Presented to Swift Current Community Lenten Lunch, 07 March 2013
Presented to Swift Current Salvation Army and CKSW Radio 10 Mar 13
Presented to Swift Current Salvation Army and CKSW Radio 10 Mar 13
by Captain Michael Ramsay
A distinguished, prominent big city pastor cruised through a small town. He became a little turned around and when he was lost and driving through the streets of this prairie town his eyes fell upon a child not more than two feet tall at the door of one of the houses. The boy was on tiptoes valiantly attempting to reach the doorbell. Amused at the efforts of this small boy and wanting to help, the pastor parked his car and went over to assist the boy. He reached up and pushed his finger onto the button and the chimes rang inside. Satisfied that he had done his good deed for the day, the pastor turned to the child,
“Okay, what happens next?”
With a smile the child replied, “Now we run!”
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The pastor of our story today was at a loss, I believe, as he was lost in the prairies. Today we are speaking about the lost. We read the parable of the lost son. This is actually the 3rd parable in a series of 3 or 4 parables. The parable of the lost son and especially the parable of the lost coin and the parable of the lost sheep are all speaking about how important the lost are to God and just how much He will do to bring them to salvation, to bring them back to Him.[1] The next parable after the parables of the lost then goes on to explain just how important this salvation from the Father is. God really loves us. So, to make a gross understatement, it bothers Him when we are lost.
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Who here likes to lose things? How do you feel when you lose your keys? You know that feeling? You think you put them somewhere but they are not there. You are running late. You need to be somewhere and your keys are missing. This is like the parable of the lost sheep.
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Now imagine that you find your keys and you head to the mall and you go in, buy your groceries, you walk to where your car is (or at least where you thought it is) and it is not there. Your car is lost. You look around. You fumble for your fob to try and make the horn honk or the lights blink but it is icy and you have your hands full and you are sure that this is where you left your car but it is lost and you are franticly scanning the parking lot wondering where it might be. This is a parable of the lost coin.
Now imagine that you are still standing there completely disoriented with your hands full in the middle of the parking lot franticly looking for you car and you spot it so you walk over to the car. You are wondering why you can’t get it to unlock and then you realize that it is not your car at all. It is just one that looks like your car. You look around. You can’t find your anywhere and you are really starting to get concerned now because, even though you know you shouldn’t have, you left your two year-old grandchild or daughter or son in the car. This is the parable of the lost son. These are the progressive emotions that Luke is trying to evoke in his original audience here as they read of and hear these parables from Jesus.
These three parables are of the lost: the lost coin (vv. 3-7), the lost sheep (vv. 8-10) and the lost son (vv.11-32). They are a progression of intensity and they all address the questions raised by the Pharisees in verses 1-2 that we read earlier: “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.’”
Jesus answers the muttering in these parables that not only does he welcome sinners and eat with them but Jesus says: Verse 10, “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents”; Verse 7, “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent”; and Verse 32 “…we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’” This is how much it means to God when we His children come to and/or return to His safety and His protection.
Now the primary parable of the lost that we are dealing with today is that of the son. I must admit that it wasn’t my favourite pericope to see that I would be speaking on because it seems that almost everything that could ever possibly be said about this parable has been said already. I have read I don’t know how many journal articles and books on the prodigal son; I have seen I don’t know how many pieces of artwork on the prodigal son; I have heard I don’t know how many homilies, devotional thoughts and inspirational talks on the prodigal son. I have heard sermons spoken from the father’s perspective, from the prodigal’s perspective, from the older son’s perspective and maybe even from the pigs’ perspective. I myself have even written a children’s version of this story many years ago and years before that even I remember playing the prodigal son in a musical when I was an elementary school student back in Victoria, with Emmanuel Baptist Church’s Hosanna Singers.
There is a story was told and re-told quite a bit about one of our performances. It goes like this. I, as a 10 or 11 year-old boy, was playing the prodigal son. My costume was that of an old potato sack. You know the kind. I was wearing that and I had dirt and or stage make-up on. We performed this play on a number occasions and a number of locations. I remember once, we were playing for a smaller audience. We were performing at the inner city Mustard Seed Street Church in downtown Victoria. Because it was a smaller venue, while I was waiting to make my entrance, to return to the father, I was waiting outside in my potato sack on the streets of downtown Victoria – and I believe the door have may even locked on me. So there I was; this child in a potato sack pounding on the door of the street mission as it is time for me to go on stage and along comes a little old lady who instead of letting me in, kindly places a nickel in my hand and tells me everything will be alright and continues on her way. To this day, I think that nickel made me the highest paid actor ever in the history of the Hosanna Singers.
The main thing about the parables of the lost and the parable of the prodigal is that God loves us and He wants us all to be found. He doesn’t want any one of us left outside in the cold on the streets. Verse 10, “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Our repenting, turning to God is so important not only to us but even more so to Him who loves us so much.[2]
There is another aspect to this parable that I should address too and that is the role of the older son in this story. He has an interesting reaction when he come home and finds that his family is having this party that no one apparently invited him to or even told him about. Along these lines, I have another tale about the lost that I would like to share here. This one is based on a children’s story that my eldest daughter shared with me. It is a Canadian book. I believe that it is set on the east coast. There is a family. The father is a fisherman. They live by an area of the ocean that can be particularly treacherous for boats caught in a storm near a place called Ledgy Island.
One day – as I understand the story having only heard it second hand – a young boy named Harold and his pet parrot, who is also named Harold, get up early. The boy Harold goes to play in the attic and the parrot Harold flies to the dangerous Ledgy Island. As the other members of the family wake up and get going for the day a family member calls out, “Where’s Harold?” and a voice from the attic replies, “on Ledgy Island” – the parents start to panic. There is a storm brewing and Ledgy Island is a very dangerous place in the storm so they call out the search parties to look for him on and off the island, they call all their relatives, they call the RCMP, they call the coast guard, they call everyone they can think of to help find Harold the boy whom they fear must be lost in the storm. Now of course, it is Harold the bird who did leave for the island but he arrived there without incident: he is fine. The community is searching high and low for Harold the boy however, who never did leave the safety of his own home.
At some point during the day, Harold the boy, who is playing in the attic hears all the noise as the searchers are gathering below and decides to come down and check it out – it sounds like a party – he walks into the midst of everyone and no one notices him. He sees people watching TV with his face on the TV, he sees the RCMP running around the living room. He sees people everywhere and He sees neighbours bringing over food and Harold figures this definitely must be a party. He stays in the middle of all this activity as – unbeknownst to him – everyone is looking for him and then Harold notices that everyone looking and sounding sad. Nobody is having fun at this party. Some people are crying; nobody looks happy so he pipes up in the middle of this crowd and says, “Some party this is!” It is only then – when they take a break from what they are doing that they see what is right in front of their eyes and they notice that Harold is actually standing in their midst – the lost has been found.
Harold’s reaction to this impromptu party in his honour that he was not aware of is not entirely dissimilar to the older brother’s reaction to the impromptu party thrown in his brother’s honour that he is not aware of. The brother is not happy. In this instance he is not upset as Harold was because everyone is sad. The brother is upset because everyone is happy. Here the brother had always been serving his father. And -as far as we know- he has constantly been doing his best at serving his father and –as the text states- he had never had such an event thrown for him (15:29); but his little brother who had just run off and partied, cavorted with gentiles and eaten with pigs, he all of a sudden shows up again and he’s the centre of all this attention. It’s not fair. He is the good son: the one who has been doing everything right. The sentiment the older son is expressing is, in essence, the same sentiment expressed by the religious leaders off the top of our text, Verses 1-2: “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered: Jesus, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.’” Jesus, God, the father in the parable of the lost son, celebrates when the son turns and returns to him.
This pericope that we have been looking at today has been referred to as, ‘the Gospel of the outcast’.[3] Here at The Salvation Army, our lot have sometimes been referred to as a rag-tag group; we are sometimes thought of as a congregation of prodigals, particularly in downtowns of large urban centres. We have members of our group who meet here on a regular basis, some of whom may not even have what others might consider ‘appropriate’ church clothes; we have members of our group who meet here on a regular basis, some of whom have been living the life of the woman at the well -who have had so many husbands, common-law and otherwise- that she doesn’t know what to do (John 4); we have members of our group who meet here on a regular basis, who have struggled with addiction and have even at times stolen as a means to support that addiction; we have alcoholics who are in various forms of recovery; we have members of our group who meet here on a regular basis who have served time in jail paying for there sins. We also have those of us who haven’t. I don’t know what it is like in the other congregations in town but I hope and I imagine that it is the same in whatever congregation you are a part of in that we welcome home with open arms those who have been left out on the margins of our society. I assure you that those who have been out there really do need to know that the love of Jesus can exist even here in the church.
This is my encouragement today: if we see someone who we do not know sitting next to us here or in your church on this upcoming Sunday; or even more, if we see someone who we do know who has done some things even as bad as the prodigal in our story - squandering his father’s wealth, his inheritance and his promise for the foreseeable future – or worse, do we welcome them with the love of Christ? We need to reach out to even the least and the last of the lost –even those like us - because, Verse 10, “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents”; Verse 7, “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent”; and Verse 32 “…we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’” This is how much it means to God when we his children come to and/or return to His safety and His protection. So for those of us that are already living at home with our Father, let us come in, join the party and celebrate with our brothers and sisters who were lost and now are found, who were dead and are now alive; and for those of us who have not yet come home, if you are here today and maybe thinking of coming to or returning to the Lord, I pray that you will come now and join us at the feast prepared in honour in the Name of the Lord.
Let us pray.
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[1] Leon Morris, Luke: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1988 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 3), S. 254
[2] Cf. Barbara E. Reid, 'Beyond Petty Pursuits and Wearisome Widows: Three Lukan Parables'. Interpretation 56 no. 3 (July 2002): 288
[3] Walter L. Leifeld, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Luke/Exposition of Luke/V. Teaching and Travels Toward Jerusalem (9:51-19:44)/E. Further Teaching on Urgent Issues (14:1-18:30)/4. Parables of joy (15:1-32)/a. The lost sheep (15:1-7), Book Version: 4.0.2: This section begins what Manson (Sayings of Jesus, p. 282) has called the "Gospel of the Outcast." The large body of material in chapters 15-19 is unique to Luke and dramatically shows Jesus' concern for the social outcasts of his day.
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