Your Brother Has Come . . .
Luke 15:1-3, 11-32
by Jim Westmoreland
You work your nose to the grindstone every day. You try to met all your parents' expectations. You are blessed with wealth and love, and you are driven to prove that you are worthy of all that you have. You are consistent and dependable for everything. Even if you are not asked, you anticipate needs and take care of them.
Your brother or sister left home a few years ago and hasn't been heard from since. He really has shamed the family in the way that he left and the way that he has lived. You have tried to put him out of your mind, because every time you begin to think about him your get mad all over again. I mean worked up mad. You don't even realize it but your are mumbling and giving speeches to him that you have thought of over the years, telling him what you think of him and how badly he hurt mom and dad. Before you know it, your blood pressure is up, and you whole body is pre-living a confrontation that never occurs. But, it lives there inside of you. And, every now and then something will trigger and you will pre-live it again.
You are heading home at the end of a full day's work, just like many days before, and, as you get close the to house, something is different. Normally, it is quiet as people are putting up their equipment and putting things back in their place, feeding the livestock in the nearby barns, cleaning up and getting ready for supper. Those are normal sounds you hear every evening against a background of quiet. But, now there are different noises of people scurrying about and talking against a background of excitement. Something is different and you wonder what is going on.
Just then, a servant coming from the house is headed your way, and you ask, "What's all the excitement about?" And he says, "Your brother has come . . . ." Four simple words suddenly hit you with the impact of a head-on collision with somebody bigger than you are. "Your brother has come . . ." You are numb, stunned and dazed. Your heart stops beating and you gasp for air. In the back of your mind you knew it might or probably would happen one day. You would have to face him or her again. What would you do or say? "Your sister has come . . ." And then, you hear the rest of the sentence, "and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got her back safe and sound."
Now, your heart is pounding and you are breathing rapid, shallow breaths. All of those angry feelings that you have struggled to keep buried all these years start screaming into your confused mind. Your aching heart cries out in self pity as it spasms at the impact of this overwhelming news. How could he come back now? After all he's done, after all these years? And then, it almost sticks in your throat as you groan, "How could Dad have killed the fatted calf for him? After all I've done, after all these years?"
This story is part of Jesus' powerful response to the Pharisees and scribes who were complaining that Jesus welcomed sinners and even ate with them. Immediately after the Pharisees and scribes said this to Jesus, he told them a story about a shepherd who had 100 sheep and lost one and went out to find it. And He follows it with a second story about searching for lost things. A woman with 10 coins lost one, and she lights a lamp, sweeps the house and searches until she finds it. These two stories are straight forward stories about finding something lost. Jesus seeks out sinners because they are lost, and He loves them and cares for them.
Then, Jesus tells the story a father who had two sons, popularly called the story of the Prodigal Son, but it is also called the story of the Prodigal Father, because it is about a father's lavish, unconditional love. This story is not only about the Father's love for his lost son who returns home, further illustrating God's love for sinners like the people that Jesus sought out. It is also a story about the Pharisees and scribes who are represented by the older son who cannot celebrate the father's love for the return of the lost son.
And so, this story about the Prodigal Son and the Prodigal Father is also very much a story about us. We are guilty of wasting parts of our lives, wasting our time, wasting opportunities to do good and to care for others. The opportunities are there all around us, but we turn our head, close our eyes, and hide behind a "busy day" that is scheduled with lesser things.
This story is for us as individuals and for us as the church. Too often, the church is seen by those outside the church as a showcase for the saints-the respectable, worthy members of society- rather than a hospital for sinners. Jesus spent time with the sinners, and that upset those concerned with appearances and the externals of religion.
In all three stories in Luke 15 Jesus illustrated God's concern for the lost. In this parable Jesus includes God's concern for those who are near the Father, like the elder brother, but not experiencing the Father's love. The Father loved both sons. The rebel came home asking to be a hired hand, but the Father ran to meet Him and embraced this lost son, and he wouldn't allow any thoughts of being a hired hand. This was His son and he insisted on robing him and treating him as a son.
The elder brother is a sharp contrast to the young prodigal who just returned. One was humble and repentant, the other was proud and resentful. The younger son knew more about the Father's character than the elder brother. When the elder brother heard the words, "Your brother has come . . ." , his temper grew angry and his heart grew cold.
Henri Nouwen, one of the great spiritual writers of the twentieth century, commented on the "lostness" of both sons in the story of the Prodigal Son.
He wrote, "Did you ever notice how lost you are when you are resentful? It's a very deep lostness. The younger son gets lost in a much more spectacular way -- giving in to his lust and his greed, using women, playing poker, and losing his money. His wrongdoing is very clear-cut. He knows it and everybody else does, too. Because of it he can come back, and he can be forgiven. The problem with resentment is that it is not so clear-cut: It's not spectacular. And it is not overt, and it can be covered by the appearance of a holy life. Resentment is so pernicious because it sits very deep in you, in your heart, in your bones, and in your flesh, and often you don't even know it is there. You think you're so good. But in fact you are lost in a very profound way.(1)
When we hear "Your brother or your sister has come . . ." do we go into reaction, resentment or critical mode like the Pharisees and scribes, or can we celebrate the good news of one who has been lost?
Most of us- we've worked hard, we've earned what we have. We have a lot of good stuff and we deserve it. It is ours! But we need to let go of what is rightly ours in order to restore that lost brother or sister. We need to part with what is ours not just for them but for our own joy!
William Willimon tells about inviting Millard Fuller to Charlotte, NC. Millard Fuller, you may know, was a wealthy businessman who heard God's call and started Habitat for Humanity. Willimon said, We decided that instead of having a professional, preacher type to introduce him, we would get a resident from a Habitat house. We asked Melissa Cornet, tall, gangly, and not an accomplished speaker. She was nervous. She poked around for words, but then suddenly began to speak to Fuller, who was sitting in the front row.
"Millard Fuller, you are the answer to my prayer. I grew up in a tenement, a terrible place full of drugs, violence. I wasn't nobody, knew I'd never be nobody. I grew up and had a little boy - and there he was, in a terrible place, full of drugs, violence. I knew he wouldn't never be nobody either. So I got on my knees and I prayed, I prayed hard, I said, 'Lord, I will do anything, I will give up my life. But please, please, I just want my boy to have a chance to be somebody.' Millard Fuller, when God told you to give away your money, you were the answer to my prayer.
"I heard about Habitat, and I got to build a house. I met President Jimmy Carter and Millard Fuller. We got a house, a nice house. Millard Fuller, you are the answer to my prayer. Before we moved in, my boy had started school, but his teacher said he was slow, he would probably never catch up. He never smiled. But then we moved into our new house. He had his own room. And he began to shine that day. He got to where he played and had fun. And he started making good grades in school. Now he's in the third grade, and he's making straight A's."
"The other day, my boy said to me, 'Momma, do you know what I want to be when I grow up?' I said, 'No, what do you want to be?' He said, 'I'm going to be a doctor.' Millard Fuller, you're the answer to my prayer."
About this time, Melissa figured she had talked too long, and gotten off track . . . so, a little bit embarrassed, she said, "Well, without any further ado, here's Millard Fuller."
Now, if you've ever been part of a standing ovation, you know how it goes: one person rises, then another, finally everyone else. But once in a while, an entire body of people leap to their feet. That's what they did for this wonderful woman's speech. Now she walked off to the side, and turned to clap for Millard Fuller. Willimon put his arm around her, pointed to the crowd, and said, "Look, Melissa. They're not clapping for him. They're clapping for you."
Put on the best robe, kill the fatted calf, let us make merry. For this my child was lost, but is found. Can you imagine anything better than looking up one day and discovering you have been the answer to somebody's prayer? Or that the great raucous crowd of the saints is rising to their feet to applaud - and the one being welcomed and cheered is you?(2)
When someone says, "Your brother or your sister has come," are we going to walk the other way, or are we going to stand up and clap! Amen.
Century Christian Church, March 18, 2007 - Sermon by Jim Westmoreland
www.centurychristian.org
1. Henri Nouwen, From Fear to Love: Lenten Reflections on the Parable of the Prodigal Son, (Fenton, Missouri: Creative Communications for the Parish, 1998), 13-14.
2. William Willimon, Pulpit Resource, Jan-Mar, 2007.