Being Lost

Being Lost

Luke 15:11-32

So, there’s this story that Jesus tells his followers about a wealthy father and his two sons. His oldest son always followed the rules, respecting his dad, getting his chores done, and was content with living his life in this way. His younger son, however, experienced a great deal of discontent – and for what reason, we are not given.

One day, the younger son decides that living on this farm that his father owned was no longer good enough for him – that it was time that he struck off on his own. We are led to believe that, for whatever reason, he actually really hates his dad. This is believed because he demanded that he receive his inheritance from his father right then and there before striking off on his own. Demanding your inheritance from your parent who is very much alive is equatable to telling your parent to, “Drop dead, I want nothing to do with you. I’m taking what’s rightfully mine and I’m leaving!” The older brother’s jaw must have dropped to hear this from his brother’s mouth. Then, if his jaw hadn’t hit the floor, it certainly did when his father actually complied with the request! The younger son then took what was given to him and moved to the city.

Now, we don’t know what exactly went on in the city for the younger son or how the money was spent, only what big brother will later on speculate. Given the meaning of “prodigal,” however, we can infer that he was reckless with his money and certainly didn’t follow Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University financial course. His resources were used up around the same time that severe food shortage hit the country. Like what many others were likely experiencing, he hit some dire straights. Things got so desperate for the younger son that he hired himself out to a pig farmer to feed his animals. A Jew, debasing himself to the point of becoming unclean by being with pigs. He became so hungry that the slop he was feeding the pigs was beginning to look awfully good… then it hit him: he was never in want when he was in his father’s household – even the family servants were never in need of anything. If he could only go back home, but surely that bridge was burnt and damaged beyond repair, right?

The younger son resolves himself to return to his father, but instead of being reinstated and recognized as his son, he is determined to be content with being only a servant since he effectively removed himself from the family. The young son is practicing his speech all the way home, expecting a cold welcome. Imagine his surprise, then, when his father, seeing him crest the hill, came running out to him, embracing him and calling for a party before he can deliver his prepared speech! The fattened calf was slaughtered, a robe fetched, and the family ring placed upon his finger. The father, not caring about the insult given him or money lost, was going to celebrate his lost “prodigal” son returning home!

Big brother was not so forgiving, though. When he learns what all the commotion was about upon returning from the fields, he refuses to join in on the celebrations. If we stop and think about it, we can see why he is so mad. As a result of dad giving his younger son the inheritance early, the estate had been cut in half, which meant that the overall earning potential over the subsequent years would suffer – by taking his inheritance early, the younger brother had also lost his older brother’s potential wealth! Putting money aside, however, the older son saw this as rewarding irresponsible behavior. “I’ve done everything right, Dad! I’ve followed your instructions, always been obedient, and not once did you celebrate me for following the rules! Then my little brother comes home after wasting all of your money on God-knows-what, probably prostitutes, and you throw a massive party for him!”

“But son,” the Father says to his eldest progeny, “You’ve been with me the whole time – what’s mine is yours, always has been! All you had to do was ask!” This is where we begin to see that maybe the younger son wasn’t the only one that was lost… just the more obvious one.

How many times have you followed the rules and expected some “Universal Law of Fairness” to kick in? How many times have you been disgusted by those who messed up and didn’t follow the rules, but still seem to have everything handed to them on a silver plate? I know that this has been me on a number of occasions, even as a young child. I remember a first-grade field trip to the zoo, and the parent chaperoning my group had purchased us a treat – well, this was against the rules, and I was sure to voice this out loud! Instead of accepting the graceful act of love which was presented to me and my classmates, I decided to call her out for her nice deed! How many times have you not been able to accept a gift of grace and love given to either you or someone else because of “the rules?”

It’s easy for us to pick on the younger brother in this story. After all, it’s easy to see where he was out of line – he told his dad “I wish you were dead, now give me my money!” Blatantly out of line. We’re even finding ourselves beginning to side with big brother as the story unfolds – “He did this to you, and you’re going to throw him a party!?!?” Then the Jesus hits the listener when the father tells his son that he’s been a part of experiencing the love all along. We realize then that following the rules for the rules’ sake is dangerous because it keeps us from fully opening ourselves up to and experiencing the love that is already freely given to us.

All of our rule-following won’t save us, and we find that the case happens to be just the opposite – if we concern ourselves solely with keeping the rules / laws / regulations, then we will wind up more lost because we will have blinded ourselves to the love which God already freely gives us. Therefore, let us celebrate when others realize that love in their own lives, whether they finally realize that being a stickler to the rules as they see them are not what’s important after all or they have finally come to their senses and repent of their wasteful and selfish way of life!

Let us be a part of the party. Let us open ourselves up to the experience of God’s love no matter how “prodigal” we may be.

photo credit: lost-man.jpg found at https://bestcatholicgifts.com/the-parable-of-the-lost-coin-moral-lessons

Where is God?

“The Lord said, ‘Go out and stand at the mountain before the Lord. The Lord is passing by.’ A very strong wind tore through the mountains and broke apart the stones before the Lord. But the Lord wasn’t in the wind. After the wind, there was an earthquake. But the Lord wasn’t in the earthquake. After the earthquake, there was a fire. But the Lord wasn’t in the fire. After the fire, there was a sound. Thin. Quiet. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his coat. He went out and stood at the cave’s entrance. A voice came to him and said, ‘Why are you here, Elijah?’” 1 Kings 19:11-13

  I firmly believe that people are searching for God. The reasons may be different – some are searching for peace while others are searching for healing, others may simply be looking for the first semblance of direction in their lives – but people are constantly seeking out God. This very well may be the reason why when a natural disaster occurs, there are those who are quick to give God the credit for “punishing those sinners” while nonbelievers are asking the question, “Where was God when that earthquake / hurricane / fire happened?” Even nonbelievers jump to that question of where God is because maybe (just maybe) there is a part of them that still hasn’t given up that search for a higher being, even when their search has landed them in skepticism and doubt.

Then there are those moments in our lives where we can’t help but to feel that we are lost and in need of God’s presence, so we seek God out. We’ll go on retreats or begin serving in the church - not so much to be the hands and feet of Christ so much as just wanting to experience God in a more tangible way. We even get it into our heads that, “And in this way I will experience God!” And sometimes we do recognize God in the midst of storms in our lives – but if we are really paying attention, we will recognize that God is indeed in the midst of the storms, but not the storms themselves.

In the Scripture passage above, Elijah is on the run. God’s other prophets have been killed and he was next. He was the sole survivor of God’s prophets because of the Baal worship that had taken over in the Promised Land. He felt abandoned and alone. Then God spoke to him and informed him to go outside of the cave he was hiding in, for the presence of the Lord was about to pass by that place. “Trust me, Elijah, you’re not going to want to miss this!” Then this destructive wind came along, followed by an earthquake, followed by fire, and you can just see Elijah out there, experiencing these storms and the destruction they undoubtedly caused, begging to see God’s presence in the storms – likely expecting that God was the storm! Yet even though Elijah was looking in all the places that he was certain God would be in, God wasn’t there.

Then Elijah heard it… a thin, quiet voice… asking this question for the second time, “Why are you here?” Maybe we can rephrase the question: “Why are you looking for me in the storms? Did you think I was the storm?” I really want to know which was more surprising to Elijah in that moment: the fact that God’s display wasn’t the massive, awe-inspiring power of nature that he just witnessed on display, or that the most powerful being in the cosmos was in this small, still voice…

A fellow pastor in my area recently returned from his second trip to Israel. He had been there about 20 years ago, and during his touring and seeing all of these holy places, he was convinced that he would experience God in these Christian landmarks – and he returned disappointed. On this second trip, he had been thinking that maybe it was a maturity thing and, over the past few decades, he has matured and grown closer to God. After his return, aside from baptizing in the Jordan River, again he returned without really clearly feeling the presence of God like he had imagined in these historic Christian landmarks. If anything, he has felt God more clearly in our small town in southern Indiana.

I think there is a profound truth behind this experience of my friend’s. We often times expect that we will experience God as a result of God always doing something to us. All too rarely do we at large consider that maybe, just maybe, we experience God’s presence as a result of God doing something with us. Those moments that really drive us as Christians are those moments that we realize that we are doing something as the hands and feet of Christ. We feel the presence of God when are praying with brothers and sisters, as we are working together in collecting food for the hungry, or helping those in our community with bills that they otherwise would not be able to cover just to keep the lights on for their family. Sometimes, those actions are so seemingly small and minuscule that it’s all too easy to overlook, yet it is in these acts of love that God is found.

This isn’t to say that God can never be found in an earthquake or massive fire… it just doesn’t seem to be God’s modus operandi. After all, we’re talking about a God that, in order to restore a relationship with us, came to earth in the least flashy way: as a baby to poor folk, promptly became a refugee, then grew up in a small town called Nazareth upon returning to Israel. We weren’t saved by a warrior on a white steed but by a teacher of peace riding a donkey – pretty low-key in comparison to what the Jewish people were expecting a savior to look like. So sometimes, God’s miraculous healings come through doctors and nurses at the hospital, and the way in which your marriage was saved was a neighbor who was more than happy to watch your kids allowing you to go to counseling or reconnect during date night.

Certainly, God is present in our lives – but rather than being the storms or showing up in the most grandiose of ways, may we recognize that God walks with us through the storms.

[Photo credit: Shutterstock. Words overlaid with “Over” for iOS]