SHOCK AND GRACE LUKE 15:11-32

The film “Amadeus” tells the story of the relationship between Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri. The music of Mozart is amongst the greatest music ever written and it is close to impossible to imagine a time when it becomes forgotten. Salieri was also a distinguished musician, the Court Composer of the Austrian Emperor no less. However, his music was no match for that of Mozart and Salieri knew it. His earnest desire to write great music of praise to God was eclipsed by the ill mannered brat of a delinquent that was Mozart. Salieri just cannot cope with God so gifting the obnoxious Mozart that he becomes consumed with bitterness, eventually turning on a crucifix to utter his pain;

From now on we are enemies. You and I. Because you choose for Your instrument a boastful, lustful, smutty, infantile boy and give me only the ability to recognize the incarnation.

In these words, Salieri as many have done since finds the grace of God unfair.

Perhaps at this stage we need to look at a few simple definitions. When we talk of justice we talk of getting what we deserve. When we talk of mercy we talk of being spared what we deserve. But when we speak of grace we speak of getting what we do not deserve, the generous kindness of God.

And it is such grace that is at the heart of the Parable of the Prodigal Son or as perhaps it is better described, The Parable of the Loving Father.

In this story, Jesus uses the Father figure to teach us something of the nature of God. Sometimes, we struggle to appreciate just how wronged the Father is by his younger son. Sometimes, we simply see the younger son as a man in a hurry. However, the New Testament scholar Kenneth Bailey who lived in the Middle East for many years points out the uniqueness of the son demanding his share of the inheritance. It simply does not happen in the countless Middle Eastern stories of two brothers where often the younger brother is a rascal. Why? Because the request is so extreme that it would be understood as expressing a desire for the father to die. In short the younger brother is telling the father to “drop dead!” And yet rather the beat his Son for his callous request as the hearers would expect, the Father gives him his inheritance and his freedom. For this Father is not acting as a Jewish father would be expected to act. Instead, he is the Father who gives his child the chance to explore in freedom.

This surprise gets added to later for when the Son returns with precious little repentance but rather the actions of self interest, the Father responds not with chastisement but with instant forgiveness and generosity, restoring the Son to all the joys of being a Son, the very status that the Son had so abused.

Think back to what grace is, the giving of what we do not deserve and here you will find it in full.

And in this we see the grace of God to you and me. Here we see God not as a stern monarchical figure as so often the Church has portrayed God as being but as a parent filled with the extremities of love, crossing even the boundaries of gender by running to kiss the Son and later by remonstrating with the sullen older Son in a way that would normally be the conduct of a mother rather than a father. No wonder that Rembrandt is his painting of “The Return of the Prodigal Son” goes out of his way to portray the Father with feminine as well as masculine characteristics. It is in the merger of the two that we are able to see the immensity and the self giving that is the Father’s love. And God made flesh in Jesus shows us how much that grace is for us. Not for nothing does the Requiem Mass write of Christ’s Passion and journey to the cross with the moving words;

Remember, merciful Jesus, that I am the cause of your journey.

And so in a world in which people are written off for their failings, the grace of God reveals that the God of the Universe, values us in full knowledge of our shortcomings and offers to each of us value and love beyond anything we deserve. So when we feel as nothing, written off by others, God in love longs to embrace us with the arms of absolutely unconditional love. And God has that feeling for us not because of any illusions as to how good we are but in full knowledge of our shortcomings. And that is what grace is about.

Sometimes, today, I hear Christians wonder what the followers of Jesus have to offer to the world today. We have no monopoly on great music, fine literature or beautiful art. We have found that whilst in the 19th Century it was the Church which opened up the possibilities of education and provided much health care, the public sector can now do this much better than we can. When it comes to working with the young, other organisations can provide much better equipment particularly with regards to the likes of computers. Yes, in most fields, we have precious little that is unique to offer. And yet we have one precious thing to share which people need- grace! That is the news of God’s grace and the potential to be a means of God’s grace to others.

Phil Yancey tells an appalling story of a friend. This friend was approached by a prostitute who was in a terrible state. Homeless, sick and hungry, she came to Yancey’s friend and revealed a dreadful story of how her drug addiction had taken her so low that she was renting out her own daughter to her clients so that she could afford drugs. Yancey’s friend felt intense anguish knowing that he would have to report this woman to the authorities and so had few means of helping her. In despair, he asked her if she had thought of going to a church for help. A look of panic came over the woman before she answered,

“Church! Why would I ever go there? I was already feeling terrible about myself. They’d just make me feel worse.”

And in those words we find a challenge, for during the life of Jesus, people who had hit rock bottom ran towards him rather than away from him. The whole background to this story is that the Pharisees were complaining that Jesus was sharing meals with undesirables. And of course that is how in our story the older brother saw the younger brother. He saw only the bad in his younger sibling and so felt no desire to welcome him back and on the basis of justice he was probably right but he had missed out on grace.

I get a feeling that today, the older brother is representative of mainstream attitudes in our society. We give up on people, freeze them in their worst moments and see them as lesser. The modern day High Priests of media preach a message of judgement without mercy. How utterly contrary to the message of Christ in which people are restored out of timeless love.

During my time in training, I spent some time in prison chaplaincy often with a minister who found Circuit work stressful and unrewarding. His work in bringing hope, giving time and showing value of prisoners seemed to be what kept him going. And whilst I do not share his unhappiness at Circuit life, I think I can see where he was coming from for behind those imposing bars where dwelt many who were whatever the wrongs they had done, themselves casualties, chaplaincy was so often a sign of grace through which the incarcerated men were able to begin discovering what it means to be valued, an alien experience for all too many.

Increasingly, I feel that our society has a choice of the way ahead. We can self righteously write people of when they foul up. It may seem like commonsense to many people even though it ultimately leads to ever increasing cycles of shame, broken lives, hatred and violence. Or we can dare to let ourselves be dominated by grace with all the counter cultural implications of such a choice.

Struggling for a title to this sermon, I came across the example of a minister who provided a sermon title of “Murderers, Criminals, Prostitutes Welcome.” And rather than have it put on a Notice Sheet as I do, he had it put on the church sign out in front of the church. In no time, the complaints began, telephone calls were made to members of the church council condemning the minister and demanding that the sign be pulled down. They had not understood grace.

But for me my mind when back to the days before the Iraq War when we were told that “Shock and Awe” would be unleashed. Overwhelming military power, we were told was the way to change things. Judge for yourselves the consequences of such a notion. This morning I just want to leave you with the suggestion that ultimately grace changes more than overwhelming power can ever do. For this gift of God transforms our lives and has the capacity to change the world beyond. And it is hardly for us to refuse for each of us has received of God more than we could ever deserve. For his grace, his love for us has changed everything even at cost to Christ

Remember, merciful Jesus, that I am the cause of your journey.

I am sure he remembers. But do we?


This sermon was preached at a baptism service in Bideford on October 16th 2005. It was the first in a series of 3 sermons on 'Parables of Jesus.'