The Porch
Pt. 3 - Porch Parties
In a Norman Rockwell like way Jesus crafts the account that for centuries has been lauded for its depth and for its truth.
Close your eyes and see if you can recreate the scene in your mind. Peering down the hillside you see the homestead. Surrounded by a strong split rail fence. The yard is expansive. The long winding drive cuts down the left side of the property. Cast off toys long forgotten litter the yard and remind you that time has passed quickly. The house is two stories. Large but not overwhelming. Black shutters flank each window. Landscaping manicured and yard trimmed. In the background, barns are well kept. Swarming activity can be seen as the investment of hard days in the fields must now be managed. Affluent but not flashy. Wealthy but not wasteful. There are prominent features . . . the windmill, the corrals, the worn tire swing under the aged tree that stands towering alone in the front yard. However, the one feature that stands out above all else is the large, inviting, wraparound porch lined with rocking chairs. A small round table holds the once used checkers set. A sleeping dog stationed near the screen door. Muddy boots from the field are left on the first step. A gathering place at the end of long day. Ice tea and lemonade have been shared here. No better place for late night cups of hot chocolate in the cool of fall evenings. Dates end in the swing on the far end of the porch where long moments of silence are filled with spectacular views of the star filled sky. The porch has served as base during intense games of tag. It has served as safe haven from sudden spring showers. Stories, jokes, and serious discussions have found an audience here. Laughs, tears and life have been experienced on this porch. The youngest son exits the scene. He grabs the old duffle bag, empties out his dresser drawers, stomps down the stairs determined to make it on his own. He leaves his mother shattered in tears. He finds his father in the study, demands an early inheritance (basically saying he wished his dad was dead), opens the screen door as his father sits stunned, confused, scared and scarred, and without hesitation or a second thought steps off the porch and heads into a new story.
Jesus uses this scene to craft His masterpiece. With the scene painted in your mind listen again!
Luke 15:11-24
Then he said, “There was once a man who had two sons. The younger said to his father, ‘Father, I want right now what’s coming to me.’ So the father divided the property between them. It wasn’t long before the younger son packed his bags and left for a distant country. There, undisciplined and dissipated, he wasted everything he had. After he had gone through all his money, there was a bad famine all through that country and he began to hurt. He signed on with a citizen there who assigned him to his fields to slop the pigs. He was so hungry he would have eaten the corncobs in the pig slop, but no one would give him any. That brought him to his senses. He said, ‘All those farmhands working for my father sit down to three meals a day, and here I am starving to death. I’m going back to my father. I’ll say to him, Father, I’ve sinned against God, I’ve sinned before you; I don’t deserve to be called your son. Take me on as a hired hand.’ He got right up and went home to his father. When he was still a long way off, his father saw him. His heart pounding, he ran out, embraced him, and kissed him. The son started his speech: ‘Father, I’ve sinned against God, I’ve sinned before you; I don’t deserve to be called your son ever again.’ But the father wasn’t listening. He was calling to the servants, ‘Quick. Bring a clean set of clothes and dress him. Put the family ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Then get a grain-fed heifer and roast it. We’re going to feast! We’re going to have a wonderful time! My son is here—given up for dead and now alive! Given up for lost and now found!’ And they began to have a wonderful time.
Born for relationship the son steps off the porch and exits the father's protection. Once he had daily interaction with the father. Now he is in a distant country in a dreadful condition. Pigs rather than porch. Swine rather than swings. The pain of famine . . . the pain of lack of destiny . . . the pain of lack of meaning forces the young man to take a step back towards his father. He gets up and puts actions to his intentions and begins the journey back to the porch. Some of you can relate. You have rehearsed what a relationship with God would be like but rehearsal doesn't equal a return. It is time to take steps.
It is here that the emphasis shifts from the son to the father. His father's daily practice was standing at the screen door or on the edge of the porch. He was waiting, worrying, and working behind the scenes (even setting up Easter Services) hoping for one thing and one thing only . . . to see the son come home. He catches a glimpse of a lone figure on the horizon. Could his eyes be playing tricks on him? An image so longed for that the dust mixed with imagination creates a mirage? He looks again. Straining to see clearly. The second look brings recognition of the familiar gate and cadence of his walk. In one second, scenes flash through the father's mind. Almost like a video he recalls the young boy he pushed on his bike, he sees him round first in the little league game, he relives the moments that he tucked him in at night, the first fish caught together, the hours working side by side in the field. In a moment of sheer relief, thankfulness, and joy the father girds up his robe and leaving all decorum and even judgment behind in a sprint, in a happy dash - can't call this a mad dash - he runs . . . he runs to his son. His son wants to focus on his sin. The father focuses on his son. His son wants to focus on his failure. The father focuses on his son. His son wants his father to hear his speech. His father wants the son to hear his heart. The father hears a planned out speech and a plea to be received as a hired hand. He hears but He doesn't listen. He can't . . . He can only hear His son.
This scene teaches us three things on this Easter morning that many of you in this room need to embrace today about our Father.
A. The Father steps off the porch so that the son can step back on the porch.
None of us have the right to be on the porch again. We have all failed. We have all spent too much time with pigs. But the Father, knowing that we can't get to the porch, loved us so much that He steps off the porch and comes to us! That is the truth of Easter. This son couldn't get back on his own. The son had to begin the journey home and take the first step . . . you have done that this morning . . . but only the Father could close the distance. The sin, the chasm, the dirt is too dirty, the rift is too vast and too ugly for us to span or fix on our own. The only solution was a Father that was willing to step off the porch and come to us! That is what John attests to in John 1 when he said, "The Word became flesh and moved into our neighborhood." The decision to leave the porch was ours. The decision to come back is ours as well. However, actually getting to back to porch could not be accomplished without our Father coming to us!
B. The Father has deep pockets!
Make no mistake the son that returned wasn't the same person that left. He was marked by his mistakes. He was dirtied by his decision. He was contaminated by his choice. He smelled like his dinner partners. He was soiled. Sin leaves its stain. And worse than the residue was the reality that he was helpless to heal himself. Powerless to purify himself. He stands before his father and flounders. He couldn't clean himself up.
The details of his demise are left unexplained. Why? Why didn't the father want to know the faults, the flaws, the details? Because He wanted to know His son more than he wanted to know about his sin. The father knew what he needed to know . . . a son who was off the porch was now home. Distance of fall didn't determine the depth or dictate the offer of the father's love.
And the father knew something else that the son didn't know but would suddenly learn . . . although the son was powerless the father wasn't. Although the son couldn't clean himself up the father could deal with his fall from grace with grace. Remember the father has already given this son half of the inheritance and that half has been wasted/lost forever. But the father has held enough back to cover him a second time. New shoes, robe and ring. This wasteful son learns that his father has deep pockets!
Isn't the son's story yours? You try to get things right to return but never quite seem to be able to conform, to clean up enough. You would like to approach the Father in a position of power, in a place of purity, on your own terms (when I stop) and yet we all discover that we smell, we have fallen, we are helpless. In the back of our minds the "yea buts" play . . . I could get the to Father but . . . I could live life right but . . . I could conquer but!
This morning we must learn that the only one surprised by our mistakes is us. The Father knew and made provision for covering. While we were yet sinners. In the middle of our mistake. While we were still paling around with pigs Christ died for us. Before the foundations of the world the Lamb was slain! The Father holds some blessings back, provision in His pocket cause He knew you would blow what He gave you the first time. Some of you think you have blown your chance at relationship with Christ. Some of you think you have used up grace because you turned your back on Him the first time. But your Father has enough left to cover you again! As messed up and marked up as you are the Father has the ability and more importantly the desire to cover you again! In fact He is not running away but rather running towards you right now!
C. The Father is Party Animal!
The son knows he is a party pooper but what he learns is that the father is a party animal! In the middle of an ignored and unnecessary speech the father sets in motions the biggest welcome home party he could throw. The entire household is involved. Food, fellowship, balloons and beef, celebration and clowns (well you can't have a party without clowns can you - you say there are no clowns in the story - well what do you call an older brother who would rather attend a funeral than a fiesta?)!
Oh, by the way the Father likes party favors! He favors us with forgiveness. He favors us with relationship. He favors us with authority, honor, and position again. He favors him with family again!
You have taken the first step towards the porch by being here today. The Father has now made a move towards you and all that is left is finalizing the party. How? Accept the invitation and Jesus, 4 verses earlier in Luke 15, declares that every time a son comes home the angels in heaven rejoice and have a party. So, the Father is here and you are here why not accept Him and make things right between you so that the party can start? There are no clowns here - we will rejoice with you.
The point of Easter isn't just to celebrate Jesus' resurrection . . . it is to celebrate your resurrection too. You were dead but now you are alive. You were lost but now you are found! You can not only celebrate resurrection you can experience it too!
Maria’s husband had died when Christina was an infant. The young mother, stubbornly refusing opportunities to remarry, got a job and set out to raise her young daughter. And now, fifteen years later, the worst years were over. Though Maria’s salary as a maid afforded few luxuries, it was reliable and it did provide food and clothes. And now Christina was old enough to get a job to help out.
Christina spoke often of going to the city. She dreamed of trading her dusty neighborhood for exciting avenues and city life. Just the thought of this horrified her mother, who knew exactly what Christina would do, or would have to do for a living. That’s why her heart broke when she awoke one morning to find her daughter’s bed empty. Knowing where her daughter was headed, she quickly threw some clothes in a bag, gathered up all her money, and ran out of the house.
On her way to the bus stop she entered a drugstore to get one last thing. Pictures. She sat in the photograph booth, closed the curtain, and spent all she could on pictures of herself. With her purse full of small black-and-white photos, she boarded the next bus to Rio de Janeiro.
Maria knew Christina had no way of earning money. She also knew that her daughter was too stubborn to give up. When pride meets hunger, a human will do things that were before unthinkable. Knowing this, Maria began her search. Bars, hotels, nightclubs, any place with the reputation for street walkers or prostitutes. She went to them all. And at each place she left her picture—--taped on a bathroom mirror, tacked to a hotel bulletin board, fastened to a corner phone booth. And on the back of each photo she wrote a note.
It wasn’t too long before both the money and the pictures ran out, and Maria had to go home. The weary mother wept as the bus began its long journey back to her small village.
A few weeks later young Christina descended the hotel stairs. Her young face was tired. Her brown eyes no longer danced with youth but spoke of pain and fear. Her laughter was broken. Her dream had become a nightmare. A thousand times over she had longed to trade these countless beds for her secure pallet. Yet the little village was, in too many ways, too far away.
As she reached the bottom of the stairs, her eyes noticed a familiar face. She looked again, and there on the lobby mirror was a small picture of her mother. Christina’s eyes burned and her throat tightened as she walked across the room and removed the small photo. Written on the back was this compelling invitation. “Whatever you have done, whatever you have become, it doesn’t matter. Please come home.”
She did.
Will you? This morning the father has sent you a message. The porch may seem too far away but today is the day to come home! Let's start a party!
