Grace and Disgrace
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
"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."
Grace is receiving mercy that we do not deserve. What then is disgrace? Disgrace is dispensing shame upon those who do not deserve it. Grace is good because it comes from God through Jesus Christ, and disgrace is bad because its source is sin through human self-righteousness.
Franklin Graham, son of evangelist, Billy Graham, tells his story of living as a prodigal in his book Rebel with a Cause. Franklin was a rebel; in fact, he openly opposed every value and every virtue his parents stood for, including the Christian faith. He smoked, he drank, he cursed, he caroused; he did it all. At the height of his rebellion, Franklin Graham was kicked out of a conservative college in Texas for taking a co-ed off campus for the weekend and piloting a rented plane to Florida.
He writes: "The drive home from Texas was dreary. Maybe by driving slow I was prolonging the inevitable; I would have to face my parents. I knew they had to be disappointed in me--I was! They had invested a lot of money in my education, and now I’d messed up.
"I drove through the gate and started up the road to our home, imagining the lecture my parents would give me. So many other times when I had come home I could hardly wait to say hello to everyone. But no joy this time. I felt so badly when I finally reached the house. Then I saw mama standing on the front porch and I wanted to run and hide in the nearest hole. It was one of the few times I can remember not wanting to look her in the eye.
"When I walked up to her, my body felt limp. I barely had the nerve to lift my head or extend my arms for a hug. But I didn’t need to. Mama wrapped her arms around me, and, with a smile, she said, ‘Welcome home, Franklin.’" 1
1 Steven Molin, http://www.lectionary.org/Sermons/Molin/OT/Isaiah%2043.01-7,%20We’rePrecious.htm.
2 Deffenbaugh, DG. Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume2: Lent through Eastertide, p116.
Franklin’s long drive home from Texas was equal to the slow journey home for the prodigal son, who "came to himself" as he was standing at the feeding trough with the pigs, wanting to eat their slop. "The younger son personifies what appears to be a universal human perception that worse than death is the feeling of being lost, especially when this condition has been brought on by one’s own lust, greed or arrogance"2.
Let’s visit some great disgracers in the Bible and examine where they entered the "troughs."
Eve cavorted with the devil denying God’s power and ended up teaching the world to sin.
Adam went down for an apple and when he stood up, he was naked.
Noah had a few too many drinks and woke up naked in his daughters’ bed.
Lot pitched his tent on the road to Sodom and had only a salt shaker left to show for it.
Moses refused to clock the rock with his staff, and never crossed the threshold of the Promised Land.
Jonah ran in the opposite direction from God and ended up the protagonist in a whale of a tale.
David spied a woman in the tub and gave a whole new meaning to the name BATH-sheba.
Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver and ended up spilling them and his guts in a field.
Peter denied Jesus 3 times and found himself standing among the Lord’s enemies.
Thomas doubted Jesus’ return and made a bet he couldn’t keep.
Paul slaughtered Christians and ended up a blind, whimpering fool eating dirt on the road to Damascus.
Disgrace is a terrible thing, and it has but one course of treatment that brings a cure: repentance. Repentance literally means to change one’s mind. If we are merely sorry for what we have done, chances are high that we will sin again in the same way, because repentance is not simply a matter of agreeing with God that you’ve been a bad boy or girl; it’s not glibly promising God or anybody else that you won’t do it again. This shallow understanding of repentance results in a mere mouthing of guilt, the minimizing of the shame and horror of the sin. That’s immature repentance, baby repentance. And it shows the sinner just doesn’t "get it."
A prisoner was particularly sleepy in his GED class. He did not even try to stay awake, but put his head down on his desk and slept. The teacher quietly walked around the classroom and noticed the sleeping student; the teacher gently tapped the man on the shoulder, and then walked on. A little later, the teacher again made his way past this fellow's desk, and he was still sleeping soundly. He gently tapped him again.
The third time around, the teacher grasped the fellow by the shoulder and gently shook him. The young prisoner awoke, jumped to his feet, and then threatened the teacher, "If you ever do that to me again, you're going to get it!" The threatened teacher backed away from the student and made his way to the door, where he beckoned for the guard, who escorted the student to the "hole" (solitary confinement).
A month later, the student was released from solitary confinement and returned to his classroom. He made his way to the teacher to "apologize." "I'm really sorry about what I said to you," he explained, "but I think you misunderstood me. What I said to you was, 'If you ever do that again, you might get it.'" That, my friends, is baby repentance.3
If we regret what we have done, then there is hope for us; and it means that transformation can happen; that radical, positive, fruit-bearing change is on the way. This mature repentance is evident in Jesus’ parable. The prodigal son "messed up" completely, and he knew it. He had deserted his family and squandered his inheritance. Yet this young man, realizing his great transgression, identified where he went wrong and confessed, "Father I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am not worthy to be called your son."
Though the son expected nothing in return, he had hope for the first time since he had demanded his inheritance. The father's in the parable joyfully granted grace to his son, for he gave to this young man what he did not deserve.
God, "Our Father" watches for us, runs out to meet us in the person of Jesus Christ. In that moment when we who know so well how it feels to be lost that we can then proclaim in faith that greater than life itself is living with the knowledge that we have been found! Like the prodigal, we must see that being our Father’s servant is better than being a slave to sin in a place so far from our heavenly home.
Many of us here have found ourselves, at some point, in the slop, far from "home," broke or broken, sinner of sinners, and in desperate need of grace. We are the tax collectors and sinners that Jesus wants to sit down and eat with—and the Pharisees and the scribes just didn’t get it, they never could say, "I have sinned," all they could do was grumble.
There are already way too many grumbling Christians. Far better it is for us to re-turn to the word of God, to call sin by its biblical name, and to respond to Jesus’ invitation to the table with true, mature repentance and faith, for we have already received what we do not deserve:
instead of pig slop, we get a fatted calf cooked to perfection;
instead of loneliness with only swine around to commiserate, we get a party to which the whole town is invited;
instead of rags to wear, we’re dressed in a colorful robe, a ring is put on our finger, and our feet are slid into brand new sandals;
and instead of a stern look and a cold shoulder, we are embraced and kissed.
Such is the scandal of grace, of which the only disgrace is to squander the opportunity for great rejoicing, and the best response to all of this love is this, "Amen!"
March 10, 2013/First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME/Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor
