One of the most popular stories that Jesus tells, as recorded in the Gospel according to St. Luke, is the story of the Prodigal and his two sons. So often we call this the parable of the prodigal son, but then we forget the older brother. So, rather than focus on the one son in this text, it is beneficial for us to meditate on the demeanor and ways of the Father, or the Prodigal. There are many ways to define the word "prodigal." One way to define it is "Wasteful, imprudent, or extravagant," or you can define it as "generous, lavish, or bounteous." If defined the first way, we focus on the wasteful son who ran away. If we define it as generous or lavish, we begin to focus and call to mind the compassion of the generous and merciful Father.

For, my friends, we are like both of the sons in this Gospel lesson, as found in Luke 15:11-32. We are like the younger brother who tells God our Father to drop dead, get out of our life, so we can go and do whatever we please. We go, as it says in Jeremiah, "You have played the whore with many lovers" (Jeremiah 3:1). We have gone into the world and cheated on God with our many lovers, our many idols, our little gods and addictions that bring us immediate pleasure. But what do those idols and addictions do for you? DO they give you lasting pleasure, constant delight, and steady joy? No, those fleshy desires and pleasures of the world leave you in despair because they don't give you anything, but instead take who you are away piece by piece. Every addiction you and I give in to, and every god we sacrifice our time and emotions to, east away at our identity as a child of God. In addition to being like the younger wasteful brother, we are also like the older, pious, and self-righteous brother. We are not happy when a fellow sinner gets absolute forgiveness, or at least doesn't suffer like we did in despair. We aren't joyous when a real bad person, someone that has wronged us, is absolved and accepted in the eyes of God and the Church. Isn't that how it is. You and I don't mind when abstract sinners are forgiven, but when someone has done us wrong, then we want them to put in some time and effort before they get to hear the sweet words of Holy Absolution. We want the younger brother, who ahs wasted our precious generosity, to really earn our forgiveness and God's as well. At the end of the day, if this text was just about how we are like these two men, then we would be left with nothing but the Law, with its accusations that we are wasteful with God's mercy and forgiveness. However, we must hear the words that the Prodigal, the generous Father, speaks to His two sons. He says to the younger, after He ran out in compassion and robed him in his robe, placed his ring on his finger, and sacrificed the anointed fattened calf, he said, "For this my sons was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found." And to the older brother, the self-righteous one, he spoke words of assurance saying, "Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found."

The Prodigal is a generous Father, one who is compassionate on both of his sons, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Jesus taught this story to teach the people the nature of His Father, and their Father, the eternal Father who created and continues to sustain all of His work. His creation, because of the fall, was lost, dead to Him because of their sin. So what did the Father do? Did he leave us to fend for ourselves? Did He give us ten rules to follow, and if we accomplish them, then we get the prize of life eternal? No. God the Father, bursting at the seams with compassion, sent His only-begotten Son, His beloved Son, into the flesh to bear our sin and be our savior. God the Father sent Jesus as our great sacrificial lamb to make atonement for our transgressions. He fattened Jesus up with our sins and sacrificed Him on the cross, so that He may celebrate our deliverance and rescue from sin, death, world, and the power of the devil. As Jeremiah says, "You have played the whore with many lovers; yet return again to Me, declares the Lord" Jeremiah 3:1).  Our Father does not turn us away, but bids us come to Him time and time again and receive His generous forgiveness and mercy. Our Father is the great Prodigal who is generous and bounteous with His love and forgiveness, both to those who are wasteful with HIs grace and those who think they can earn it by their obedience.

How does our Father deal with us generously? How does He call us back to Himself to forgive us? Well, 'It is not the will of the Father or of the Son that a person should not hear or should despise the preaching of His Word and wait for the drawing of the Father without the Word and Sacraments. For the Father draws indeed by the power of His Holy Spirit. However, He works according to His usual way. He works by the hearing of His holy, divine Word, as with a net (Matthew 13:47-48), by which the elect are plucked from the devil's jaws. Every poor sinner should therefore attend to the Word, hear it attentively, and not doubt the Father's drawing. For the Holy Spirit will be with His Word in His power, and will work by it. That is the Father's drawing" (FCSD XI.76-77).  Our Father does not forgive us abstractly, or wait for us to get with the program on our own. He forgives us, rescues us, and keeps us in the one true faith by means of the Gospel preached and the sacraments distributed to us. When you doubt your forgiveness, and despair as the younger brother did. Do not sit and dwell on your place, but instead hear the Gospel that declares you a forgiven child of God. When you sit in smugness because your younger brother is forgiven and you feel slighted, don't meditate on your obedience, but instead hear the compassion of your Father in that all that is His is yours in the death and resurrection of His Son and your Lord, Jesus the Christ. Take comfort then, my friends, in the concrete reality that as you hear the Gospel and receive the Lord's Body and Blood, you are forgiven of all your sins and returned to a right relationship with your merciful Father. You who were dead are now alive, you who were lost are now found, in the mercy of your Lord, Jesus the Christ, in the forgiveness of your sins.

Be at peace. May the devil be silenced, the world be hushed, and the Old Adam be drowned anew so that you hear only the voice of your Savior Jesus who says, "Take heart, in me you are alive and found under the mercy of both My Father, and your Father. I forgive you. The Father welcomes you as His child forever," Amen.

Jesus' Sheepdog,

Pastor Hull