Luke 15:1-3

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them." So Jesus told them this parable: "There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.' So the father divided his property between them. 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. When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. 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. He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. 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! I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands."' 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. 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.' 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. And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!' And they began to celebrate. "Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. The slave replied, 'Your brother has come and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.' Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. 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. But when this son of your came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!' Then the father said to him, 'Son, you are always with me and all that is mine is yours. But he had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.'" Prayer: Heavenly Father, Bring us home to you, whether we are far away or just a little separated from you. Guide us that we might find your will. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen. This is probably the best-known parable in the Bible. Some people say it is the finest short story ever told. I have found that no one hears this story without reacting. Some people are reassured by the story; some are uncomfortable with the story; and some people are both reassured and thrown off balance by the story. Because the parable brings out strong feelings, it is difficult for me to preach to you about it. Most preachers focus on the return of the prodigal son and how he is welcomed home. It is a wonderful story from that point of view. The boy is forgiven and accepted as if he had never left home. As much as I would love to give a nice, comfortable sermon of grace, there is more here than the story of the younger brother. There is also the story of the elder brother. His story is painful. While many us would like to see ourselves welcomed home, we know that we are much more like the elder brother and he feels left out. The story leaves many of us feeling left out and guilty for feeling that way. I can't preach the simple sermon on the return of the prodigal son because I can't ignore the elder brother. He has been left out enough. So today we are going to talk about both the younger brother and the elder brother. If you have ever felt separated from the love of God, this parable may be your story. In one way or another, both sons felt separated from the love of the father. The younger son separated himself from the love of his father. He essentially excommunicated himself. I went through five years excommunicated from God. Some of you know that I was married and divorced as a young woman. It is now over twenty years ago, but it is still hard for me to talk about. It is painful to remember and I am ashamed still of that failed marriage. So I don't talk about it much. Although I am ashamed that I was divorced, I always remind myself that my first marriage was destructive. But maybe the most heartbreaking thing about my first marriage is that when it ended in divorce, I felt so ashamed that I couldn't come to church. I felt beyond God's grace. No one stood at the doors of the church and blocked my way. No one excommunicated me. I excommunicated myself. But the Lord found a way to bring me back. I adopted my daughter, Deborah. Being unable to go to church when I was living by myself was ok, but not getting Deborah, a ten-year-old child to church was not ok. On my own, I couldn't go into the church, but holding my daughter's hand, I could return. I was the prodigal mother. My daughter brought me home. When the prodigal son left for a far country, he was doing much more than leaving to see the world. He was dramatically cutting himself off from the sacred legacy of his homeland. "More than disrespect, it [was] a betrayal of the treasured values of family and community…[In this case] leaving home [was] a denial of the spiritual reality that [the prodigal] belonged to God with every part of [his] being…Leaving home [was] living as though [he] did not yet have a home and must look far and wide to find one." [Henri Nouwen, The Return of the prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming, (New York: Doubleday, Image Books, 1993), pp. 36-37] Sooner or later, almost all of us forget that our spiritual home is in God. When we forget, we often need someone who can help us find our way home. I think my daughter was the perfect person to do that precisely because she was a child. She was not threatening to me-she did not judge me as harshly as I judged myself. It was not easy for me to accept God's grace upon my return to the church. It took a long time for me to realize that it was harder for me to forgive myself than it was for God to forgive me. These days, I feel at home here in the church. I no longer feel like the lost son. As a matter of fact, sometimes I have more in common with the elder son. Some of you may feel like you can relate more to the elder son, but that might make us feel uncomfortable. I remember about twelve years ago I was teaching a Bible study on this parable. I was in seminary and on the weekends I assisted at a small country church. We spent an hour studying the passage, verse-by-verse, and talking about grace and forgiveness. As we finished I asked if anyone had anything they wanted to say. A lovely, faithful, and marvelous woman said, "I know that this parable is about grace, but I am still sure that Luke just forgot to include the father's reprimand of his son. I know it was supposed to be in there." The truth is lots of us can't figure out why the younger son is accepted without a word of reproof while the faithful elder brother seems to be pretty badly treated. The younger brother has been hurtful and irresponsible, but he is accepted back not as a hired hand but as a son. It is hard to accept. If we are honest with ourselves, don't we relate to the angry elder brother? I can still remember how I felt when I found out how difficult life had been for Deborah before she came to live with me. At the time, I thanked God that we lived 800 miles away from the people who had initially raised her. For I don't know what I would have done if they had lived close by. My anger was profound. When I think about the elder son, I remember feeling that way because these people got away free. They didn't deserve to be free. They deserved punishment. I was talking to my sister Jean about this problem of people being forgiven who don't seem to deserve it. She asked if I had ever read The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis. I got a copy of the book and found it a quick read. The premise is that from Hell you can take a bus to the borders of Heaven. In a dream the author finds himself on one of these trips and he learns to his astonishment that the damned aren't required to return to Hell. They can stay in Heaven if they wish and if they are willing to forego their most precious sins. The author follows several different people as they struggle to come to terms with the choices they have to make. The story that most directly relates to our parable is about one man who comes on the bus because he feels it is his right to be in Heaven. He feels he has earned it. He did his best in life and as far as he is concerned, he never did anything wrong. He has come to get his rights. The shock for him is that the person who meets him in Heaven is a man he knew in life who murdered someone. They have quite a lively exchange, but the result is that the clean living man chooses to return to Hell rather than live in Heaven with a forgiven murderer. I didn't enjoy reading The Great Divorce. I remembered my anger that those who had originally raised my daughter seemed to go unpunished. Why does God allow that? Why does Jesus tell stories about irresponsible, sinful people being welcomed with open arms, while we have been behaving all along? There is no way to understand. It is grace and grace is a puzzle. Frederick Buechner in his book describes grace this way: "A crucial eccentricity of the Christian faith is the assertion that people are saved by grace. There's nothing you have to do. There's nothing you have to do. There's nothing you have to do. The grace of God means something like: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn't have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It's for you I created the universe. I love you. There's only one catch. Like any other gift, the gift of grace can be yours only if you'll reach out and take it." [Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking, a Theological ABC, (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers), pp. 33-34] We cannot earn the grace that God freely gives. Since we are used to doing the right thing, it is hard to accept that heaven isn't based on doing the right thing. All we have to do is our best. "Dr. Donald Shelby, the California United Methodist preacher, told of a terrible storm on Lake Michigan in which a ship was wrecked near the shore. A Northwestern University student, Edmond Spenser, went into the raging water again and again and single-handedly rescued seventeen people. When friends carried him to his room, nearly exhausted and faint, he kept asking them, 'Did I do my best?' In the presence of Christ we ask, 'Lord, did I do my best?'" That is all the Lord asks us to do, our best. That is grace. We have talked about relating to the prodigal son and we have talked about relating to the elder son. But we mustn't get too stuck in relating to the sons. We are called beyond the sons. We are called to grow in graciousness, so that we might join the Father in sharing grace, but that is another sermon. Amen.