“Immersed in the Love of God”
Scripture Reading: Luke 15:11-32
Sermon Transcript for April 2, 2006
By Pastor Bob Coleman
We continue this morning the “Life with God” series where we are focusing upon what it means to have a life with God. First of all believing that Emmanuel—God is with us! First and foremost God has promised to be with us. In so many ways, through Scripture and through experience, through our lives, through history, through creation, through your presence here this morning—God is with us here this morning--Emmanuel! But we have to choose to be with God. God has chosen to be with us. The parable for this morning is Jesus’ promise and is found in Luke 15. It comes in a series of something that is lost—the Parable of the Lost Sheep, the Parable of the Lost Coin, and then the Parable of the Lost Son. It is a very familiar story. You could probably tell it in its own form maybe not exactly quoting it. But you would get the basic purpose. It is one of those stories that is hard to forget. It’s foundational and that is why I believe, as we’ll look at it today, that it is more than foundational in a good story telling, but that it is foundational in theology expounding who God is in our midst, in our presence for today. Jesus tells the story for a very express purpose. I’ll make a few comments as we read through it and then have further response to it.
Jesus continued those stories about those things that are lost when He says this: “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.” Now that alone is unique. He divided his full property between his two sons—the one who asked for it and the one who did not—leaving technically the father without anything. “Not long after that,” Jesus continues, “the younger son got together all he had and 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. 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 the pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating and no one gave him anything.” You have to understand how terrible that is for this young man raised in the belief that pork was not only a taboo food but is considered an unclean animal. How far do you have to go to be able to do that, so engrained against their teaching that you go and feed that which is unhealthy, unclean and to be avoided at all cost. But then to wish out of is own need to be able to have just what the pigs were eating.
Jesus continues, “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. How particular it is for us to rehearse what we want to say when we know it is going to be difficult. And, indeed, in this case to ask to not be his son again but to be a hired helper, it shows you the great depth of desperation to which he had fallen. Ah, but Jesus continues, “But when he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, threw his arms around him, and kissed him. His son said, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 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 fatted 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.’ Then 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, ‘Your father has killed a fatted calf because he has come back safe and sound.’ The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. Then he answered his father, ‘Look all these years I have been slaving for you and have never disobeyed your orders yet you never gave me even one 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 a fatted calf.’ ‘My son, 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.’ ”
I grew up in a Christian home. I know what it is like not to be a prodigal son. I would suspect many of you fall into that category. You have your own story to tell, but so often this particular scripture focuses on the prodigal son. And there’s no problem with that. But it’s that other son that kind of nags at you; at least it does for me. So I identify with the one who stayed home. I grew up in a Christian home, was raised in the church, had known nothing else all of my life. Oh, maybe for a while in college I sort of quit going, you know how that is. But I never really lost that sense of being a part of something. And then later, at least through other people, God called me into ministry. It wasn’t such a distant thing. I don’t know what it is like to go to a foreign country. But I do know what it is like to trust people who are around me and believe that if they have been coming to church, they should be people I can count on.
It’s a little bit like the little boy who was walking along the beach. He found a woman who was out sunbathing. He went up to her and he said, “Ma’am, I want to know something. Do you go to church every week?” She said, “Well, yes I do.” “Do you pray very often?” “Yeah, I do. I pray all of the time or regularly at least.” “Do you know the Ten Commandment s?” “Yes, I know them all.” “Do you obey all of those Ten Commandments?” “Well, I really try to and believe I do.” He said, “Well then, here, I’m going swimming. Will you hold my dollar for me?” Choose well whom you trust. And if you can find a person who can check off all of those things and honestly answer them, wouldn’t you believe that would be the person that you would trust? But isn’t that the image of the people of the church? The difficulty comes when everybody recognizes that Prodigal Son. He’s the one who can’t save himself. In fact, he has to gravel and come back and ask to be a hired hand, not even a son any more. He’s willing to eat what we say “crow”. He’s willing to eat the pods with the pigs. He was willing to wallow with the pigs in desperation. In fact, we can understand the celebration when he comes back.
But what about us who stay at home taking care of business or about us who are following the commandments being good all of our lives? You see, it is really difficult for us to know what it is like to be the prodigal son if we’ve never strayed or at least not to many. But the truth of the matter is that Jesus is telling the story because both sons cannot save themselves. They guy in trouble, and the most difficult part, is the one who stayed home who believes he has it made and thought he was blessed by the father and was in a protective environment and had blessings all of his life. But he needs to recognize that indeed he cannot save himself. The older brother is crippled by jealousy, bitterness. He cannot force himself even to go inside the house crossing the threshold. His father has to come out to him and plead with him. The younger son had only returned home and he was willing to take whatever he could get even if it meant not to be a son, just to be a hired hand. The older brother used to having everything was acting like a spoiled brat, humiliated his father just as much as the prodigal son who went off and squandered everything with prostitutes and wild living. He can’t even obey the summons from his father to come in for the feast.
Friday as I was coming home from South Bend, Indiana being chased by the line of storms and I was staying just ahead of the weather all the way, I was able to pass the Greenwood exit five minutes before the tornado hit. Now that’s twice in five months that I have missed a tornado and maybe I am not the protected, loved son at home. I’m not sure about that but God and I are working on that. But I did take a picture on my way home yesterday as the clouds hadn’t really began to build yet. And if we could see that one that shows the tree with the light behind it. I took that yesterday. It’s most beautiful because in the west here was this barren tree representing to me the person who was the prodigal son and even the son who stayed home. But behind that barren tree, behind the distrust that God would do, was love represented by the light was flowing constantly and brightly. You see, God is the only one who can say this. It is only the Father who truly loves both sons equally. It is only God who loves us equally no matter whether we are the prodigal or we are the one who stayed home. Only the Father can be the catalyst for our salvation and for the resurrection of both sons. Because you see the Father, God, is willing to humble Himself.
Do you understand the ritual abundance needed to be able to be a father and patriarch in that society? When that son comes up that highway and pathway to the house and the father knows where he has been and who knows (or as they would say in common vernacular “what he’s touched) it would be proper for the son’s father to say to the son, “Go to the priest and become ritually clean before you come in to my presence”. But instead the father humbles himself by saying, “Oh, no, come here let me hold you. You’ve been with pigs and prostitutes. To me that doesn’t matter. You are my son. You were dead. Child, I’ve been concerned; I though you had died. But now that I see that you are alive I want you to come back in to my love, my ways, and I will even embrace you.” Do you understand how serious that is? The father had every right to be expecting the son to be ritually clean at least if not at least take a bath before coming to him. He could not turn down his love. His love looked foolish to the rest of the world and it looks foolish to us. Love only asks that it be aloud to love at whatever cost and that’s what the father did.
But the son who stayed home is like the picture of the house. Notice the darkness of the house, the light of the snow, and as I took that picture the sun was coming out and shining and the reflection is in that window. The son who stayed home had believed that he was like a dark, old house and he did not see the reflection of God’s love in his own life. He could not see that his father had loved him all along that he had the love of God within him, but he began to believe that he did not. You see, this is a watershed principle of the grace of God through the Lord, Jesus Christ. You know what the watershed is? I’ve been fortunate in travel, Joyce and I, to cross the Continental Divide several times. And one time I officially stood on it. And you know what the Continental Divide means in the United States and North America? On any mountain range there is a point where when the water falls by snow or rain, if it falls on one side of that mountain, it flows one direction; if it falls on the other, it flows on the other. And that means on the east side of the Rockies, it flows to the Atlantic and the Gulf; on the west side it flows to the Pacific. The watershed event in the Scripture is this parable because for time and forever now the image is that God loves us with a love that can not diminish. No matter what we do or where we are, God’s love is open all the time. It is like the arms and the love of a father who comes out and pleads with his son, “Don’t be so jealous. You have been with me all along. Everything that I have is yours.” Standing on that great Continental Divide is an awesome experience. But standing on the great Continental Divide of judgment and forgiveness is even greater. Either God loves like this or God doesn’t.
The principle of Christian faith is that God loves. God loves with an openness not one of condemnation of judgment or loathing for us whatever we’ve done or whatever we’ve not done.
On the other hand, God’s love is grace, forgiveness, and love. The water that flows on the side of grace, forgiveness, and love is much more refreshing. Jesus is adamant that this incredible picture of the story that he tells is representative of the truth of God’s love. God’s love for us is spectacular. Let’s have a feast and celebrate! And so the face of a child is one that always brings that sense of hope and belief that in youth, in the child likeness of the child who is loved by the father and loved by the mother without question. That’s the relationship that God offers to us. The simple purity of the face of a child is one that reminds us of the simple purity of the love of God.
The father says, “We had to celebrate. We had to rejoice” There was no question about it. It was clear and pure and simple of what was to be done. This brother of yours, he’s come to us. He was lost but now he’s been found. Father, forgive us who have never strayed for becoming somewhat jealous about the person who comes with a saving faith in Christ late in life. One who’s wasted and squandered all of his things in life, maybe even wasting our inheritance that we had for them, maybe a son or grandson, or child of ours. Forgive us Father for being the ones who have been loved all along and we do not recognize the great gift of His love in our presence.
I read to you earlier parts of Psalm 145. I’m going to read some more of that to you because in this Psalm it brings together the great power of God’s love. It is the power of the Father who loves all of God’s children. The Father in heaven is the father who waits for us to return and loves all of us who have stayed around. “On the glorious splendor of your majesty and on your wondrous works I will meditate. The might of your awesome deeds shall be proclaimed and I will declare your greatness. They shall celebrate the fame of your abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of your righteousness. The Lord is gracious and merciful; slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all and His compassion is over all that he has made. The Lord is faithful in all His words and gracious in all His deeds. The Lord upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look to you and you give them their food in due season. You open your hand satisfying the desire of every living thing. The Lord is just in all His ways, and kind in all his doings. The Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on him in truth.”
The difficulty comes for us to believe that every day that God is loving us when we may face not hardships, difficulties, but things of radical nature. But for those of us who have been in the presence and love of God all the time, just to wake up and recognize that God has loved you all along, has been with you all along, has not necessarily protected you from the things of this world, but has been with you to give you strength and love and grace all along. Either the gospel of Jesus Christ truly means it is available to all people at all times or it is not the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Either this is who God is or there is some other God we are worshiping, some split personality angry with us at one moment and loving us gently in another. It is the gracious love of God that we fight against because we can’t quite believe it is true.
Do you want to have a life with God? It’s as simple as letting God have a life with you and love, and grace, and forgiveness, and peace. As near as your breath it is ours. Each time you inhale and exhale God is with you. Don’t be the prodigal, yet don’t be the ungrateful, jealous child who’d been in the presence of God all along. Let’s turn together for a moment of prayer, “Lord sometimes we have it all in the way the world tells us, but we feel like the barren tree out in the field all alone because we have forgotten that the light of your love is there waiting to surround us, fulfill us, to hold us like the arms of a loving father praying and hoping for us to return and pleading with us to know how much we’ve loved and been loved by. Oh gracious Father, this morning each one here, may they struggle with where they are with You. That they will be released and leave knowing that You are the God of love. May they open themselves as maybe never before or renewed in a way that they need so much to grow. And that your love will flow in them as you have shown us in the life and the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Emmanuel. Be with us. So this morning, gracious Father, may your love grow in and through us as never before. Let us recognize that we are your children and we can live our life with you. In the name of God the Father, God the Son and God of the Holy Spirit, Amen.”
E-mail Comments to: Pastor Bob Coleman