Found #lostandfound #grace #jesus #pharisees #prodigals #prodifgalson #c...

 

We think about the parables in Luke 15 as being about lostness. But the real emphasis is on being FOUND.

What joy.

Listen:

Read:

Luke 15:1–3, 11b-32

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

Pause in the reading, for here is the context. It is the grumbling of the grumblers over the company Jesus was keeping.

So he told them this parable:

Then Jesus said, “There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the wealth that will belong to me.’ So he divided his assets between them. A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant region, and there he squandered his wealth in dissolute living. When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that region, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that region, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. He would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, and no one gave him anything.

But when he came to his senses he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.” ’

So 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.

Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But 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. And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate, for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.

“Now his elder son was in the field, and as he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on.

He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf because he has got him back safe and sound.’ Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him.

But 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. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your assets with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’

Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But 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.’ ”

Two Sons

Luke 15:11 — “And he said, A certain man had two sons:”

We know the story of the Prodigal Son.

What we don’t often think about is how the main target of the story is the elder brother who criticized the father for welcoming home the rebellious one and throwing a party to celebrate his return.

The son who took his inheritance, left for a far country, found himself in the dregs, and returned, is easy to relate to from afar. We can understand his repentance. He was clearly wrong.

There is an ancient Orthodox hymn and prayer inspired by him:

“I have recklessly forgotten Your glory, O Father;

And among sinners I have scattered the riches which You gave to me.

And now I cry to You as the Prodigal:

I have sinned before You, O merciful Father;

Receive me as a penitent and make me as one of Your hired servants.”

The older brother was also wrong. His attitude was wrong. His heart was wrong.

Belief and repentance, Jesus taught, are about changing our minds. We can see how the younger brother had to change his. But so did the elder brother. He needed to see his wandering sibling differently.

His father says they ought to rejoice because what was lost had been found.

Jesus was telling the story to wake up those among his listeners who were held captive by judgmentalism and exclusivism.

He was proclaiming the need for mercy. Not only do sinners need mercy, but those who are righteous need it as well.

They need to know they need it and they need to know that they need to give it in order to be whole.

The man had two sons and he cherished them both. God, our Father, still does.

But .. Found.

Read the words of all who had lost something in these parable and then, found them:

And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost. — Luke 15:6

And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost. -Luke 15:9

Let us eat and be merry. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry. -Luke 15:23b-24

“We have heard the joyful sound: Jesus saves! Jesus Saves! Spread the tidings all around. Jesus saves! Jesus saves!”

So that grand hymn of faith calls us to “give the winds a mighty voice.”

How sweet the sound? Oh yes. The lost has been found. It is the sound of laughter and merriment. It is the sound of praise. It is the sound that rings through the streets of Heaven and even the angels sing. It is the sound that warms the heart of God. It is the sound that ought to flow from our voices daily and throughout the day, the song of gratitude, of joy, and of love.

Whereas I was lost, I am now found. I am no longer lost, no longer hopeless, no longer guilty, alienated, or dispossessed. I am no longer unworthy, no longer useless, no longer an orphan. God no longer sees me as a sinner, but as a son. I have a hope. I have a future. As He did with Jeremiah of old, He knows the plans He has for me.

I am found.

Do you know the joy of being found? Or have you forgotten.

The truth can be seen in your attitudes toward your brothers and sisters in Christ, whether you are patient and forgiving or irritable and judgmental? The truth is revealed in your attitudes toward the lost.

Are you charitable and seeking or critical and aloof? The truth is seen in your attitudes toward new believers. Do you rejoice or rebuff? Do you step aside and move over or do you guard your established territory? Do you join the celebration, feasting with the friends of the father or do you stand afar off as the son who feels he never left home?

You will never be at home as long as you cling to the notion that you never left. You will never experience the full joy of redemption if you forget that you were lost in slavery to sin when grace found you. You will be unmoved at the singing of Amazing Grace if you forget that the wretch saved was you and the lost one who returned was also you. You have been found! Rejoice!

There were two sons, but there were two brothers, the same guys. Both had the wrong idea about what it meant to be sons of a father who loved them in ways they did not understand.

The elder brother, an heir is actually the object of the parables Jesus is telling — especially this one. He knew his responsibilities, stayed home and worked like one who saw himself as a slave. The younger brother knew his rights, took his inheritance, and partied like a man who thought he was free.

The elder brother’s life went on day to day with order, predictability, and success. The younger brother lived lavishly until the money was all gone and fell into sewer, stuck.

The younger brother left the father’s house; the older brother would not enter because he disapproved of the party that was going on to honor the returning younger brother.

 

The younger brother returned, as a pleading slave.

 

The older brother returned from the work day, strutting with pride.

 

Both had a surprise waiting. The younger brother was greeted with a welcome he could not have imagined. The elder brother was revolted and repulsed by the extravagant and inappropriate celebration in his father’s house. He refused to enter.

 

In both cases, the father went out of the house to meet his sons.

 

The elder brother said, “YOUR son;” the father replied, “YOUR brother.”

 

The elder brother said, “I have been your servant;” the father said, “You have always been my son.”

 

The elder brother wanted a party with his friends; the younger brother was enveloped into a party with his father and his father’s friends.

 

In the case of both brothers, the father embraced them as sons.

 

It is about relationships, one where the father takes most of the initiative and pays all the costs.

 

We must celebrate; we must party; we must rejoice. Your brother was dead. Your brother is now alive.

 

We are invited to a celebration, both as guests of honor and as fellow celebrants of those who have returned.

 

The way we can most please our father, is by coming.

Do not stand aloof and critical on the outside of the great grace party.

Come. Jin in the singing, the feasting and the dance, the laughter and the joy. Especially join in the dance of love.

We join the joy when we realize that we also have been found.

F — That means that we are suddenly, surprisingly, wonderfully FREE

• O-That means that our sins have been OBVIATED. Even the mention of them is no longer necessary.

• U- That means that we are UNITED and reunited with God and with God’s family.

• N- That means that we are NECESSARY. Consider that. God considers us necessary enough to search high and low for us.

• D — That means that we are DESTINED for something wonderful. Our place in the family has been restored and we have the same destiny we would have had if we had never left.

I am weak, Lord.

I am lowly.

I bring nothing in my hands. I offer no credentials, no reputation, no resume worth reading.

My track record is checkered. My focus is scattered. My mind is here and there and everywhere. I am easily distracted and frequently tested to the core.

Yet, God, you are my God.

Yet, God, you love me, value me, invest in me, and show grace and mercy to me daily.

I am unworthy. You are worthy.

All my value is that you regard me.

Why, oh why?

It does not matter why because You are the Why of all things and of my existence and You have engraved Your love into the fabric of the universe.

Your love, Oh LORD, is the only true reality, standard, and truth that bleeds through all of our opinions about ourselves and others.

Your wrath is against all that is not love. Why then, if I am not judged, can I ever stand in judgment against my neighbor?

I shall not.

He and she are Yours. You see in them that which is precious even as You see something precious in me.

Give me glimpses today of the wonder in my neighbors eyes and the love in his or her heart that I may view my neighbor through the lenses of Your redemptive and reconciling grace and lay all of my prejudices and agendas aside.

And may my neighbor join me in this cause and his neighbor and her neighbor.

I pray this, as the only solution to our divisions in the Name of Jesus who divided us in order to unite us, who showed us hard truth in order to reconcile us to Himself and to one another, who bore all pain, sin, and alienation upon Himself in order to introduce us to You as Your long lost children who have come home.

Give us the heart of the prodigal’s father.

Give us Your heart and the heart of Jesus, Your Son. Amen.

I close with the words of a hymn, set to an old Shaker tune. Sydney Carter wrote these words and first shared them in 1963:

I danced in the morn¬ing when the world was be¬gun,

And I danced in the moon and the stars and the sun,

And I came down from heav¬en and I danced on the earth,

At Beth¬le¬hem I had my birth.

Refrain

Dance, then, wher¬ev¬er you may be;

I am the Lord of the Dance, said he.

And I’ll lead you all wher¬ev¬er you may be,

And I’ll lead you all in the dance, said he.

I danced for the scribe and the Pha¬ri¬see,

But they would not dance and they would not fol¬low me;

I danced for the fish¬er¬men, for James and John;

They came to me and the dance went on.

Refrain

I danced on the Sab¬bath when I cured the lame,

The ho¬ly peo¬ple said it was a shame;

They whipped and they stripped and they hung me high;

And they left me there on a cross to die.

Refrain

I danced on a Fri¬day and the sky turned black;

It’s hard to dance with the dev¬il on your back;

They bur¬ied my bo¬dy and they thought I’d gone,

But I am the dance and I still go on.

Refrain

They cut me down and I leapt up high,

I am the life that’ll nev¬er, nev¬er die;

I’ll live in you if you’ll live in me;

I am the Lord of the Dance, said he.

Come to the party.

Let’s dance.