Opinion : Pastor\'s Blog - RECKLESS GRACE

An interpretation of the Story of the Prodigal Son from Luke 15:11-24

It's dusk. The front porch light is on, just as it has been 24/7 for months and months. A worried father sits on the porch and gazes hopefully down the long gravel drive to the county black top.


He remembers the broken curfews, the wrecked cars, the nights the boy came home smelling of beer and pot, and the fights. Those awful arguments where angry, hateful things that shouldn't have been said were said.


There was no reasoning with the boy. When he turned legal age, his father gave him his college fund money, and he drove away in a cloud of dust and the squeal of tires.


Weeks passed -- his younger son didn't come home. He finally hired a private detective. According to the report, the boy was living it up in Chicago with new friends who were only too glad to help him spend his money.


First, the father sent the boy's favorite uncle to talk some sense into him, and the son responded by telling him where he could shove his love and concern. Then the farmer sent his foreman, and the young man's new friends beat him up and threw him out on the street.


One night, as he sat gazing off into the night, the screen door opened, and he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up into the face of his eldest son and said, "I think it's time for you to go." The young man nodded.


The boy's money began to run out, and after his so-called friends beat him up for the last of it, they left him bruised, bloody, and broke in an alley. For a while, he lived by eating food out of dumpsters and slept in a cardboard box in the alley. He hung a filthy rag of a blanket he had found over the opening of the box to give him some privacy, but it didn't keep out the rats.


He took a job as a dishwasher in a greasy diner, but it didn't pay enough for him to get off the streets. Every night, he lay clutching a baseball bat for safety as he thought about home.


Home was where you were clean and warm and well-fed. Home was where someone cared whether you lived or died. Home was where you were loved. He'd give just about anything to go back, but he didn't see how he could do it.


One night there was a rap on the top of his box, and the blanket was lifted. He raised the bat ready to defend himself when a familiar voice called his name and said, "Well, little bro', are you ready to come home?"


A pair of head lights turn off the main road onto the drive. When the father recognizes his older son's truck, like an excited little boy, he runs to meet them, arms open wide. As soon as the younger son steps out of the pick-up, he is swept up into a bear hug.


Sobbing, the young man pleads, "I'm so sorry, Dad, for everything. Please forgive me and let me come home. I' won't make any more trouble -- I'll be good; I'll follow your rules. I'll do anything you want. Treat me like a hired hand -- I don't care! I just want to come home."


The father, tears rolling down his cheeks, rejoices, "You're home, you're home, you're home! My son who was lost to me has come home!"


The definition of prodigal includes words like "lavish," "extravagant" and "reckless." It's a no-brainer to associate words like lavish and extravagant with God's grace, but reckless?!?

When I think of reckless behavior, I'm reminded of Scrat, the squirrel from the "Ice Age" movies. He's so fixated on getting that acorn he lost that he goes to extreme and foolish lengths to retrieve it.

Hmmm. God is pretty determined when it comes to redeeming humanity and creation, even willing to do things that seem foolish to the world. (I Corinthians 1:18) Against all human common sense, God never gives up on us, Even after rejecting prophet after prophet, miracle after miracle, deliverance after deliverance, Go has kept every promise God has ever made to humans.

And talk about reckless behavior!. God is described as a shepherd who leaves ninety-nine sheep, alone and unprotected in a wilderness crawling with predators to search for one lost sheep until he finds it. God is likened to a woman, who losing one of her most precious possessions, a silver coin, drops everything she is doing, and using valuable household resources, cleans and searches her house until she finds it. (Luke 15:3-9) And when the lost are found, there is a party!

Because God so lavishly and extravagantly loved the world, God offered up God's one and only son as a sacrifice for our unloving and self-destructive acts so that through Jesus Christ, we would have the way to come home to the waiting arms of our heavenly Father.

Pastor Lanette S. Van, is the pastor at the following churches:

Brandon United Methodist Church
507 Main St., Brandon, IA
Sunday Worship: 11:15 a.m.

Garrison United Methodist Church
105 Sycamore Ave., Garrison, IA
Summer Worship: Saturdays, 5:00 p.m.

Stewart Memorial United Methodist Church
216 E. 4th St., Vinton, IA
Sunday Worship: 8:30 a.m.

Pastor's Cell: (319) 651-9408
Pastor's E-mail: pastorlanette@gmail.com

But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: the steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. "The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will hope in him." -- Lamentations 3:21-24