DATE: October 19, 2014
SCRIPTURE:
Luke 15:11-32 – full text follows the sermon
©Rev. Willie Salmond
So at last we are nearly there. After 3 years we are returning to the iconic church on the Post Road of Westport, Connecticut , continuing public worship at the mouth of the Saugatuck River which was begun by 36 members in 1832, and gave its name to the church Saugatuck Congregational Church. Returning to a place that the homeless called home and that led to the establishment of Gillespie and Hoskins Shelters. Returning to a place of so many memories for many of us. As we did the tours seeing how reconstruction was going we had so many flash backs, memories based on different spaces, and shivers down our spines.
Yes indeed we are going home.
We are going back but not backwards. Hopefully we can still be the playful church without walls. O we didn’t choose this, I know. The fire pushed us into it. But we’ve changed and the church has changed. With a lilt in our step, hope in our hearts, open to all, let us go home to the meeting house.
For me after 31 years in Africa it’s not been easy to adapt to a new permanent world with no return ticket. Especially winters! But my challenge has also been not to go backwards, look backwards, but to create a new perspective in the present tense.
Our text this morning is from Luke 15 vs. 18.
The lost boy says “I will get up and go home.” Literally “I will get up and go to my father.”
This story of Jesus is better known as the prodigal son. But look at the ending. The father says “this son of mine was dead and is alive again was lost and is found.” Chapter 15 of Luke’s gospel has the first two lost stories just before this one.
The woman who has ten coins, loses one and then sweeps the house till she finds it. The Shepherd who has 100 sheep, loses one and abandons the 99 and goes in search of the lost one. At the end of each of these stories there is great joy at the lost being found. Then this story of the lost boy.
He has spent his inheritance, blown it on booze and parties. And now he is in a fix. More than that he is very hungry. And hunger focuses the mind.
This morning so many people in our world are waking up wondering simply how to survive – to feed themselves and their children. And a thousand coping mechanisms are devised. Yes hunger focuses the mind to the exclusion of all else.
The lost boy has run out of people to blame for his calamity. In fact he has run out of people. The friends who were attracted to his good times have gone. And his survival strategy has come down to feeding the most unclean of all animals according Jewish culture – pigs. As he looks at the pigs swill he wonders if it is edible.
“Hanging out – Oranjello in Mike’s backpack”
by Clint JCL on Flickr.
Copyright Creative Commons.
Ground zero. Rock bottom. So he does what any of us would do.
He talks to himself. The other day someone said to me ‘sure I talk to myself, at least then I have someone who understand me!’ He talks to himself and he says
“I will get up and go home.”
Luke uses the same word ‘get up’ to describe resurrection. Well the lost boy was someone who could certainly use a bit of resurrection.
But he is very unsure of his welcome. His older brother may not be too overjoyed to see him. Right there brother! Just wait till you meet him! So he thinks about maybe becoming just one of the hired help. His confidence is shot and his sights are certainly lowered. The same is true for us after a spell of unemployment or family break up or extreme ill health. Our confidence is as low as our expectations are low.
Ground zero. Rock bottom.
As we watch the unraveling of our world on our TV screens we are bemused. So many people now with no home to go to. In West Africa for thousands of people where a loved one has died home is a forbidden place a dangerous place where ebola may be contracted. Through a translator one Syrian woman on her way to a refugee camp answered a question about her home.
“Home?” she said “Home? For me home is but a distant memory.”
Just before Thanksgiving feast last year a woman asked me how she could volunteer and then be there. “My home is broken now,” she said simply. Well the playful church without walls can certainly continue to offer that home for Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts.
At least the lost boy still has a home to return to. But how will the welcome be?
Jesus’ story is really all about the welcome. His stories are more about God and his rule -The Kingdom of Heaven – than about us. But each story is a challenge to us how to accept the coming Kingdom God’s welcome.
“It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom,” he tells his disciples.
Home is such an emotive word and means different things to different people.
Today the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation runs many children’s camps for HIV positive children in Africa. The first was in Uganda on the banks of Lake Victoria at the source of the River Nile. We set certain guidelines and ground rules before the children came. One was that they had to know their HIV status and not lies about having malaria or measles. One of the youngest was a little girl of 11 called Rose. As we talked to her we learned what had happened at home. Her mother received the guidelines and took her aside. And she told her this is not really your home. I am not your mother. Your mother died of AIDS when you were a baby. I am your auntie. O and by the way you have AIDS. Then Rose came to camp. I can’t explain this but this little girl was one of the most exuberant happy campers. Strange but true. Somehow in camp she came home.
Camp became a home. Camp became a place to process and think. Camp became a place of unconditional welcome. A place of unconditional welcome.
The lost boy is unsure of his welcome. Once a young man who had spent some time in prison was due to be released and go home. Like the lost boy he was unsure if he was still welcome after all the hurt he had caused his family. So he wrote a letter and said that his train would be passing their tenement house. If he was welcome please put a hanky out of the third story window. The day of his release came and he watched anxiously from the carriage window. There was no handkerchief. Instead there were sheets and pillow cases and balloons and a large sign saying ‘Welcome home lad.’
“Perverse and foolish oft I strayed but yet in love he sought me
And on his shoulder gently laid and home rejoicing brought me.”
The lost boy had the same surprise coming to him when he returned home in rags. Before he could even make his speech about becoming a hired help his father rushed out to him, put a ring on his finger, sandals on his feet and ordered preparations for the biggest party ever.
We can see Jesus smile as he tells this part of the story. The one who is so close to God is trying to explain to a calculating, logical, self-righteous, entitled audience what God is like. And the only way he can do it is in stories. Even as the boy apologizes and before he suggests becoming a hired help his father rushes out hugs him and kisses him and throws a party. Well it does seem odd doesn’t it? I mean hasn’t he had enough parties to last a lifetime? Shouldn’t there be cooling off period? Just doesn’t seem right.
Can you see Jesus smiling? God is like that, says Jesus. God is like that. He doesn’t calculate like you and me. Absurdly illogical, absurdly generous, absurdly welcoming. God is like that.
In worship each Sunday as described in our covenant “we celebrate the tangible presence of God”. Part of that is our time of confession each Sunday morning. “Father I have sinned against heaven and against you.” And that is only right. “I have sinned exceedingly in thought in word and in deed.” “ In a bit of a fix this morning Lord, bit of a fix, and I haven’t the first idea what to do now.” This is an integral part of our worship.
But the God to whom we offer this prayer of confession is, before we can even say Amen, already on the road welcoming us with open arms. God is like that says Jesus. God is like that.
The lost boy says to himself “I will get up and go home.” Follow him there and be assured of a glorious welcome.
As we move back let this be our trademark, or to use more modern parlance our brand. No questions asked, no story too shocking, no religious history required, you are welcome in the meeting house.
A final homecoming for each of us will be that moment when the shadows lengthen, and the fever of life is over and our work done, and the King of love and of welcoming joy offers to each a safe lodging, a holy rest and peace at the last. And we will hear the voice of the Master. “Well done good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Master. Welcome home, welcome home.”
Amen.
Scripture Texts
Luke 15:11-32 – Common English Bible Translation
11 Jesus said, “A certain man had two sons. 12 The younger son said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the inheritance.’ Then the father divided his estate between them.
13 Soon afterward, the younger son gathered everything together and took a trip to a land far away. There, he wasted his wealth through extravagant living. 14 “When he had used up his resources, a severe food shortage arose in that country and he began to be in need. 15 He hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to eat his fill from what the pigs ate, but no one gave him anything.
17 When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have more than enough food, but I’m starving to death! 18 I will get up and go to my father, and say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I no longer deserve to be called your son. Take me on as one of your hired hands.” ‘
20 So he got up and went to his father. “While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion. His father ran to him, hugged him, and kissed him. 21 Then his son said, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son.’
22 But the father said to his servants, ‘Quickly, bring out the best robe and put it on him! Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet! 23 Fetch the fattened calf and slaughter it. We must celebrate with feasting 24 because this son of mine was dead and has come back to life! He was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.
25 “Now his older son was in the field. Coming in from the field, he approached the house and heard music and dancing. 26 He called one of the servants and asked what was going on. 27 The servant replied, ‘Your brother has arrived, and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf because he received his son back safe and sound.’ 28 Then the older son was furious and didn’t want to enter in, but his father came out and begged him. 29 He answered his father, ‘Look, I’ve served you all these years, and I never disobeyed your instruction. Yet you’ve never given me as much as a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours returned, after gobbling up your estate on prostitutes, you slaughtered the fattened calf for him.’ 31 Then his father said, ‘Son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad because this brother of yours was dead and is alive. He was lost and is found.'”