Preached this Sunday at Murray Christian Church

Well today we went to visit the good folks at Murray Christian Church.  It was great spending a bit of time with all of them and I received many compliments on the sermon.  They are a wonderful group and Gail, Maddie and I all had a great time worshiping with and meeting everyone.  I will be back to preach for them again on October 12th and we're already looking forward to that visit as well.

The camcorder gave Gail some issues so parts of the sermon ended up not getting recorded, so rather than posting up a fragmented video I'll just post up the manuscript that I prepared for the sermon.

It's late now so with this I'm going to close.  May this brief blog post find you all well and richly blessed.

In God's unending Grace & Love,

Roy

Sermon September 28^th – Murray Christian Church

Good morning, as Bill said earlier my name is Roy Karlen and I am a graduate of Cotner College's “Educating Lay Ministry Program” or ELM. ELM is a three year program started by the Disciples of Christ to train lay people to take on roles in formal ministry. It is an ecumenical program with students from the Presbyterian Church, the United Church of Christ, American Baptists and of course the Disciples of Christ.

My wife Gail and my daughter Madeline are here with me this morning and we are all very happy to have this chance to come down and be with you all today. Both Gail and I very much enjoy small churches, and it's always a pleasure to come to a more rural area to worship with God's good people.

I will confess that I am not a smooth and necessarily eloquent preacher, rather as I relayed to Bill and the others I consider myself more of a teacher than a preacher. In all of my sermons there is an element of teaching thrown in with the sermon.

But before we go any further let's go before the Lord in Prayer:

O'God we desire your presence with us here today. Lord, still our restless spirits, that with quiet minds and reverent hearts we may hear your voice and genuinely worship you.

Prepare our minds and hearts O'God, that through your word, read and proclaimed, Christ may come to dwell within us, and ever rule over our thoughts and affections as the Lord of our lives. AMEN

When I visited with Bill concerning what to preach about today, I asked him if the sermons normally followed the Lectionary. He told me some of the time, but not recently, and to feel free to preach over whatever was my favorite sermon or scripture. Well, one of the things I like about preaching from the Lectionary is that it often forces you to preach from scripture that you might not normally chose to preach over. And as to trying to pick one's favorite scripture to preach, well that's tough because as you all may know... there's a lot of good stuff in here.

So, I decided to discuss with you all what I see as the 'Nature of God'. Well, of course there is no shortage of passages that I could go to in preparing this sermon, which could make for a very, very long sermon... and that I am afraid, would not make me very popular with you all. But as it so happens to be, there is one passage of scripture that I personally believe we simply have to consider when trying to discern the character and nature of God. So in this sermon we're going to look at this passage and the two parables immediately preceding it, as we try to understand a bit about the nature of God.

Often times when we're asked what is the nature of God we respond just like Karl Barth in the story that I shared with the children this morning. “Jesus Loves me...”, God is love, or we mention, forgiving, grace-filled, all powerful, omni-present, even salvic as in salvation. But there is one aspect of God that all too often we fail to consider, and in my humble opinion it is the over arching character and desire of our sovereign God. I believe that this aspect of God's nature is driven by His overwhelming love for each of us and for his entire creation but none-the-less it is again for me anyway, the aspect of God's nature that is the most profound. There likely is no bit of scripture that more clearly outlines this characteristic of God, than the scripture that we are going to explore this morning.

The Passage we're going to consider is the parable commonly known as the “Prodigal Son”, though it's also called the “Loving Father”, or sometimes “The two sons”, but all of us likely think of it as the story of the “Prodigal Son”.

This Parable is found only in the Gospel of Luke and not mentioned in any other canonical or non-canonical writings. Luke and Acts contain some of the best Greek to be found in the NT and as such it is believed that the author was more highly educated than most writers found in the NT, with the exception of the book of Hebrews which contains the highest and best Greek in the NT. The Gospel of Luke was likely written sometime around 75-90 ad, and after the completion of the Gospel of Mark. This is commonly believed because it seems fairly obvious that the author of Luke as well as the author of Matthew had a copy of the Gospel of Mark at their disposal. It is believed that these two authors also had a copy of a document known as 'Q' or Quelle which means 'Source'. The fact that the story of the Prodigal Son is only in Luke leaves us to believe that either the writer of Matthew chose to leave it out for some reason, or that it came from an additional source, one that only Luke had available.

At any rate, the story is central to the Gospel of Luke and so central that if one of my commentaries is to believed the parable lies right at the center of the Gospel as it is written in the Greek.

With that let's get to the parable of the Prodigal Son, we all know the story, but let me paraphrase it...

We have the younger son who comes to his father, and asks his father for his inheritance early. Now under Jewish law the father is to leave upon his death 1/3 of his possessions to the younger son and 2/3's to the older son. But going to the father and asking for his inheritance in a patriarchal society is the same as telling your father you wish he was dead.

Disrespectful to say the least, but the father for whatever reason agrees and gives his son his portion. Well, the son of course takes off for parts unknown and proceeds to blow his entire inheritance on wine, women and song. Presently, he finds himself flat broke. So broke that he has to hire himself out to a farmer who sends him to tend the hogs. Now please understand you just can't sink much lower as a good Jewish boy than feeding and tending to pigs for Jewish law says “Cursed is he who feeds swine”.

Eventually, he comes to his senses and realizes that his father's servants have it far better than he, for they have enough to eat and shelter. So he decides to go home and beg his father to let him work as a servant for him. He gets home and he enters with great apprehension the great hall where at the far end his father sits on a chair with the older brother standing at his right side. On his hands and knees the younger brother approaches his father and tearfully begs his father, to allow him to return and to work as a servant for him. After a long.... silence and a heavy and unrelenting glare the father speaks. “Take your things and go to the bunk house and take your place with the rest of the servants”. The older brother silently nods his approval, after all the father has displayed fairness and justice in his dealing with the younger brother.

Of course, as we all know this isn't “EXACTLY” the way the parable goes. Let's go to the scripture and read the passage as translated in the NIV.


Luke 15:11-32New International Version (NIV)
The Parable of the Lost Son
11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
13 “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. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 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.
21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

22 “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. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on.27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’
28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 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. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.32 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.’”


So, let's unpack this a little bit and note what is going on in this story. The son as I said earlier, disrespects his father by requesting his inheritance, and then leaves. Basically, telling the father he wishes he's dead and then proceeds to waste all the money that his father had given him.

The son then returns intending to ask to be able to work as a hired hand, but unlike in the way I told the story... the son does not approach the father on his hands and knees pleading for grace. Rather the father 'RUNS' to the son, while the son is still a far ways off... throws his arms around him and kisses him. Now as I'm sure you have all heard before, in Jewish culture one of the things adult men did not do was run. It simply was not dignified and would have attracted a great deal of unwanted attention. This is radical behavior on the father's part.

Before the son can even get out the nature of his desire to come and work as a servant, the father answers the sons statement of 'no longer deserving to be his son'. Did you catch what the father did and said?

He turned and cried out for the servants to bring the “BEST” robe, a ring and sandals. The robe is a symbol of honor, the ring is a symbol of authority, and the sandals are a symbol of being part of the family... his child. Slaves and servants weren't commonly provided with foot ware. The father has brushed aside the son's comment about 'not being a son', and instead ordered him to be adorned in the 'best robe', a ring and sandals.

What has the father done for the son here? All of these items are symbols of reconciliation. The father has restored the son, he has given him back his position in the family. The position that the son himself rejected and dishonored.

As I stated earlier, we often list among the attributes or nature of God, Love, Grace, Forgiveness, even Salvation. But it seems to me that in this parable the over arching nature of God is reconciliation, a restored, as before, relationship. All of these other attributes are stepping stones to get to reconciliation. God's greatest desire is the restoration of the broken relationship between all of us and God. There is no “I will forgive but not forget” here in this story. Here the father not only forgives but immediately forgets all the disrespect and insult, all the 'sin', and restores the son to his original relationship to the father and also the family.

This great desire for reconciliation is of course driven by God's love, but it goes beyond love. God's love is 'relational' he wants us to be with Him, he wants us to be in a mutual relationship with Him. The father calls for there to be a celebration, but why... what does the servant tell the older brother when he asks what is 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 younger son is 'back', back in proper relationship to the father and the family... he is restored, reconciled.

Generally it is said that in Chapter 15 in Luke, there are three stories about God and 'lost' things, but there are really four lost here. The first two we heard in the scripture reading before the sermon, the lost sheep and the lost coin. Here God is actively searching for the lost, to bring them back, back into his presence. With the prodigal son, the father races to him and embraces him before any confession is offered. And finally, we have the older son. He has refused to join the rest of the household in celebrating the return of his brother. Rather, due to his arrogance, ego, and envy he has chosen to remain 'outside'. He is in effect lost to the family as a whole. The father comes for him and urges him to come to the celebration.

The older son out of envy, jealousy and ego attacks the younger brother, denying his relationship to him by calling him “this son of yours”, rather than recognizing him as his brother. The father reminds him gently that “your brother” has returned and is no longer lost to them.

The parable ends without letting us know what the older brother does. Does he come into the home and join the celebration? And what theological point can be made by the desire of the father for the older son to join in anyways? The father has already pointed out that their relationship to one another remains intact, there is no need for reconciliation here as the older son has always been with him.

But there is more reconciliation to be done here, there is more to God's nature, and will, to be learned from this short tale. The father not only wants his son's to each be reconciled to him, he wants them to be reconciled one to the other. God wants a reconciled creation. If we look at all three of these parables the lost is not only returned to God, but to the group, the flock, the remainder of the coins, the family.

His invitation for reconciliation stands open to us all at all times to enter into the celebration and to be reunited not only with God but with all our estranged brothers and sisters. Above all else this God we all love so much, is a God of reconciliation.

Let us close with a prayer.

Dear Father, Abba, we come to you humbly and freely accept the grace that you provide to us, grace given despite our sins against you in thought, word and deed. Lord, we thank you for your love and forgiveness and we cherish above all else our relationship to you, we also thank you for the relationships that you have blessed us with in our families, our friends, our fellow believers and all our fellow human beings. Truly, all are a part of your grand design and creation. Dear God, let us always be mindful of your directions in this world and let us be your hands and feet in this place. Father, we look forward to the day when through your direction all shall be reconciled to you and to each other.

We pray this in your most Holy and Blessed name, AMEN.