“Rock Bottom”
Sermon Presented March 14, 2010
Fourth Sunday of Lent – Year C
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
Last Sunday Jeff Bridges won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his powerful performance in Crazy Heart – the story of an alcoholic country-western singer and song writer. Bridges’ character hit rock bottom when he lost the woman he loved because of his alcoholism, and as a result, he decided to turn his life around! After he was rehabilitated, he went to her to see if they might begin again. But it was too late! She still loved him, but had moved on with her life and wouldn’t take him back.
Our parable this morning is without a doubt the most familiar parable told by Jesus. It’s also the longest! You may be so familiar with it that you won’t want to pay attention after I read the text. When you hear the words: “There was a man who had two sons” you already know what happens! Most non-Christians, who hear the words “The Prodigal Son”, can give you the gist of the story.
But the beauty of a parable is that it’s always new, because you and I aren’t the same as we were the last time we heard it. So I invite you to hear this story anew, listening to what God might say to you today. Also notice why Jesus tells the parable. This parable follows two shorter parables – all on the theme of being lost. I’m reading Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32.
This parable provides a different ending than did Crazy Heart! While both resonate with alienation and consequences of reckless living, our parable expands to forgiveness and joy. It shows a clear contrast between relationships based on merit and those based on love. Let’s look at the story again.
The younger of two sons is bored with life on the family farm and asks his father for his share of the inheritance so that he can live life to the fullest. His father acquiesces and this cocky young man leaves with all of the confidence in the world that he can handle his money and freedom. However, he does what others in the same circumstances have done – he squanders his inheritance on riotous living. He lacks the maturity and the desire to make wise decisions.
When his money is gone, so are his friends. He is barred from the casinos and brothels. He’s far from home, alone and destitute, and there’s a famine in the land. He’s too proud to admit failure and go home, so he takes the only job he can find – feeding pigs on a corporate hog farm. He’s a Jew and feeding pigs is the depth of degradation. He’s so hungry that even the food provided for the pigs is appealing. He’s at the bottom of the barrel – and afraid of dying. When he hits rock bottom, he analyzes his situation and makes a decision.
He decides to go home and throw himself on the mercy of his father – pleading with him to accept him as a slave. The text says that he “came to himself” and when he does, he knows what to do. He realizes that he has sinned against both God and his father, and that’s a huge acknowledgment. He understands that the alternative to going home is death, so he swallows his pride and takes the first step to turn his life around. He leaves the pigpen and hits the road – not knowing what kind of reception he will receive. He is ready to admit his mistakes and throw himself on the mercy of his father.
This young man is weak and filthy. He has no cell phone to call ahead and no motel room or Laundromat so he can clean-up, but he keeps going just as he is – hoping to be received. As he approaches the farm, he sees that his dad is scanning the horizon. However, only a loving parent could recognize or accept this emaciated and manure-encrusted young man. But when his dad sees him, he hikes up his robe, and dashes toward him shouting for joy.
After a loving embrace, his father calls for a robe, a ring and sandals – signs of acceptance and honor. No lecture or “I told you so!” By his actions, he says that all is forgiven and that his son can pick up where he left off. His inheritance is gone, but he’s home and his father lets everyone know of his joy by throwing a gala celebration. Everyone can see that all is forgiven as undeserved favor is lavished on this younger son.
However, his older brother misses the party. He doesn’t even know of his brother’s return until he hears the celebration when he returns from a long days’ work. When the servants tell him the reason for the party, this self-righteous and judgmental older brother is furious! When his father comes out to speak to him, he denounces his relationship with his brother. It’s “your son” and not “my brother”. He’s the obedient one who probably doesn’t experience much joy working on the farm because he speaks of “working like a slave for you.” He isn’t into parties that aren’t for him, and he sure resents a party thrown for his younger brother, so he refuses to attend.
As you know, you can’t argue with someone who believes he or she is right. They (we) can’t see beyond our anger and resentment to hear the loving words of a different kind of reasoning. Churches are filled with self-righteous older brothers and sister who don’t want to hear that God loves everyone equally, who expect to hear judgment and not grace, and who don’t want to accept the wanderer home, let alone celebrate the homecoming. Resentment can keep us from the party!
When I was in college, a man from my home church was convicted of embezzling from the bank where he worked and went to prison. Carl and his wife Evelyn were friends of my parents and part of a group of about 10 or 12 adults that went out after church every Sunday night after church services. This was quite a blow to everyone in the group.
When Carl was released from prison, the pastor of the church organized a “welcome home party” for Carl. I was appalled! It looked to me – and many others in the church – as though the minister was condoning the embezzlement. It seemed more appropriate to let him slip back in without all of the fanfare.
When I re-read the story of the Prodigal Son last week, I thought of Carl and the pastor – who himself was relieved of duties several years later because of his alcoholism. My judgmental attitude toward both Carl and the minister haunts me today. It’s much easier for church people to offer judgment instead of grace.
By all rights, this story should end with the younger son sweating in the fields, eating in the slave quarters, and spending his days serving his father and older brother. That would be justice. The welcome given by the father was completely unexpected and undeserved – not justice but grace.
Last Wednesday on ABC Nightly News, there was the story of a proposed law in Uganda to condemn all homosexuals to death. It all began about a year ago when a group of evangelical Christians from the United States went to Uganda and stirred up hatred against gays. Some Christian ministers in Uganda then picked up the gauntlet and fueled the fire. They have self-righteously put themselves in a place of judgment over people whose hearts they cannot know. What does Jesus’ parable say to them – to us?
This is a story that Jesus told. He told it to the religious leaders – the elder brothers and sisters – who resented his attention to and acceptance of sinners. Today, we remember his stories – and we remember his life that paralleled those stories. Jesus loved and accepted prostitutes and swindlers – the outcasts of society – the prodigal daughters and sons that he encountered. He showed the importance of loving all people.
Our problem is that we don’t want to love all people. We want a person to earn our love or at least deserve it. It really helps us to love them if they believe the same as we – theologically, politically and socially. If they don’t, we want them to change and become like us. But thankfully, God isn’t like that. God is loving and kind to all and wants to fill that God-shaped vacuum within us with God’s own self, no matter who we are. God is love and stands with arms wide open to receive those who want to come home.
Remember that Jesus tells this story – and two others – because of the complaints launched against him for associating with sinners. He must have made his point, because some wanted to kill him.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu wrote these words in God Has a Dream: “’I have a dream’, God says. ‘Please help me to realize it. It is a dream of a world whose ugliness and squalor and poverty, its war and hostility, its greed and harsh competitiveness, its alienation and disharmony are changed into their glorious counterparts, when there will be more laughter, joy, and peace, where there will be justice and goodness and compassion and love and caring and sharing. I have a dream that swords will be beaten into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks, that my children will know that they are members of one family, the human family, God’s family, my family.’” (Michael B. Curry, Feasting on the Word Year C, Volume 2, p. 121)
Within God’s family, we need to receive one another with a spirit of love and celebration. That way, we can participate in God’s kingdom and enjoy bigger and more joyful parties!
03/14/2010
