This is the fifth sermon in U.C.C.'s eight-week series on God's love and our response to that love, but I didn't record any notes from the last sermon because it was primarily testimonies, and it'd feel weird to transcribe other peoples' experiences. This week Anthony J. started a two-week focus on repentance; this week focuses on different aspects of repentance in light of the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15, and next week will examine the actual art of repentance.
Repentance is one of my favorite subjects, so much so that I wrote a 360-page treatise on it (it's still sitting in rough draft form on this computer). With that said, I'll do my best not to get sidetracked in these notes, or we'll end up with the equivalent of a fifteen-page post (or whatever fifteen pages would look like on a blog). Anyways, here we go.
Anthony J. started with Mark 1.14-15, where we have the declaration that the Kingdom of God is here: God's reign has come to earth, the rescue operation is in progress. Grace, love, mercy, forgiveness: all of this is breaking onto the scene in the person and work of Jesus. The appropriate response to the in-breaking of God's kingdom is found in Mark 1: "Repent and believe the Good News." This--repentance and belief--is the response God desires, even demands, from us. When we ask, "How should we respond to the gospel?" it's easy to shortchange what God has done for us as we turn the focus from God upon ourselves. In all the talk about repentance, it's critically important to remember that it isn't primarily about our behavior. When repentance turns into what we do or don't do, the Christian life becomes one about floating in and out of God's family through the interplay of our current sins and our efforts to make up for those sins through moral behavior or spiritual disciplines. The story of the Prodigal Son opens windows, letting us see repentance in a new light as we come to see God's love and our response in a refreshing light.
Though nowhere in the story of the prodigal sin is repentance mentioned, the story is through and through all about repentance. Repentance can be defined as turning to something as well as turning from something. The story starts off with the son shaming his father in three ways: (1) he demands his inheritance, which is the equivalent of saying, "Dad, I wish you were dead."; (2) he gets his land and then jets to another country, which means his inherited land is given up for sale; and (3) since there was no medicare, social security, and no welfare or food stamps, sons were expected to take care of their fathers. By leaving the family farm and high-tailing it to another country, the son essentially leaves his father hanging. All the while the son's relationship with the father was a means to an end; namely, the son used his father and his inheritance as a tool to get what he wanted: to be his own man, to have fun, to chase after worldly pleasures and waste his money on whores and drink. The father bears this rejection without losing control in anger or sadness. When our love is rejected, we get mad and bash others, and we try to numb the hurt through our anger. God's not like that.
The son went off to do his own thing, and he wound up living with the pigs. This is the ultimate low for a Jewish person, the absolute rock bottom. He simply can't sink any lower. The son knows he's fucked up, knows that he's ruined everything. He decides to go back to his dad, confess his sin, and be a hired hand. He understands that he isn't good enough for family membership, and he decides to try and buy it back by working for his father. When he returns home, his dad runs out to meet him. Grown men in that culture aren't supposed to run, but he doesn't care, since he's so overwhelmed with love. The son can't even get his plan out of his mouth before his dad says, "Forget about all of that, don't worry about making it up to me, let's party and eat some MEAT!" Meat was a big deal back then, so what we have is the dad embracing his son as a son, demanding a lavish feast, and not even giving his son time to clean up: he's dirty, smells like pigs, but his dad doesn't care. He's throwing the party of a lifetime anyways.
The older son gets pissed. He refuses to go to the party, shaming his father. He refuses to see reality as his father sees it. The son claims he's worked like a slave for his father, but that's simply not true: the son has his own land, and the two work as business partners. His dad doesn't blow up, doesn't scold his son, doesn't put him in his place. He says, "All that I have is yours, so come to the party, all right?"
The story of the prodigal son shows us several things. In this story, Jesus is communicating God's love: it's radical and some would even say "blind" to our own condition. The young son's a hot mess, covered with filth and sewage, stinks to high heaven. But the son's repented. He's decided to forsake his own goals, desires, and ambitions for his father. He understands his condition, he's been made humble by his experiences. And at the slightest turn of repentance, his father ran out to meet him. We get a glimpse of God's love for us, how at the slightest turning of our hearts, God is there to welcome us into his family. We don't have to wash up and get spiritually cleansed beforehand. All that comes next: it isn't a prerequisite for membership in God's family, it's what happens after we become members of God's family.
The story also shows us a thing about humility. The younger son was separated from his father because of his sin, reveling out with the whores and pigs. The older son was separated by his goodness. Both wanted their father's blessings without wanting their father, and used their father as a means to an end. In the end, the younger son showed humility while the older son was steeped in pride. The humble are exalted, but the proud will be brought low.
The story also shows us that sin isn't about a list of behaviors that we have to deny or embrace. It's about motivation, our heart, our internal disposition. Sin is the internal suppression of God's truth, rejection of God, the desire and intent to be our own masters. Repentance is the decision to turn from self-worship to worshiping God; it's the turn from focus on the self to focus on God and his kingdom. It's the decision to forsake our own goals, desires, and ambitions for God and his kingdom. This is a decision made because we want God, and it involves acknowledging our convoluted hearts and layered desires, and when we're repentant, we wish we didn't have the bad desires that we do have. But we don't have to clean up first; we don't have to get our act together. All that comes next.
No comments:
Post a Comment