Luke 15 - going to the heart of the Gospel

Welcome and Call to worship

645 Come, ye thankful people come

Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer

Deuteronomy 26:1-11

Psalm 65 – the Congregation

^NRS Psalm 65:1 <To the leader. A Psalm of David. A Song.> Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion; and to you shall vows be performed, ² O you who answer prayer! To you all flesh shall come. ³ When deeds of iniquity overwhelm us, you forgive our transgressions. ⁴ Happy are those whom you choose and bring near to live in your courts. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, your holy temple. ⁵ By awesome deeds you answer us with deliverance, O God of our salvation; you are the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas. ⁶ By your strength you established the mountains; you are girded with might. ⁷ You silence the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples. ⁸ Those who live at earth's farthest bounds are awed by your signs; you make the gateways of the morning and the evening shout for joy. ⁹ You visit the earth and water it, you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; you provide the people with grain, for so you have prepared it. ¹⁰ You water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth. ¹¹ You crown the year with your bounty; your wagon tracks overflow with richness. ¹² The pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy, ¹³ the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy.

Lord Jesus Christ

In you we meet the God of Creation

And we are overwhelmed

By the way we have let you down

And abused the precious things of that creation

Grant us your forgiveness

And in the knowledge of your mercy and love for us

May we so care for your creation

That your goodness will once more

Provide a rich harvest

As everything shouts and sings for joy.

Amen

Hymn 646 We plough the fields and scatter

Who’s the feasting for?

Do you have some favourite chapters in the Bible?

A moment to share …

I do.Genesis 1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth

Exodus 20 and the ten commandments

Psalm 23 The Lord is my shepherd

Isaiah 40 Comfort ye, comfort ye my people

John 1 In the beginning was the Word

John 14 In my father’s house are many mansions

Romans 8 – nothing can separate us from the love of God

1 Corinthians 13 – love

Revelation 21 – the new heaven and the new earth

Wonderful chapters!

Among the greatest of those chapters for me is Luke 15.  It has been called the Gospel within the Gospel.  It goes to the heart of the good news of jesus Christ, the good news of the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It’s a chapter that includes three of the greatest of Jesus’ parables.

Look at our Good News bible and the headings say it all

The Lost Sheep

The Lost Coin

The Lost Son

Of the hundred sheep one goes missing and that’s the one the shepherd seeks out “I tell you there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people, or as the GNB says, 99 respectable people who need no repentance."

Of the ten coins the woman posseses it’s the one that goes missing that she turns the house upside down until she finds it.

“I tell you,” says Jesus, “there is joy n the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

And then there’s the youngest son who squanders everthing on riotous living until he comes to his senses and hesitantly returns home only to find his father rushing out to welcome him home.  “For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!”  No wonder they began to celebrate.

This is the gospel that forgiveness is always there, God’s grace reaches out to the lost.  And as we come to our senses, change our way of thinking, repent so we find the love of the God who is there waiting for us.

Wonderful set of parables.

But wait a moment.

Who chose to give them those titles?

Chapter divisions didn’t come in until 1200 years after the time of Christ.  Verse divisions didn’t come in until 1560 years after the time of Christ.  As for the headings – they weren’t introduced until much, much later.  Interestingly back in the 1960’s the United Bible Societies published a Greek New Testament whose text was based on the latest discoveries – I had one when I was still at school, I now use the fourth edition and a fifth edition has just come out.  It was aimed at the likes of me as a Minsiter and also at people translating the Bible into languages the world over.  That edition had headings which were adopted by the Good News Bible translators and will be found in many, many modern translations the world over that are based on that text.

There is a problem, however.  As soon as you give something a title you see it in those terms.

What would happen if you gave these parables another title.

Maybe the first parable is as much about the Shepherd and his passion to find the lost sheep.  It could be called the Parable of the Good Shepherd.   The last parable is as much about the Father and his patient, never-ending love of his prodigal son – it could be called the waiting Father.

Think of it as the Parable of the Waiting Father and listen to the story once again.

So if you are sitting comfortably, Rachel will begin … but just as far as verse 24 please.  We’ll come back to the rest in a bit.

The Parable of the Waiting Father

Luke 15:11-24

^NRS Luke 15:11 ¶ Then Jesus said, "There was a man who had two sons. ¹² 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. ¹³ 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. ¹⁴ When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. ¹⁵ 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. ¹⁶ He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. ¹⁷ 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! ¹⁸ I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; ¹⁹ I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands."' ²⁰ 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. ²¹ 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.' ²² 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. ²³ And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; ²⁴ for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!' And they began to celebrate.

What a wonderful God we believe in.  His love is greater than ever we could imagine as it reaches out to the lost sheep and to the lost son.  It is the wonderful love of a Good Shepherd, the wonderful love of a waiting father.

But there’s a third parable too.

If the God figure in the first parable is the Good Shepherd and the God figure in the third parable is the Waiting Father, who is the God figure in the middle parable?

It is none other than the seeking woman.

How does that make you feel.  That God is likened to a woman?  It is a strand that’s there in the Bible.  Back in Isaiah 66:13  we read …

For thus says the Lord:

As a mother comforts her child

So I will comfort you;

You shall be comforted in Jerusalem.

Job asks in 38:29 From whose womb did the ice come forth?  And who has given birth to the hoar frost of heaven?

Maybe most significantly of all as we arrive at Luke 15 and the Parable of the Seeking Woman, is the intense compassion that at the end of Luke 13 Jesus expresses in his remarkable lament over Jerusalem.  There he sees himself as a mother hen.:  “How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing …”

The next moment we find Jesus in chapter 15 going to the very heart of the Gospel, in this Gospel within the Gospel where we are invited to think of God in the immensity of his and maybe the immensity of her love as the Good Shepherd, the Seeking Woman and the Waiting Father.

There is more to this chapter still.

It makes a difference reading a book a book, as we are doing in our reading of Luke’s Gospel on Sunday evenings.

At the moment Jesus is on a journey, the journey to Jerusalem that began at Luke 9:51 as he set his face to go to Jerusalem and will end at Luke 19:28 with Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem.  On the journey he tells stories, the great story parables are found for the most part in these ten chapters of Luke.  And he also stops off from time to time for a meal.

Indeed, the whole of chapter 14 has been about feasting: how important it is to sit in a lowly place and not to go for the top table, how important it is to be welcome all to the banquet – not least the least of all.  The point is pressed home if you don’t notice it first time in Luke 14:13 where Jesus says, when you give a banquet invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind, he goes on to tell the story of the Great Banquet as the owner of the house is angry at those who couldn’t be bothered to accept his invitation and sends his slave out “into the streets and and lanes of the town to bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.”

This after all is the heart of the Gospel of Christ.  It’s what it’s all about.  It’s how his ministry began in that synagogue in Nazareth back in Luke 4 when Jesus read from Isaiah 61 so movingly …

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me

Because he has anointed me

To bring good news to the poor

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

And recovery of sight to the blind

To let the oppressed go free

To proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.

This is the nub of the matter as far as Luke is concerned.

This is what it’s all about.

Jesus was adamant as he rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant and sat down to teach …

Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.

The gospel for all and not just for our lot!

The banquet for everyone, the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind.

 the crippled, the lame and the blind.

Look carefully how Luke 15 begins.

Jesus is as good as his word.  He practises what he preaches.

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming to listen to him.  And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them!”

It was in response to that grumbling that Jesus told these parables.

Notice verse three and especially the first word …

So he told them this parable.

Look again at the Parable of the Lost Sheep, at the Parable of the Good Shepherd.

Notice what the shepherd does when he comes home: he calls his friends and neighbours saying to them, Rejoice with me for I have found my sheep that was lost.

He has a party!

That’s what it’s like in heaven – Just so, I tell you

  Three will be more joy n heaven over one sinner who repents …

This is the banquet – that’s welcoming to the one that’s lost.

What does the woman do when she has found the coin that was lost?

She calls together her friends and neighbours, saying, “Rejoice with me for I have found the coin that I had lost.”

And what of the Parable of the Lost Son, the Prodigal Son or the Waiting Fahter.

It’s even more pronounced.

What does the Father do?

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.

Can you see these are three parables of the Banquet … following hard on the heels of the two earlier parables of Banquets in chapter 14.

They are one in the eye for those ultra religious people who tut tutted when Jesus spent his time eating with the wrong kind of people, with the tax collectors and sinners.

For this is what the kingdom of God is like.

There’s one final twist in the tale of the Prodigal Son.  For there is another son.  He has been faithful all along.  He’s one of the respectable ones.  Will he join in?  Or will he grumble and be discontented.

The great thing about the way Jesus tells stories is that he doesn’t actually tell us the end of the story.  He leaves us to decide what happens for ourselves.

Where do you see yourself in these stories – are you like the lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost son …and wonderful to know the extent of God’s love and the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Are you challenged to be like the good shepherd, the seeking woman and the waiting Father and to seek out the lost – make that the priority.

Or are you with the Pharisees and the scribes who were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

Do you see a little bit of yourself in the elder brother.

If you do, then listen to this final part of the story: see yourself in the elder brother … and then ask yourself.  So how am I going to finish off the story – will I go in and join the party, or will I just go on grumbling and stay outside?

Luke 15:25-32

^NRS Luke 15:25 ¶ "Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. ²⁶ He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. ²⁷ He replied, 'Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.' ²⁸ Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. ²⁹ 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. ³⁰ But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!' ³¹ Then the father said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. ³² 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.'"