Unconditional

Unconditional

Rev Dr. Tom Sorenson

For

Kirkland Congregational Church, United Church of Christ

March 31, 2019

Scripture: Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight O God, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

It is of course one of Jesus’ most familiar parables, the Parable of the Prodigal Son. I also find it to be one of the most powerful of all of Jesus’ parables. It’s a simple story really. A man has two sons, and he apparently is rather well off. We know he has a house and at least some farm animals. His younger son asks him for his share of his inheritance in advance, while his father is still alive. The father agrees and gives him what would amount to one third of his net worth. That’s what the younger son would have received upon his father’s death under a law that appears in Leviticus. The younger son takes his money and disappears. We’re told that he squanders all that he has been given in “dissolute living.” Then, perhaps not surprisingly, he falls on very hard times. He thinks to himself: I’d be better off as one of my father’s hired hands than I am now. At least I’d have enough to eat. So he composes a little speech of repentance: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. [Gee, do you think?] I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.” Then he heads home. Before he gets there, while he is still far off our text says, his father sees him. We’re told his father was “filled with compassion,” though presumably the father doesn’t know at this point why his son is returning home. We’re told the father “ran and put his arms around him and kissed him.” The son then starts to deliver the little speech he had devised: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” He never gets to deliver the last line of his speech, his request to be treated like one of his father’s hired hands. It seems his father interrupts his little speech, or at least turns away to give instructions to some of the father’s 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!” The man’s older son disapproves of his father’s extravagant welcome of the prodigal son, but the father brushes off the older son’s objections by repeating what he had said before: “This brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.” Whereupon the parable ends.

Now, if you’re like most church people with whom I’ve discussed this parable you probably agree with the older son. After all, he’s been the faithful one. He’s the one who has never left. He’s the one who has stayed and done all the work. He says his father has never given him anything so he could party with his friends. So why does the father so extravagantly welcome the wastrel son home? Shouldn’t the father be condemning him for his sinful ways? Shouldn’t the father say to the younger son “you made your bed, now lie in it. Be gone with you! You’ve gotten all from me that you’re gonna get!” That at least is what the older son thinks he dad should be saying to his younger brother. And most of us say yes. That’s right. The older son is the good guy here. The younger son has lived an evil life. He has sinned just as he says he has. The only right and proper thing the father should do with him is condemn him and send him away. Right?

Well no, not right. See, an awful lot of us think that that is precisely what the father should be doing here; and from a worldly perspective I suppose it is what the father ought to be doing here. Yet the one person who says no that’s not right is Jesus. It’s his parable. He tells it to refute Pharisees and scribes who condemned him for welcoming sinners and eating with them. According to the Pharisees and the temple authorities (the scribes) of the time a righteous person didn’t welcome sinners, he shunned all contact with them. He didn’t invite them to dinner, he’d have nothing to do with them. So Jesus tells this parable about a father who welcomes a sinful son and throws him a party to celebrate his return. Jesus tells this parable to say to those Pharisees and scribes who were criticizing him: No. You’re wrong. God doesn’t want us to reject sinners, God wants us to welcome them. God doesn’t want us to refuse fellowship with sinners but precisely to break bread with them. We may think the older brother is right. Jesus says no, the older brother is wrong and the father is right. I imagine those Pharisees and scribes to whom he told the parable thought he was nuts or at least horribly wrongheaded. Jesus’ parable advocates a morality that certainly wasn’t their morality.

And here’s the thing: This parable is about a very earthly family, a father and two sons. We don’t know where the mother is, but it doesn’t really matter. We have in the parable three human beings. Jesus doesn’t present any of them as divine figures in any way. They’re just mortal human beings like the rest of us. But remember: This isn’t just any old story. It is a parable of Jesus. Jesus’ parables usually speak on one level of here humans, but he tells parables to make some point about the kingdom of God or about God’s ways and desires. It seems pretty clear that the father in this parable represents God. He speaks and acts the way Jesus taught that God would speak and act in the circumstances of the parable. Jesus is telling us through this parable that God is like the father here. God’s not like the younger son of course, but neither is God like the older son. God doesn’t engage in dissolute living the way the younger son did, but neither does God reject or condemn the younger son who had engaged in dissolute living the way the older son does andNo thinks his father should. No, God in the person of the father welcomes the prodigal home with joy and thanksgiving, no questions asked.

That’s how God is. God always welcomes us home with joy and thanksgiving, no questions asked. In this parable the father doesn’t wait to hear an explanation from the son. He doesn’t wait until the son has begged his forgiveness. He doesn’t even let the prodigal son recite all of the little speech he had prepared. The father sees the son. That’s all it takes. The father welcomes the son back unconditionally. Unconditionally! No questions asked. No  answers required. No repentance necessary. That’s how God is. Just come. Just be there, and God will, metaphorically speaking, put the best robe on your back, a ring on your finger, and throw you a big party. In other words, God will welcome you with great joy. God always welcomes everyone with great joy, no questions asked. God’s love, God’s grace which is God’s love in action, is unconditional. Always. Everywhere.

And somehow the absolutely unconditional nature of God’s love is something we humans keep trying to change. We, or at least the church, always wants God’s grace to be conditional. We turn grace into an if/then proposition. If you do the right things God loves you. If you don’t do the wrong things God loves you. If you believe the right things God loves you. If you don’t believe the wrong things God loves you. Don’t do the right things and God will damn you. Do the wrong things and God will damn you. Don’t believe the right things and God will damn you. Believe the wrong things and God will damn you. We’ve all heard it. You have to do life right in order to be saved the church says. God will only save you if—fill in the blank.

This if/then understanding of God’s grace of course gives the church great power over people. The church can say, and for most of its history has said, we control your salvation. Do what we tell you to do and don’t do what we tell you not to do and you will be saved. Believe the things we tell you to believe and don’t believe the things we tell you not to believe and you will be saved. We, the church, have the keys to heaven. You’d better let us control your life and your thoughts or you’ll spend eternity in torment in hell. We’ve all heard it. We’ve probably all been taught it as divine truth. Just why we humans have bought the notion that God’s grace is conditional I don’t claim to understand. I do understand that God’s grace is absolute not conditional. If it were conditional it wouldn’t be grace, it would be payment for a service, a service of actions and/or beliefs.

So let me suggest something. If you’ve been taught that God’s grace is conditional go read the Parable of the Prodigal Son again. If you want to understand what God’s grace really is go read the Parable of the Prodigal Son again. When you do, pay attention to what the father in the story says and does. Notice how he welcomes his son home with joy and celebration before the son has said a word to him. Before he can possibly know anything about what the son has been doing or why he is coming home. Then understand this: That’s how it is with God. No matter where you’ve wandered off to, no matter what you’ve done, God is always there loving you. Caring about and for you. Doing all that before you’ve done a single thing to deserve it. Ready to celebrate when you return to God but not hating or damning you even if you never do. See, that’s often not how it is with human love. We make our human love conditional all the time, but that’s not how it is with God. God doesn’t engage in if/then arrangements. God engages is always and ever arrangements. God always loves us. God always saves us. God is like the father in the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Jesus wanted us to understand that truth. So often we don’t. Isn’t it about time we did? Amen.