THE LOVING FATHER!

 

    Today, I want to reflect on the parable of the “Prodigal Son,” which I think of as the parable of the “Loving Father.”

      We join Jesus as he teaches a gathering of people about the ways of God. A father, Jesus said, had two sons. His first-born son was dedicated and responsible (as eldest siblings often are), but his youngest son was impatient, impulsive, and self-indulgent. Well, the younger son, it seems, was bored on the farm and demanded his share of the family estate right away. In Jesus’ time, a request to cash-in and settle-up early, was unthinkable, but for reasons of his own, the father gave this youngest son what he wanted, and the young man left the farm for far-away places, where he squandered his inheritance

on wine, women, and song. We aren’t given details… but we know that things went really bad for the youngest son because he ended up slopping hogs for a gentile master, who paid him next to nothing. We also know that  he was so hungry that the pods which were being fed to the pigs… looked good to him. In short, he had “hit bottom,” and the jolt of hitting bottom brought him to his “right mind.” So, he started toward home, hoping that his father would hire him as a hired hand!

      However, his father had been spending a lot of time waiting for the moment when he would see his son coming home, and when he saw him, he threw protocol to the side and ran to embrace his son! He ran as fast as he could and hugged his youngest son, without any form of judgment or hesitation. In fact, he showered his son with love and decided to throw a party in his honor. Indulgent and foolish young men are a dime a dozen, but unfettered forgiveness and new beginnings are not. Grace- radical grace and not just kindness- is rare and amazing! It is also irritating to rule-abiding and score-keeping people everywhere… and the loving father’s eldest son was no exception! When he arrived home from a day’s work in the field and learned that his father was throwing a party for his no-account brother, the eldest son was enraged! He had worked faithfully his entire life and never once complained. He had given everything he had to his father’s estate and his father had never thrown a party  for him.

      It was all terribly unfair and he refused to have any part in it! He would not attend the party! His father assured him that he loved him too. His His father told him that he had to celebrate because what was lost was found and what was gone had come back home!  Grace doesn’t make sense and it never will. Grace is unearned and it has to be!

      Grace is the only hope we have, but the question for us is this “would we attend the party?” Our son got out on parole early- will you come and celebrate with us? Our unwed daughter has given birth to an interracial baby. Will you come to her Baby Shower? Our son is getting married to a really nice man. We hope you will stop by and dance to the early morning hours.  Are we, pray tell, more like the loving father or the older brother? Amen!

A DIFFERENT DRUMMER

 

It was many years ago now, but I remember it well. One of our church members had died and he wanted to be cremated. There was nothing unusual about that, but his wife- also a church member- wanted to be present when her husband’s body went through the fire. She believed that fire cleanses us and prepares us to meet our Lord. So, we gathered at the oven and she pushed the rectangular box that contained her husband’s body down the chute and into the fire. Fire is a powerful thing, which can protect us from wild beasts, forge helpful tools… and consume us if we toy with it. Fire- physical, emotional, and spiritual- can inspire us and lift us to greater heights… or it can disfigure us or consume us entirely! And Luke tells us that Jesus said, “I have come to bring fire on the earth. Do not think,” he went on to say, “that I came to bring peace on earth. No, I tell you, but division.” (Luke 12:50-51)

      I’ve come to save your souls and to call you unto myself. I’ve come to lay down a choice, and in just making †he choice, you will be in conflict. In a person’s own family, there will be those who lay up their treasure in heaven and those who don’t; there will be those who go out of their way to welcome a stranger, and those who won’t. There will be those who see Christ in the ordinary and in the least among them, and those who don’t even try! There will be those who seek to know God day-by-day, and those who think such a thing is foolish! There will be those who insist on a small Jesus who will give them what they want and there will the those who trust in a BIG God. Mother Mary put it well in her song- “He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty”. Christ did not come to please everyone, but to invite everyone into a new world order where values and importance and success are turned upside down. And those who say “yes,” will be in conflict with the rest.

      Choosing Jesus put people at odds with the culture in which they lived. Christians didn’t trust in money and if they had it, they shared it generously. Christians didn’t judge or shun others, and they forgave to the point of being foolish. Christians- men and women who embraced the Holy Spirit- simply marched to a different drummer than others did. They sought different goals, they valued different things, and they measured life by a different standard. In short, they were at odds with the world, their own family members, their friends, and even their own former selves… at the very moment they emerged from their baptismal water!.        

 

A friend of mine in the Quad Cities was fond of saying that every man’s temptation is…  sex, but I suspect that every person’s greatest temptation is to worship God on their own terms, and to ask God for more than they are willing to give! We are tempted to believe that much of what Jesus said was hyperbole and that he totally understands why our careers and families are more important than He is. BUT Christ did not die so that he could understand us. He died to save our souls and comes to us with a choice- Him or them. He asked Peter plainly, “Do you love me more than these?” and He asks us the same question today.       Jesus said to his disciples: I have not come to bring peace but division. I’ve come to bring fire in the belly and fire in the soul. I’ve come to offer a way of life that will bring you joy and purpose and also empower you to be of use to the world. I’ve come to draw a line in the sand- on the one side of the line will be those who have rejected my message, or have watered it down to suit themselves- and on the other side of the line will be those who have trusted in me as their Savior and surrendered to me as their Lord. Heaven awaits these fortunate ones, not because they are “perfect,” but because they are faithful.