Luke 15: 11-24

Theme: Coming Home

Let’s call her Mattie. Mattie came to me some years ago with some questions. She had a two-year-old son. She explained that she was an exotic dancer in New Orleans and she wondered if God held that against her? I don’t remember her exact words, but she wanted to know if she could lose her salvation. She was torn up by this, she was racked with guilt and yet, she was not inclined to quit but to ask if she can get away with this before God.

I know that exotic dancer is a euphemism for stripper. I told her there was no stripping for Jesus no matter how good that might sound. I told her that at best, God was extremely displeased with her behavior. God cannot be pleased or happy or accepting of our sinful behavior. She knew it was sinful, but she wanted to know if she could lose her salvation because she stripped naked before men. I told her that I do not know how a person can continue to live in sin and be a Christian. She had made a profession of faith and she apparently believed that she was a follower of Jesus and she was totally devastated by her sin but she was not ready to give it up. When I asked her why, she said she needed the money. I immediately started trying to explore other jobs with her. I plead with her to leave this lifestyle. She left with no clear evidence she was going to change. I was suspicious there was more going on here.

Mattie came back to see me a few weeks later. This time I asked Barbara to hang around the church office. I did not need anyone accusing me of inappropriate behavior. She came in with her little boy. And she soon confessed that her lifestyle involved a little more than just stripping. She had been involved with prostitution. Furthermore, her husband wanted her to continue in prostitution because the money was good.

She wanted out of that lifestyle. She did not want her son raised in the knowledge that his mother was a prostitute. Her conscience was burning her because she knew she was not right with God. And God, like the hound of heaven, was pursuing her and would not let her go. I encouraged her to leave that lifestyle. I should have encouraged her to leave her husband. He was not worthy of either title, man or husband. She told me that she would be able to leave that life soon because she and her husband were going to start an internet business. I was slow in those days, I was not as aware of what is on the internet. I now assume what she was about to get involved with was even worse. She said she was going to leave that lifestyle. I don’t know, I never saw here again. I have prayed for her many times but I have no idea how this prodigal daughter turned out. I don’t know if she ever came home.

The world is full of people who have left God’s family for the far country. For whatever reason, Christians stray away from God. Sometimes we let bad things drive us away. If God really loved me, my loved one would not have died. If God really loved me, my business would not have failed. Some go to the far country because they are disappointed with God.

Others simply have a rebellious streak in them. I have been there. I have gone into the far country because I did not want to accept the will of God. This is the kind of rebellion that Jesus is describing in this parable. This younger son, for whatever reason, was unfaithful to the teachings of his father and he chose to rebel.

Now he stood before his father and demanded his share of the inheritance. He did not have time for the old man to die, he wanted it now. This father was extravagant and lavish and unrestrained in his love for his sons and when his son made his unreasonable demand, he gave in. He loved his son but if he wanted to leave he could not stop him.

The son rode into some hot gentile town and made new some friends. He had found his freedom and he squandered his estate with loose living. Soon he was out of money, out of luck, out of friends, and sinking to the bottom of the food chain. The land was harsh and there was a famine in the country. The only work that was available was slopping hogs for one of the local gentile farmers. There could not have been anything lower for a Jewish boy. He was so hungry, but no one was giving anything to him. The rich kid was wading through pig manure and was eating the scraps of feed that the hogs left behind.

One day he came to his senses. He realized that he was not made to live like that, he was the son of a wealthy man. But what was he to do? He had taken his share of the wealth and lost it, he really did not belong. But even his father's servants had food to eat and a house to sleep in. So he said to himself, "I will get up and go to my father and will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me as one of your hired men.’"

We know that the father was waiting on him, watching for the son to come home. And the father accepted him, loved him and rejoiced at his return. We need to learn from this that the prodigal son or daughter can always come home. The father is expecting you. God is so quick to forgive and restore. It is our pride and unwillingness to repent of our sin that keeps us from the Father. There is no one who is so bad or has gone so far that God will welcome with open arms and restore them to the family.

But I need you to realize that when a wayward child comes home, it is not always pretty. Sometimes they come home cut and broken and bleeding and bruised. Once a Christian runs away from God, sin can take us to places we never dreamed we would go.

This week, I read the story in Leadership Journal by Jeff W. Smith, of his friend Gregg, a talented minister of music who went into the far country. Gregg worked with a pastor who was like a father to him. He had a lot of trust and confidence in this man. However, it was discovered that the pastor was having an affair. The church fired the pastor but they decided to clean house and fired all the staff, including his friend. That bitter experience was the beginning of his journey to the far country.

Sometime later, Smith looked up Gregg to ask him to help in starting a new church. Gregg was a very talented musician and a man who loved God. Gregg told him part of the story. He said that, as he returned to God, he had prayed that God would allow him to be involved in music ministry again. However, he would only agree to help for a couple of months.

Things went well and Gregg did a good job but he left after a couple of months. Sometime later, an emergency arose at church and Jeff called Gregg to come and fill in. He was asked to come back and be on the staff of the start up church. It was then that Gregg confessed to Jeff the rest of his journey into the far off country.

Gregg had AIDS. Apparently in his rebellion against God, he had entered a perverse sexual world and got involved in homosexuality. It had been a short excursion and he repented and returned to God. However, sometimes our sins have serious consequences and he later found out he had AIDS. So, the question was, could a man who had lived such a lifestyle in the past, who had repented of his sin, but who also had AIDS lead worship in his church. Jeff told him he had to think about it.

Smith was extremely disappointed in his friend. He said that he sat in the parking lot crying and praying after Gregg told the whole story. He did not know what to do. It is one thing to love a person who has been down this road and to affirm them and minister to them, it is another matter to allow them to serve God in a church. He allowed Gregg to help a bit longer. But before a major event, Gregg was in the hospital in a coma. It was then that he shared the news with the leaders of the mission. How would they react? To make a long story short, the church accepted Gregg and he worked with them as long as he lived and they ministered to him as he died. And many came to Christ, including Gregg’s Dad, because of their compassion. (Leadership Journal, Summer, 2003, pp. 104-109)

I tell you this story because I think we all see the homosexual lifestyle as the ultimate sinful lifestyle. I don’t understand how anyone can go there. But, all Christians who go to the far country will end up in some sort of terrible sin. And sin is sin. And if God, our waiting Father, welcomes the sinner home, we so must we. We have all been redeemed by the grace of God. When some of our brothers and sisters come home, they come to us in rough condition. And we can act like the older brother who rejected his brother, or we can be like the Father and redeem them and love them and restore them to the family. Being the child of our heavenly Father requires us to be big hearted like him.

Sin is serious business and the far country can have terrible consequences. But you can come home. Our Father has been waiting and watching. He knows our condition. But there is great rejoicing in heaven when the sinner, no matter how terrible a sinner, comes home.

God’s wayward children can come home. God’s people have to be humble enough to love our brother, our sister the way God has loved us.