Ecclesia Princeton
Ecclesia Princeton
Campfire Stories: Luke 15- Ian Graham: The Prodigal God
Pastor Ian Graham tells one of the grounding stories of Ecclesia, from Luke 15.
Good morning friends. My name is Ian. It's so lovely to be with you today, and I just want to wish you a happy Easter, as we like to really try to inhabit around here. Easter is not just a day, it is a season where you have been invited to live as if Jesus has conquered death, and so all of the stuff that you fasted from during Lent begin to say all right, Lord, how can I honor you? Begin to say all right, lord, how can I honor you and bear witness to the reality that the grave is empty by throwing a good party or feasting. So good to be here today. It's an honor to welcome you and worship alongside you.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you've ever had this experience, but somebody is describing a show to you that they have recently started watching on a platform that they are watching it on, and you're kind of like can this be real? Like what is Tubi? It's like CSI Abu Dhabi, like what is happening here, and it's like no ChatGPT came up with that. Right, that's not a real thing. And so for us, in our culture, we are awash in endless novelty. Novelty is sold as a good unto itself, and there is endless novelty, more shows to find oh, you like this show, you might like these other five, where you can spend 12 to 15 hours watching these as well. Or if your drug of choice is more, 30 seconds, 60 second reels or clips, we got those for you too. In our culture we value new, and many times we come across something that we have encountered before. We say oh, I've heard that before. And when it comes to our lives with Christ, especially those of us who maybe grew up in church, we can encounter these stories and almost be inoculated by the fact that we kind of know where it's going. Oh, I've heard that one before. But for the ancients, one of the practices that they would do as a community was they would gather and tell a story that everybody knew and there was this sort of communal undertaking of storytelling, participation, and oftentimes there was one person designated as the storyteller, the story keeper. But if they got off track anywhere, the community would be like oh no, that's not how it happened, that's not how things went.
Speaker 1:And today, as we're gathering here in the Echo of Easter, we are going to tell a story that we tell periodically here at Ecclesia. It's a story that Jesus has entrusted to us to tell and to live out. And for us it is a guiding and grounding story in the kind of people that we are called to be in witness to this king who has given his life for us. And so I'm gonna invite you to not experience maybe something new, as in a new story, but to find that God is ever making His Word new, to find that he's ever meeting us anew. Even with things that are familiar, things that seem weathered or well-worn, he meets us in the power of newness and grace. So if you would turn over with me to Luke, chapter 15. 15.
Speaker 1:We're told that the tax collectors and sinners are all edging mirror to Jesus as he's telling these stories. And it's an amazing thing that Jesus, when he came to declare the reality of the kingdom of God, came telling stories Doesn't strike us as the most efficient way, right Like, why didn't he just tell us plainly, why didn't he just tell us what he meant? And oftentimes we find that he's telling us parables, that the realities of God are shrouded in these mysteries and for us, cultural distance that we have to cross. But Luke tells us that, as Jesus tells stories, those who have been deemed outside, far off from the religious center, are drawing near and those who find themselves, who think they are the center, are actually grumbling and stepping outside. And it's that context that Jesus begins to tell one of his most famous stories, verse 11 of chapter 15, begins to tell one of his most famous stories, verse 11 of chapter 15.
Speaker 1:Then Jesus said there was a man who had two sons. The younger of him said to this father, father, give me the share of the wealth that will belong to me. Okay, so remember, jesus is telling a story within a context of a crowd. So often when we hear the setting for a story, we are beginning to manifest and articulate where we think the story is going, and the people that are listening to Jesus are doing that. As Jesus is saying, the kingdom of God is like this. There was a man who had two sons. The younger son speaks. What does he say? Father, give me my share of the inheritance that will be mine right now. Oh, one problem here. When does a person usually receive the inheritance that's coming to them? When the person that is giving the inheritance dies? What then might this younger son be saying to his dear father, father, I wish you were Okay. Now we've got a story Because the people listening to Jesus have very clear expectations of what should happen next.
Speaker 1:This is a highly patriarchal culture. The father is the bedrock figure in this culture and his responsibility culturally is to put his son in line. This younger son is way out of line, and so the father's job is to say under no circumstance will I give you the inheritance. It only comes to you when I die. And also the father is now deeply wounded by the son's words oh, you just want me for what I can give to you. And so all the people listening to Jesus are now expecting that the father will respond with anger, perhaps with violence, and will put this younger son back into his proper cultural place. And yet what does this father do? Verse 12, so he divided his assets between them. Oh, now we have a story. This father does not respond in alignment with the cultural expectations. He doesn't beat his son back into proper order. He gives in to the son's request. Okay, yes, I'm hurt by what you've said. And yet I will entrust you with the freedom Verse 13,. A few days later, the younger son gathered all that he had and traveled to a distant region.
Speaker 1:Now, for this culture, the accumulation of wealth was not seen merely as a personal endeavor. Wealth was not seen merely as a personal endeavor. So the perspective was that, yes, a family or an individual might hold the wealth and have the disposition of what to do with it, but it belongs to us. The best example I can give is if you are a fan of a professional sports team professional sports teams the owner, as foolish or as misguided as they may be, is the person that's ultimately in charge of the team. Right, but tell that to the Eagles fans, right? They're not like yeah, jeffrey Lurie, this is your team. They're like actually, it's our team. You may sign the checks and we appreciate you for that, but this is our team and it will be our team long after you are gone. Philadelphia sees the Eagles as their property and Jeffrey Lurie just happens to be the steward of that property. A very similar dynamic going on here, with the apprehension towards wealth here.
Speaker 1:And so this younger son is given disposition of the father's goods and he begins to sell that which he has been given. Now, just stay mindful. There are cash and coin-based transactions in this society, but this is not a fully cash-based society. They don't have numbers in a bank account that are telling them how much money they have. A lot of their money is tied up in things like land and livestock and cultural goods and famously, in this culture of which Jesus is a part, this ancient Near Eastern culture, sales of, specifically, land take a long time and things like livestock again. Everything is at a very slow pace. But what we see here with this younger son is that everything is moving at a rapid speed. In a few days this son has liquidated all that the father has entrusted to him. He is selling it all off so that he can take it and get out of here. He wants to get out as quickly as he can and so he liquidates his share of the estate and he leaves. He's now broken relationship with the father. Father, I wish you were dead. He severely compromised his older brother. Remember there was a man who had two sons. He's taken a lot of what would be coming to the older brother. The older brothers do a double portion of the inheritance and this younger son has now taken and he is out of here. Let's see what happens next.
Speaker 1:Verse 13. 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 where the money runs out. Now it's not only that. This man is personally destitute. There is a famine in the land.
Speaker 1:And again, jesus is a Jewish man, a part of a Jewish culture. Famously, jewish people keep kosher laws, and one of the bedrocks of those kosher laws is to abstain from pig, from swine, and so we see the level of shame that this man has dropped to. He is being forced to feed the pigs just to scrape together a meager existence that will not suffice. And he looks at the things that the pigs are eating. There are carob pods that are eaten by people in places like Syria, that are sweet, that have nutrients and nutritious value, but there are other carob pods that are not nutritious. They don't have any vitamins or nutrients for humans, and so it's likely that the food that this man is having to give to the pigs will not satisfy him, though even though he's eating it, it just won't fill the hunger that is deep within him. And we see this spiraling of this young man from new wealth, new money, living large, to being beyond destitute.
Speaker 1:Henri Nouwen has an extended reflection on this passage the return of the prodigal son and he parallels that sense of the man's very real destitution with our own sense of despair, that sense of the man's very real destitution with our own sense of despair and the way that we often try vainly to fill our lives with things that only God can fill. Nouwen's word for this approach is addiction, and he writes this. He says the best word to explain the lostness that so deeply permeates society. Our addiction makes us cling to what the world proclaims as the key to self-fulfillment Accumulation of wealth and power, attainment of status and admiration, lavish consumption of food and drink and sexual gratification without distinguishing between lust and love. These addictions create expectations that cannot but fail to satisfy our deepest needs. As long as we live within the world's delusions, our addictions condemn us to futile quests in the distant country, leaving us to face an endless series of disillusionments, while our sense of self remains unfulfilled.
Speaker 1:In these days of increasing addictions, we have wandered far away from our father's home. The addicted life can aptly be designated a life lived in a distant country. It is from there that our cry for deliverance rises up. I am the prodigal son. Every time I search for unconditional love where it cannot be found. Ecclesia, you have God-given desires, desires to be safe, desires to be seen. Those are given to you by God. But so often we try to fill our lives, we try to sate those God-given desires with trivial things, with things that harm us and enslave us. And we see this in the despair of this younger man in the far country, verse 17. But turning point maybe, perhaps. 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, hunger. I, 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 sent off and went to his father, and went to his father.
Speaker 1:We have to pay close attention to this young man's hypothetical conversation that he's having with his father. Oftentimes we read this passage and we think, ah, here's the moment where everything changes, here's the moment where things start to get better In a way. That's true, but let's pay close attention to what this young man intends to do. Oh, I'm suffering. This life is terrible. I have nothing to eat. I want to eat the food that the pigs are eating. I know I will go back to my father's house, where there is plenty, and when I go back there I will say to him Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. Oh, it sounds good. Right, we're on a good start to repentance. Except, there's nothing in this speech that would suggest that this young man is repenting from the deep fracture that he has introduced into the relationship between he and his father.
Speaker 1:What it seems that the young man is saying is that I have cultural obligations. I was entrusted with a measure of wealth. I have now squandered that wealth. Now I have to repair that in some way. I have to make my own way. I have to repay what I have lost. I've sinned against heaven and before you. What's my solution in order to pay back that which I have wasted? Ah, make me Interesting.
Speaker 1:This young man is still ordering his father around, isn't he the story started with? Give me my share of the inheritance that will be mine Destitution. His solution is still imperatives. Make me like one of your hired hands. Notice this all sounds very self-effacing, right? Oh, like I'm not worthy to be called your son, I will accept the role of hired hand. That sounds very humble. Except a hired hand in this culture was like a day laborer.
Speaker 1:A son was under the authority of the father. A son who submitted to the father's rule, lived under the father's rules. My house, my rules, you know that patriarchal kind of stuff. If the son is saying, make me a day laborer, he's not saying I really want to be your son again. He's saying dad, I know I had obligations. I still don't really want to be in this kind of near relationship to you. I know I broke some stuff. Now I'm going to try to fix it. His solution is still completely self-reliant and his solution still keeps him outside of the jurisdiction of the father's house. He gets to come and go as he pleases. He gets to do what he wants.
Speaker 1:And so we see that this son's hypothetical conversation with his father though it seems like this massive turning point within the story may not be such a turning point after all, still the son is trying to pave his own way. Still he doesn't really grasp the level to which he has broken his father's heart and he doesn't see the father for who he is. But here's the beautiful thing, ecclesia. It doesn't matter, because no matter what our apprehension of God is, no matter what has brought us to a point of despair, where we turn towards our Father's house, the reception will be the same. Let's see what happens, verse 20 tells us. So he set off and he went to his father.
Speaker 1:Now again, we're in an ancient Near Eastern climate. Even today this is an arid climate. It is dry. We're not told how far the son has to walk to return home, but we can imagine it's a good distance. So he's been walking for probably days. We're already told this is a world of famine. He has nothing to eat. We can presume he has little to drink. A level of delusion and mirage are beginning to creep in. But as the younger son begins to see familiar landscapes, places near to his town that he's known since he was a boy, he's walking. Places near to his town that he's known since he was a boy, he's walking.
Speaker 1:And because he has squandered the wealth of the village, because he has wasted it amongst the Gentiles, the village has a cultural responsibility too. You see, it's easy for us to identify some of the characters in the story. There's the father, there's the younger son, there's the older brother that we'll meet more significantly in just a moment. But there's another character that is present in the story that the listeners to Jesus's telling would have known. There's the crowd, the village, the people that say, like you not only lost your family's wealth, you lost our wealth, you've brought dishonor upon our place. And they had a cultural responsibility too.
Speaker 1:And part of what the younger son knew as he is turning back towards home is that he would encounter the shame and the scorn of his previous neighbors. He's got a plan how to deal with his broken relationship with the father. He's going to make things right. He's got a plan for how he's going to coexist with his brother to some extent. But the problem of the neighbors, the villagers, cannot be solved, for it must simply be endured. And he will endure their shame and their scorn. And they will tell him very plainly you are not welcome here, you. You have wasted our collective wealth amongst the pagans and the Gentiles. This is not your home anymore.
Speaker 1:And as he is walking back, as he's seeing that familiar landscape, he also starts to see familiar faces that have a very different disposition towards him and he starts to endure their shame and their scorn. It's not because they're bad or evil people, it's because this son has committed a cultural sin and they are merely transacting that which comes with cultural sins. But he's walking and you know, like when you're walking and you're tired, he puts his head down. He's hearing those words shouted over him and every once in a while he picks his head up. As he picks his head up for the third or the fourth time, he sees something. Again, he hasn't had anything to eat or to drink in a long time. Landscape plays tricks on you. But he's like, is that somebody running?
Speaker 1:And he sees this older man, robes flowing, running towards him and his first response is and as the vision comes further into clarity, he realized this isn't just any older man, this is his father, and his father has hiked up his robes and he is running towards him at full speed. And as the father draws close, the son doesn't know whether to lean in or to lean back and the father nearly knocks him over and wraps him in his arms and he can feel the weight of the father's embrace and he hears his delighted sobs and then the younger son starts his speech. Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. Oh, we've heard this one before. We know this is going. I am no longer worthy to be called your son, period. Where's the rest of it? Where's the make me like your hired hands?
Speaker 1:Now it's possible, and many have posited, that the father simply interrupts him. Nonsense. Put a robe on his shoulders, a ring on his fingers. That's possible, but I don't think so. But I don't think so. I think something has profoundly changed in this son's disposition towards his father. What has changed? Ecclesia, the father ran to him.
Speaker 1:In this culture, older men did not run. Aristotle said running is for fools, and old men are wise and not fools. To hike up your robes in order to be able to actually physically run would involve exposing your upper legs, which was shameful for older men. The son, who previously had all of these perceptions about his father that were not based in reality, now sees his father. Clearly, the father's disposition towards the son and running to him, the grace of this father irrevocably breaks the son's heart and shows him the beauty of who the father is. And beyond that, it's not just that the son sees the father. Remember there's a crowd assembling, no less than when somebody yells, fight and people start to gather around. The father, in running, has taken all of the cultural shame that was intended for this younger son who is approaching this village and brought it upon himself. He has taken the shame that would have been the younger son's and by running, by breaking social and cultural convention, has heaped all the shame right onto his very shoulders.
Speaker 1:It would have been culturally expected for the younger son to have to go to the father, into his house, to ask permission to enter and to supplicate himself before this father, asking forgiveness. But the father doesn't wait for the younger son to come into the confines of the house, he runs to him and this Ecclesia is who our God is. The father says quickly, bring out a robe. The best one, the best one definitely belonged to the father and it wasn't just hey, you should have the best garment. The best robe would have signified to everybody who came to the house that day that this son had been restored to full sonship within the house. Put a ring on his finger, a signet ring, a marker of authority within the house. Put sandals on his feet, shoes often designated the difference between servants and sons and get the fat calf and kill it. Let us eat and celebrate. What was it that brought this young man back to his father's house? Ultimately, a famine. And here we have a feast, a party being thrown. In a world of famine, you wouldn't kill the fattened calf just for a nice little dinner celebration with your family, extended family. This is a village celebration. This will feed hundreds. This is a 40-pound brisket that we are about to throw on the grill. And there is a party that then ensues because this younger son has been embraced and welcomed again by the father who runs to him.
Speaker 1:There was an older man who had Two sons Now verse 25,. His elder son was in the field and he came and he approached the house. He heard music and dancing. He called one of the slaves and asked what's going on. He replied your brother has come, your father has killed the fattened calf because he's got him back safe and sound. Then he became angry and refused to go in safe and sound. Then he became angry and refused to go in. So this older brother now who has very real gripes this isn't just hey, you're being kind of a stick in the mud here. There's a party going on Very real loss that this younger brother has cost him. And he hears that his younger brother has returned and there's a party being thrown in his honor and he is beside himself and he refuses to go into the party Again. Culturally, the older son would have been expected to be summoned and to join the party, but he refuses to go in.
Speaker 1:And look at what the father does for this older son. He doesn't just run to the younger son. We see at the end of verse 28 that his father again leaves the house to go out to one of his sons. He comes out and he pleads with him, but the older son answered his father, listen, for all these years I've been working like a slave for you. I've never disobeyed your command, yet you've 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 a fat calf for him. The older son's like are you kidding me? This bottomless pit, this waste. And the subtle insinuation throughout all of this is it's not the son who's wasteful, not prodigal, it's the God, it's the father, he is the prodigal one. And the older brother names it and the Father says to him son, you are always with me and all that is mine is yours. Remember where this story started? It was about possession of assets, it was about disposition of goods. And the father says to his older son everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life. He is lost and has been found.
Speaker 1:Now again, we sang earlier. It's one of our favorite songs as a family. It's one of the songs that's marked the story of Ecclesia. You're never going to let me down. Now I don't know about you.
Speaker 1:I don't sing that because that is my lived experience with God. I don't sing that because I'm like, yes, god, I've never once felt disappointed by you. I've never felt once like I've been misled and I don't know if you're like me, but that's how I feel. But I sing that because I know, ultimately that is true that God has us, that he is working all things for our good. But I experience at times in my life with God that I feel disappointed, that I feel confused, and I think we see nothing less than that going on with this older brother. It's like, really, this is how you are. And for many of us we have all the characteristics of this older brother. We've been doing the right things, we've been hoping for the right things and yet we still feel like those things elude us and we're just like God. We see you doing these things for other people and yet still I can't even just get a little sliver of what I've been after, what I've been aching for, what I've been asking of you.
Speaker 1:And Jesus, in all of his brilliance, ends the story. What becomes of the older brother? I don't know. It's a question that's put to us here today. What will become of us when God is far different and yet far more beautiful than we realize? What will become of us when we see him lavishing grace upon grace? Will we hear his invitation that everything we have, everything he has, is ours? Jesus, in an incredible way, throughout his life, doesn't just tell stories, he lives them. And Jesus, in every way, embodies the different characters in this story. He is the younger son who goes off to the far country, not because he's done anything sinful or immoral, because that's where his children are, and he goes to get them. Jesus runs to us on the cross carrying that heavy weight of cavalry. Jesus will have himself disrobed so that he can put a robe of salvation, a garment of praise, upon our shoulders. Jesus embraces us in the arms extended upon the cross, arms that embrace us here today. He loves you. He has been lifted high so that we can see him for who he is and for some of us in here today. You need to hear that for the first time.
Speaker 1:We were watching the Parent Trap with our girls last night and sons and I'm kind of vaguely paying attention and the Parent Trap has kind of a weird construct Like parents just divide the two kids and they're like, all right, they'll never see their other parent, goodbye. It's a weird construct. Like parents just divide the two kids and they're like, all right, they'll never see their other parent, goodbye. It's a weird concept. But there's this beautiful moment and I was working at the table and I look up and I'm like crying gently over there because that's what happens to me when the kids switch places and they meet the parent they had never experienced before and the parent is taken aback by how strange they're being because it's a different kid and they don't know that, but there's so much wonder and awe and a sense of safety and goodness on the part of the kids that have switched places. They're like I didn't know I had a dad like this, I didn't know I had a mom like this, and it's so beautiful.
Speaker 1:And for some of you in here today, you need to hear that you have a God that has run to you and embraced you at great cost to himself and he loves you. And that's good news For others of us in here today. You've been at home and that's not a bad thing, ecclesia. But perhaps the older brother defines your life with God and it's just like yeah, I'm here Whatever you need. Can I get a little goat to celebrate with my friends? God is showing you that there's more, that there's more than your disappointment, that he's beautiful, he's better, but you have to see him. And I think in no uncertain terms the father shows himself to both the younger son and the older son by going out to them and he wants to draw you in here today and say hey, I can handle your disappointment. It's interesting, the father doesn't rebuke the son in his disappointment. He doesn't say get out of here without complaining Seriously, your brother's back, he pleads with him. He says I know, but this son of mine was dead and he's alive again.
Speaker 1:We had to celebrate Jesus. We pray for your Holy Spirit to come over the next few moments, god, I pray for dear sons and daughters, lord, who don't know that they had a father like this one. A God who runs, god, a prodigal God who wastes mercy and mercy, grace upon grace, god, upon us in order to show all of us, god, who you are. So, god, I pray that there are those among us who are finding themselves wrapped in your embrace, hearing the declaration put forth to all the community that this is my son, this is my daughter, and it's you and your actions that change everything, god, not our changes of heart, god, not our despair, but what you've done, Jesus.
Speaker 1:God, I pray for those of us who have just been confused, disappointed, god, upset, lord, even Looking at other people's lives and thinking I can't even get a little bit of that. God, would you meet us here with a revelation of who you are, god? Could we accept that relationship with you is enough, god, that it will satisfy us and that we serve you, lord, not for what you can give us, lord, that you give us everything, but for who you are, jesus, god, we pray these things in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. We declare this to you Amen. I could see over the next few moments we're going to invite you to stand and respond in worship.