Title: When the Kids Come Home
Text: Luke 15:11-32
Thesis: God is elated when his children come home.
Introduction
Parents are capable of “guilting” their adult children. Sometimes parents are blunt about it and other times it is more subtle, like slipping a shiv between your ribs. Over the years you may have said or heard things like, “Goodness, I would sure like to see my great grandchildren before I die.” Or, “Oh, you’re not coming until when?” Or, “Oh, you just got here and you’re leaving so soon?”
For many of us, it is not as if we’ve had the luxury of living nearby. In fact we have almost always lived at some distance from our family so travel and visiting relatives pretty much has consumed our vacation time. And now that Bonnie and I have grown children and grandchildren who live at some distance, we are not immune to the sense of loss experienced by families whose loved ones live some distance away.
Bonnie and I have determined that we will never guilt our kids when they visit or guilt them into visiting. We have decided a couple of things. First, we recognize that at this point in our lives it is likely easier for us to take the initiative to travel across the country than for our children to pack up their broods and transport them here. So we make an effort to do what we can… “If Mohammed can’t come to the Mountain, then Mountain will go to Mohammed,” so to speak. Second, we will be grateful for whatever time our kiddos can be with us. We make a point of saying, “Come when you can, stay as long as you like and leave when you need to leave.” (Sidebar: And then we sit around a mope about the fact that they never come and when they do they never stay… in jest!)
Now, that does not negate the fact that the highlights of our year are those special occasions when we get to see our family. So, how do we feel when the kids come home? We are elated! We are pumped! We are excited! We are loving it!
Our story today is about a man who had two sons… one was a stay at home kind of son who lived in the community with his parents and worked in the family business. The other was a prodigal. A loser…
The Urban Dictionary defines a prodigal in both good and bad ways:
A person who wastes a lot of money. A prodigal is often boastful and spends his riches lavishly. But a prodigal may also be a very generous person who lavishes good-will on others. However the caveat to that is the tendency of prodigals who hang with other prodigals… whoever has money, on any given day, blows it with his friends. There is always a party going on and if I have money, the drinks are on me. If you have money, the drinks are on you. (You get the idea.)
By definition it could be said that the Father is the real prodigal in the story. It is the Father who is extravagant and wasteful in his love for his children. And if that is true and if the story is a parable we might surmise that God is reckless and wasteful in his demonstration of love for us.
The first thing I notice in this story is the audacity of the youngest son.
I. The Audacity of the Son – Sometimes people mess-up big time!
“There was a man who had two sons. The youngest one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.” Luke 15:11-12
Some people have a lot of gall. Not unlike many in our culture today, this young man could not wait to get his hands on his father’s estate. He wanted his inheritance early.
When we follow the story line in our text we see there is a string of things that made for the son’s downfall.
A. He disrespected his father by essentially wishing him dead.
“Give me my share…” Luke 15:12
The incivility of our own culture toward the elderly is evident in the way they are disrespected when their heirs are overly anxious to get their hands on the estate of their parents. I read a story recently of a woman whose mother had to go to a health care center. The daughter was the POA (Power of Attorney) so she seized the opportunity to sell her mother’s house and planned to use the sale of the house to finance the purchase of a newer and nicer home for herself.
The mother got better and was planning to return home but the daughter told her that she, as Power of Attorney, had put her home on the market and that she would either need to stay in the Health Care Center or come and live with her. Mom was not happy!
Ironically, just before the closing on her mother’s house and her own new home, it was discovered that her Power of Attorney was a “Medical” Power of Attorney not “Financial” Power of Attorney. Needless to say, the daughter was no longer designated “Power of Anything!”
That was something of the mentality of the younger son… Dad had money and he wanted it. He wanted it now – not when his dad died. He had places to go and people to see and good times to be had, so in so many words he said to his father, “I wish you were dead but since you aren’t, how about divvying up my share of the estate so I can be on my way?”
He disrespected his father and he embarrassed his family.
B. He embarrassed his family by doing the unthinkable.
“Not long after that, the younger brother got together all that he had and set out for a distant country…” Luke 15:13
This was not just a simple matter of going to down to the bank and compiling the numbers… it was not just a matter of finding out account balances and reviewing stock portfolios and getting a few appraisals on some property. This amounted to the disposal of the estate. It was a matter of dividing the livestock and the land and the grain and the other assets and selling them so he could have his share.
(An aside… in the typical estate in biblical times, the eldest son received a double portion. In the case where there were two sons, the oldest son received 2/3 and the younger son would receive 1/3. It did not matter if the father had another son he loved more or who was more responsible… the oldest got a double portion. Deuteronomy 21:17)
The son made an audacious demand. No one in that culture then or now would ask such a thing. Making such a request was socially impossible. If a son then or even now, living in the Middle East made such a request the father would likely literally beat that son for being so disrespectful. Not only was he disrespectful to his father and an embarrassment in the community… he had the audacity to take his share of the estate and blow it.
If disrespecting his father and embarrassing his family was not enough… he blew the money.
C. He wasted his family’s estate.
“The younger son got together all that he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.” Luke 15:13
Whenever a celebrity who has had a great deal of money and lived extravagantly goes broke, it makes the news. We’ve heard the woes of Bert Reynolds, Ed McMahon and Nicholas Cage. We all read Tom Martino’s story this week... despite being a celebrity “in the know” about money matters whose tax returns indicate he makes between 1.6 and 2.1 million dollars annually and has been a successful investor and property developer in the past – the market caught up with him and he was forced to file for bankruptcy listing his debt at 78.6 million dollars against assets of 1.37 million dollars. (Greg Griffin, Martino the “troubleshooter” is bankrupt, The Denver Post, 9/15/2011)
Despite the fact that most of us understand how easily the economy can make or break us… most of us have a hard time understanding how anyone with great wealth can go through their assets. It is a documented fact that 1/3 of all lottery winners of more than a million dollars quickly squander their money. You can the stories of “10 Lottery Winners Who Lost It All” on line if you Google http://itthing.com/10-lottery-winners-who-lost-it-all.
This young man was no exception and when he had blown his money he hit rock-bottom.
D. He hit rock- bottom…
“After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in the whole country, and began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him into the fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.” Luke 15:14-16
Understandably, most folks are not rushing to the assistance of people who have won the lottery and squandered their winnings. No one was rushing to give this young man a hand… though someone was willing to let him feed their hogs. (A nice insulting job to give to a down-and-out Jewish boy.)
They say, "When you hit rock-bottom there is nowhere to go but up.”
II. The Regret of the Son - People who mess-up big time want to go home.
“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! I will set out and go back to my father…” Luke 15:17-18
It is always a bit tricky when you find yourself dealing with a person like this young man. Most would say it was a mistake to enable him in the first place by giving him a pile of money to blow. And most of us would be a bit leery of his intentions if he came back for a little visit… I suspect that was something of what the older brother was feeling when he protested his father’s generosity in receiving the prodigal son back into the family home and community again. And I am quite sure the community was thinking the same thing. The kid was a cute little boy but he turned into a real loser and some probably said, “Here he is again… probably flat-broke and going to ask his father for more money.”
But he had in fact hit rock bottom. He could go no lower and he had nowhere to go and no one to whom he could turn for help. His father was his last resort.
A. Rock-bottom is a hard landing.
When you hit rock bottom you know it can’t get any worse. Rock- bottom is as bad as bad gets. Rock- bottom is a drunk in a gutter. For someone caught in the landslide of declining property values, facing foreclosure and eviction it feels like rock-bottom. Rock-bottom is being unemployed. Rock-bottom is being sick with no health insurance. Rock-bottom is being left by a spouse. Rock-bottom is the death of a child. Rock-bottom can be news of a terminal illness. Rock-bottom is rock-bottom.
B. Rock-bottom is also a good base for getting better.
I am reading an Ebook “How to Steal Home: How to Survive a Foreclosure” by Candice Reed and Heather Anderson. (Heather was one of my Confirmation students back in the early 80’s so I am interested in her story and wanted to read her book.)
She points out that for many “The American Dream has turned into a nightmare and they don’t know what to do.” But both Candice and Heather lost their homes and are now living very happy lives without a mortgage. Their book is an upbeat book about how a home is more than a house and that life can only get better if you seize the opportunity to turn things around.
Sounds like something like what the bible says,
“We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose… I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present not the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:28-39
When we are broken we need a lot of love.
III. The Brokenness of the Son – People who mess-up need a loving and forgiving 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.” Luke 15:20
The bible says that when he “came to his senses” he decided to go home. When he finally hit rock-bottom he realized that there was one place where they might give him another chance. When he finally made it over “fool’s hill,” he had had the sense to try to get his life back together.
The story tells us that God is like the loving father.
A. God is watching and waiting for us to come home.
Commentators have made much of the fact that the Father saw him coming home. While he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming home. Waiting and watching are characteristic of God’s love.
Remember when you trying to figure out the dating thing. You’re out with a girl that you really like but you are awkward… You accidently touch her hand when you are reaching for the popcorn. Or you stretch your arms and test the water to see if she lets you put your arm around her. Or you notice she is resting her hand on her leg and so you inch you hand closer and closer until your little fingers are just about touch… you know she knows where her little finger is and where your little finger is and so you in take a leap of faith and with your heart pounding you hook her pinky with your pinky and… then she just slaps the snot out of you. (Illustration idea from Jay Kesler sermon, Lost in Space, Psalm 8 and Luke 15, PreachingToday.com)
God knows you can’t coerce anyone to love you but unlike the girl of your dreams, he will not slap the snot our of you when you come home.
The father waits and then the father welcomes.
B. God is compassionate and forgiving.
The father is so overjoyed when he sees his prodigal son returning home that he runs to him and embraces him and welcomes him home before he has a chance to give the father his little repentance speech.
The beauty of this story is sometimes lost in the details… sometimes we don’t take time to explore the implications of the details like why the father ran to meet his son. But one good reason might have been to very real possibility that the lad would not have been received well by the older brother or the community. In fact in the same passage where instructions are given regarding awarding the oldest son a double portion, a few verses later in Deuteronomy 21:21, the elders of a community could stone to death a stubborn, rebellious son who was a profligate. A profligate is a prodigal who is given up to dissipation and licentiousness; wildly extravagant; grossly self-indulgent. (Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition)
The returning son was clearly all of those things and his life may well have been in danger so the father makes the move to run to and rescue and receive his son home with his heart filled with compassion and loving forgiveness.
The moral of the story is that the father’s love for the son is a model of God’s love for us.
C. God is extravagant in his demonstration of love for us when we mess-up and so much so that most people cannot comprehend it.
“The older brother became angry and refused to go in,” and taking exception with his father’s love, expressed his resentment in Luke 15:25-32.
The older brother came home from the field to a huge block party and his younger brother was the guest of honor. The bum was wearing a robe, a ring and sandals (I’m told that one of the ways you can tell if a bum is really a bum or not is whether he is wearing socks… if he is wearing socks he’s no bum. In that day if you were wearing shoes you were no bum. And his little brother had the look of a fully restored son and he was gnawing away on a big ole slab of prime rib. Never mind the older brother still had his 2/3 of the estate… he resented any demonstration of grace extended to his worthless, no-good, loser brother.
What we witness in the story is something that only a father or mother get. Siblings don’t and likely won’t get it. The relatives won’t get it. The community certainly does not get it. But there is nothing in all the world that can separate a son or a daughter from the love of a parent…
If in this story a sheep has value and a coin has value… how much more then does a son or daughter matter to God?
Conclusion:
Years ago I read the story of a family who had four daughters. The three oldest daughters were perfect daughters. They were good girls. They got good grades. They were obedient. They dated nice boys. They went to college and they had nice families. They kept nice little houses in the suburbs and their husbands were good, hardworking providers. But the youngest daughter was a nightmare.
She was rebellious from the get go. She was ornery. She was rebellious. She was constantly in trouble at school. She dated the biggest losers she could find. She stayed out late and she was always grounded. She got pregnant and then she got into some drug trouble and was sent to prison.
The day came when she was to be released from prison. All the neighbors were out in their yards feigning doing yard work. They were mowing and trimming and washing windows and sweeping their drives and edging their walks and weeding their flower beds… keeping a watchful eye on the neighbors’ house down the street.
The hour came. The family sedan came down the street and parked in front of the house. The father got out and went around and opened the door on the passenger side and helped his daughter get out of the car. He then went to the backseat and lifted the baby from the car seat and placed her in his daughter’s arms. And as they started up the front walk the front door flew open and out rushed her mother and her sisters and their husbands and her nieces and nephews… down the walk they ran encircling her. They were hugging her and kissing her. They took the baby and held her up and passed her around and eventually they made their way into the house.
Then the father came back outside and made his way up and down the street greeting each of his neighbors saying, “Our daughter was dead but she’s alive again. She was lost but now she is found… come and celebrate with us!”
That is the point of this story. God is elated when his children come home.
Because people matter to God, God is elated when his children come home!
