For the bulk of this week’s sermon, I shared (with permission) this reflection from Chad Bird of 1517.org on Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32, then I ended with a brief reflection on 2 Corinthians 5:16-21.
Our Heavenly Father is always calling us to come home, to return to the One who loves us unconditionally. Repent, and return to the Lord your God.
I’ll share a little bit of my own reflection in a few minutes, but for most of the sermon today, I want to share with you a reflection on this story by Chad Bird, scholar in residence at 1517, sort of a parable on a parable. This is titled, When the Prodigal Son Relapses.
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Almost five years to the day after he returned home the first time, the prodigal son emptied his bank account, packed a few changes of clothes, and snuck off for the faraway country. Again.
The first year back he was just glad to be home. He licked his wounds and worked on the strained relationships with his family and community.
The second year was toughest; he still couldn’t get the taste of the pig slop out of his mouth—not to mention the shame that chewed away at his soul.
The third year, things leveled out a little. He started feeling more at home, back in synch with his former life.
The fourth year, certain things began to irk him—the same things that irked him before he left the first time. His old itches longed to be scratched.
And the fifth year, it happened. All the former allurements came knocking, rapping their knuckles on his heart’s front door.
More than the shameful hell of feeding pigs, he could taste the sensual paradise of feasting on felicity. More than the raw guilt of hurting others, he could recall the intoxicating thrill of others pleasuring him.
“Come join the murder,” the black ravens of his heart cried.
“Come join it again, old friend.”
And so he did. The prodigal relapsed. Re-sinned. Re-destroyed his life.
You know him—or her. Maybe it’s your brother. Maybe it’s your best friend. Maybe it’s your child.
Or maybe it’s you. That thing you swore you’d never do again, you did it last night.
You fell off the wagon. You left the straight and narrow. You opened your heart to the rapping knuckles of former pleasures that once destroyed you.
Prodigals have a way of finding themselves right back in the pigsty. I remember when I did.
The music has faded into the night, the fair-weather friends have all ditched you, and the temporary euphoria of so-called freedom has been replaced by the iron shackles of shame.
As you stare into the black eyes of the nearest muddy and stinking pig, what do you see? You see your face. You see your soul. You see and know what you’ve become.
Again.
In that moment, on the plains of your heart, two armies line up in verbal array. Heaven and hell contend within you.
Hell shouts, “Now you’ve gone and done it. You stupid piece of garbage. Listen! Can you hear your older brother scoffing as he tells all his friends that he knew, he just knew, you’d go and do it again. Can you hear the servants making you the butt of their jokes?
Can you hear the congregation whispering, ‘Oh, I suspected he wasn’t truly and sincerely repentant the first time’? You’re a lost, lonely, hopeless cause. You’re not even human. You’re a pig. And that’s all you’ll ever be.”
So hell spits. So hell accuses.
But there is another voice, not shouting but whispering, on the plains of your heart. It’s the voice of heaven, the familiar lilt of a father’s voice, echoing down the long hallways of hope, through your ears and down to the deepest, darkest caverns of your pain.
He doesn’t accuse. He doesn’t berate. He only mouths two simple words in which are compressed the full expanse of heaven’s redemptive love: Come Home.
“Come home, my son. Come home, my daughter.
Come with your hands still clutching the bucket of slop—I don’t care.
Come with your mouth still sticky with the lipstick of licentiousness—I don’t care.
Come with your breath reeking of gallons upon gallons of liquor—I don’t care.
Come with your whole body slathered in pigsty mud—I don’t care.
All I care about is you. You are all that matters. Come home.”
Come home a second time. A third time. A thousandth time. The Father will not stay on the porch, arms crossed over his chest, and stare down at you as you come crawling on your knees to beg for mercy. The Father will not serve you tasteless leftovers and make you sleep in the dog house.
The second time, the third time, the thousandth time, he will sprint like a madman to meet you down the street, throw his arms around you, kiss you, and command that the fattened calf be barbecued and the keg tapped.
Second and third repentances are not met with [half-hearted] parties in the Father’s house.
He goes all out, every time, his sons and daughters come home from the faraway country.
Come home. The front door is unlocked. The calf is fattened. And the Father is standing on the porch, his hand shading the sun from his eyes, scanning the horizon for the familiar image of the one who is, and will ever remain, his precious, beloved child.
Come home.
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Last weekend, I talked about how the theme of Lent is the call, “Return to the Lord your God, who is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.”
Return to the Lord your God. Come home. Repent. Turn off of the path you’re on, the path that leads only to death, and turn towards the God who created you, who redeems you, the God who loves you.
I don’t have much more to add to that reflection on the prodigal son story, but I do want to remind you of the words Paul wrote to the church in Corinth.
“If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!”
God’s work is to make things new. God’s business is renewal, second chances, forgiveness and reconciliation. God doesn’t look at our sins, our shortcomings, our mistakes and give up on us. No, God looks at us in love, as beloved children, and God does whatever is necessary to reconcile us to our Creator, our heavenly Father.
There’s a great saying—I don’t know who came up with it—that the devil knows your name, and calls you by your sin. God knows your sin and calls you by your name.
The labels and identities of this world—the human points of view—are wiped away, and God calls you by your name, beloved.
“In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.”
God calls us to join in the work of forgiveness, the work of renewing the world. This is our mission. God calls you and me to be ambassadors for Christ, witnesses to the grace and forgiveness illustrated in the prodigal son story, the grace and forgiveness shown in Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.
We are sent out to share the good news with others, to testify to the love we’ve found, to share the invitation: There is a place of love to come home to, there is a loving parent waiting with open arms to receive you. The old has gone, and the new has come.
Return to the Lord your God. Come home.
Amen