Sympathy For The Prodigal Son - A Sermon On Change

An excerpt from my sermon "Leaving Home" on the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15: 11-32) that was preached in August of 2014 for the Presbytery of the Peaks' quarterly meeting in Lynchburg, Virginia:

"Perhaps it's time for us to generate a little sympathy for the younger son, and even to admire and emulate him for his bold decision. Perhaps the message we are to receive is not that we will be rewarded for staying home where it is familiar and safe; but perhaps the message here is that we will only find freedom and only become who we are meant to be - that we will only truly come to know and experience God's grace - when we find it in ourselves to get up and leave home.

And maybe we are not called to leave home in the exact way that the prodigal did it, with dissolute living, but maybe we are called to take the resources we have been given and to use them in what some would call a reckless manner.

Maybe leaving home for us means that we stop worrying about our own security and the future of our institution, and instead use the abundant gifts that we have been given to reach out in our communities, to minister with great energy and creativity to the many people who are in need in so many different ways.

Or maybe leaving home is meant to be more literal, as in getting out of the four walls of our church buildings that feel so familiar and comfortable. Maybe it means going out to the people in our neighborhoods instead of expecting them to come to us. Or maybe leaving home means getting out of some of our entrenched habits - being willing to let go of a program, or a policy, or an attitude, or anything that we do that we have grown accustomed to, but that prevents us from moving forward into what God is doing next.

Leaving home looks different for each individual, each congregation, each presbytery, and even each denomination - but in all cases, it means having the courage and the faith to do what the Prodigal Son did - to realize that where we were yesterday is not where we are called to be tomorrow.

The church we know and love, the church we are familiar with, the church that feels so comfortable and safe in the midst of a world that is so chaotic and confusing - it is the church we must, in many ways, leave behind."