Third Sunday after Trinity - June 28, 2009

The Church Season of Pentecost
The Third Sunday after Trinity, One Year Series
Our Savior Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (June 28, 2009)

“The Love of the Father”

Readings:
Psalm 103 verses 1 - 13
Micah 7:18-20
1 Peter 5:6-11
Luke 15:11-32

Sermon Form Deductive

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Grace, mercy and peace be to you from the Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen

The text for today is as recorded in the Gospel Lesson from the 15th chapter of St. Luke, especially the following verse:

Luke 15:31-32 (NIV)
“ ‘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.’ ”

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

There is a saying that goes something like this, “Their belly is full, but they’re still hungry.” This saying means that there are different kinds of hunger. Meaning, you can be full of food, yet still be hungry for the greater things in life. Maybe that’s more easy for us to understand, for in fact we are hungry for the people, places, and things of this world that would make our lives much, much better than they are now. In the Parable of the Lost Son we not only hear of that hunger for things, but we also hear of a man who was driven so low that he would hunger for the food of pigs. Quite an adventure for this young man, from the love of his father, to the love of his father’s money. From the short lived happiness of from found wealth and wild living, to be faced with famine in all aspects of his most basic human needs. None of what happened for that young man was the way he thought it would play out. In fact, he might even think that he didn’t get what he deserved with every move he made and if he thought that he would be right. And actually, if you really think about it, both sons in this parable are two faced. So why isn’t the title of this parable more appropriately “The four faces of the two sons?” Yes the parable is about those sons, but it is even more about,

“THE LOVE OF THE FATHER”

This parable is compelling. When we hear it we are often asked which brother in this parable would we be? Would you be the brother who took the money and squandered it? Or would you be the brother who stayed home? Careful how you answer for the older brother who was quick to throw stones in his inherited glass house. We do know that certainly not many of us would be like that father. Giving away his estate knowing that it was going to be frittered away on wine, women, and song. And then the sheer audacity of that father to welcome home the wayward son. Most parents would be inclined to point to the door and say get back out there your on your own now.

But the parable begins with the younger brother who knew of his fathers love, yet longed for a life that his father couldn’t give him. He didn’t want what he had. He wanted everything that was outside of what his family had. In fact this younger son longed for a life of sin and he has enough audacity to ask for his father for his share of the inheritance. But even stranger still, the father gave it to him. And to further compound the situation scripture tells us that the father divided the estate equally between the two sons. So really, the older brother had his inheritance too. Both sons received their inheritance long before their father’s death. Meaning they not only received early, but they also received it long before there was any obligation for that transfer of wealth.

So maybe a better question might be, “Why didn’t older brother speak up sooner?” Why didn’t he honor his father and wait for the inheritance to come with the passing of time? Why didn’t he acknowledge that his father would love him so much that he would give everything away for his sons? So, actually it is the older brother who puts on his second face before the younger. For the older brother says nothing, he just takes his portion, and does so without comment. So, in reality the older brother’s sin is by default, by silence and it is greater than it appears. For as the older brother he would have received a double portion from the father. The fact that the elder son agreed indicates that he too alienated himself from his father. He may not have said it as bluntly as his little brother, but his agreement shows that he was thinking along the same lines.

No matter how obtuse this parable may sound it is indeed an accurate picture of a father dealing with his children out of his for them. For this is how God the Father deals with His children. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, (Mt. 5:45) "He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust." Martin Luther built on that thought in the explanation to the fourth petition of the Lord's Prayer, "God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people …" In His grace, God provides the inheritance of creation, our needs of body and soul, to all people. Even the most wicked person on this earth still has their food, clothing, shelter, and is offered the knowledge of the truth. The world sees this as insanity. Our sinful nature wants our daily bread now. We want that thing that would make us happier, make us equal to the person next door, that would give us everything that is out there, at the expense of everything God has promised us.

And so in the parable the next humiliation is the father's action to take the younger son back into the family. A man of wealth and prestige never runs anywhere, but this father did. He ran to meet his wayward son as he came home. This was an act of humiliation by the father. This father runs to his son, falling on his neck with kisses, replacing his rags with royal robes, placing the ring of authority on his hand, and inviting the community to a welcome home party.

Furthermore, the father saw the son returning from a distance. This father was always actively looking for his son. The father was able to run to his son and overwhelm him with grace before the son could get one word of repentance out of his mouth. Jesus' description of the father's actions is a portrait of complete and total grace, of unconditional love. The father's actions would overwhelm the son in the parable, but would also totally surprise those who were listening to the parable.

The prophet Isaiah wrote, "We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away."(Is 64:6) Never the less, like the father of the parable, God humiliates Himself to bring us back into His family. He washes us in baptism and covers us with the righteousness that Jesus Christ earned with His death on the cross. He humbles Himself in order to announce that we are His beloved children. He invites us to celebrate with Him the holy meal of the Lord's Table that strengthens our starving faith. We become heirs once again to a new covenant of grace that supersedes the covenant of the law.

The final humiliation of the father happens in His gracious reaction to the elder son's anger. The father actually pleads with the older son to attend the party. The elder son actually responds by loudly accusing the father of treating him unfairly. He insults his father by arguing with him in public and by not addressing him as father. The elder son even refuses to acknowledge his brother instead calling him, "Your Son." Furthermore, he refused to celebrate with his father and brother.

In the face of this furious attack the father graciously and affectionately replied with a repetition of the invitation. But the older son is still indignant that his father would invite an admitted adulterer and philanderer back home. Yet the father loved both sons. And he welcomed both of sons to the feast. The father is the absolute picture of unbelievable love and grace.

Jesus never tells us what happened to the older son. But the Pharisees and the scribes who were listening to Jesus would recognize themselves in the story. Just as we too recognize ourselves in the story. When Jesus told the parable the end of the story had not yet happened. But the end of the story did come. God was willing to humiliate Himself in love for them. God still invites them to the feast. Did they rejoice over the dead who are alive again - the lost who are found? Did they see that the celebration was also for them? Did they see the Father’s love for them?

Repent, for we have all strayed. We have taken the things of this world and left our thoughts of the father behind. Yet in the face of all that we have done, we still have a loving God who willingly suffered humiliation for us. When we would want to squander the Father’s love, He gives us more. In fact He gives us it all, He gives us His Son. And His love draws us to Himself. He comes to us, He opens His arms, and the Father welcomes us home forever and ever. Amen.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
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