Creekside Church Sermon of November 5, 2000 "Behold Your God - Scene III: The Father" Luke 15:20-32	Rev. David Bibbee
Send this sermon to a friend

But this was nothing compared to the story shared by another pastor. The wife of the deceased asked if she could share an announcement at the close of the service. He assumed she would share some words of appreciation to all who had come. Instead she said, "I want to say that everyone is invited over to our house right after the burial for a good time. I've got plenty of food, lots of beer, and we're going to tie one on tonight that will send John out in style. John would have wanted it that way."

What an inappropriate thing to do. "We'll throw a few shovels full of dirt, then go party!" There are times we do things that aren't necessarily wrong in and of themselves, but given the context, are not appropriate. The action of the prodigal son's father is a prime example. His self-centered, ungrateful boy went off to the big city, partied from dusk till dawn and kept it up till his pockets were empty. He had devoured all of his inheritance. Then he came home. Now it's time to pay the piper. Confession, repentance, contrition, apologies, making amends, restoring relationships. That's what should have been done. But what does the father do? He embraced his son, put a ring on his finger, draped a cloak over his shoulders, put fancy slippers on his feet and then threw a great party for him.

Is that the right kind of message to send? Make a mess of your life and then come home to a great party? The father was encouraging the prodigal's behavior. If you don't come down hard on him this time, mark my word, he'll do it again. Let him know you mean business. This is what conventional wisdom says, but the father, Jesus tells us, is not conventional. This father gave his son the inheritance he asked for. When he came home, the father wouldn't even let him apologize. Instead, he hugged him, clothed him, and threw a great party in his honor.

Notice that the elder brother didn't criticize the father for welcoming his brother home. There's nothing wrong with being around sinners, provided they know they are a sorry lot. The elder brother wasn't mad because the prodigal came home. It was the party that got him. "You're rewarding bad behavior, Father!"

Over the past two weeks we have seen ourselves as the prodigal and the elder brother, but today we will look at who the parable is about, really. Ultimately it is not about one son's rebellion and the other's self- righteousness. It is about the father's incredible, unconditional forgiveness. Look at the father, and behold your God.

Long before we chose God, God chose us. Before it ever crossed our mind to search for God, we were already being sought. We will never find God, unless God wants to be found. God knit us together in our mother's womb. We were fearfully and wonderfully made. Before our mothers loved us, we were loved by God. Before our first rejection, the Father loved us. After all the rejections have taken place, he will still love us. God's great hope is that we will all come home to him, and that we will love because he first loved us. In Rembrandt's painting the prodigal looks as if he is about to be engulfed by his father's cloak. The psalmist used similar imagery in this psalm to God:

You who dwell in the shelter of the most high, and abide in the shadow of the almighty
Say to your God-my refuge, my stronghold, my God in whom I trust.

Do we know and believe the love God has for us? Do we believe that God counts us worthy enough to seek? Usually, "No." We depreciate ourselves and dislike who we are. We are convinced God has far more reason to scold and judge us than to forgive and receive us. This is why it is so easy for the world to jerk us around. Because we feel so small, we are easy targets for marketers who tell us we can be better, more happy people, if we will only do this, or buy that...at four easy payments of only $39.95.

The father asked for no apologies. He didn't make his son beg forgiveness. He didn't lecture him or scold him or make him promise never to pull a stunt like that again.

I talked with a woman who said she couldn't let God come close because of the fear of punishment. We talked about what was behind her fear. She remembered when she was a little girl spending the night in a hotel with her family. She accidentally locked herself in the bathroom and couldn't get out. She pounded on her door to get her parents to help, but they couldn't open it from the outside. They tried telling her how to work the lock mechanism, but she couldn't. They sent for a maintenance man who tried to remove the hinges, but couldn't. She was scared. Then the bathroom light went out, and she was terrified. She was crying and pounding on the door. Finally the maintenance man removed the window and she crawled out into his arms. She was still sobbing, but relieved to be free. She ran into the room waiting for a comforting hug. Instead her father put her across his lap, spanked her, and said, "Don't you ever pull a trick like that again, young lady!"

She learned that her father, and by extension God, were to be avoided at all cost when something was wrong. I suggested that she read the prodigal son and meet a different father. When the Pharisees asked why Jesus welcomed sinners, Jesus told them about a lamb lost in the wilderness, and a shepherd who left 99 others and didn't stop searching till he found it. He told them about a woman who had lost a silver coin and turned her house inside out until she found it. He told them about a wayward son who had lost his way, came to his senses, and finally came home. In all three parables, that which is lost is found, and all of these parables conclude with rejoicing and partying. When a sinner comes home, it's always a cause for celebration.

Someone said, "The biggest problem with American Christianity is that we have a Loving Father Gospel in an Elder Brother Church. We are able to accept the father's unconditional forgiveness for ourselves, but like the elder brother, we keep score, and don't think that welcoming a lost brother or sister home with a party is an appropriate thing to do. The Elder Brother Church doesn't have parties. It is too busy comparing, judging, being jealous and resentful to notice anything worth celebrating.

It's no problem to find ourselves in this parable. To be either one of the sons is, I suppose, in a strange way, comforting. As long as we can see ourselves in son one or two, we feel understood. But there's more of a message here than this. If there were only two options for our lives, there would be no reason for us to grow to the next phase of spiritual maturity. We are like the brothers, but our goal is to become like the father. We are not only those who are forgiven, we are to be forgivers. We are not to merely receive God's welcome...we are to extend it.

I remember hearing a speaker recall the day she answered the doorbell. Standing at the door were the kids next door. The girl was five, her brother was three. They wore some of their parent's clothing and were making believe they were grown-up. "Hello," the girl said. "I am Mrs. Miller and this is my husband Mr. Miller. We decided to come visit." "Well that would be delightful," the hostess said. "Won't you and Mr. Miller come in? Would you like some milk and cookies?" "Yes please." Her two guests sat on the couch trying to act very dignified. The hostess went back to the kitchen for more cookies. When she returned the kids were headed for the door. "Won't you please stay for more cookies?" "We'd like to," little Mrs. Miller said, "but we must be going...my husband just wet his pants."

"When I was a child, I spoke like a child and reasoned like a child," Paul said. "When I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways." Conversion is a daily discipline of growing from a child to an adult. It is daily deciding to become more like Christ. It is being daily converted from judging through the world's eyes, to seeing people and their problems from the vantage point of a loving father's eyes.

Jesus' disciple Phillip said to him, "Show us the Father." "Anyone who has seen me, has seen the Father," Jesus said. All the power, all the knowledge, all the glory and love of God reside within him. "I tell you" Jesus said "by himself, the Son can do nothing. He can only do what he sees the Father doing." He can only welcome the prodigals who turn to him. He can only give those who are mad about parties for sinners, an invitation to sit at the table, too. "You are always with me. Whatever I have is yours." Like the father, like sons and daughters, it is all about being compassionate as your heavenly father is compassionate.

This is exceedingly difficult work. It is tremendously difficult to give without thinking about getting something back. It's hard to suspend my judgments of others and receive them with compassion instead. It is difficult to not hunger for recognition. Most of the time, living with God's unconditional love is beyond me. Then I remember there can be no Loving Father Gospel in an Elder Brother Church. It is not enough to identify with the sons. It all comes down to believing everything we need is found in the house of the Father's love, and deciding to be more like him.

Tom Long tells the story of spending the night in a hotel. On the elevator door was a handwritten notice that read, "Party tonight! Room 210. 8:00 P.M. Everyone invited!" He could hardly picture who would throw such a party, or for what reason, but he imagined that at 8:00 room 210 would be filled with an unlikely assortment of people...sales reps seeking a little relief from the tedium of the road; a vacationing couple tired of sightseeing; a man stopping overnight in the middle of a long journey; looking for a little bit of festivity; a few inquisitive and wary hotel employees, there because of professional responsibility; perhaps some young people who have slipped out of their parents rooms, curious about what was happening in room 210.

But, as he had suspected, the sign soon came down and was replaced by a typewritten statement from the hotel staff explaining that the first notice was a joke. That made sense, but in a way it was too bad. For a brief moment, the people staying at the hotel were tantalized by the possibility that there just might be a party going on somewhere to which they were all invited...a party where it didn't make much difference who they were when they walked in the door, or what motivated them to come; a party they could come to out of boredom, loneliness, curiosity, responsibility, eagerness to be in fellowship, or simply out of a desire to come and see what was happening; a party where it didn't matter nearly as much what got them in the door, as what would happen to them after they arrived.

Then Long was struck by the insight, "Perhaps if there is to be such a party, the church is going to have to throw it."

All of the sermons that have appeared in text form on our Web Site since August 1996 are available here in the On-Line version. Use the search engine below to find the sermon you want. You may search by date, sermon title, or content. The sermons are full-text searchable.

Sermon Search:



Exact phrase    All words (AND)    Any word (OR)