The Games
People Play
Or
Charge
Cards and Wayward Children
26-May-2002
Niverville/Chatham
Center United Methodist Church
Luke 15
11b-32
11
…“There was a man who had two sons. 12The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my
share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
13“Not
long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant
country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14After
he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he
began to be in need. 15So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country,
who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were
eating, but no one gave him anything.
17“When
he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have food
to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18I
will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned
against heaven and against you. 19I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one
of your hired men.’ 20So
he got up and went to his father.
“But
while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with
compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
21“The
son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am
no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22“But
the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on
him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23Bring
the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost
and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
25“Meanwhile,
the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and
dancing. 26So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going
on. 27‘Your
brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf
because he has him back safe and sound.’
28“The
older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and
pleaded with him. 29But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve
been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even
a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30But when this son of yours who has squandered your property
with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
31“‘My
son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is
yours. 32But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of
yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”
We are strange beings, we humans. We all suffer and struggle, yet we dare not let on that all is not right with us lest we be seen as weak or less than others.
Well I, for one, am tired of it. I have come to the realization that I am irreconcilably weak and hopelessly without character.
So much like the prodigal am I that, in the words of the author of a great hymn of the faith, “I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene, and wonder how He could love me, a sinner condemned, unclean.”
I am inexpressibly glad that my Father is the same one typified in the parable in today’s passage. Amazing grace indeed; how great He is, indeed!
Let me ask you a question. Please don’t feel obligated to answer verbally or visually; answer in your heart.
Looking back at the past week.
If I may presume to answer for you, the answer is “no.” None of us is perfect. We know this, but it is confirmed for us in Scripture.
Romans 3:10-12 says
(echoing Psalm 14:1-3, Psalm 53:1-3, and Ecclesiastes 7:20)
10As
it is written: “There is no one
righteous, not even one; 11 there is no one who understands, no one
who seeks God. 12 All have turned away, they have together become
worthless; there is no one who does good, not even
one.”
And again in Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”
Well
DUH! I mean obviously if you
stack us up against perfection we’re going to fall flat on our faces!
So we have a problem. God asks us to be holy as He is holy (I Peter 1:15-16), but we don’t do it. In fact we can’t do it. “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”
Fortunately, the very next verse in Romans chapter 3 shows us the way out of this mess: “and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
Now here’s the really interesting part to me. We all call ourselves Christians. After all, we’re giving up part of our weekend to sit in church. We come here every week. We help with the suppers, and give to the blanket drive, and teach in Vacation Bible Camp, and stand up front as liturgists, and we even read our Bibles and pray. Now we’ll grant that maybe we don’t pray as much as, oh say, Billy Graham or somebody, but hey, you know, we’re not leading huge evangelistic ministries either. We’ll even grant that maybe we don’t read as much as, we should in the Bible, but we sure get a taste of it at least once a week.
Even though many of us may consider ourselves Christians, we have to face the fact that we are a lot like the prodigal son in the parable.
Compare yourself with Jonah. Read the entire book, it’s only four short chapters long. Jonah runs away from God because God asks him to do something that will make him look foolish. Finally after seeing the consequences (slow death by digestion), he repents. Amazingly, God still uses him! God’s plan doesn’t change (See also the first chapter of Joshua—God told Moses to take the people into the promised land. Moses died, but God still planned for His people to go.). Then Jonah goes into Ninevah and tells the people that God plans to destroy the city because of their evil lifestyle and the people all repent by fasting, wearing sackcloth and sitting in the dust.
In Matthew 21:28-32
we see God’s attitude about the matter. 28“What do you think?
There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and
work today in the vineyard.’ 29“‘I
will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. 30“Then
the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I
will, sir,’ but he did not go. 31“Which
of the two did what his father wanted?” “The
first,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “I
tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the
kingdom of God ahead of you. 32For
John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe
him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw
this, you did not repent and believe him.
How do we repent? Do we repent at all? Many times I have found myself convicted of some sin, but repentance was really only lip service. I said I was sorry, but in my heart I was not.
Often I was sorry that I might have to face the consequences of my behavior.
One of the primary reasons we have trouble being truly sorry is that we fail to truly understand the extent of our sin. We fail to see our depravity and fallen nature clearly. We compare ourselves to other people and think we are doing better than most. We are blinded to our sin. We fail to recognize the terrible price God paid for us.
Such repentance has no value. Micah 6:8 gives us three things that God requires of us. To do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God. Humility is crucial to repentance.
A lack of humility is idolatry! Surprised? If we believe that we do not need forgiveness, if we think that we live a pretty good life and really don’t need to repent, we make ourselves equal with God. Only God fits that description.
Sometimes I find that I have to pray that I will be sorry before I can truly repent. Other times, like Jonah, I have to taste the consequences. In either case, I have begun to see that repentance is central to the peace and joy promised to the children of God.
Many times we play games with religion. We do all the things people expect of religious people, but our private lives do not reflect the character we evidence in public or at church on Sunday. It is a hard thing for many people to align their private conduct with their public image. Famous examples include every politician who ever committed adultery, every priest or pastor who ever succumbed to sexual temptation.
The more important examples, for you and me, are those examples we see every day in our own lives. These are the cases with which we must be concerned. We must examine ourselves and ask: “What do I hide or cover up?”, “When do I judge others, but do the same things myself?”
It’s time to put the games away and get serious about following Christ. Eugene H. Peterson has written a book on the topic. I think his title says it all. The book is entitled, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction – Discipleship in an Instant Society.
True repentance is evidenced by a change in direction. The people of Nineveh stopped their evil behavior and sat in sackcloth. The prodigal son turned from dissipation and wallowing in self pity and headed home with a contrite attitude.
This is the repentance God seeks. We are to repent and obey Him, then we are to continue in the same direction. Remember the Hebrews heading toward the promised land. They were rebellious and wayward at times, but God blessed them when they repented and headed in the proper direction.
In Jonah, Nineveh was spared.
In our passage this morning, the prodigal is reinstated. More than that, the wayward child is given good clothing and a ring. In those days a ring was used to seal documents. It was pressed into sealing wax to authenticate an agreement. It allowed the son to use the father’s line of credit. As wayward children of God, if we repent and turn away from playing games we will be forgiven and given credit as well.
If we have never given our lives to Christ, we can do so easily. All that’s required is that we truly repent of our sinful behavior, believe that Christ died to pay the price for it, confess to God that we are sinners, and receive the free gift of His salvation. If we have already done this, but we are playing religious games or simply ignoring God, we need to return to Him in repentance and let Him run things once again.
In either case, we must head in the right direction, allowing God to call the shots and run our lives. I find over and over that He is very good at it. He’s certainly much better at it than I am.