The lost Sons Lent 4 c 2019 recast

This is a repeat from 2019

 

Focus passage: Luke 15:1–3, 11b–32

Whoever you are, whether we are the shameful sinner, the lost son, in the far away country caught in the drought, or the self righteous, judgmental sinner (older brother) refusing to come into the house, the message is the same. The Father comes out to us and invites us into the party and Jesus goes before us into the wilderness and experiences the pain, broken-ness and even death that we know. For us although dead, he has been made alive, just like the younger son.

Whoever you are, whether we are the shameful sinner, the lost son, in the far away country caught in the drought, or the self righteous, judgmental sinner (older brother) refusing to come into the house, the message is the same. The Father comes out to us and invites us into the party and Jesus goes before us into the wilderness and experiences the pain, broken-ness and even death that we know. For us although dead, he has been made alive, just like the younger son. So where-ever you are, lost and far away, or just outside refusing to come in, God has gone there to find you and is longing to bring you home. God's love always comes first. God always comes to us before we go to God. God always turns to us in love before we turn to God.

Turn to God now. Come inside. Join the party.

In this Sermon I take a slightly diffrent view to Tim Keller who sees the "true" elder brother as the Christ figure. I see the younger brother as the Christ figure. I like Keller's interpretation as well. See 

************* Full Sermon text below *******************

I want us to think about the story of the lost son in two ways. The first way is the traditional way. Traditionally we think of ourselves being like the young son or maybe the older son. We are the ones in the wrong who need to come home to the Father. It's a story about how God's love and grace comes first, for God's love comes before,  our love and repentance. As a story it tells us what John tells us in 1 Jn 4:19 We love because he first loved us. (NIV) I want us to think about the story of the lost son in two ways. The first way is the traditional way. Traditionally we think of ourselves being like the young son or maybe the older son. We are the ones in the wrong who need to come home to the Father. It's a story about how God's love and grace comes first, for God's love comes before,  our love and repentance. As a story it tells us what John tells us in 1 Jn 4:19 We love because he first loved us. (NIV)  The second way of looking at this story of the Lost Son is a bit more daring - but I'll get to that in a few minutes. Most of us probably think of ourselves as the younger Son. That's what we do in most stories - we identify with one of the characters and usually the main character. Like the younger son - if we're really honest - we know that there are times we would rather serve ourselves and have our own way with our own money, than serve God or our neighbours, or even our families.  But just like the young son, we also know the love of the Father. The term father can be confronting to some people. But when the Bible talks about God being Father it does not mean that God is a bigger version of our own fathers. My Dad, was always a good provider, and loved mum and all three of us boys. But like lots of fathers of his generation, he was emotionally distant from us, and often physically absent at work. All the nurturing was done by Mum. This is not the understanding I have of God the Father - a distant provider.  We call God Father because that's what Jesus called him. And when we think of the character of God the Father, we should think of the relationship God the Father had with Jesus. We should think of the One who has counted all the hairs on our head. The One who even sees the sparrow fall, and cares for us much, much, much more than any sparrow. The One who is like the Father in this story of the Lost Son. The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law are having a go at Jesus. "This fella eats with "sinners" no good tax collectors, prostitutes." And eating with people in Jesus' time meant that they were your friends, people you were in a relationship with. In response to this Jesus tells three stories. The story of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. He's saying to the stuck-up religious people that they've got it all wrong. God loves sinners, God goes looking for them and brings them home, even when they are wasteful, even when they run away and rebel. God longs to bring them home and embrace them in arms of love. After all the money is gone, the drought has come and the gold diggers and fair weather friends have deserted him. The young son remembers the his dad's love . He realizes that he doesn't have to be here in muck of the pig sty feeding the pigs. He can return to his Father's house and even as a servant, he would be better off than in this strange, alien land. He repents of his actions literally. The word "repent" means to turn around, and in response to the memory of  his Father's love he literally turns and begins to head home. He begins the journey, but before he ever gets there, his Dad runs out and gives him a hug. Before he can make his little speech. "I've done the wrong thing by you. I'm not worthy to be your son.  Make me one of the hired hands..." Before he can even say this, before he can show he's going to behave the right way and do the hard work, he's embraced and accepted by the father and his love. God's love always comes first. It always takes priority. The young man returns to the Father because of the love he already knew, because his Father loved him first. Repentance, turning to God always comes after God's love. It's evangelical - it's in response to the good news. It's in response to God's great loving kindness. We repent and we are forgiven, not because we turn to God in love, but because God has tuned to us in love. Just like the young man and his Father, God is running to embrace us. That's the usual way of interpreting this story. We are the young brother or the older brother. We are the ones who in response to God the Father coming out to us and showing us love, go with him - back to the party. Like the first two stories, the lost coin and the lost sheep, God comes out to find us, we don't go looking for God. But in most parables, one of the characters is usually Jesus. As shocking as it is, in this case I think Jesus is the young man. He is the central character -  Do you think I'm going too far? Am I drawing a long bow? Let's think about it. The reason Jesus tells this story is because the Scribes & Pharisees were having a go at him. "You eat with sinners. If you were really a Godly teacher, you'd have nothing to do with people like this." "Jesus" they might say "you might as well go off to some other country, and mix with non- Jewish people and feed the pigs." So Jesus tells this story of the lost son.  Both Jesus and the young man leave their father. Both mix with unworthy types and break important rules. The young man spends time with pigs, loose women, and other sinners.Jesus also associates with sinners and tax collectors, and worse he publically executed, naked and exposed. For Jesus really becomes one of us and he throws his lot in with us sinners. He doesn't sin but he does leave his father's house and go to a hostile and broken, far away land of sin, decay and death.  Jesus goes into exile in a strange land. Like the rebellious people of Israel he travels through the wilderness. Jesus is like Anna in the King and I he goes to a strange land and lives but also confronts its culture, mixes with the people and does the job he has to do. Or he's like the central character in Black Like Me a white journalist in the 1960s who disguises himself as a black American, and learns not just by looking on but by experience what segregation and racism really means. Like the son Jesus also returns from the land of sin and death and is raised to new life. The words of the Father about the young man  "24 for this son of mine was dead and is alive again;  32b because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.'"These words could be said by God the Father about Jesus, who was also dead but is now alive. Jesus and the young man were dead but now they are alive.  Because of this there must be rejoicing for the family is restored The young man is restored to his Father and Jesus is restored to his Father. For us and as one of us Jesus has gone into the far away land of sin and death and suffered what we suffer, but he has also done what we could not do. He has done the right thing while we have done the wrong thing. In the wilderness and drought land, he has not turned away from God. Instead he's returned to God, and he has taken us with him. Now all of this could be a bit scary or challenging. We don't want to think of ourselves as being like the lost son. We don't want to hear that we may have done the wrong thing and mixed with the wrong people. On the other hand we don't like to think of Jesus as someone who mixes with undesirable types either. When we feel this way about Jesus or ourselves we are thinking like the scribes and the Pharisees and the older son. We're like Noah the older brother in the Rainmaker "So full of what's right we can't see what's Good". We haven't gone off into the far away land, but we might as well have. We might as well have, because we're not prepared to go inside. We'd rather stay outside, and be resentful. But the message for us is the same as it is for the father and the younger Son. For the Father comes out to us too. He invites us and is willing to take us into the party too. So whoever we are, whether we are the shameful sinner, in the far away country caught in the drought, or the self righteous, judgmental sinner refusing to come into the house. The message is the same, the Father comes out to us and invites us into the party. Jesus goes before us into the wilderness and experiences the pain, broken-ness and even death that we know. For us though dead, he has been made alive, just like the younger son. So where-ever you are, lost and far away, or just outside refusing to come in. God has gone there to find you and longing to bring you home. God's love always comes first. God always comes to us before we go to God. God always turns to us in love before we turn to God.