." Then he tells the story of a woman who lost a coin in her home. "Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? 9 And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.' 10 Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents." Notice the pattern. One sheep out of 100, or in the second parable, one coin out of 10 is considered so worth saving that the other sheep or coins which would be considered more valuable are put aside until the lost sheep in the first parable and the lost coin in the second parable are found. Once the sheep or in the second parable the coin is found a party is thrown. Jesus closes out each parable stating that the angels in heaven rejoice more over the one sinner that repents than the many who did not see the need to repent. I am not sure that the religious leaders were beginning to get the point of the parables, so Jesus tells them a third parable to drive home his point. He tells them about a wealthy man who had two sons. The younger son wanted his inheritance before his father died so he could leave home and party hardy. Obviously he did not like the way he had to live in his dad’s house. He felt stifled, living by dad’s rules was too much. He had to have his freedom, so he asked his dad for his inheritance which his dad gave him; notice he also gave the oldest son his inheritance also. Dad gave everything he had to his two sons. That is the kind of dad he was. Everyone knows how the story goes. The son’s freedom has turned into slavery to freedom. The son spends all of his inheritance in wild living and ends up living with pigs; eating their food. Now for a Jew that is the lowest of the low and I am sure that the religious leaders were thinking he got what he deserved. They had no sympathy for him. He had treated his father badly, lived a sinner’s life, and deserved everything that was happening to him. When Jesus got to the part where the young man wanted to come back they just knew what the old man would do. Kick him out and tell him to go back and live with the pigs, or if he were a soft hearted father he might tell him that he will have to prove himself before he could get back into the family. But then comes the heavenly twist to the earthly story, the part that turns their thinking upside down, the father not only welcomes the young man back, but runs to meet him, won’t even listen to his story, and instantly makes him part of the family, and then throws a huge party. That is just wrong. Shouldn’t the wild son have to prove himself or grovel for a period of time? That is what the religious leaders thought. That is what, if we are honest with ourselves, think. You just can’t leave dad’s home, waste everything he had so generously given him, and just waltz back in to dad’s home like nothing had ever happened. It is just not fair. And that is the point. It is not fair. It is totally unfair. The older brother even though he had also gotten his inheritance had stuck around and acted the role of the dutiful son. He did not think it was fair either. He deserved better treatment than the younger son. The teachers of the law agreed with him wholeheartedly. He had a right to be upset. But dad did not try to comfort him or make excuses. He simply said, “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.” Not what the religious leaders were expecting. Sinners and tax collectors were out, for they were not of God’s house like the good Jews, the people God had made his own, those who outwardly, at least tried to obey God’s Law. That's why they grumbled and complained. It wasn't fair. This parable still speaks to us today, for we are both the younger son and the older son. We, too many times, want to live our lives outside of God’s house. We want our freedom even though in the end freedom becomes our master, as we learned in our Bible class this morning, enslaving us to our freedom. Too many times we think we deserve more from God because we live pretty good lives. We are both sons, wayward and self-righteous and thank goodness our father God is not fair. Our life, our forgiveness, our salvation is a result of our heavenly Father's wonderful love and compassion for us. In that love and compassion he will allow us to go astray, or become self-righteous, if that is what we want. That does not mean he is happy about it, but he is not a controlling father. He is not going to make us love him, for what kind of love would that be? No, our God is a different God than the god’s of the world. He's always here looking for those who have gone off leaving his freedom, as they run after the freedom that enslaves. His arms wide open, just waiting to receive us when we heed his call, a call that never ends, and turn back to him in repentance. No strings; no conditions; no hoops to jump through. The debt is simply too big. The damage is too great. The wage of sin is death, and we can't pay for even one single sin. The chasm that separates us from life and death; heaven and earth has been spanned. Not spanned by us, but by the cross of Jesus, so that God can come to us, bringing us from earth to heaven; from death to life. Thank God that he's not fair. Thank God that instead his love, His grace, and his mercy for us is unconditional, unwavering, and eternal. That, my friends, is our almighty God and heavenly Father. Amen