Saturday, May 25, 2019

Extravagant Love


Sermon for SMHP, Year C, Lent IV, April 7, 2019
Luke 15:1-2, 11-32                         
          Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. 2And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
               11Then Jesus said, “There was a man who had two sons. 12The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’ So he divided his property between them. 13A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. 14When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. 15So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. 16He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. 17But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! 18I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; 19I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.”’ 20So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. 21Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; 24for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.
          25“Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. 26He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. 27He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.’ 28Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. 29But he answered his father, ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. 30But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’
          31Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’”

          The highlight of any weekday for me now is when I get to pick up Dominic from daycare.  I’m sure all the kids great their parents with equal enthusiasm, but I have to say, there is nothing more special than having a little person whom you love more than life itself come running toward you shouting “Ma Da!”
          I think it is honestly the closest I’ve ever felt to being the youngest son in this parable.  Not that I haven’t “squandered some of my property in dissolute living” over the years.  But the feeling of having someone rush to you with nothing but love in their heart…there is nothing quite like that.
          Don’t we all need the assurance that we are loved that way?  Don’t we all want to know that somebody loves us with wild abandon?  Never counting all the things we do against us, but just throwing their arms around us and pulling us in tight?
          This story is usually called the Parable of the Prodigal Son, but it could just as easily be called the Parable of the Profligate Father. 
          “Profligate.  Recklessly extravagant or wasteful in the use of resources.”  It’s actually a synonym for “prodigal.”  The second definition is “a licentious, dissolute person.”  The father is not a profligate in that sense.  But certainly his older son thinks he is wasting resources on his prodigal son.
          Indeed, both the youngest son and the father are profligate.  The son is profligate with his inheritance.  Just throws it away. 
          The father is profligate with his love. Listen to it:
          The youngest son asks for his inheritance early—a profound show of disrespect for his father.  Then he goes out and “squanders his property with dissolute living.”  I always feel like a shower after just reading that sentence.
          Then this disrespectful, wastrel of a boy throws away his whole living, repents, and comes crawling back to his father.
          We all know what most parents would do at that point.  Jesus knows what most parents would do at that point.  That’s why this parable gets our attention.  We expect the father to be disappointed, at least, and probably pretty peeved.  Instead he runs after his son and throws a party!  It reverses the expectations of the listener, and makes one wonder, “Who could love like that?”
          Who loves like that?!  Who rushes out to receive the prodigal returned, and demands a robe, a ring, and sandals for him?  Who throws a feast to welcome back a child who couldn’t wait to get away from him?  Music!  Dancing!  Rich food!
          Who does that?!
          Pause
          God does.  God takes us back after we make idols out of our jewelry or our i-phones or whatever.  God forgives us when we fail miserably at the commandments, one by one.  God is always ready, arms outstretched, to welcome us home, and set a feast before us.
          And Jesus, in order to witness to God his profligately loving father…Jesus loved like that, too.  He would go into a new town, and instead of finding the most respectable people—the “good church folk” to eat with and stay with—Jesus would hang out with the sinners, and the tax collectors…those people who live on the margins of the town, and the margins of the Pharisaic consciousness.
          And isn’t that how you witness to a profligate God?  You become profligate yourself.  You stop making distinctions between the “right” and “wrong” kinds of people, and just love everybody.  Just be profligate with your own love, like the father in our story. 
          Christians bear witness to our profligately loving God by removing the distinctions ourselves.  By treating all people the same, which starts with remembering that we ourselves aren’t worthy of more when we’re “good” and less when we’re “bad.”  The older brother is suffering from this problem.  He feels that he should be treated better and his brother worse, based on their behavior.
          And it works that way, out in the world, doesn’t it?  But not in the kingdom of God.
          In the kingdom of God, the profligate parent loves the prodigal son with abandon.  And the faithful son just as much, to be clear.  There’s no penalty for being good.  Grace just removes the stigma for being bad. 
          We must do that as well, if we are to witness to a God whose love is profligate.  We must do it as individuals, and as a church.  We’ve been talking about witness for a few weeks now, and I’ve mostly preached about how we are called to witness as Christians our there is the world. 
          I want us to think together for a bit about how this Call to Witness falls on us as a church.
         
àHow might we find ways to witness to our extravagantly loving God?  How can we show this love as a church, in concrete ways?

Take 3 minutes.  Work with a partner, work with a couple people.  Work by yourself if you don’t like compulsory group work.

--Don’t think about budget.  Think about love and witness.  And try not to just name things we’re already doing, unless you have an idea to take them further.

Come back and share.


          The best feeling in the world is knowing that you are deeply and truly loved.  That if you went away, there would be a big party when you returned. 
          We now live in a culture in which people report being connected on a superficial level to more and more people.  And at the same time, they report being more isolated than ever.
          What the profligate father reminds both of his sons is that we are built for deep connection, with one another, with God.  If we can find ways to deepen our connection with each other and with people we haven’t yet met, we will be witnessing to the love of a God whose grace is sufficient for the whole world, a God who is always ready to throw us a party.
          You are loved.  More than you could possibly know.  So much that you’ve got some to spare.  Let it flow.  Be profligate with it.  Be a witness to the one who loved us first.

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