+ In the name of God whose love for us is radical, extravagant and unconditional. Amen

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1 Lent 4- The Prodigal Son The Rev. Taylor W. Dinsmore March 10, 2013 Episcopal Church of the Good Samaritan + In the name of God whose love for us is radical, extravagant and unconditional. Amen Most of my life and ministry before becoming a parish priest was grounded in volunteer service. I worked at church, I taught inner city pre-school, I worked with Alzheimer s patients, I worked in homeless shelters in Chattanooga.and I loved it. I loved volunteer work.because most people were grateful for what I was doing, nobody ever complained I couldn t get fired and most of the time I was able to do what I wanted to do. I loved feeling like I made a difference.especially in places no one else seemed to care about. Though I really do love parish ministry, sometimes the crisis of who moved the candlesticks or considering the deep implications of whether or not we will have nametags at a newcomer event rattles my soul.and I hear voices from the outskirts of life calling out to me. I know it is God calling me to do something radical and edgy something outside my comfort zone to energize my Spirit and bring healing to my soul. So, a couple of years ago, I made an appointment with Dr. Jeanie Gillian who is the founder of the Hope Center at Ft. Sanders Hospital. Having been a long time caregiver for her son, Bobby, Jeanie envisioned the Hope Center as a place to address the unmet needs of people living with HIV The Hope Center provides information, education, and resources to the health care system, the community and people who are in desperate need of what they have to offer.but, most of all, what they supply in greatest abundance is HOPE, understanding, acceptance and unconditional Love. During our conversation, Jeannie told me of the Center s passion for taking care of patients when their families and their friends and even their own parents have turned away and rejected them because of the stigma of their disease even though now with new medications HIV is considered to be just another a chronic illness. 1

2 She told me that on numerous occasions family members had stormed past her office on their way to the elevator having just walked out of a seriously ill person s room telling her that they would never be back. The thing she heard most was, You take care of them I am through with them. And that is what they do at the Hope Center.take care of people and Love them for the children of God that they are. You and I live in a world where love is conditional The Greek word is adikos if you scratch my back, I ll scratch yours, you do for me, then I will do for you. If you act the way I want you to act, be who I think you should be then, and only then, are you worthy of my love. Aren t we glad that God doesn t operate like that.because we would all be in trouble. God s love for us is unconditional.the Greek word is Agape covenant love no strings attached. Loving for the sake of the other person not for our own sake. Our own parable of the Good Samaritan is an example of Agape love genuine love and care for stranger, just because they need it with no thought or expectation of anything in return. When I read the parable of the Prodigal Son from Luke s Gospel, Jeannie s story from the Hope Center immediately came to mind and it actually made me cry.the images of love so strikingly dissimilar in God s world and in our own. Human love with all of its conditions.and God s love with none of them. A prodigal child. A loving parent. A resentful sibling. It is a story told 2,000 years ago that is as relevant and believable today as when it was first told; a story involving arrogance, self-righteousness, repentance, compassion and forgiveness. It is a human story that presents a picture of family with which most of us can relate. With vivid imagery, Luke depicts three sharply profiled, strong characters: the younger son, the loving father and the older brother. Luke paints their portraits for us but we are supposed to supply the details and the associations from our own lives. It is easy to quickly identify with each character.we can all remember a time when we wandered far from home either physically or spiritually, a time when we waited patiently for someone we loved to come back to us, or a time when we felt resentment when we should have felt joy. 2

3 The beauty and strength of this parable is that it meets generations of listeners wherever they are: whether it is in first century Palestine, fourth century Rome or twenty-first century Knoxville, Tennessee. In talking about this parable, Henri Nouwen said, More than any other story in the Gospels, the parable of the Prodigal Son expresses the utter boundlessness of God s compassionate love. Through its believable portrayal of God s amazing love, this parable captures in a mere twentyone verses, the essence of reconciliation which is the core message of the Gospel and work of Jesus Christ. The parable of the prodigal son, stays young no matter how old it is, giving all kinds of people all kinds of ways to make the story their own. That is the beauty of a parable and why Jesus used them in his teaching, He knew they were powerful tools he could use to reframe our vision and give us new eyes to look at old ways of seeing. This is why stories often reconcile enemies and change minds because stories move beyond facts to relationships, and it is at the level of relationship that we are most vulnerable and open to change. In this season of Lent, we are looking at parables in the Gospel of Luke for perspective and insight. These stories are meant to shake us up a bit as we move toward Easter Sunday, when all the world's assumptions about the power and finality of death will be turned upside down. To be a Christian is, in part, to be reminded, on a weekly basis, that we are meant to look at the world with different standards of judgment than those that operate in the world." Parables do exactly that; they re-orient us to a different standard. They surprise us.and they allow us to see clearly the difference between our lives in this world: which are practical, moderate, and rational.and the world of the kingdom of God: which is extravagant, unrestrained, and full of grace. And they also offer us the opportunity to see who we actually are in the drama that is unfolding and then consider if that is who we really want to be. Are you the younger child who wasted your inheritance on foolishness and returned home sorry for what you had done, but learning something in the process? Are you the older child who has always tried to do the right thing but maybe for the wrong reasons reasons that through the years have caused resentment. 3

4 Are you the Father who loves his children unconditionally and waits for them to respond to that love even when they are hurt and resent him. Or is there a little bit of each of them in you.foolish, repentant, resentful, loving, thankful. Methodist preacher, Fred Craddock believes that the title of the Parable of the Prodigal Son should really be called the parable of a loving father. There is no doubt, he says, that the father is the main character of the story and that his relationship with his two sons is the dynamic thread that runs through the story. The divine nature of the father, and of God, our Father, is that he does not love any of his children according to what they deserve. He just loves them, more because of who He is than because of who they are. God loves. because that is truly what he is and what he does. We are all prodigals at one time or another in one way or another. Sometimes we too run away from things. Sometimes we must admit our mistakes. Like the younger son, we must come to ourselves and realize who we are and whose we are. And the Good News is that.what is waiting for us is a Father who is always ready to welcome us home with no strings attached. But it is our choice whether or not we will return. Ernest Hemingway wrote a poignant short story called The Capital of the World. In it he tells about a Spanish father who wants to reconcile with his son who has run away to Madrid. In order to locate the boy he takes out this ad in the El Liberal newspaper: "Paco, meet me at the Hotel Montana at noon on Tuesday. All is forgiven. Love, Papa." Paco is a common name in Spain, and when the father goes to the square he finds 800 young men named Paco waiting for their fathers. What drew them to the hotel? 4

5 As Hemingway tells it, it was the words All is forgiven. Notice that the father did not say, All WILL BE forgiven IF you do this or that. Not, All WILL BE forgiven WHEN you do such and such. He simply says, All is forgiven. No strings attached. And that s the hard part un-attaching the strings. How important is it to offer our love, especially to those closest to us, with no strings attached? Grace lies at the heart of this parable- scandalous grace, grace that defies all earthly rules. Identifying too closely with the sons, we run the risk of neglecting the central point of the story: the extraordinary love of the Father who defies convention and runs to greet his child while he was still far off, giving the impression that he had spent much time watching and waiting for his return. As we find ourselves in this parable, may we be able to see that we will never really experience the joy of our faith until we realize that we are all outsiders who have been invited into the party through no merit of our own. Some of us are like the younger brother, people who have wasted our lives, and some of us are like the older brother, people who have worked hard and who smolder with resentment because things are hard and responsibilities are heavy, and life is not fair. But the fact is, we are all on the outside, you, me, the younger son and the older son, the patients and the parents at the Hope Center, Paco and his Papa we are all on the outside, and it is only through the Grace of God, our Loving Father, that we are invited into the place of joy which is God s kingdom. The Parable of the Prodigal Son offers us a vision of the way things work in the kingdom of God where mercy cancels out law, abundance trumps anger, wayward children are welcomed home, and love is extravagant and unconditional. Such a vision can change lives, bring life from death, joy from sorrow and turn the world upside down My friends, that is not the world we live in, but it can be.if we love others as God loves us we are helping to usher in the kingdom of God right here! So, quickly now, here is your robe, it the best one put this ring on your finger and put these sandals on your feet.someone has already gone to get a fatted calf come on in the music is playing.your Father has been waiting a long time just for you! Amen. 5