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Sep 01, 2019

Ask for the Bleeding Charity

Ask for the Bleeding Charity

Passage: Luke 15:11-32

Speaker: Patrick Lafferty

Series: The Stories In-Between: Parables

Jesus tells a famous parable, now ancient to us, with two storylines that continue to play out in every era, sometimes within the same soul at different times. But He also offers a third storyline that makes this parable not just poignant, but too compelling to dismiss as just an old story.

Order of Worship

Pre-Service Text: Luke 15:31-32
Call To Worship: Isaiah 55:1-3a
Old Testament Reading: Psalm 103:6-13
Sermon Title: Ask for the Bleeding Charity
Sketch from "The Great Divorce"
Central Text: Luke 15:11-32
Benediction: Romans 11:33-36
Post-Service Text: Colossians 2:13-14

09.01.19 Sermon Notes

Readings & Scripture

Pre-Service Text: Luke 15:31-32
31 “And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’”

Call To Worship: Isaiah 55:1-3a
LEADER: “Come, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!

PEOPLE: Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.

LEADER: Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.

ALL: Incline your ear, and come to me;
hear, that your soul may live;
and I will make with you an everlasting covenant.”

Old Testament Reading: Psalm 103:6-13
6 The Lord works righteousness
and justice for all who are oppressed.
7 He made known his ways to Moses,
his acts to the people of Israel.
8 The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
9 He will not always chide,
nor will he keep his anger forever.
10 He does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
13 As a father shows compassion to his children,
so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.

Central Text: Luke 15:11-32
And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. 12 And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. 13 Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. 14 And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. 16 And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.

Luke 15:17 “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ 20 And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. 23 And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.

Luke 15:25 “Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. 27 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.’ 28 But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, 29 but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ 31 And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’”

Benediction: Romans 11:33-36
33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?”
35 “Or who has given a gift to him
that he might be repaid?”
36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

Post-Service Text: Colossians 2:13-14
13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

Related Scripture

  • Psalm 79:8-9
  • Psalm 84:1-4, 10-12
  • Psalm 103:8-13
  • Colossians 2:13-14
  • Colossians 3:12-13

Discussion Questions & Applications:

 

  1. When you were younger, were you more likely to be defiant or dutiful? Or maybe some mixture of both? On reflection, how did either--or both--way(s) serve you? In other words, what “good” do you think it did you to act in one of those modes?
  2. The younger son in the parable demonstrates defiance--the older, a dutifulness lacking something important. What might the latter’s mode be lacking according to the parable? For which kind of person would you say is the parable primarily ordered? Why do you think so?
  3. What do the two sons share in common besides a family relationship? What do the two mentalities they represent in every era share in common? 
  4. What about the father’s behavior in the parable might’ve seemed scandalous to those who first heard Jesus tell it? Why does his behavior seem surprising even to us? What is Jesus’s portrayal of this father out to tell us, and about whom? How does that scandalous behavior appear in Jesus’s own life?
  5. What assumption(s) in a younger-brother mentality might Jesus seek to challenge and overturn--specifically in terms of their sense of failure? What about in the older-brother mentality--specifically in terms of their sense of righteousness? How does what Jesus did for us serve to challenge those false assumptions?
  6. What’s one thing that might shift in you if you really believed what the parable (and the story of Jesus behind it) says--whether you’re more like the defiant one, or more like the dutiful one?

Quotes:

  • The heart wants what it wants. There's no logic to these things. - Woody Allen
  • The question of worth has been taken out of our hands. - Paul Zahl
  • Half of the harm that is done in the world
    Is due to people who want to feel important.
    They don’t mean to do harm—but the harm does not interest them.
    Or they do not see it, or they justify it
    Because they are absorbed in the endless struggle
    To think well of themselves. -T.S. Eliot, The Cocktail Party
  • Why does the father not intervene by the use of force? Why is he not scandalized by the muck of his son’s desires? Jesus recognized that real faith must always pass through the free desire of the human heart. - Jason Blakely
  • I am the prodigal son every time I search for unconditional love where it cannot be found. - Henri Nouwen
  • The question is not “How am I to find God?” but “How am I to let myself be found by him?”The question is not “How am I to know God?” but “How am I to let myself be known by God?” And,finally, the question is not “How am I to love God?” but “How am I to let myself be loved by God? - Henri Nouwen
  • Never cease loving a person, and never give up hope for him, for even the prodigal son who had fallen most low, could still be saved; the bitterest enemy and also he who was your friend could again be your friend; love that has grown cold can kindle. - Søren Kierkegaard
  • I did not then see what is now the most shining and obvious thing; the Divine humility which will accept a convert even on such terms. The Prodigal Son at least walked home on his own feet. But who can duly adore that Love which will open the high gates to a prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance of escape? The words “compelle intrare,” compel them to come in, have been so abused by wicked men that we shudder at them; but, properly understood, they plumb the depth of the Divine mercy. The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation. - C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy
  • And grace is the great gift. So to be forgiven is only half the gift. The other half is that we also can forgive, restore, and liberate, and therefore we can feel the will of God enacted through us, which is the great restoration of ourselves to ourselves. - Rev. Ames in Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead
  • The specific value that draws a Christian into…solitude…is a deep sense that God alone suffices. The need to win approval of society, to find a recognized place in the world, to achieve a temporal ambition, to ‘be somebody,’ even in the Church seems to them irrelevant, - Thomas Merton

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