Calvary Episcopal Church
Memphis, Tennessee
March 21, 2004
The Fourth Sunday in Lent

Nudgers
The Rev. George S. Yandell

Gospel:Luke 15:11b-32
(This sermon is also available in audio)

Dwight Moody was an American evangelist in the late 1800’s. He preached a story to show how the parable of the Prodigal Son works in real-life. He told of a minister named William Dawson, a farmer in Yorkshire, England.

William Dawson, Moody said, once preached in the late 19th century there was no one so far gone in London that Christ would not receive him. A young lady called on him and said, “I heard you say there was no one so far gone in London that Christ wouldn’t receive him. Did you mean it?” So the lady led Dawson to the bedside of a dying young man. He was surrounded by filth and was very sick. He whispered some kind words in the young man’s ear and volunteered to call the young man’s friends. The dying man said, “You are mistaken about me, I have no friends.” Dawson replied, “Well, you have a friend in Christ.” He read to him scriptures that told of the love of Jesus and his compassion for sinners. After a long time praying, the young man felt the light of God dawn in his heart, and his heart went out to those he’d injured. He said, “Now if only my father would forgive me, I could die happy.”

Dawson got the father’s address, went up to a well-kept house in East London, and rang the bell. When the household servant answered the door, Dawson asked to see the master. Dawson addressed him, “You have a son named Joseph.” The wealthy merchant yelled back, “No sir! If you come to talk to me of that worthless vagabond, you must leave at once! I have disinherited him.” Dawson countered, “He shall not be your boy by tonight; but he will be your son as long as he lives.”

The father asked him, “Is my boy sick?” “Yes, he’s dying. I do not ask you to bury him, I will attend to that, but he wants you to forgive him, then he will die in peace.” The tears trickled down the father’s cheeks. He said, “Does Joseph want me to forgive him? I would have forgiven him long ago if I had known that.” They made their way to the apartments where Joseph was. As they went up the filthy stairs, he said, “Did you find my boy here? I would have taken him to my heart if I had known this.” The boy cried when his father came in. “Can you forgive me all my past sins?” The father bent over and kissed him and replied, “I would have forgiven you long ago. Let me take you home.” But the dying man said, “I am too sick; I can die happy now. I think God, for Christ’s sake, has forgiven me.” As he told his father of the love he had come to accept, with his head on his father’s chest, he breathed his last. This story hinges on the nudging Dawson got from the young woman and in turn, the nudging the father got from Dawson, the preacher.

Jesus said in the gospel of Matthew, “If you know how to give good gifts to your children… how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” Before us is the parable of the prodigal son- but it’s not, really. There’s a parable behind this parable, like a painting in which an earlier image has been covered over by successive efforts. The emerging story is the parable of the forgiving father.

Listen to how Jesus begins this story: “There was a man who had two sons.” The father comes out and takes his place in the foreground. The story describes his prosperous farm. The landowner has accumulated far more than is needed to maintain the property. The custom which had virtually the force of law dictated that the eldest son receive a double share of his father’s inheritance. The balance was equally divided among the other male children. In normal practice, a father would divide up the estate during his lifetime, but his sons would not receive their inheritance until his death--all hinges on the father and his estate, his will, and his intent.

The father has two sons. Each becomes a lost son in this story, each according to his character. The elder son intends to maintain the farm intact, but the younger one asks to receive his share in negotiable assets so he can seek his fortune elsewhere. It was not unprecedented for a younger son to try to get his portion of the inheritance, but this would annul any further claims the younger son would have on the parent’s estate. In this story, the son gets what one would expect—one third of the current family wealth.

This pre-death settlement with the younger son teaches a lot about their father. We find him to be fair-minded and generous, maybe indulgent. He yields to his son’s entreaty for his share of his wealth before his inheritance is due. The father thus deprives himself (and his older son!) of income that might be necessary in his old age. And so the father gives up a portion of his security for his son. If he has doubts about the wisdom of his action it is not told.

The father also seems unworried about the younger son’s leaving. He simply yields to the son in trust. The son seeks out a far country where nobody is looking over his shoulder, and eats up his inheritance in “dissolute living.” (The word ‘prodigal’ means ‘given to extravagant expenditures; exceedingly or recklessly wasteful.’) His prodigality is ill timed—the economy crashes at the same time. The son hits bottom, and, as Jesus says, “He came to himself.” This is a medical phrase that suggests a return to his right mind after an illness or delirium. He recognizes he is lost and desires to return home and does so. Note this- the father has done nothing to recover his son—no private investigators, no following Visa card tab trails.

But both sons are lost. When the prodigal returns, the older son is resentful. He has been dutiful in his brother’s absence- overseeing the property, an upstanding citizen, working hard. Much of the profit the farm has made is due to his efforts. When he hears music and dancing, he returns to the home sour. When a slave tells the reason for the feast, he loses face and becomes furious. Then, pouting, he refuses to take part in the festivities for his no-good brother. Even when the father comes out and begs him to share in the celebration, he protests. In effect, he whines, “You never did this much for me, and I’ve been working my hands to the bone to make things go, while he’s been whoring away our hard-earned money. There is no justice!” Indeed not.

The older brother observes a key feature of this scene of forgiveness and joy. The treatment of the prodigal is not just. The father proves himself to be extravagant in forgiveness. It is god-like love. It is reconciliation and giving way beyond what the younger son deserves. Then the father lavishes the same love on the older brother. The older son’s anger is about to drive him from his father. It is the father who tries to recover his older son. He explains himself to his older son, his second lost son, and asks him to repent of his anger. The closing sentence of the parable sums up the story of both sons- the lost is found. Rejoice! Grace abounds for the self-righteous as well as the repentant sinner!

The father is not perfect in today’s terms. He’d get poor marks in a parenting seminar. He doesn’t practice tough love. He yields to both sons. He indulges them. He doesn’t teach them how to succeed on the world’s terms. He doesn’t seek to keep his finances prospering, but is willing to make unprofitable decisions because he loves his children. He forgives. He forgives when it seems foolhardy, outlandish, and indulgent.

Jesus told this parable to help the Pharisees overcome their righteous indignation at the open fellowship Jesus created. It is a confrontation that shows what Jesus knew about taking in the cast-off and the undesirable. He explains his own actions by giving a glimpse of his father in heaven. In John’s gospel, Jesus speaks of his relationship with his own father in heaven: “I speak of what I have seen with my father... I came forth from God; God sent me.”
The Father of the two sons is the father of Jesus, and of all of us. God lavishes love on lost children without counting the cost. It is this same love Jesus enacted in every relationship with God’s lost children in Judea. More than that, God is not only interested in restoring broken fellowships with God; God is actively reconciling lost souls one to another. Jesus builds God’s community on earth. The father and the son view the reunion of splintered families, broken communities as completing the heavenly ideal here and now.

The Church is God’s tool for reconciliation today. Each of us is a reconciler from God, since we claim membership in Christ’s body. Yet each of us is also a lost son and daughter. Sometimes it seems to me the only gift I bring to Christ’s church is my sinfulness and my self-righteousness, like the sons in the story. How can God possibly pool our lost-ness to God’s advantage?

I’ve learned the Church can be an effective ‘nudger.’ Maybe that’s what we do best for one another, and for Christ. We nudge one another to do together what we fail to do separately, like William Dawson in the story of the dying son. Haven’t you noticed that when we Church people accept one another warts and all, we begin to spread that acceptance further around? Then we find we can accomplish more together than we can apart. And on not-so-rare occasions, we begin to feel a tiny tug of joy begin to creep in among us. Joy at discovering we’re not as lost as we thought. Joy in finding that those we once self-righteously condemned are fellow nudgers. Joy at extending God’s extravagant love even into a world that deems it foolhardy and indulgent.

God’s love is our gift to give, freely. We are to nudge one another to forgive and welcome in the lost, and rejoice as God rejoices over the lost being found. In nudging, we are acting in the love of Jesus, beyond all accounting and beyond all seeming justice. When we nudge, we too come home to the open arms of our Lord.

Copyright 2004 Calvary Episcopal Church

Gospel: Luke 15:11b-32
"There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.' So he divided his property between them. A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in
dissolute living. When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself
he said, 'How many of my father's hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! 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 set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. Then the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the father said to his
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!' And they began to celebrate. "Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. He replied, 'Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.' Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. But he answered his father,
'Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have 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 property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!' Then the father said to him, 'Son, you are always with me,
and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.'" NRSV

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