11 Then
Jesus[a] said, “There was a man who had two sons. 12 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. 13 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. 14 When he had spent everything, a severe
famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. 15 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. 16 He would gladly have filled himself with[b] the pods that the pigs were eating; and no
one gave him anything. 17 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! 18 I will get up and go to my father, and
I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your
son; treat me like one of your hired hands.”’ 20 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. 21 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.’[c] 22 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. 23 And get the fatted calf and kill it,
and let us eat and celebrate; 24 for
this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they
began to celebrate.
25 “Now
his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he
heard music and dancing. 26 He
called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. 27 He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and
your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and
sound.’ 28 Then he became
angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. 29 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. 30 But
when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with
prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’ 31 Then the father[d] said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me,
and all that is mine is yours. 32 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.’”
I love the movie, “Shawshank Redemption.” I could watch that over and over. And in fact, if you ask my wife, she says
that I do indeed watch that movie over and over.
The same is true with “Casablanca.”
Or “Star Wars.’ Or any of the “Star Trek” movies – well, at least the
ones that have even numbers. Or is it
the ones that are odd numbers?
Whatever. I
like to hear stories over and over.
But once in a while, even I watch a movie and
think, “I’ve seen this one enough.”
Having worn out a video tape of the old movie,
“Wizard of Oz,” there came a moment when I thought – I’m done. I’ve seen too much of the yellow brick road.
I think the New Testament lesson is at risk of
becoming such an experience.
The prodigal son – becomes like one of those movies
that is on every channel for weeks on end.
Yes – we know all about it.
Like watching the Star Wars movies over and over,
at some point there is no surprise at hearing the evil Darth Vader tell the
young hero, Luke Skywalker, “I am your father.”
And at some point, the words become not just
expected, but boring.
The shock value has worn off. Just say the opening
line, "There was a man who had two sons," and we know where this one
is going.
The story has all the bland predictability of an
old black and white movie that is shown every single Christmas Eve.
There is, in this story, a horrible moment in which
the son says to his loving father, "Give me my share of the inheritance.”
But those words, that essentially mean, “I’m tired
of waiting for you to die, I want your money now” leave us unruffled because we’ve
heard the story soooo many times.
Fear not; the boy is coming home. He always does.
The road back from the far country is paved and well lit, and we have traveled
it many times.
What
would have happened if he had not come back home?
Have
you noticed that in recent years movie DVDs have offered alternative endings?
Many
studios now produce and film more than one ending to a movie because they don’t
want the word to leak out and for the movie to be spoiled by everyone knowing
the ending before the movie is released.
For example, in a murder mystery that has 4 or 5 suspects in which it is
not revealed until the end who done it, the DVD will have 4 or 5 alternative
endings and only one will be shown in the theaters.
What
would it have been like if the Prodigal Son story had ended differently?
What
would have happened had the Prodigal Son never returned home?
Actually,
I saw that alternative ending lived out once.
Before
coming to Grace Covenant, I was the pastor of a church that did a lot of work
with the homeless. Every day they would
come to the church where they could get a breakfast and a bag lunch. There were showers, and hair cuts, and
doctors and nurses. We offered
occasional job training and drug and alcohol recovery.
Occasionally,
I would do funerals for these folks.
Tincan
was one such fellow. Most of these homeless
guys had street names like Tincan, Kick Stand, Cowboy, and such. Tincan walked the streets picking up aluminum
cans and bottles which he would then sell for a few pennies at a recycling
center.
In
the 4 or 5 years I knew Tincan, I don’t think he ever held any other job. Unlike others who would sometimes work on
fishing boats in season, or do occasional yard work, collecting trash was about
all Tincan could handle.
From
time to time he would show up for breakfast at the church drunk, which meant we
would ban him from the program for a few days.
He’d get sober, and then not too many weeks, get drunk.
He
didn’t own a stitch of clothing. He’d
come to the church and pick up some clothing and then, a week or so later, come
to the church to trade those dirty clothes in for another set of shirt, pants,
and underwear.
In
December, he would come to the church for our Christmas party and the church
would give him and everyone else a gift.
Last year it was a pair of shoes.
Brand new shoes. He kept his for
a day or two and then sold them for a bottle of booze.
Tincan
was a man who wasted his life away.
Every
opportunity that came along that might have offered a hope of something better,
he wasted.
And
one day, he died.
On
the day I did his funeral, the church was full of humble looking folks – mostly
homeless men and women, or at best, fishermen and part time motel workers
struggling with poor paying jobs.
There
were two people who seemed out of character with the rest of the group. A man and a woman. They were both dressed very stylishly.
This
was Tincan’s family.
His
Mom and Dad.
At
most funerals, you might have one or two friends get up and share some stories
about the deceased, and usually they were funny stories or heart warming
stories. And at these funerals I did for
the homeless, pretty much every single person there would get up and
speak. And the stories were great. People would laugh and smile as they
remembered the deceased.
And
Tincan’s funeral was no different.
People stood up to remember his jokes, or how he often helped
others.
Then
his mother got up.
She
called Tincan by a different name.
Keith.
Keith
was a straight A student. He was the
quarterback for his football team in high school. He was a student at Purdue. Earned a degree – with honors.
Who
would have thought.
We
had no idea.
Mom
shared her experience the first time her son came home drunk. She talked about how he would go through her
purse to steal money for drugs. She
shared about having to hide her credit cards and money.
She
talked about bailing him out of jail.
And
about bailing him out again.
And
again.
When
she told us how hard it was to eventually leave him in jail overnight so he
could wake up sober behind bars instead of in his own bed, she was in tears.
She
was telling the story almost in a whisper when she got to the point about
seeing Keith leave home for the last time.
For
16 years she waited for him to return.
But he never
did.
From
time to time she would get a note or a phone call from Keith, letting his
parents know where he was living, and that he was working, making money
collecting cans and bottles for recycling.
He talked about the great friendships he had at the church where he ate
breakfast.
Mom
would often look out the window, waiting, hoping, for Keith to come home.
But
he never did.
And
one day, it was too late.
Keith
Ingle, AKA Tin Man, died on September 28, 2012 at the age of 44.
The
alternative ending of the Prodigal Son is not a happy ending.
We know how
it ends in the Bible, but this is how it so often ends in real life.
The lost all
too often stay lost, while we are the righteous children, safe in our Father’s
house, singing our familiar hymns, greeting our friends in church, enjoying our
cookies in fellowship hall.
And outside
this church are the brothers and sisters who have wasted the love of God and
traded it for something less. They are
lost and they are hurting.
And what do
we do?
We keep
gathering here, safe in our Father’s house, singing our familiar hymns,
greeting our friends in church, enjoying our cookies in fellowship hall.
The story of
the Prodigal Son is about a son who is prodigal – do you know what that word means?
How would
you use the word prodigal today, other than using it about this story, this
parable?
I’ve been
asking people all week what they think that word means and I’ve gotten answers
like, “repentant,” “lost,” “sinful,” “unloving,” all of which is true – but if
you look in the dictionary, the word prodigal is defined in this way:
Prodigal. Noun.
Recklessly wasteful.
And that is
certainly true of the son in the parable.
He is wasteful of his inheritance.
Wasteful of his life. And most of
all, wasteful of his father’s love.
I grew up at
a time when everyone went to church. It
was expected. On Sunday it was not just
Chic Fil A that was closed. The library,
the grocery stores, the gas stations, they were all closed.
If you
needed a prescription filed, you had to call the pharmacist at home and he or
she would meet you at the drug store.
Everyone was
at church.
Now, look
around your neighborhoods. People are
staying home. They are not seeking God.
Our brothers
and sisters have asked for their inheritance early, and they have left for a
far country.
This parable
may have become so familiar that we are bored by it, but stop and think about
the context in which it is found. Luke
chapter 15 tells three parables.
There is the
parable of the lost sheep. The shepherd
leaves the 99 sheep in order to look for the lost sheep. I’m not shepherd, but that always struck me
as a sign of a dumb shepherd. You have
99 good sheep right there --- stick with them.
Don’t lose them. But no. In the parable, the shepherd leaves the 99
all alone, while he searches for the one lost lamb. He finds it, and he is filled with joy.
Then there
is the story of the lost coin. The woman
turns the house upside down looking high and low for the lost coin. Look, I’ve
lost coins in my house. Big deal. It’ll show up. But no – this woman turns the house upside
down until she finds it. And when she
finds it, she is filled with joy and throws a party.
Then there
is this story of the lost son who comes back and is found. And the father is filled with joy!
In each
story, there is joy when the lost is found.
You know how
we react when the lost is found? Do you
know how we react when a sinner comes back to God?
It’s hard to
say. It doesn’t happen often
enough. In fact, when was the last time
someone who was not raised in the church came for a baptism?
Regina joined my church many years ago.
She was homeless and jobless.
When she did work, it was at a local strip club. She had been arrested for prostitution. Then one day, she joined the church and was
baptized. She is now employed as an
assistant manager in a restaurant. Been
doing that for almost 5 years now. She
is no longer a member of the church where I used to serve – she moved in order
to get a job but one of the first things she did when she moved was join a
church. She is now an ordained elder.
Do you know
how people responded when she joined?
People
whispered. They murmured. She’s immoral. We can’t have her near our children – and
certainly not near our men!
No one
rejoiced.
It’s time
for us to welcome those who are out there.
To welcome
unconditionally.
It’s time
for us to go out and find “them,” whoever that word “them” may define. Not just the ones who look like us, talk like
us, smell like us.
It’s time
for us to become prodigal with our love for the lost – prodigal. You remember what the dictionary says that
word means?
“Recklessly
wasteful. Abundantly generous.”
We’ve been
too stingy with our invitations to others to come back to God. Let’s get reckless. Let’s invite to the point of abundant
generosity with God’s love and with our invitations to people to come to
Christ.
At a recent
presbytery meeting, the preacher for the day was the new president of Columbia
Theological Seminary, Stephen Hayner. He
is also the professor for evangelism at the seminary there.
He says he
is a shy person, so it is ironic that he should be called by God to be the
professor of evangelism, but he is.
He says it
is time for us to invite people back to Christ.
Even when it is uncomfortable.
Hayner talks
about this fellow he saw at the health club – every Monday, Wednesday and
Friday they worked out at the same time.
They dressed out in the same locker room at the same time, right side by
side.
As Hayner
put it, one day he realized he had seen this man naked three times a week for 4
years and didn’t even know his name. So
he introduced himself and invited him to church.
It happened
that the invitation came at a time when this man’s life was falling apart. He was ready to come to Christ. And he did.
You see
people every day. When was the last time
you invited them to come to Christ?
And if you
invite people – are you just inviting the person who looks like you, talks like
you, dresses like you – or are you inviting people with reckless
abundance? Are you inviting anyone and
everyone?
It is time
for us to not only SEEK the lost, but to unconditionally welcome them back with
joy and thanksgiving.
When people
come into this church who look like they don’t belong, let’s say to them,
“Thank God, you’ve come back. We have to celebrate and rejoice, because you
were lost, and now you have been found.”
Copyright
2013
Dr. Maynard
Pittendreigh
All rights
reserved.
Ministers may use all or part of this
sermon in their own ministries.
