Sermon for August 26, 2007

Why do people get angry when God extends grace? I mean, we want God's grace for ourselves but can't accept it when God extends grace to certain people on our "no grace deserved" list. I recall an author writing about the conversion of a convicted criminal and how he found it hard to accept God's grace being given to a man who had committed such crimes (can't remember the author or book!). I remember a clergy friend who met and ministered to a man in the county jail. Over the time of their sharing together this man came to Christ and committed his life to Christ. It was after this that the pastor found out why the man was in jail. He shared the struggle he had accepting the fact of God's grace in the life of this man – it was for him a very intense and emotional struggle to forgive as God had forgiven. God's grace is our most powerful and most unused weapon!

Jonah was on the run. Rather than go to Nineveh he ran to the port of Joppa and boarded a boat going in the opposite direction, to Tarshish. His planned failed. He went from Joppa to the belly of a fish, to the shores of Nineveh, to a hillside outside of Nineveh waiting for God's destruction of the city. He had been sent to Nineveh to share God's displeasure with the city and to call for repentance. AND, they repented! But Jonah wanted their destruction. I mean, it is not often you have a front row seat for God's destruction of a city. There in the hot sun Jonah waits. A tree grows and gives him shade. He is pleased. However the next morning the tree dies and Jonah grows angry over the death of the tree. Then comes God. "Jonah, why are you upset over this tree. You did nothing to plant it or make it grow. You had no emotional attachment to it. If you are so concerned about this one tree, should I not be concerned about this non-Israelite city and 150,000+ people? Should I not also extend my grace to them?"

The party is in full swing. There is music and dancing and the sounds reach even to the outskirts of the village. The elder son is on his way home from a day in the fields. Now, he has not been working in the fields. He has been in the shade supervising the day laborers and paying them at the end of the day the agreed upon wage. He would not have spent the day in backbreaking labor, just hard supervising. Now he comes near the village and home. He hears the music and sees the celebration. He knows of no planned party. Parties like this would take planning. Invitations would be sent out and the meal would be prepared in accordance to the number of people who responded. A chicken for 2 - 4 guests. Maybe a goat for 6 to 8. But a party of this size, a fatted calf. The whole village would be there, or most of them! This would take weeks if not months of planning. What is going on? I was not invited to any party.

He asks a servant (young lad) and the boy responds, "Oh, your father is throwing a party for your brother. He has come home." Wait, this is my inheritance. This is my fatted calf. This is what he perceives to be his inheritance but in staying home he had given the father the right of disposition until the father dies. The situation is coming to a head. A forgiven son, a loving father and an angry elder brother.

The elder son has certain responsibilities at any party. He is to greet the guests as they arrive. Show them to their seats. Make sure their wine glasses and plates are full. He is like a slave except that he can talk to the guests. By having the elder son serve, the father is saying to his guest, "You are so important that my sons serve as your servants this night." And the younger son, the prodigal, he is seated in the place of honor next to his father. Is the elder son supposed to serve this son who had disgraced the family? Grace has been extended by the father, now it is the brother's turn. This is not how it is supposed to be. The elder son is not serving as host. Where is he? Does he not know that he is embarrassing his father by his non-attendance? Can you hear the crowd murmur as they wonder and then hear that the elder son is outside and refuses to come in and assume the duties of the eldest son?

Another disobedient son. The father should send his servants out and compel the elder son to come in and do his job. Respect demands the elder son come in and serve the guests, etc. What will the father do with this son? Will he discipline this one? You have let one escape discipline, you cannot let the other. The whole village is watching, the crowd is listening intently, what will the father do?

The father has a different agenda from the tradition of the village. He rises from the table and goes out to the elder son. Is this not how he treated the younger son? The father humiliates himself again in front of the whole village and goes out to meet this rebellious son. By doing so he is also willing to pay for the rebellion of the elder son. But the encounter is not as gracious. The elder son refuses to accept the grace the father offers. His language is one of disrespect. He refuses to address his father in the traditional terms of respect. He prefers to simply say "you." He has broken the relationship with his father and with his brother. He will not welcome his brother back. His "you have never given me" is the same as the "give me" of the younger son. His language is the language of slaves. "I have always obeyed you." In other words, "I have done what I had to do to be your son." There is no love, just obedience until the father dies. "I did what I had to do." Nothing more and nothing less.

"My love has always been here with you." The father has given both sons the same, their inheritance. One stayed home; the other has left and was as dead but now has come home and is now alive. This is a time of celebration. Did not the shepherd rejoice over one found sheep? Did not the woman rejoice over one found coin? This is a time of celebration. The lost son has come home. He was dead and is now alive. There is no other option but a party, in the father's eyes.

It is here the story ends. The parable is not finished. We are left to wonder what happened to the elder son. We do not know how he responded to his father's grace. Well, maybe we do know. The three parables begin with a criticism of Jesus by the Scribes and Pharisees (15:1). They are now plotting to kill Jesus. In the not too distant future they will stand before Pilate and demand death. Maybe we do know the ending. They cannot accept a God whose grace extends to those they have written off as not deserving the unmerited grace and love of the father.

God's grace is unexpected and undeserved. It is available to all those who come home, even those we sometimes question. Philip Yancey has a powerful story in the beginning chapter of What's So Amazing About Grace. He shares the story of a young woman who confesses to a pastor friend that she has been selling her young daughter to men in order to get money to feed her drug habit. It is not that she wants to, but she can earn more selling her daughter once than she can herself for a full evening. The drugs have taken control of her body. She does in desperation what she thinks she needs to do to survive. The story makes one's blood boil. If not, it should!

I copied this story and used it during pastor training seminars in the Philippines. I would give the pastors a copy of the story and have them meet in small groups for about an hour. I would instruct them that this woman has come to them and committed her life to Christ. Now they must decide what they will do with this woman. After about an hour we come together to discuss what they came up with. Some would immediately turn her over to the authorities—she must be punished for her misdeeds. Others would take her to counseling, seeing this as a way to get her life in order. Others would demand she stand before the congregation and confess her sin to the entire church community. Others would let her have church membership but only on a trial basis to make sure she had really changed—they would assign some of the women of the congregation to keep a watch on her. There were other responses but none carried the grace of God. Few if any were willing to forgive. In other words they were saying, "She doesn't deserve grace!"

I would close our sessions and this message by asking, "Is this how God treated you when you came home?" "Is this what God's grace is all about – conditional forgiveness?" "Or, is it about a father's love and grace that we do not fully understand nor deserve?"


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