September 5, 2004

Marietta T. Smith

I’ve often wondered what would happen if we pronounced the benediction after a song. Aren’t we blessed with musical talent in this Church? And I’m not saying that just because one of the musicians this morning happens to be my daughter-in-law, but aren’t we blessed to have musical talent in this Church, with Patsy and Paige and Nora and all the wonderful music that we have. God has certainly truly blessed us.

And now, some of you have probably heard that I changed the sermon at the 8:45 service after hearing Patsy sing. As a matter of fact, I had the impression that I should do it before she sang, and while she was singing I was turning in my other Bible to find the parable of the lost son. And I said, “God, if you intend for me to preach this text this morning, You better help me find it, because I don’t know where it is.” Well, I was looking in Matthew where my other text was, and I flipped over, and there was Luke and it didn’t take me long to find it. Luke 15, beginning at verse 11. Now, I want you to pray for me as I preach because I went back to my office and made a few notes, so this version, of course, won’t be the same as the 8:45 version.

Luke 15: 11-24

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 men 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 men.' 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. "

Well, as I have already said to you, sometimes God directs us to do things we don’t understand, and as Patsy was singing at the 8:45 service, I began to have the feeling that I should preach on the Prodigal Son.

You know, this young man, I don’t know how old he was, when he went to his father and said, “I want my money, Dad. I want what’s coming to me, Dad.”

So we don’t really know how old he was but it kind of reminds me of the story about the young man who thought when he was in his teens that his dad was awfully dumb and just didn’t know anything. When he got to be twenty-one or twenty-two, he thought, you know, Dad might have been pretty smart after all. And by the time he reached his thirties and forties he thought, boy, my dad was the smartest man who ever lived, and the older I get, the smarter I realize my dad was.

But this young may wanted to take his share of the estate and go out and live the good life. So his dad divided the estate and he packed up his belongings and he left and went into a distant country, a far country. And he began to party and eat and drink and carouse, and I don’t know whatever else; you just let your imagination run wild about all the things that are available today for people to squander money on; he did it.

And finally the day came when the money ran out and he was left without any visible means of support. And so he went and hired to a farm place and the farmer assigned him the offensive duty of feeding the pigs. He had to go feed the pigs, how ever many times a day you feed pigs. Here he was a young Jewish man who thought that swine were dirty and they weren’t supposed to touch them or have anything to do with them, but he had to feed the pigs. And it was a humiliating job for him to come to after he had been in the pinnacles of wealth and position, finally to come to this, in the dirty, smelly pig lot or pig pen — whatever you call them today. There he was, so hungry that he could have eaten the pods that he fed the pigs, but nobody would give him anything. He was like so many of us: He wanted to be free to live the life we want to live. We want to be free to do the things we want to do, and God is over here somewhere — if we need Him. And usually we don’t need Him unless we get into real hot water. Real big trouble. And then we say, “God, please help me. I need Your help.” But this young man, it took a lot for him to come to the realization that he had made a mistake in his youth.

Often it takes tragedy to bring us to the point that we realize that we’ve made a mistake in leaving God out of our lives. It brings us to our knees, or worse yet, it makes us flat on our backs where the only way we can look is up to the God who created us, to the God who blessed us with life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness, to the God who is so willing to guide us and direct us if we let Him. He really had hit rock bottom. It was really a degrading job for this young man to feed those pigs. He came to himself, the story says. He realized that deep within himself something was terribly wrong, and that here he was eating the pig stuff and the hired hands at his father’s place had better food to eat and better clothes to wear and a better place to sleep than he did.

And so he said, “I will arise and go to my father.” And I can just imagine his thoughts as he makes his way home:

So, he begins to make his way home. Now I can imagine the father — he knew his son well enough to know that if he gave him his inheritance too early he would go out and do exactly what he did.

You know, there is a quote I like from C. S. Lewis, and I believe it’s from his book, The Great Divorce that says, “There are those that say to God, ‘Thy will be done.’ And there are those to whom God says, ‘All right. Have it your way, but you’ll be sorry.’”

And I guess that’s what this dad to say to his son: “Okay, son, I’m going to give you what you are entitled to but you’ll be sorry.”

I can imagine this dad, dismayed at his son’s youthful arrogance, who wanted to go live his own way and follow his own path — yet realizing that this man needed to do just exactly that to learn some lessons of life. You know, we are this way. We want to go our own way. We want to do our own thing. We want to follow the devices and desires of our own hearts and we want God to come and rubber stamp what we do. We never seek His guidance or His direction about life. And then, all hell breaks loose and we think: God, why did You let this happen? God, why are you doing this to me? When in reality we have done it to ourselves, by the very fact that we have forsaken the God who made us.

“Is it possible that you can hear me?”, the young man said. The song says, “Is it possible You can hear me after the way I turned from You?” The young man in our text came to the realization that he had gone astray and that he needed to go home. And yes, God did hear him, and yes, God does hear you and me when we go astray.

God has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you.

He has said, Lo, I am with you, even until the end of the world.

God was even with this young man in the hog pen and he is even with us in the hog pens of life. Whatever hog pens we find ourselves in, God is there. And whatever depths we have sunk to, God is already there saying, “I have been waiting to bring you back. I have been waiting to take you back.

So, the young man started home. And I can imagine that dad — it says, when he was a great distance away — I can just imagine that dad had been going out to the road to look for him everyday, to see if there was a little cloud of dust coming up the road that would indicate that there was a traveler. And I can just imagine that dad standing there thinking, do I see a little cloud of dust down there? Could it be that that’s my son? Could it be that he’s coming home? And finally he realizes that it is his son and he runs to meet him and throws his arms around him and he says, “Oh, my son, my son, you’ve come home!” And he kisses his son all over his face and he stands and just looks at him and he hugs him some more and it is just such a joyful reunion of father and son.

And he goes back to the house and he says, “Okay, servants, bring me a clean robe and bring me the best sandals and go kill that fatted calf we’ve been saving. And put a ring on my son’s finger and put the sandals on his feet and let’s get him cleaned up. My son has come home. My son who was dead is now alive.”

You may think, like the son thought, that you are not worthy of God’s love. You may think that there is no price that God would pay for my dirty, stinking soul. And we might say to God, “I’m not worth all this, God. I’m not worthy; I’ve done too many bad things.” But God says, “Oh, yes. You are worth it. You are worth any price that I have to pay and the price I have paid is with the life of My Son. Yes, you are worth it.” Let us pray.

. . . . .By the power of the Holy Spirit, Lord, we come back. We come back to You and give our lives afresh and anew. We come back to you and we say, “We’re not worthy,” and You say, “Yes, you are. I gave my Son for that very reason.” So Lord, here we are. You call us o’er the tumult of life’s wild restless sea. You call us to go out and do the deeds of love and mercy that build up Your Heavenly Kingdom. You call us to go out into the highways and hedges and find those who need to come back to You and love them back into the Kingdom. Oh, God, we come back today. In Jesus’ name. Amen.