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The Fourth Sunday in
Lent – March 21, 2004
On the Way to the 21st Century...”
We had a bit of a squabble in my Bible class a few weeks ago. This story of the Prodigal Son came up, and someone pointed out that they didn’t like it. Can you imagine that? They didn’t like one of the most beloved stories in the whole Bible! And they didn’t like it for good reason!
You see, here’s a kid who runs away from home and throws his life away, and when he finally hits rock bottom, he comes dragging his sorry self home. And the father of this prodigal boy responds not by disciplining him, but by throwing him a party! Instead of showing this boy the way to the woodshed, the father kills the fatted calf and invites the neighbors over for a great celebration! And then…and this is the part of the story that some of our class members resonated with…the older brother pipes up and reminds his father that he never ran away, that he stayed home and did all the things a good son is supposed to do – but his father never threw a party for him!! The older brother is ticked off over the unfairness of it all! The unrighteous son is celebrated! The righteous son is unappreciated! And it just seems so unfair!
Now, I’ve encountered this conflict among Bible students before. Generally speaking, some people - like me and my good friend Dennis Astrella - love the story of the Prodigal son because we’ve lived the life of prodigality ourselves! We are happy to learn in this story that there is mercy and grace awaiting prodigal people like us when we finally come to our senses and go home!
But not everyone has lived a prodigal life. In fact, many people – probably most people - are much more like the older son in the story. They never wished their father dead so they could get the inheritance. They never treated their parents with the disrespect the prodigal treated his. They never threw their lives away with irresponsible living. They never ended up on skid row. Many of us have just lived life the way its supposed to be lived – righteously and responsibly. And it just seems so unfair that the father would kill the fatted calf for this rebellious son-of-a-gun, and never even offer us a goat! Talk about being taken for granted!
So some of the members of my Bible class have taken the side of the older brother. And even as a prodigal son myself, I have to say they seem to have a point!
And frankly, I think that’s exactly what the Bible wants us to do with this story. It wants us to think that the older brother is right…so that we can discover how easy it is for right to become wrong!
We’ll come back to this story in a moment, but first, I want to invite you to one final stop on the way to the 21st-century. During the season of Lent, we’ve been exploring the challenge of living as Christians in this new day that historians describe as the postmodern world. You probably recall from your days in school that history divides itself up into certain periods. There was the prehistoric world, and then the ancient world, and then the medieval world, and then the modern world. But now we have moved into what is called the postmodern period. With the invention of the internet and the new communication technologies, the world has radically changed. People today see things differently than they used to, and they think differently too. All you have to do is look at your kids or grandkids to see how the world has changed.
It is a fascinating time in which to be alive, and it presents many great challenges – especially when it comes to religion. You may have noticed in your own life, or in your circle of family and friends, that people today are often searching for God, but turned off by the Church. They are spiritually hungry, but not convinced Christianity can satisfy that hunger. And they are not real impressed with Christians. Many people in the postmodern world see Christians as bad news people who are against almost everything; people who are willing to fight over abstract theological principles that have no practical meaning today; people who are willing to write off and exclude other people who think or believe differently; and people who – quite frankly – can be very petty, rude, self-absorbed, and who are often more concerned about getting their own butts into heaven when they die than about contributing anything of value to the world here and now.
For many people in this postmodern world, Melissa and Sean exemplify what Christians are all about. You probably read about this married couple from Georgia. Back on March 11th, Sean and Melissa went to see “The Passion of the Christ.” When they left the theater, the couple began arguing about the movie. They debated whether God the Father is really Jesus’ father, or just a symbolic parent. The debate turned into a raucous argument in which each one soon questioned the legitimacy of the other’s family lines – if you know what I mean – and the discussion became violent. When they were finally arrested by a Bullock County Sheriff’s Deputy, Melissa had suffered injuries to her left arm and face, and Sean had been stabbed in the hand with scissors.
Now, as I was thinking about this news story, it struck me that it reflects one of the great challenges facing the Christian Church in this postmodern world of ours. And, in a sense, it goes to the heart of the very problem we’ve encountered today in the story of the prodigal son. And all that became clear to me in a funny kind of way last weekend as I was flying to Sacramento for our Community Church Board meeting.
It was the first time I’d ever flown on Southwest Airlines. It turned out to be one of the most enjoyable flights I’ve ever had, thanks to the good humor of our head flight attendant who – it seems to me - was a very typical postmodern person. As we boarded the plane, this is the gist of what she said: “Welcome aboard our flight to Sacramento, or wherever it is we end up! Our two pilots, Wilbur and Orville, are revving up the engines and are ready to go as soon as everyone’s on board. Please use the overhead storage compartments for your carry-on items, but to save room for others, be sure to place any smaller items under your seat. You see, we have to love our neighbors as ourselves.” (I was thinking, ‘Good Christian girl!’). Then she continued, “…and it makes for good karma!” (I thought, ‘Well, postmodern people sometimes throw in a little eastern religion, too!). And then she said, “Besides, its just the RIGHT THING TO DO!”
And in that moment, I realized I had heard something deeply profound. Did you hear it too?
What this lively, humorous, very
postmodern flight attendant had managed to do was something that we Christians
often fail to do. It’s what the elder brother failed to do. She – perhaps
without even realizing it – had connected being right with…doing good!!
Love your neighbor…it makes
good karma…and its just the right thing to do!
Do you see the difference between
this woman and our Christian friends Sean and Melissa? Sean was so busy being
right, that he beat up his wife! Melissa was so caught up being right
that she stabbed her husband with scissors. They were both so busy being
right, that they forgot all about doing good!
And that’s what older brothers sometimes do!
One of the great messages of the story of the prodigal son is that there is no such thing as righteousness apart from goodness! And yet, history is littered with the debris of religious people who in the name of right have committed terrible evil.
The Crusades. 9/11.The Inquisition. The subjugation of women. Slavery. Suicide bombings. Defending the Church against claims of sexual abuse before protecting the lives of sexually abused children.
All of these outrageous sins are built upon the foundation of being “right” without any connection to the responsibility of doing “good.”
“Love your neighbor as yourself,” she said. “It makes good karma – and it’s just the right thing to do!”
That’s really what the father said to his older son, you know. Yes, you’ve been a great kid. All that I have is yours. And I’m very proud of you. But this your brother was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and now is found. And we HAVE TO CELEBRATE! It’s the RIGHT thing to do!
One of the most amazing things about being a Christian is that we are never told to go and be right. No, we are only told to go and do good, modeling the life of Jesus.
You see, our faith is not centered in a law. Our faith is centered in the Life of a person who, people say, was the most extraordinary man who ever lived. For the sake of bringing the goodness of God to the world, he quite often stepped over the boundaries of what society said was right. He loved people nobody else would. He befriended people no one would be friend to. He brought hope to the hopeless and acceptance to the unacceptable. He did good things the religious law said were not right!
And at the end of his life, he did the most amazing thing of all. Without regard for his own right, he sacrificed himself for the good of others. He took upon himself the sins that others had committed, and absorbing them into his own life, put them to death on a Cross so that humanity can be set free!
And now you and I have a choice to make – to live our lives scrambling around trying to be right, or to live our lives devoted to doing good – to focus on making sure we get our own party, or to aim our lives at throwing parties of grace and mercy and love for others.
I hope you are noticing, as we journey through the season of Lent, that even as the darkness closes in on Jesus and the prospect of His own suffering comes looming into view, he still hears the cries of the people by the roadside.
And in the midst of his own troubles on the way to the Cross, he still stops to do good.
What an amazing person!
Oh, a funny thing happened on the way to the 21st century!
God started dismantling the Church, deconstructing our theology, reorganizing our priorities, and bringing us back to the heart and soul of what this faith is all about:
The healing of this broken and fallen world – and the lives of the people who live in it - through the gracious goodness of God our Creator!
Dear friends, go into the world this week and bring God’s goodness to others!
Go and live like Jesus!