SERMON: “The story of two sons and an amazing grace. .”
Isn’t it just a wonderful story this parable about the prodigal son, - or as I would rather call it: the story about the two sons. This story gives us a very honest view of the wide complexity of human relationships, as well as painful insights into life-changing moments in our lives and even more the emotions that might drive us: anger, jealousy, bitterness, grief, greed, disappointment, and deep longing love.
Because most of all this story along with the many wonderful parable that Jesus tells us in the gospel, is about the kind of gracious love, deep acceptance and warm welcome that drove the entirety of Jesus’ ministry.
Chapter 15 of Luke is an amazing chapter in the Gospels: A chapter filled with beautiful stories about being lost and being found, about losing and finding. Which is a theme of our lives and beings.
Just before the story about the father and his two sons, there are the stories about: The faithful shepherd with his 100 sheep and then one sheep gets lost: and he does everything in his power to find that one lost sheep.
The woman having 10 silver coins and then she loses one. And she sweeps her house, looks in every corner and nook, until she finally finds the missing coin.
When the shepherd finds his lost sheep and when the woman finds her lost coin, they shout: “Rejoice with me, for I have found the sheep… I have found the coin…..that I thought I had lost…….Rejoice with me!”
The same shout ends the moving story about the father and his two sons: “Rejoice with me, celebrate with me… my son and your brother was lost and now he is found!”
The deep joy that this someone is found and found his or her way back again, is expresed like this in Luke: “Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
With this Gospel it is only fitting to sing “Amazing Grace…. I once was lost , but now I am found…” and as we sing and as we listen to the stories of lost and found, we may reflect on the moments in life, when we were lost, the emotions that we felt and acted on, why and how we were lost; - and more importantly reflect on, how we were found, who found us, what we did find, and when we found our way back home. How we felt that God found us or we found God.
Or maybe some of us feel kind of lost today and long to be found.
As a good old wise friend of mine always says: “We all have our story to tell.” When I marvel over his fascinating and rich life story, I am always reminded: We all have a story to tell and it begins like the story told about the father and his two sons.
Once upon a time …… we all have a story to be told as we are sons and daughters, we are siblings, and we are parents. Through our days and ways, we have experienced to be lost and hopefully to be found.
Is there anything better than to be found when you believe you are lost? Or to reestablish a lost relationship or to reconcile a broken relationship. Or to believe that God loves you, sees you and forgives you ?
Forgiveness, grace and love is at the center of this story and at the center of the ministry of Jesus. Love is at the center of the emotions showcased in this story, as we are given the full human range of emotions: grief, ambition, desolation, hunger, disappointment, bitterness, jealousy, resentment, compassion, love, and joy.
Verse 28 always makes me pause: ”Then he became angry and refused to go in…” At this point the younger son has finally found his way back home, and all the festivities are at full throttle as the older son walks in from the a backbreaking day in the fields, as he has for as long as he can remember. When he hears the news that the celebration is for his younger brother, something erupts in him.
”Then he became angry and refused to go in…”
We understand the embracing love of the father, when he sees his son: any parent understands that love and relief and joyful shout of “Rejoice and come celebrate….” … even if we might also marvel at the gracious welcome, as we also honestly think about a deserved scold, rebuke, punishment and disappointment. “ Mom is not angry, she is disappointed!” We all know these feelings too well.
But what about the older brother. The faithful one. The one who could be trusted. The one who you could count on day in and day out. The one who did exactly what his father expected. The one who stayed home and stayed close.
Don’t we understand his anger? His resentment, his indignation? Maybe he gets angry, because he is tired. What if he is exhausted from years of worry both for his brother but also for his father, and he sought to help as much as he could? Beneath his anger is perhaps also a shock that his brother is alive and well? So, he needs a moment to process it….. And he is hurt, really hurt, as he feels that he was never recognized or acknowledged for what he did all those years. He was faithful in many ways: he stayed home, he worked long hours, he comforted his father and maybe suppressed his owns dreams and longings.
Oh, how we know these feelings and emotions as a sibling. Maybe you traveled out, maybe you settled here in CA, far far away from you parents and siblings in DK, - and maybe there has been some strained relations between the ones who stayed and the ones who left. Maybe you recognize the moments of those who stayed and helped, and those who went away and helped the best they could. Maybe we are both brothers…. And recognize the emotions only so well?
”Then he became angry and refused to go in…” To be honest; have we ever been standing outside, reserved, angry, disappointed, sad and refused to take part of the party, life, love or family ? Or we might know of someone in our family who is still standing out there refusing to come in……. who let bitterness and resentment take away any joy or relationship.
So, it is really a story about us and the two sons. Two lost sons. The older one is lost in his own way: grief, sorrow, bitterness, broken relationships and estrangement, such emotions that we know can grow over time.
And the younger one who gets lost in his own ways, his wish to explore the word which is greater than his commitment to his father and family.
The story ends with the father’s words, so we don’t really know if the older son eventually goes in, or if he stays on the threshold, or if he turns around and leaves. We don’t know if the anger overwhelms the possibility of reconciliation.
But we do know that the father is persistent in his love, in his grace and in his welcome – not only to the younger sons, but to both sons, and that the joyous return of one son shapes his compassionate response to the other. He invites and encourages the other to participate in the gracious welcome and love.
Desmond Tutu wrote in “The Book of forgiving: “A person is a person through other persons. None of us comes into the world fully formed. We would not know how to think, or walk, or speak, or behave as human beings unless we learned it from other human beings. We need other human beings in order to be human. I am because other people are. “
We are because other people are and have formed us for better and worse, have taught us lessons, have shown us the way or maybe the way we shouldn’t walk, and have welcome me back.
We all have a story to tell. And we all have stories to reflect on and maybe to reconcile.
Maybe the anger the older son felt was needed in order for him to mend and heal and be able to feel welcomed and love.
Just think for a moment about your own story. Your family. Your siblings. Your relationships. Your fall outs or your gracious love. How your life is formed by others….
Our stories are related too, as our stories are told in the light of the story of God. Look at the statue of Christ: so welcoming, so comforting, so white… maybe a little bit to white, as our lives are never black or white but every color in-between.
And consider that amazing grace and how your faith is formed by how you feel loved and welcome, found and forgiven.
Look at Christ: his arms spread out, welcoming, embracing and comforting. That is the image of God, that comforts us. That is the image of god, that gives us hope.
Psalm 32 ( The Message)
Count yourself lucky, how happy you must be— you get a fresh start, your slate’s wiped clean.
2 Count yourself lucky— God holds nothing against you and you’re holding nothing back from him.
3 When I kept it all inside, my bones turned to powder, my words became daylong groans.
4 The pressure never let up; all the juices of my life dried up.
5 Then I let it all out; I said, “I’ll come clean about my failures to God.”
Suddenly the pressure was gone— my guilt dissolved, my sin disappeared.
Isn’t that a good description of forgiveness and the power of grace? When we keep it all inside, our bones turn to dust and our words are groans…… it eats us up!
Grace is being lost and being found.
Grace is to believe that God indeed does love us even if we were lost and went astray.
Grace is to believe that God welcome us and embraces us just like the father in that old story… and old story that is still our story.
Amen.