Luke 15:11-32 January 20, 2008
Lighthouses of Prayer
The Call to Become the Father
Review of Lighthouses of Prayer
Last week I introduced the idea of lighthouses of prayer. It comes from Luke chapter 10 where Jesus sends out the 72 Disciples to go into the villages around the country.
This is his commission: "When you enter a house, first say, ’Peace to this house.’ If the head of the house loves peace, your peace will rest on that house; if not, it will return to you. Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, … Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ’The kingdom of God has come near to you.’
From this passage we receive a way to impact our neighbours for Jesus:
The Luke 10:1-9 The Model
5-6 - Bless Your Neighbours
“When you enter a house, first say, ’Peace to this house.”
Now we have taken this model and organized it so that it is something that you can do as part of your daily routine: we’ve suggested that you take the five houses on either side of you, and the 11 across the street and begin to pray blessing on each of them.
You can do this by walking up and down your street and blessing each house Or you can make blessing your neighbours part of your daily devotions, you could bless a neighbour as you bless your food…
7-8 Develop relationships with your neighbours.
“Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you”
9a - Pray for their needs
“Heal the sick who are there”
9b - Share the Gospel
“…and tell them, ’The kingdom of God has come near to you.”
From last week’s sermon “Start off this new year with a focus on the people around us”
An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Last week I talked about the first point and connected it to being priests and shepherds
Today I want to stay on the first point and talk about it using the story of the Prodigal Son.
Read Prodigal Story from the Voice
In the story, you might find that you relate most with the prodigal son, who rejects the father, runs off to spend himself and his wealth in wild living, hits rock bottom, comes to himself and returns to the father repentant.
You might relate well with the older son who has always been the good boy and felt unappreciated, never really knowing the father’s love for you and angry when those who do not deserve it receive it.
You might relate well to the father in the story, especially if you are a parent. Possibly you have a child, or someone you love who has run off to a far off country to live wildly, and you are waiting for their return
Henri Nouwen wrote a book based on the story and on his reflections on Rembrandt’s painting of the Return of the Prodigal. One of the things that Nouwen’s book did for me when I read it a few years ago was to open my eyes not just to relating to the prodigal son, or the older brother, or even just relating to the father, but it was his second last chapter called “Becoming The Father” that opened my eyes and heart to the call on our lives to be the father. It isn’t enough to find our story, our past, and possibly our present in the characters of the sons or even the father, we need to find our future in the character of the father.
This is what Nouwen writes:
“Though I am both the younger son and the elder son, I am not to remain them, but to become the Father. No father or mother ever became father or mother without having been son or daughter, but every son and daughter has to consciously choose to step beyond their childhood and become father and mother for others. It is a hard and lonely step to take - especially in a period of history in which parenthood is so hard to live well - but it is a step that is essential for the fulfillment of the spiritual journey.”
No matter where you see yourself in the story, the goal is to move to reconciliation with the father, yes, but it is to move through reconciliation to the call to become the father.
There is something easy about continuing to see ourselves as the prodigal returned, or even the older son. That way when we are tempted to run off to wild living or when we are tempted to become judgmental of other’s sins, we can half excuse ourselves by saying “well it’s not surprising that I’m temped or fall this way, I really am the prodigal, or I really am the older brother.” When we live only out of a reflection on these two characters in the story, our only job is to receive the father’s love, forgiveness and embrace.
When we recognize the call to become the father, we do not walk away from the need to God’s love forgiveness and embrace, but we are called out to extend that love to others. One of the problems in family life is that we have prodigals and older brothers giving birth to prodigals and older brothers. No one takes up the call to become the father in the story.
This is not some weird new-age idea of becoming God, but it is a calling into the character of the father in the story. Our inheritance as children of God is not just eternal reward, or even relationship with the heavenly father, but we are also to inherit the character of God. Often we apply Godliness to the holiness of God – to be a Godly person is to behave ourselves. But if this story is one of the most powerful pictures of God that we have, does it not say that to be Godly it to model ourselves after the father in the story?
The father teach us how to relate to those around us
A call to responsibility – to say these people, my neighbours, co-workers, schoolmates…, belong to me.
When we see a child who is on their own or misbehaving we ask, “who are his parents?” “who is responsible for this child?” Parenting carries with this newfound sense that we are responsible for another human being. The call of the father is a call to responsibility for those around us.
This is our calling as heirs of the Father – to take responsibility for those around us.
Galatians 6:1-3 NLT
1Dear brothers and sisters, if another Christian is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. 2Share each other’s troubles and problems, and in this way obey the law of Christ. 3If you think you are too important to help someone in need, you are only fooling yourself.
But it is more than just watching out for people when they are going wrong, it is doing all that the best fathers do – teaching each other what we know of God and how to serve him, teaching how to obey God.
A father does not say “he’s not my kid.” He always says “they belong to me, their welfare is close to my heart.
A Call to Bless
As I have led men’s groups in the past, one issue constantly comes up – that all people, but men in particular, are looking for their father’s blessing. It is the job of every father to bless his children. So few of us actually take up the task, it is sad.
The father’s blessing is seen as very valuable and very valuable in the Bible. In Genesis, Jacob swindles Esau out of his birthright, and he outright steals his father’s blessing from him. When Esau discovers that he has missed his father’s blessing, he turns into a heartbroken little boy.
… he burst out with a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, "Bless me—me too, my father!"
…"Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father!" Then Esau wept aloud.
Even if we cannot give people the blessing of their natural father, God blesses everyone, and we are able to proclaim that blessing on our neighbours.
Bless people in your prayers, as you prayer walk your neighbourhood, but bless people to their faces as well. You don’t have to use “Spiritual” language to do that, just tell people what is right in their life – even the worst people have something you can bless – don’t lie to them, but ask God to show you what you can truly bless.
Ask God to give you words for your neighbours, ask him how he would like to bless them, and then speak the words out.
You can see how the father in the story blesses his sons – Rembrandt really gets this in his painting as the father touches his wayward son with the touch of blessing. Heeven blesses the older son when he says “’My son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.”
People are aching to be blessed – you are called to be the father, so bless them
A call to Compassion
The compassion that the father has for the prodigal – not allowing him to grovel
The compassion that he has for the older son – inviting him into the party, coaxing him to stay in this family.
Luke 6:36
You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate.
An active compassion – Jesus had compassion on the crowds and healed them, and fed them, and taught the forgiveness…
An extravagant compassion – listen to the context of Luke 6:36
"Love your enemies! Do good to them! Lend to them! And don’t be concerned that they might not repay. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to the unthankful and to those who are wicked. You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate.
Some might say the father is a fool to put up with these two sons – but he is a compassionate fool.
The reason that Jesus told the story of the Prodigal, as well as the story of the lost sheep and the lost coin, is because the Pharisees were upset that Jesus was welcoming the tax collectors and other notorious sinners. The Pharisees were religious leaders and probably felt some responsibility for those sinners as well as the rest of the Jews. But they had little compassion for them. Their sense of responsibility was probably confined to responsibility to see their sins punished.
I want to take us further into this call to become the father
A Call to Forgiveness
The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people.
- GK Chesterton
This picture of the father and his embrace of both sons is one of my favorite pictures of God’s grace in the Bible. The younger son comes with his whole, heart-felt confession planned out, and the father doesn’t even allow him to make his speech because he has already forgiven him.
God the Father grieves our sin, they break his heart, but the paradox is he is so ready to forgive us that he even jumps the gun to forgive us before we get all the words out. God so wants our relationship with him restored, that he does all that he can to forgive us of the sin that has so deeply wounded him. As Romans 8:32 say, he did not even spare his own Son! He gave him up so that our sin might be paid for, so that forgiveness could be offered to us and our relationship could be restored.
There are Christian denominations that call their pastors priests. Part of the job of a priest is to proclaim absolution or forgiveness to people when they have confessed their sins. What Peter tells us in his first letter is that we are all priests – 1 Peter 2:9 “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
It is not that I am the priest, and you are the people, and I proclaim God’s forgiveness to you. We are the priests, the people are out there. We proclaim God’s forgiveness to each other, but we are called to proclaim God’s forgiveness to the prodigals and the older brothers out there as well. Part of the call to be the father in the story is to understand that you are a priest. You are the priest to your family, you are the priest on your street, you are the priest in your office, on your shop floor, in your school. You are there to proclaim the glory of God and to proclaim forgiveness upon anyone who comes and asks for it in Jesus’ name! We are not a community of faith with one or two priests, we are a company of priests of the one and only God!
This is part of what it means to answer the call to become the father.
The difficulty is to forgive when it isn’t just some vague anonymous sin that a friend has committed. The difficulty is when the sin has been against you.
This is what Nouwen writes:
It is this divine forgiveness that I have to practice in my daily life. It calls me to keep stepping over all my arguments that say forgiveness is unwise, unhealthy, and impractical. It challenges me to step over all my needs for gratitude and compliment. Finally, it demands of me that I step over that wounded part of my heart that feels hurt and wronged and that wants to stay in control and put a few conditions between me and the one whom I am asked to forgive.
This "stepping over" is the authentic discipline of forgiveness. Maybe it is more "climbing over" than "stepping over." Often I have to climb over the wall of arguments and angry feelings that I have erected between myself and all those whom I love but who so often do not return that love. It is a wall of fear of being used or hurt again, It is a wall of pride, and the desire to stay in control, But every time that I can step or climb over that wall, I enter into the house where the Father dwells, and there touch my neighbor with genuine compassionate love.
Grief allows me to see beyond my wall and realize the immense suffering that results from human lostness. It opens my heart to a genuine solidarity with my fellow humans. Forgiveness is the way to step over the wall and welcome others into my heart without expecting anything in return. Only when I remember that I am the Beloved Child can I welcome those who want to return with the same compassion as that with which the Father welcomes me. p.130
A Call to Generosity
The father in the story goes beyond understandable generosity. The generosity might be harder than the forgiveness. He gives the son all he asks for before he leaves, then he showers him with gifts upon his return. “Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger, and sandals for his feet. And kill the calf we have been fattening in the pen. We must celebrate with a feast, for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found!!!”
He reminds me of Alistair Sim’s Scrooge when he wakes up on Christmas Day – except that the transformation is not in the father – it is in the son.
It is an amazing picture of our God
Ephesians 1:3,8
3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. … that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.
He is just as generous to the older son, although the older son never realized it. He says: “Everything I have is yours”
This is the generosity we are to have as part of our calling to become the father.
Nouwen writes:
“In order to become like the Father, I must be as generous as the Father is generous. Just as the Father gives his very self to his children, so must I give my very self to my brothers and sisters. Jesus makes it very clear that it is precisely this giving of self that is the mark of the true disciple. “No one can have greater love than to lay down his life for his friends.””
To be the father is to be generous.
When Jesus tells this story, it encourages us with the love that God has for us as the prodigal or older son, but it also calls us to be the dad.
To take responsibility for those God has given us, to bless them in compassion, forgiveness and generosity.
Questions:
Do you connect with the call to become the father in the story?
Does this call scare you?, empower you?, enthuse you? Encourage you to grow?
The call:
· responsibility
· compassion
· grief,
· forgiveness
· generosity.
What part of the call comes easiest?
What is the greatest challenge?
