This morning we are going to be talking about a story that is so familiar to you that when I read to you the first line, most of you will immediately recognize it. The first line reads: And there was a father who had two sons. Immediately we recognize it as the parable of the Prodigal Son. Is there anything new that we can squeeze out of this familiar story?

You remember the story as Jesus told it. There was a certain landowner who had two sons. As these boys grew up they began to show the difference in their styles. The older brother was hard working, industrious, dedicated to the daily task. The younger son was a little rebellious. He wanted to have his own way and speak his own piece. Why does life turn out this way? Two sons raised in the same family, presumably shown the same amount of love, yet they are as different as different can be.

I have a brother who lives here in Memphis. He is only 11 months older than me. Erick and I are nothing alike. When I was listening to Simon and Garfunkel and Bee Gees growing up he was listening to Kiss, Pink Floyd, and AC/DC. In High School I never had too much difficulty with the academic aspect. Erick’s policy, however, was: never let studying interfere with your social life.

I may be wrong about this, but I think God intended for families to have some diversity. That is why you don’t get to choose your relatives. The only member of the family that you get to pick is the family dog. It is within that framework, however, that we learn some semblance of tolerance. In the midst of all of our diversity we still have a common bond. We are a family.

I don’t know what kind of a relationship you have with your brothers and/or sisters Did you know that in China today under law a family can only have one child. That means that in China there will be no more brother—sister relationships except for multiple births. It will be interesting to watch and see what the implications of that will be decades form now.

Well, one day the younger son went to the father and made a rather unusual request. He said: Dad, what’s mine is mine and I want it now. Well, that is a cry that we hear throughout the world today isn’t it? Third world countries are crying out: what’s mine is mine and I want it now. That is the motto of the baby boomer generation. So the father honors the unusual request and divides the money—probably according to Jewish law at the time—giving one-third to the younger son and two-thirds to the older son.

We are told that the prodigal now journeyed to the far country and lived life in the fast lane. Where is the far country? It’s not a place; I can tell you that.. You won’t find it on any map. The far country is nothing more than looking for love in all the wrong places. We see such a rise in violence and gangs all over the United States and we wonder why. But why should we really be surprised. Everybody has got to belong to somebody. Every body wants to be connected.

Some people are in the far country through sexual promiscuity. It becomes a pathetic search for love. Some seek it through drugs. It becomes a way of escaping reality. We can be in the far country and never leave home. The far country is nothing more than seeking love in the wrong places.

Everything goes well for the prodigal until one day he awakens and discovers that all of his resources are gone. It had never occurred to him that there could be a limit to what you can spend. He assumed that it all came as freely as the sunshine. Then came that day when he realized that he had cut himself off from the provider.

Brady Whitehead, chaplain of Lambuth College in Tennesse, tells the true story of a student whose parents were tragically killed in an accident. This student suddenly became the beneficiary of the estate. According to Brady, he started squandering the money on lavish trips. He would even invite other students to go along at his expense. He was spending the money so fast that Brady called him into his office one day and had a talk with him. He said that as Chaplin of the school he felt / it was his responsibility to question his spending habits. The student responded: “But what you don’t understand is just how much money I have inherited.” Well, that may be so, said Brady, but even to a large estate there comes an end. Well, the student did not listen, and Brady revealed that by the time he graduated from Lambuth, all of his parent’s money was gone.

The prodigal thought that there would never be an end to the father’s money, but he found out differently. So now he ends up doing that most indignant of all tasks for the Jew—the feeding of swine. How had his life come to this? The solitude that he had sought had now turned into painful loneliness. The marijuana dream and turned into a cocaine nightmare. He found out what a whole lot of people have found out over the years. The far country is fun—but only for a season. There comes a time when it turns sour. There comes a time when it will haunt you. How much is one human being worth? In terms of his financial profile, the prodigal was now worth zero and, I am sure, he was beginning to wonder how much he was worth a person. How much are you worth? I am not sure how to answer that question. If we could somehow break down the chemical composition of your body I could tell you your worth. You have within your body enough iron for a nail; enough sugar to fill a sugar bowl; enough fat for seven bars of soap (that may very from person to person); enough lime to whitewash a chicken coop, enough phosphorous for 2,200 match heads, enough magnesium for a dose of magnesium; enough potassium to shoot a toy cannon, all mixed in with a little sulfur so that even in today’s inflated market you are valued at about $3.50. That is how much we are worth in dollar figures. But how much are YOU worth?

What gave the prodigal his value is that he belonged to someone. He had a father. If I hear that there are 5,000 runaways every day in America that will not cause me to blink an eye. But if I hear that my child is one of them, there is nothing that I will not do to see that they are found. You are more valuable than an African diamond mind and an Arabian oil field. Why? Because you belong to our heavenly father. In the parable of the lost coin, we read where a woman turns her house upside down in search for a missing coin. Will God not literally turn the world upside down in his search for one lost soul?

Then comes perhaps the most significant line in the whole story. It reads: And he came to himself. Unfortunately, for a whole lot of people, the story ends right there. For they never come to themselves. The prodigal realizes that even the servants in his father’s household have it better than he does. He resolves to go to his father and say: Father, I have sinned, make me a servant in your house.” What a difference in attitude. At the beginning of the story he is going to the father and saying “give me.” Now he is going to the father and saying “make me.”

So the prodigal finally starts to assume some personal responsibility. I think up to that time he had said to himself: “Well, if my father had just been generous; if it weren’t for that mean older brother of mine, I would not have come to this plight.” It was only as he made the confession “I have sinned” that he could be restored. It was a wise person who said: salvation is not the end of the journey, but it is the end of the wondering. He still had a long way to go, but his destination was fixed: he was going home.

And how did the father react? We are told that he went running to him. That is significant because it was unheard of in first century Palestine for a nobleman to run. It was considered most undignified. You see, he is so overwhelmed with joy that he is not even concerned about social decorum. He gives him shoes, which means sonship, a ring that means authority, a robe, which means honor. For this my son was dead but now he is alive. He was lost but now he is found.

Does that mean that judgment is not real? No. One day there will be judgment. But for today there is grace. You know, when I was college age I thought that the worst thing that could happen to a person was to die. I have learned over the years that that is not so. There is something that is worse than death. That is being alive and being lost. He was dead, but now he is alive. Isn’t that the refrain that we hear on Easter Sunday morning? Isn’t that the glad news of the gospel?

It is a marvelous story about God’s redeeming love. Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling. Calling for you and for me. Come home, come home. Ye who are weary come home. Part 1 of this story I suppose that we could call: Sick of Home. Part 2 we could call: Home Sick. And part 3 could be: Going Home. It was Thomas Wolff who warned us: you can’t go home again. That, of course, is true. It’s not that home is different. It’s that the prodigal is different. He now understands that a life that begins and ends only in self is a life of unfulfillment. Home is found only in relationships and the ultimate relationship is God. We can’t go home the way we left but you can go home once you have come to yourself, once you have ceased saying “give me,” come to the father and say “make me.” Amen.