We have all been thrilled during the last few weeks by the marvelous performances taking place at the International Olympics. Athletes from all over the world have shown what can be accomplished by dedicated and gifted individuals. It is a wonderful thing to be a winner. We would all love to be a winner. We would all love to be a champion and win a gold medal, but for most of us that does not happen.
The gospel today is about the losers, not the winners of this life. The Prodigal Son is about one who took all his patrimony and his influence and went off and wasted it and ended up a loser. This story in the gospel is one of the favorite portions of our Lord's teachings. No wonder the listeners who first heard this story were captivated and inspired by it; because this is a story that most of us can identify with.
None of the great religions of the past gave much thought to the loser. They simply said, "You lost. That's too bad. It is all over." The law of karma, which is the basis upon which Hinduism is constructed teaches that for every good thing in life you have done, you are rewarded. For every bad thing done you must be punished. If the scale on the bad side outweighs the good side- tough luck! There is nothing that can be done about it. The famous political liberator of India, Mahatma Gandhi, found fault with Christianity over this point. He said it was not possible for anyone else to atone for our sins. The strict reading of the Old Testament would give one the same point of view. God demands perfection and one who can not achieve it is thereby cast out and condemned forever.
The Prodigal Son, who is the hero of this gospel story, typifies mankind in our unwillingness to use the gifts that God has given to us. Our innate tendency is to spoil them and to use them only for ourselves. When our resources are exhausted we are cast down in despair with nowhere to go, with no hope, and no way out.
The Christian religion is primarily a religion of regeneration and renewal. It came into human history with the powerful message that you can have a second chance. It is a wonderful thing to know that there is no one who has gone beyond the pale of God's love and has used up the opportunity to start over again.
Christianity has been criticized for this teaching. Nietzcshe, the 19th century philosopher, said that Christianity is a religion for slaves. Nietzsche ridiculed the Christian faith saying that it is a loser's religion. Nietzsche is famous for his teaching that God is dead. I saw a bit of graffiti in the London underground years ago written on a wall. It said, "God is dead.-signed Nietzsche." Written underneath by someone else was, "Nietzsche is dead.-signed God." All of the attempts to alter God's truth fade into nothingness.
The greatest gift coming from God is love. His love flows out to everyone and everything and is always waiting for us to claim it. However, it is a necessity of love not to be coercive. It cannot be forced on anyone. God will not intrude His love into our lives unless we want Him to. To do otherwise would be to deny love. We have to be willing to open ourselves to God's love no matter what our circumstances are.
The critical point in this story of the Prodigal Son around which the whole plot turns, is that moment when the son having exhausted all his resources, and now being forced to feed upon the husks of the swine, finally, came to himself. His eyes were opened and he recognized that he was the source of the problem. He took responsibility for his predicament. In order to receive the regeneration of God's love we must do the same. We must be courageous and honest enough to do as this son did. We must come to ourselves and say, "I will arise and go to my Father and will say unto Him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before Thee and I am no more worthy to be called Thy son." That will be a turning point for us as well. We will become recipients of God's love because we have now opened ourselves to Him.
The story goes on to show what a wonderful and fulsome response the father has prepared for his son who decides to come back home. This is true in our lives as well. When we open ourselves to God He pours His love into us. We receive a hundred-fold more than we ever had before. This parable is the story of the Christian life. The regeneration, which God offers through Christ, is beyond our wildest dreams and imagination.
God, however, does not wink at sin and wrongdoing. There is only one theme in the story of the Prodigal Son and that is the unstinting overwhelming love of God for a straying child. The reason that God can overlook the evil that has just been committed is because it has been atoned for. It is not just shoved aside; it has been redeemed with a price. Our Lord's death on the Cross makes it possible for us to turn back to God. It pays the price of sin; it balances the scale. "Even though your sins be as scarlet", the Bible says, "they have become white as snow." As the old gospel hymn puts it, "Between our sins and their reward, we place the passion of Thy Son our Lord." The crucifixion of Christ makes it possible for mankind to be forgiven. The price that is paid by the father in anguish and sorrow is the atonement for the wrongdoing of his son.
So the gospel of love goes on throughout the world claiming the lost and the forgotten, giving losers a chance to be winners again if they will believe and if they will turn to God and ask for His help. The new Testament has several parables of the lost being found. One is of the lost sheep being sought after by the shepherd and then being brought home safely. Another is the parable of the lost coin that the woman seeks for throughout the house an rejoices when she finds it. The fullest and most complete expression of human regeneration by the grace of God is in the parable of the Prodigal Son. This possibility is open to everyone at all times.
A good friend of mine had been born with tremendous athletic ability. He earned letters in three major sports in college. He could drive the green on a 4-par hole with one stroke from the tee. He had a marvelous future ahead of him, but he squandered it all away through excessive drinking and gambling. His wife left him with his two children. By the grace of God he came to himself and turned his life over to our heavenly Father. He joined Alcoholics Anonymous and put his life and his family back together.
He was working as a fireman when I first met him at an AA meeting. A former college friend offered him a chance to sell life insurance for a national company. I encouraged him to take the job. His first year he sold over a million dollars of life insurance. When he left Salinas to take over a top position at his company, he told me that this would be the first place he had ever lived where the people would be sad to see him go. He had found peace and true happiness.
May we, too, turn back to God and take responsibility for our lives. Let us acknowledge our faults and failures, and learn to rely completely on God's love. Then we shall be able to look forward to receiving the fullness of that new life in Him, which the Prodigal Son found, and which God has promised us through Jesus Christ our Lord.
