We are beginning the fifth week of our Lenten message series, “Seriously, God? Making Sense of Life Not MakingSense.” If you are new to the parish or just visiting, welcome. If you find today’s homily interesting and wish you had heard the previous four, take comfort in the fact that we are basing this message series on a book by the same name, and we might have a few copies left in the back of the church. Feel free to take one as a gift.
In this series we are looking at obstacles that often keep people from taking God seriously or developing faith and trust in God. We are looking at these hurdles so that it might open us up to a greater understanding of these issues and what God is doing. If we choose to lean into these problems or look beneath the surface of these issues, instead of avoiding them we may come to a greater appreciation for who God is and what he is doing in our lives and in our world.
Three weeks ago, we looked at the how to make sense of it when God says no; it is often to set us free. Two weeks ago we looked at when God seems to let us down and not fulfill his promises to us. We looked at the story of Abraham and that God sometimes delays fulfilling a promise so to build trust and obedience in us. Last week we looked at why God seems to allow the wrong people to be in charge. Why does God allow corrupt people to gain power? We looked at what we could learn from the call of Moses.
Today we want to look at the times God doesn’t seem cooperative. There are irritations in life that come up again and again. Maybe it is a problem that keeps coming up at work that you just cannot seem to solve. Maybe it is a problem that keeps a relationship from developing the way you would like. Maybe you are constantly dealing with health issues and if you weren’t sick you could accomplish so much more or just enjoy life more. When those obstacles appear or when God doesn’t seem to be doing what we want him to do we can start grumbling and complaining.
Something like this is happening in today’s Gospel passage from St. Luke. We hear; “Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus, but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them’” (Luke 15:1-3). People who were nothing like Jesus liked him and drew close to him. The religious leaders didn’t like it and they didn’t understand it. In their minds, God was for religious people, church people, and tax collectors and sinners didn’t fit in the club.
Jesus addresses the grumbling of the religious leaders by telling three parables about something or someone who is lost. The third parable is the most famous – the parable of the Prodigal Son. Just as the father welcomes home the rebellious son, God the Father will welcome home anyone who returns to him. We are going to look at the parable from the perspective of the older brother. The older brother actually represents the religious leaders that Jesus addresses the parable to.
We pick up the parable after the younger brother returns and father throws the party in celebration of his son’s return. “Now the older son had been out in the field and, on his way back, as he neared the house, he heard the sound of music and dancing. He called one of the servants and asked what this might mean” (Luke 15:25).
This is where we often find ourselves sympathizing with the older brother. He’s out there simply doing his job. The younger brother is drama central and the older brother is just out in the field doing his job. Jesus wants us to identify with the older brother. Remember he is telling this parable to the Pharisees and scribes, the professional “church people” of his time. They considered themselves morally and religiously superior to others.
A servant tells the older brother that his younger brother has returned and his father has thrown a huge party to celebrate his return. The older brother did not share the servant’s excitement about the party: “He became angry, and when he refused to enter the house, his father came out and pleaded with him” (Luke 15:26).
There is a lot going on here if you know the culture at the time of Jesus. In summary, the older brother’s refusal to go into the house is an insult to his father, made worse by his doing it in front of guests. He is embarrassing and disrespecting his father.
The older son says to his father, “Look, all these years I served you and not once did I disobey your orders; yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends” (Luke 15:29). This rude and insulting, but also deeply revealing. The elder brother reveals why he worked for his father: not out of love and respect, or even duty and honor. He worked for his father to earn what he then considered his due. While the younger brother rebelled to get money, the older brother obeyed to get the money. Neither cared about the relationship with their father. While both attitudes are equally wrong, they are not equally dangerous.
The danger is a warning for us in our relationship with God. When you walk away from God and the Church, it is clear you’re walking away from God and the Church. It’s regrettable, but it is clear what it is.
It is far more dangerous to stay in the Church, ostensibly in a relationship with God carefully obeying all the rules and checking all the boxes. Like the older brother, beginning to think that God owes you for your religious rule keeping. You fulfill your obligations and, because you do, you find yourself feeling increasingly entitled to whatever it is you’re after: grace & favor, blessing, health, healing…heaven.
Some of you are thinking, “Well I hear what you’re saying but I still feel like the older brother has a point. It just doesn’t seem fair the father would throw this lavish party for his irresponsible son. It’s just not fair!” And you know what? You are absolutely right, its not fair. Guess what? Don’t ever ask for fair. You don’t want fair. The Gospel never pretends to be fair. It is MORE than fair. You and I are loved by God far more than we know, more than we deserve, more than we’ll ever earn.
The father tells the son that all he had was available to him at any time. All he had to do was ask, but in that moment it was time to celebrate the return of the younger brother. It was the older brother’s responsibility to stop grumbling and complaining and share in the joy the father experienced at the return of his son.
In day to day life when we meet problems or obstacles we can get caught up in the weeds. We stop paying attention to what God is actually doing and the larger invitation to a life of grace. I don’t one hundred percent know why God is allowing some of the obstacles in your life. But I do know grumbling and complaining never leads us in God’s direction. I do know the older brother’s mentality gets in the way of a fruitful relationship with God. I do know that it is never good to get into a mindset where we think God owes us. It is God’s good pleasure to give us his kingdom. All that he has is ours. Grumbling and complaining keeps us from recognizing the good gifts God has for us.