"The "I Will Arise" Society"

sermon by Pastor David Layman

March 18, 2007

Luke 15:11-32

When Michael Slaughter was in high school, he spent far more time playing his guitar in a band than he did studying. Slaughter finished his junior year of high school with two "Fs" and three "Ds". But one night, out of desperation, he began to ask some basic questions, such as "Is God good?" and "Does God care for me?" He pulled out a dust covered Bible by his bed stand that he'd received when he was in 3rd grade, skipped the Old Testament and went right to the gospels. Michael Slaughter began reading nightly from the New Testament, and something strange began to happen in his life. He discovered a magnetic attraction to the person of Jesus.

Slaughter read about the Jesus in John 8 who forgave a woman caught in adultery. He read about the Jesus who was a friend of sinners, who referred to God as His Father, and who described God the Father as a loving man who welcomed home prodigal sons not with punishment, but mercy and grace. Slaughter came to see that the Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to an end, which is life in Christ. The purpose of scripture is not so much information, but transformation in Christ!
(SPIRITUAL ENTREPRENEURS, p. 53).

Perhaps no passage of the Bible speaks more winsomely about the transformation God our loving Father seeks to offer us than the parable of the Prodigal Son. (Read) It was unheard of in that culture for a son to ask for his share of the estate before his father died. It was like the younger son was saying to his father, "Dad, drop dead. I want my share now!" Even more unbelievable to Jesus' listeners was the fact that, in Jesus' story, the father lets his son's wish come true. Jesus seems to be telling us that there are times God gives us the terrible freedom to walk away from Him! Vs. 18, What helped the prodigal come to his senses was the remembrance of his Father's character. The prodigal believed that as unwise and sinful as he was, his father would mercifully receive him back as a servant. Repentance involves our willingness to admit our need. Vs. 20 The Father's response was even more gracious than the prodigal anticipated. He ran to greet him! Vs. 22 A long robe was not worn by servants, but by sons and fathers. A signet ring was a sign of authority. Slaves went barefoot, but sandals were ordered by his father. The prodigal realized he was being received back
not as a hired servant, but as a son! This was better than the prodigal son could have hoped for: he was being transformed from a no-good son, as good as dead, to a position of honor in loving relationship with his father and the community--a great party was announced to welcome him home!

This would be an appropriate place to end the story, emphasizing God's forgiveness and grace. But as the father in Jesus' story represents a forgiving God, the older brother represents the dark side of an unforgiving human nature. The older brother wants to see his younger brother continue to be punished. While God focuses on the importance of transformation, human nature wants to see someone pay for their wrongs, and keep on paying.

A week ago I attended a Ministerial Association meeting, where the speaker was a young woman who has undergone recovery through Sunshine House, a women's shelter modeled after "The Healing Place" in Louisville, as was "Hope House" for men. Only about 22 now, this young
woman shared how she'd started using drugs around the age of 14, how her life had spiraled downward, and how she'd been a feminine version of the prodigal son. Instead of winding up feeding pigs, this young woman wound up at the Richmond State Hospital. Concluding her time there, she knew she dare not return to her home town in southern Indiana, for fear the same friends she'd done drugs with before would bring her back down to their level. She broke down and cried how, in the midst of her addiction struggles, she knew she wasn't a safe person for her nieces and nephew
to spend time with, but now, with recovery in process, she was free to be a new kind of person and see those she loved without the fear of dragging others down with her. The transformation experienced by the prodigal son and prodigal daughters is taking place in drug and alcohol
treatment centers in our community, made possible by those who know that, by God's grace, transformation is possible!

Norman Vincent Peale had wonderful Christian parents. Norman's father was a physician turned Methodist pastor. In fact, Norman's father once pastored nearby Greenville's United Methodist Church when Norman was a boy. Norman shared this incident which occurred in his childhood: "An
event occurred one night that had a profound impact upon me and went far toward preparing me for my later work as a pastor. When I was perhaps 9 or 10 years old, a call came to my father from, of all people, the madam of a house of ill fame...in the red-light district of Cincinnati. Mother
took the call, which shocked her some, but she reported that in that house a young woman, only 19 years old, was dying and wanted to see a pastor. Would my father come and talk with her and offer a prayer? Father was never one to turn down a person in need. "Norman," he said, you come with me and we will do what we can to help this poor soul through the gates of death."

"Clifford," exclaimed Mother, "you are not actually going to take your young son into such a place?" "I am," he replied firmly. "Norman might as well start learning about the evil of this world. And besides, Anna, don't you think it will prevent misinterpretation if I go to that house with my own son rather than alone?" Father asked sagely.

Grudgingly Mother assented and we went on this unusual pastoral errand. We found the young woman, her face as white as the sheet, her slender hands lying limply on the coverlet. The madam and other women stood around the room against the wall. Father sat by the bed and asked the
woman her name and where her family lived. His doctor's knowledge and instinct told him that she was indeed near death's door.

She told him that she came from a little country town in Kentucky where her family still lived. She described them as "honorable and upright Christians. But I am a bad girl. I started down a wrong path and have ended up a harlot. I'm a very bad girl. Is there any hope for me? Will the Lord forgive me?" Father took her little, frail hand in his big, strong hands and said "Not a bad girl, just a good girl who has acted badly. Do you love Jesus, honey?" he asked in his gentle, fatherly voice.

"Oh, yes, sir. But I've been unfaithful to Him."

"But don't you remember how He went out to find the lost sheep, Good Shepherd that He is?" She nodded and he continued, "Are you contrite and sorry for your sins?"

"Yes," she whispered. "Oh, yes."

"And do you here and now accept Jesus Christ as your Savior and ask His mercy and forgiveness."

"I do," she said.

Then Father said..."The Lord has forgiven you all your sins and will take you this day to be with Him in paradise." Then Father said a prayer, one of the most tender and beautiful in all my Christian
experience. I opened my eyes as he prayed and saw tears running down the faces of the other women. But upon the girl's face was a look of peace. Even though I was still so young, the experience awed me by its beauty. This unholy place...became holy because, for a fact, the Lord was
there." (THE TRUE JOY OF POSITIVE LIVING, William Morrow and Company, Inc., New York, 1984, pp. 30-31).

I love the way the Revised Standard Version translates the prodigal's words when a turning point is reached in his life. In verse 18, we read "I will arise 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 as one of your hired servants.'" After the Civil War, many organizations sprung up to help former slaves deal with the problems of their new freedom. One was called the "I Will Arise
Society". That's the society we belong to in the church. We are not a perfect people; we have realized that in many ways, we have been enslaved in this life, we're living in a distant land. We believe Christ can lead us out of our slavery into freedom. The church is not composed of people who are better than someone else. We are a group of people who realize we've been lost, and want to get found. We realize we're down, and want to get up. We've discovered our plans have led us into trouble; we want to get out! Because of Jesus, we know God to be a loving Father, not a self-satisfied older brother, so we proclaim "I will arise, and go to my Father. I will begin a new life."

When Jesus tells us the story of the lost son, he tells us about ourselves, and about God, our Father. God is like the Father who with sorrow sees his sons and daughters depart. But God is ever, wistfully,
looking for our return. Each night after supper God goes out on the porch, and looks into the distance. He's looking for us! The story is so simple, so beautiful, and so true, that no one need say more.

Jesus' story says it all!

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