Sermon Index
March 6, 2016 -- Lent 4 -- Joint Service
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Now the tax collectors and “sinners” were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Then Jesus told them this parable: “There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’ So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate. “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ ”‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’” |
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In the kids sermon we talked about the prodigal son who ran away and wasted his father’s money, and then came to his senses and returned home. Now let’s talk his father.
The father too was a prodigal, not in the meaning of being wasteful, but in the sense of being lavishly abundant, extravagant. He was extravagant with his love. He loved his son from the beginning. I am sure that it broke his heart when the son said, “Give me what is my share of the inheritance.” Inheritance is usually given when someone dies, so it means that the son wanted to cut all ties with his father, as if the father were already dead. It was a great shock. But this father loved his son so much that he gave him what he wanted. He loved him so much that he knew that if he didn’t, the son would never know the father’s love anyway, that the son would always be hating the father. It was this love that let the son go. And it was this same love that waited every day for the son to return. Not just waiting, but looking up the road constantly, searching the horizon to see if he were coming. That is the feeling I get when I read verse 20, “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.” That was love. He didn’t want to hear the son’s confession. He had already forgiven him. Love for his son turned into a welcome-home celebration. “Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” All that out-pouring of love is like a prodigal father!
Love can be wasted, you know. But the great thing is that there is an infinite supply of it. So even if it is wasted on people who do not deserve our love, or who do not return the love, or who do not even know who is loving them, it is okay. This is how God loves the world, and so little of that love is appreciated by his children, the people of his world. God is the original prodigal Father, and Jesus is the original prodigal Son who leaves his Father’s home with the inheritance of the Kingdom of God and starts giving it away to everyone who will receive it. He gives love; he gives the inheritance of eternal life. And when he was arrested and in bad straits, just as in the parable, the friends of Jesus left him. Then he took the most degradable work of the cross upon himself and became a sinner for us all. He never lost his senses, but he did die. And on the third day he arose. In the Holy Communion we celebrate the Easter feast, “He was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!” We have to celebrate and be glad!
In the kids sermon I said that children can come home in confidence because they know that their mother and father love them. It is the job of parents to create that sort of home to which children feel safe in returning to. Kids are going to be naughty. Teenagers are going to rebel. Grown kids are going to go their own way. But parents have to learn from God the father how he has welcomed them home after they have wandered off. It is love, it is forgiveness, it is being like the prodigal father.
Not only in the family, but in many aspects of our lives—family, friends, school, work-- we need to be like that Prodigal Father.
One little story of how I have learned the meaning of this parable. My dog's name was Katie. Sometimes she was a "prodigal dog." In Japanese, “prodigal son” is “ho-to- musuko” but my dog was a "ho-to- inu, ho-to- doggu," but she thought she was a "hotto doggu!" She was a good dog but if she got free, she loved to roam around the neighborhood. Well, I thought I had to teach her to stay home, so when she returned I spanked her and told her to get in her dog house. After a few times, it backfired on me. She thought she would be punished if she came home, so would stay out longer, sometimes sitting across the street, afraid to come home. I wised up and realized that it was only going to be through love to get her to come home and be happy about it. A few cookies and no more spankings. She still liked to roam about the neighborhood, but soon came home. She knew there was love there. That is why we keep returning to God our Father's home. Because that is where love is.
Amen.
Michael Nearhood, Pastor
Okinawa Lutheran Church