I want you to imagine a scene with me.  Imagine that you are 18 years old, away from home at college for the first time and you become a party animal.  I realize that for some of you that does not require a huge stretch of the imagination, but give it a try anyway.  What if you went to college on your parents’ dollar and just completely ignored your responsibilities?  You skipped every class, never studied, got drunk every day and maybe even maxed out your parents’ credit cards.  You never called or emailed home and when your parents contacted you, you just asked for more money.  You flunk out of every class and are kicked out of the school, effectively wasting their money. 

You have no money and nowhere to live.  So the only choice is to go home again.  Your friends feel sorry for you so they give you a ride home on a holiday break.  They drop you off at your parents’ house.  Now picture this, when you walk up the driveway and Mom and Dad peek out the window and see you coming, what do their faces look like?  Do they pretend they’re not home?  When you walk in the house, how are you greeted?  How is that conversation going to go?

Within this room, we all bring a wide variety of experiences to this imaginative exercise.  I realize that some of you had a parent or parents that were abusive and you don’t even want to think about this.  Some of you may have been the kid in that scene.  Some of you may have even been the parents in this scene.  For others, I don’t care how loving and understanding your parents were, this is not going to be a pleasant scene.   All of us can agree that what happens next will be the argument to end all arguments in that family.

When Jesus first told this story about the man with two sons, his original hearers would have drawn the same conclusions about that scenario.  A young man asks for inheritance early, something that did happen in the ancient world.  Most likely though, it would have been seen as an insult to the father.  Think of it.  In effect, this son is saying, “ Hey Dad, I wish you were dead now.”

Remember this takes place in a Mediterranean culture.  I am a WASP so just about everything I know about Mediterranean culture comes from either my in-laws or watching “The Sopranos.”  Even with all those gaps in my experience there are two things I know about Mediterranean culture.  First, never say anything bad about Frank Sinatra.  Second, telling one’s father “I wish you were dead” does not go over well.

Jesus’ listeners know who the villain is supposed to be in this story. This young man takes his father’s money, leaves home and squanders it.  This is the kind of story preachers love to tell.  Telling stories about wayward children is a surefire way to get the parents in the audience to side with you. In Jesus’ audience, ever parent would be nodding their head.  This kid is a bum, a self-indulgent spoiled brat.

Sure he’s sorry, but maybe he should have thought of that in the first place before he broke his father’s heart.  If he thinks he can just go home and his father will welcome him with open arms and forget the whole thing, he’s got another thing coming.  So tell us Jesus, what happens to this loser of a kid?

Let’s jump back to that college kid scenario for a moment.  Suppose I told you a story like that but it ended differently.  Suppose I said that after that kid had drank his way out of an Ivy League school, blown his parents’ cash and dreams, and then he showed up at their home, what happened next?

His parents look out the window and see him coming and run down the street to meet him.  All the neighbors see it.  Then they say, “Son. We are so glad you’re home that we’ll throw a party.  We’ll invite all your friends, we’ll get a band and put up a big tent in the backyard.  In fact, we’re so happy, we’ll even have it catered.  Not just all those shrimp puff things either but ­ lobster!  Lobster for everyone!  All 200 guests!  Welcome home son!”

Yeah right.  That’ll happen.  These are the kind of parents that seriously need a visit to the Dr Phil show.  They need to get with the real world.

Well, here’s the thing.  Jesus said God is like those parents.  “Yes, that’s lovely,” we think.  “God is a god of love.”  We say it, but do we really believe it?  Do we really believe that no matter how far one has wandered from God that we are always welcome back?

In this story, the older brother has a problem with accepting that fact.  He simply cannot deal with his father welcoming his younger delinquent brother back into the home.  And throwing a party for him?  That’s simply too much.

We all know those who claim to be Christians but act as if this is not true.  Somehow they cannot accept the unconditional love and acceptance God has for those who have wandered into territory that is far from him.   Perhaps we ourselves have been guilty of such judgementalism.  Like the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, we are willing to believe the theory of God welcoming back all those wander off, but we preface those beliefs with phrases like “as long as,,,,” or “except in cases of…” or “but first they have to…”  We may be partial to the idea of a forgiving God, as long as it is us that he is forgiving and not those that we ourselves cannot forgive,

Personally, I like the idea of a God who forgives and welcomes some romanticized notion I may have of an addict, a prostitute or a petty thief.  But the idea of God welcoming a repentant child abuser or terrorist gets me angry. Jesus couldn’t have possibly meant that, could he?  Really, who does God think he is?

Strangely, however, that is not the most disturbing implication of this story.  Hard as it may be to accept those characters being greeted by a welcoming father, I think it is even harder for us to imagine God welcoming us home.  Do we really believe that no matter how far we have wandered from God, that he waits for us with open arms?

Like the younger son who sought to claim his inheritance early, our actions may have even implied that we wished God were dead or non-existent.  After claiming the good things God has given us, we have gone on our way squandering the talents and resources our father bequeathed to us.  And then one day, we find ourselves surrounded by pig manure, wolfing down whatever slop is put in front of us.  We wonder, “How did this happen?  How did I get so far off track?”

Sometimes it is not the result of intentional rebelliousness.   Our distance from God is not something we sought after.  It just sort of happens.  A crisis, a tragedy or even a whole series of them leads us to a place where the very idea of a God waiting to welcome us home seems downright absurd.  Maybe God is standing on the corner waiting for someone else, but not for me. 

We may even have been on the journey with God for a long time.  There have been times we have felt close and at home with God.  Over the years, the ups and downs of our relationship have left us in a place where we might as well have been the prodigal son because now God seems far away.

In the story, Jesus says the young son came to himself.   He came to his senses and realized it was time to change.  In spite of all he had done, he turned around and came home.  Here is a strange thing, though.  Jesus says that while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion.  Compassion ­ not judgment or anger.  More than that, the father went out to embrace him and kiss him.

If we are going to find ourselves in this story, we are going to have to put aside any baggage we have about our experience with our own fathers.  When it comes to God, you and I may still be a far off ­ but our father sees us.  He looks at us, not with the desire to punish us, but with compassion.  More than that, he is coming out to embrace us.

Life doesn’t feel like that, though.  How is God coming out to meet us?  Last week, during Vision Sunday many of you shared your story of how you came to this church.  For many of you, it was your first step in reconnecting with God.  Whatever it was that brought you here, a friend, an overheard conversation, a newspaper ad, that was God coming out to meet you.

When you start heading home by joining a small group, or serving God through one of our ministries, it is because God has already come out to meet you.  In fact whenever you find yourself doing something in your spiritual journey that you couldn’t imagine doing a year ago or maybe even a month ago, it is because God has seen you, even when you were far off, looked on you with compassion and came out to meet you.

It is not just bringing us into or back into a community of faith, God steps out to meet us all the time.  Each time one of us takes another step back closer to God, it is because God has already coming out to meet us.  John Wesley, who founded the Methodist movement called that prevenient grace.  It is the kind of grace, the free gift of God that is out there before we are even aware of it.  It is God standing on the street ready to welcome us back, even before we feel sorry or start heading home.  Even if we have never been home in the first place.

The band performed the 70’s classic “Carry On Wayward Son” this morning.  Kerry Livgren, who wrote that song, later became known as a Christian artist.  Even in that song however, one hears pre-echoes of a search for a God he had yet to find.  God comes to us even before we know he is there.

We may be far off, God stills us and looks on us with compassion. As we move through these final two weeks leading up to Easter, let’s keep our eyes open for where and when God comes to meet us.