FOR GOD SO LOVED...Week 4

Sermon Notes, March 31, 2019

Rev. Garry McGlinchy

Pastor Garry’s sermon, the fourth in the Lent Series, was titled “For God So LOVED…Week 4.”  The scripture reference was Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32, the story of the Prodigal Son.  If you’ve been around the church for any amount of time you might have heard this story a few times.  It has been retold in every format from novels to cartoon vegetables. 

The danger of stories that become so familiar to us is that we tend to look at them the same way, see them with the same eyes, every time they’re told.  It’s easy for us to view this story and immediately focus our attention on the prodigal son.  We tell it and understand it as the story of the son who left the riches of his father’s house to venture out on his own, where he ended up squandering everything he had, and in an act of desperation, feeding the pigs and being forced to return home. 

We may have also viewed this as a story of two brothers.  The older one is more responsible but less loving.  He is jealous of the grace bestowed upon his reckless younger brother.  The older brother could have asked to receive his inheritance as well, if you caught that in the text, yet he chose to stay home and help manage the property, something that would have been expected of the older brother.

These approaches to the story are good ways to view it, and both have ways to challenge us into deeper discipleship with Jesus, challenging us not to look down on others who may come to Christ from a more circuitous path than we did, or challenging us to finally give up the life of pig-feeding to come home. And still many of us read it with the bias of “I’m grateful I’m neither of these brothers.”

But, since it is Lent, a season that is supposed to be a time of repentance and growth, what if we take some time to repent of our biases and read this story anew with the intent to grow?  What if we look at this story with new eyes, in a new way?  What if, instead, we look at this as the story of the loving father?

When the younger son tells his father that he wants his inheritance now, he was really saying “I wish you were dead.”  He wanted to do what he wanted to do.  It was the expectation that Jewish men would control their estate while they were alive; it would have been shameful for an heir to request his inheritance prior to the father’s death. While it was shameful for the son to ask for his inheritance early, it would have been equally shameful for the father to actually give the inheritance to his son.  In rare cases, the father might divide his land for his sons to manage while he was still alive, but that would be the father’s choice; it would not be the children’s place to ask for it.

Granting the younger son his wish shows the absolutely radical generosity of the father.  He didn’t ask the intentions of the son.  Despite the shame that would be brought upon him, he is still generous to his son.  Most parents know if their children are spenders of savers.  The father in this story had a pretty good idea of how the son would use his inheritance, yet the father still gave him his inheritance out of his heart of generosity.

The father is a just and compassionate landowner.  It seems that the father’s servants are fed well enough.  Even though the younger son has squandered all of his wealth and is starving to death, the son knows that his father ensures that his servants are fed, and fed well, even during a famine.  The son knows that even if he comes home as a servant, he will be well cared for.  This implies that the father is not cruel or unkind to his servants, but treats them justly.

The father is patient.  We don’t know how long it takes the son to squander his funds and come to a place of destitution.  Many of us have people in our lives that we would describe as prodigals.  We know that it can take years, decades, for them to hit rock bottom.  The father could have been waiting and looking for his son for years.  Even if it wasn’t for years, the loss of a son, and the grief that can cause to a good and loving parent, would have felt like a lifetime.  Yet he kept looking.

The father is compassionate.  When the father saw his son, he had compassion on him.  “Compassion” is a strong word, meaning to be moved in the inward parts.  He was moved to the very core of his being to act in love toward his son.  This compassion caused the father to run toward his son.  He does not wait for the son to get to him; he goes to his son as quickly as he possibly can.

The father forgives lavishly.  The son doesn’t even finish his speech before the father is having him adorned like royalty, reclaiming him as his son.  He doesn’t ask where he was, where the money is, or how he ended up smelling like pigs.  He just welcomes him home.  The wanderings of the prodigal son are never once mentioned by the father.

The father loves extravagantly.  The response to the son coming home is a party.  This party includes food and celebration.  If this were still during the famine, and if that famine impacted this family, he still sought to celebrate the son with extravagance.  He doesn’t allow the older brother to ruin the party.  When the older brother is jealous, he invites him back into the party.  He reiterates the love he has for both of his children, and speaks of celebration and rejoicing at the younger son being found.

This is the way God cares for us.  God erases the shame of feeling like prodigals.  We often focus so much attention on being lost that we become mired in our own unworthiness, and we instantly move into feelings of shame.  But God removes those feelings from us.

Despite our failings, God is still generous.  He bestows upon us blessings, maybe not of material wealth, but He is generous in His gifts to us.  Though we often would say to God, “I’d rather you were dead,” He still continues to give us good things.  God is just. God is patient with us.  We fail time and time again, yet God continually watches and waits for us.  God is compassionate.  He seeks us out, and while He waits for us to return to Him, He meets us along the road.  He RUNS toward us, like an athlete in the race of His life!  God forgives.. He doesn’t bring up our past mishaps, but He forgives and forgets.  God loves extravagantly.

We do not need to live in the shame of our past, or in jealousy over the grace we see bestowed upon others.  We can sit in the promise that we follow a God of deep compassion, love, and forgiveness.  We can walk toward God as God runs toward us with an embrace of comfort and compassion.  We don’t need to even finish our speech of contrition before God begins to wrap us in His arms, for He is a good Father who loves us with complete abandon and is just waiting to see us approach home.