All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language, and every chapter must be so translated. God employs several translators; some pieces are translated by age, some by sickness, some by war, some by justice. But God’s hand is in every translation, and his hand shall bind up all our scattered leaves again for that library where every book shall be open to one another. (from Meditation XVII by John Donne)
Today’s passage is The Prodigal Son. It might have easily been titled The Dysfunctional Family – The Church and Her Misunderstanding of the Father’s Heart. In a religious culture largely bent on saving souls from Hell, the traditional title focusing on the wayward son and his rescue is predictable. There is so so much more to this story as I learned when God began writing new chapters in my story a few years ago.
I wasn’t a youngest son, instead I was an only son but I was nevertheless a classic prodigal. Nor did I ask my father for any share of his estate. (Only because I had not thought of it. He was not that stupid anyway.) I did take enough of it though to get myself the heck out of my home town and off to college where I faced an unprecedented opportunity to squander time and money without restriction which is what I think the prodigal in our passage wanted as well. Sweet freedom! Or so we both thought.
I too spent everything I had and experienced a severe famine of sorts. It wasn’t a national famine as in our story. Mine was a famine of the soul, an impoverishment of spirit. In that season I did not even know what I hungered for. All I knew was that deep within I was dying. In the desolate landscape of my heart (like that of our prodigal’s) no one was giving me anything that my spirit could digest and therefor produce any vital energy for my soul. Hard work, reading, eastern meditation each promised hope but did not deliver.
Then I came into real contact with Jesus Christ – the one I heard about in those Presbyterian Sunday school classes I infrequently attended. This Jesus was different though. He wasn’t just the Lord of Easter bunnies, Christmas trees and high church. The Jesus I met was the Lord of Life. Incredibly, he rescued me from my toxic and condemned life. All I did was say to Him, “You can have my life. I am destroying it.” To my utter astonishment, He imparted something into my deepest being that began to undo and remake me. I was no longer starving. A peace that surpassed anything I had ever known filled me up. To this date, I account for this miracle by simply saying, “The Lord of Life miraculously and mysteriously imparted His own Life into me.” This is all to say that I am a new creation in Christ only because the Holy Spirit has taken up residence within my heart. It’s that simple.
But now glowing brightly, I decided I must work to be sure to live my life in such a way that I am pleasing to Him. (Where did I get the idea that He wasn’t pleased with me?) Plus, I heard the preacher say that the laborers were few so I reasoned that He must be calling me into those fields that are white for harvest. Yes, that was it. I have been called into ministry! (I usually get physically ill when I hear people (particularly young ones), say this today. But, that is another chapter to be called; How I Was Called Into Ministry (And You Weren’t). If you know me at all, this is dripping with sarcasm.)
Deleting the sarcasm, my story should be titled; Confessions of an Older Brother – How Prodigals Become Elder Brothers. (that is basically the story that I tell in MwM – Middle with Mystery.) Most churches and ministries are starving themselves for want of laborers to enter into the harvest fields defined by their visions. In the execution of their vision, in the hirings and the firings and the preaching and the teaching, they too often manage to make human-doings out of human beings, pharisaic elder brothers out of innocent and authentic prodigals who have been restored to their Father. Modern western Christianity is not reproducing disciples who each understand their kingdom assignments. It is reproducing (not surprisingly) church attenders who exist apparently to fund real ministry done by professionals with their tithes.
Let me briefly explain the alchemy of this unfortunate mutation of sons into slaves who fall into the snare of thinking it is their labors (not they in themselves) that give God pleasure. Since Adam, the first born of our race, we are born into this world with a massive wound in our soul the same size as God who created us in his image. We were evicted from Paradise and exiled into a land of darkness and shadows where things are not what they appear, where we learn to survive by our wits. However that eviction notice, branded into our souls, predisposes us to rejection. At the core of our being, there is something that says, I am unworthy. This is a predominant feature of our fallen nature.
We therefore begin compensating in any and every way to avoid that singular worst case-nightmare; being rejected again. Let’s imagine our new convert entering into the kingdom through legitimate regeneration. He is born anew, Christ has entered into this life by His Holy Spirit and begins to put things right in his heart. However, this poor soul is exposed to a shrunken (Kingdom-less) vision of Christianity where he has been saved and awaits heaven while the earth continues it inevitable slide into immorality and judgement (just as Pastor has preached it). Your role is to subject yourself to the covering of the Pastor’s authority and vision. In his vision the kingdom grows as you to invite your friends and family to church so that they too can avoid hell and get to heaven. If they happen to attend his church and pay a tithe AS GOD HATH COMMANDED…. well, that will be ok too. (Yes, a bit more sarcasm.)
The insecure soul has had no spiritual father to tell him the rest of the kingdom-story and how he is destined to find his place in it. He hasn’t had a father who can remind him that he is now a new creation. The culture of spiritual poverty this poor lamb is subjected to is sustained by many heresies. The biggest is that even though he has been born again, he is still, in his primary nature and identity – a “sinner”, one whose natural bent is wayward yet who has been saved from hell by grace. Another lie following close on the heals of the first is that God is essentially an angry Being who wields the rod quickly and harshly. The idea of a laughing or smiling God is inconceivable.
Our new convert with his young heart is grateful that he has been accepted into the fellowship of the righteous. The rejection that is still operating within his yet to be renovated heart, finds that fellowship (especially the new found attention) is a balm to his lonliness. He might not consciously be doing the math, but he has calculated in his heart that he now belongs and will do whatever is necessary to continue belonging. The insecurity of the heart has not been dealt with, it has only been appeased. The identity that should have been forming in-Christ alone is now attached inordinately to the group.
As time passes and the convert is faithful in little he inherits more and more responsibility. The follower is becoming a leader inside the shrunken kingdom-less vision of the local church. The value of having some visibility and receiving kudos for his labors has not escaped his insecure heart’s notice. In his moments of reflection though (which are incredibly sparse now that he is a leader) he is haunted by the notion that he has lost something precious and if he could be honest, still feels isolated. Something is missing. But, pastor has assured him that hearing this disturbing fleeting voice is normal. His council, “Just keep being faithful and God will reward you if you remain faithful. (especially in regards to the tithe.)
Pastor was right (as always), over time the disturbing voice was stifled. The problem is that in its place a hardness and rigidity of spirit took shape. Where there were once innocent questions, there is now mostly dogmatic certainties upheld by collections of bible verses. The disciple has become like his pastor/mentor. He is busy, and having less and less time for people (like Pastor) of necessity becomes aloof. Ministry obligations consume all his time! And, he thinks to himself, “I am being paid less than minimum wage. GIven the pressure pastor (and God?) place on me to perform, there is an inordinate weight of responsbility on me. If only somebody (preferably Pastor) would say thank you occasionally!” And as to how he feels about God, he dare not express that! His identity, his meaning and his livlihood are all dependent on not rocking this religious boat. However If he could summon the courage to articulate it it might sound something like the disgruntled saddle-worn cowboy (a bit lubricated and honest) after he had gone too far on the cattle drive to turn around…
“There were a helluva lot of things they didn’t tell me when I hired on with this outfit.”
“Now his older son was in the field, and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. And he summoned one of the servants and began inquiring what these things could be.” And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has received him back safe and sound.’
If I may summarize, “Because the father expressed his joy and love openly and extravegently toward my so-called brother….
I became angry and was not willing to go in; and my father came out and began pleading with me. But I answered and said to Him, ‘Look! For so many years I have been serving you and I have never neglected a command of yours; and yet you have never given me a young goat, so that I might celebrate with my friends; but when this son of yours came, who has devoured your wealth with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.
My paraphrase in its entirety, “Because you have expressed your joy and love openly and extravegently to my so-called brother, I am reminded that this is always how you are with everyone but me! I’m the reason this place keeps running and You have not treated me fairly.”
This story leaves us hanging. In a real sense this is where we are today as well. We have those who label themselves Christian yet misunderstand God and what he is endeavoring to do in this age. If the earth’s dependency is on the vision and the prayer’s of this group we have great cause for concern.
Father, would you continue putting this world to rights, renovating our hearts, sweeping them clean so that no demonic lies can return there, imprisoning us in walls of our own pious delusion. Restore identity to your sons and daughters that we might be a generation of people who live out of Your LIfe within us. May we live as the sons and daughters of a new creation – kingdom children and co-heirs with You; those who see Your delightful smiling face and who never sacrifice a thing in regard to true righteousness and holiness. Amen.