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Can you picture him this morning? He is a long, long way from home.

There is something about this parable of the prodigal son that captures our imagination. I think we can all see ourselves – or maybe someone we know – in this boy who leaves home but eventually comes to his senses and returns to the loving embrace of his father.

I once preached a narrative-style sermon on this parable and placed myself in the role of the rebellious boy. “I was in high school when I just got fed up with it all,” I began the sermon. “I was sick and tired of living in my parent’s house and under their rules and I just decided I had to get out. So I withdrew all the money my folks had been saving for my college education, threw a few things together in a duffle bag, and got out of there. Up on the highway, I stuck out my thumb and a few minutes later got picked up by a bunch of hippies in a psychedelic painted Volkswagen bus. We dropped a little acid, put on some Jimi Hendrix, turned up the volume all the way, and headed for the west coast…”

Get the picture? Then I described all the depraved and sinful things that I – pretending to be the prodigal – did, until I finally came to my senses and decided to go home.

“Well, there was the old man standing at the door – looking kind of worn and frail. I said, ‘Dad, I’m sorry…’ But before I could even finish the sentence, he had grabbed me in a great big bear hug and said, ‘Welcome home!!”

Now, my mother was in the congregation the day I preached that sermon, and afterwards a woman she knew came up to her and said, “Shirley, I never realized what a hard time you had with Marty growing up!”

My mother said, “No, you don’t understand, he was just putting himself in the role of…”

The woman interrupted my mother and, gently patting her hand to comfort her said, “No, it’s okay. I understand if you don’t want to talk about it.”

There’s something about this story that rings true, perhaps because there is a certain degree of prodigality in all of us and all our families, and we know it when we see it.

And maybe it sounds familiar because this is the stuff that usually forms the basis of Christian testimonies:

“I was at the Billy Graham Crusade and became convicted of my sin. I realized how separated I was from God, how lost I was, and when the invitation was offered, I found myself getting up from my seat, and dashing down the aisle, and kneeling at the altar, and there I opened the door of my heart to Jesus, and I was saved.”

That’s the story of the prodigal coming home.

“I was in jail because of my involvement in corporate crime. A minister visited with me and gave me a Bible. I started to read it, and when he came the next time we discussed it. I began to see that even though I had had everything in life, I really had nothing because I didn’t have a personal relationship with God. I prayed the sinner’s prayer that day, and accepted Christ as my Savior, and now – praise Jesus! – I’m starting a ministry called ‘Convicted Corporate Executives for Christ.’”

You know how the testimonies go: “I was in the gutter…I was addicted to drugs…I was suicidal…I was on death’s doorstep…I was this…I was that… but then I came to Christ.” And usually, the juicier the story, the better!

So much of our Christian conversation is about prodigals coming home.

But how unfortunate that is!

Because, you see, that’s not what the parable wants us to discover. And so long as we keep the story centered on the prodigal coming to his senses and going home to his father, we will miss out on the deepest and most beautiful truth of this parable – and of the Good News of Jesus Christ.

I don’t know if you’ve ever read the story closely enough to see it, but if you check the details you’ll notice that the prodigal son never actually makes it home before he is embraced in his father’s love.

Did you know that?

Listen to verse 20:

“But while the boy was still A LONG WAY OFF, his father saw him, and was filled with compassion; HE RAN TO HIS SON, and threw his arms around him, and kissed him.”

Let’s read that again:

“But while the boy was still A LONG WAY OFF, his father saw him, and was filled with compassion; HE RAN TO HIS SON, and threw his arms around him, and kissed him.”

Before that boy ever made it home, before a confession could even make it to his lips, before an apology could be offered, or repentance begun, this father ran to embrace his son with redeeming love!

He was A LONG WAY FROM HOME when his father’s love found him!

If you have not seen the movie Amazing Grace I would commend it to you. It is the story of that heroic young twenty-something year old William Wilberforce, a British Member of Parliament in the late 1700’s. Wilberforce was the leading advocate for abolition of the slave trade in Britain. His convictions about the evil of slavery stemmed from his newly forming Christian faith. At one point, his friend William Pitt seems alarmed at Wilberforce’s religious zeal and says something like, “Don’t tell me you’ve gone and found God!” Wilberforce smiles at his friend and answers, “No, I think it’s more like God has found ME!”

“But while the boy was still A LONG WAY OFF, his father saw him, and was filled with compassion; he ran to his son, and threw his arms around him, and kissed him.”

And part of the beauty of the story is that we are never told how far is “far”. Did you notice that?  Was the boy coming down the driveway when his father saw him and ran out to greet him? We’re not told! Or was he a mile or two down the road? Or over in the next town? Or all the way back in that far country where the boy ended up feeding swine? Jesus never says how far away the boy was when his father sees him. Jesus just says, “…while the boy was still A LONG WAY OFF…”

I wonder how far “a long way” is?

Let’s think a little bit today about people who are a long way from home.

People like Sally, a woman who never made it up to the altar, or into the church, or even to the beliefs of the Christian faith. Sally had a hard life – you could say a prodigal life.  Bad relationships, bad drugs, bad drinking. Bad choices all the way around.   Unemployed.  On welfare. Couldn’t take care of her own children – one ended up drowned while Sally slept in with a hangover.  She came to think there was no reason to go on living. She wanted to end her life. She was a long, long way from home.

But somehow, something got into Sally and she began to go in another direction.   She put away her thoughts of suicide.  She put away self-pity and despair.  She actually went and found a job.  Bought a car. Got a little house. Planted flowers.  Made peace with her estranged family.

And then one day, she told her son of a new desire in her heart.  She wanted to look for a church.  She wanted to find her way home to God.

But Sally never made it. Before she ever made it home, Sally died – of a sudden and massive stroke. Those who were with her when it happened said she was probably dead before she hit the floor.¹

There are millions of prodigal Sally’s in our world – women, men, boys, girls – people who, for all sorts of reasons, never make it home from the far country. Some live right here in our own community, and in our own families. Some sit among us right here in church. Maybe YOU are a prodigal son or daughter! Some are a long way from home because of wrong life-decisions. Others are a long way from home because religion just doesn’t make any sense to them, or perhaps because a church, or a minister, or a teaching has inflicted injury upon them. Some are a long way from home because they are angry at God. Some are a long way from home for no reason than the fact that they were born a long way from home.

Are you one of the prodigals? Do you know some prodigal people?

Let me ask you an important question, “Is there any hope for people who are a long ways from home? Is there any hope for the prodigal children of this world?”

You know, most religions place the responsibility for wholeness and salvation upon us. What we do or don’t do, what we confess or don’t confess, what we believe or don’t believe determines whether or not we belong to God. We even use self-centered language in our religious traditions when we say things like, “I accepted Christ at 12-years of age…” or “I attained a higher level of inner peace…” or “I found the secret to spiritual fulfillment…”

An awful lot of religion is all about “me” and what I do. And I suppose that’s great, if you can pull it off. But what if you’re a person like Sally who can’t make it home on her own?

The only hope for prodigals is if Jesus was telling the truth when he said:

“… while the boy was still A LONG WAY OFF, his father saw him, and was filled with compassion; he ran to his son, and threw his arms around him, and kissed him.”

Before the boy even turned into the driveway, before he had washed away the stains left over from his sinful living, before he even was able to trust in his father’s capacity to forgive…THE FATHER SAW HIM, AND WAS FILLED WITH COMPASSION, AND RAN TO HIS SON, AND EMBRACED HIM, AND KISSED HIM!

So there IS hope for the Sally’s of this world – and for the Marty’s – and for you – and for all the prodigal children!

The Good News of Jesus is that it’s not all about YOU! It’s all about GOD! The Good News is that there is a God whose love for his children is relentless and unfailing. No matter how far from home his prodigal children may be, God sees them while they are still a long ways off and runs to them, and embraces them, and kisses them with the kiss of redemption.

And if this is true, there are some important things for us to learn:

First, don’t ever underestimate the power of God’s love to find and transform even the most lost person whether it is your enemy, your neighbor, your family member…or even yourself.

Second, don’t ever overestimate your own ability to rightly judge the condition of another person’s soul. Most people saw the prodigal in terms of his sins, but his father saw him as his son. We people of faith can be of no help to God until we learn to see humanity through God’s eyes – the eyes of a loving father.

Third, there is such a need in our world today for churches that mirror the father’s concern for his children, and that have the guts to embrace people who are still “a long way from home.” Can we be such a church?

And finally, if you are a long way from home today, we want you to know that you are loved by God, and welcomed here – because we’re ALL prodigals of one kind or another…

…and our loving Father runs to embrace us even when we are a long, long way from home!

^[1] Sally’s story is excerpted from the opening chapter of ”If Grace Is True” by Philip Gulley and James Mulholland, Harper San Francisco, 2004.