Talk
delivered at All Saints’ Church, Winterslow, Wiltshire on Sunday 13 May 2018
Luke 15:11-32 (The Parable of the Lost Son)
“He looked around
him. The rooms were dark and dingy. The smell of sweaty bodies hung in the air.
Young women came and went – some older and well worn, others as young as
twelve. Here in the depths of Bangkok
sex tourists arrived and departed having had their entertainment. The sex industry was booming and he had been
very much part of it. He had left his
small village on the Malaysian border to come here to seek his fortune after
leaving his Christian family. His father
had brought him up in a Christian environment yet he found it all boring and
decided to head for the fleshpots of the capital to seek excitement and
fortune. Things had gone very well to start with. He had run a lucrative
prostitution establishment, a go-go bar, but had become further embroiled in
the crime of dealing in opium which had, at first, brought him more riches but
he had later run foul of the bigger dealers and in particular the Chinese
Triads as time went on and things went very sour. He had found himself getting
involved in the trafficking of girls as young as nine. His enemies, in an
attempt to get rid of him, had labelled him a police informer and he had had to
hide away. Things went from bad to worse
and he found himself having to live in squalor right in the heart of the
seediest part of Bangkok where he now found himself.
“Looking
back he longed to be back with his family in his little boring village on the
Malaysian border. He remembered his father’s words as he had left for Bangkok,
‘there is always a place here for you’; but surely that invitation was a thing
of the past. Word of his notoriety in Bangkok had seeped back to the village –
he knew this. He was a disgrace to the village, to his family and to his father
in particular. He was a pariah – a sad failure who had deserted his family,
done and been involved in all sorts of sinful activities and turned his back on
his father’s religion, and thereby his own Christian upbringing.
With
trepidation he wrote to his father along these lines –
Dear
Father, I have disgraced you, the family and our village. I remember well the words you said to me when
I first left for Bangkok – “there is always a place for you here”. I completely understand and accept if that is
no longer the case but I realise now the mistakes I’ve made and would like to
return. I completely understand it if
you never want to see me again and so I suggest the following. On Saturday I will catch the train from
Bangkok which passes through our village at around 6 pm. If you will accept me
back then please tie a piece of cloth around the family’s po tree which backs
on to the railway line just before the station and I will know that you will
accept me back and will get off. If I
don’t see a piece of cloth I will stay on the train and never bother you ever
again.
Saturday
arrived and he boarded the train. He felt
very nervous, not quite sure what he would do if there was no piece of cloth on
the tree. Where would he go? What would
he do if he stayed on the train? As the train got closer to his village his
heart beat fast and the adrenalin was flowing.
He was scared, anxious. He was
feeling desperate. His last hope. A passenger sitting opposite him noticed his
anxiety and asked him what was the problem.
He poured out his story and his fears about the po tree. In the end he said to his fellow passenger ‘I
just can’t look out. I am so afraid? You
can’t miss it – it’s the only po tree in the village by the railway.’ With that he buried his head in his hands. His fellow travelling companion promised to
look out for him.
They
nearer his village. ‘What do you see?’,
he asked, fearfully. ‘Do you see a piece
of cloth?’
His
new companion responded – I see the tree but there is not a single piece of
cloth on it – I can’t miss it though it’s covered from top to bottom with
pieces of cloth.
At
the station his father was there and embraced him. “Whatever you do, wherever you are, you are
my son and this is your home”
This story, which I have paraphrased here, appears in
Floyd McClung’s book “Father Heart of God”
and tells a true modern day version of the reading we had this morning – The
Parable of the Lost Son. I have to
confess that every time I hear that story my eyes fill with tears. The compassion and grace shown by the Father
reminds us that we as the children of the Father God are always the subject of
God’s compassion and grace.
This morning as you came into church you should each have
been given a small reproduction of Rembrandt’s famous painting of the Prodigal
Son, the original of which currently hangs in the Hermitage Museum in St.
Petersburg. Please do take it away and
use it as a bookmark in your bible – perhaps at the page containing Luke
15:11-32, as a reminder that whatever you’ve done, wherever you are, God will
welcome you home with both arms.
Rembrandt’s painting is extremely interesting for a
number of points. We see the prodigal
son without a robe, partially barefoot the other foot wearing a worn out
sandal, bare-headed. Looking on, in a
red cloak is the elder brother – of whom more at a later date. Something which I did not notice immediately,
but which was pointed out to me when I read Henri Nouwen’s wonderful book “The
Prodigal Son” (which I thoroughly recommend) is the fact that each of the
father’s hands is different. His left
hand is firm and masculine – the fingers spread – a firm embrace welcoming him
back whilst his right hand is more feminine with closed fingers – the embrace
of compassion and love. We can speculate who the other figures in the painting
represent and I leave it to you to study the painting at your leisure.
The story of the Lost Son has many different facets. I wonder which character you associate with
yourself? Do you feel like the prodigal
son – wanting to return to God’s loving embrace? Do you feel like the elder brother –
festering resentment because you have never left the father’s side yet this
wayward brother of yours who seems to getting all the better treatment despite
his wanderings? Or do you feel like the
father? - feeling love and compassion
even for those who might have treated you with contempt in the past.
Henri Nouwen, in his book recognised that throughout our
lives we may find ourselves at any time identifying with any one of these three
characters but in his view our Christian journey is to take us as closely as we
can to the father figure; to be an encourager, a compassionate person whose
life and actions are built on true love for our fellow humans. This is the message of the bible. This is the Christian message.
The Prodigal Son has an especial poignancy for me
today. I do feel back home here in
Winterslow thanks to the love and compassion many of you have shown to me today
and over the years since I moved away from this village. It is good to be back
with you this morning. I have worn the
clothing of all three characters over the last four years and now my own prayer
is to be as much like the father as God wishes me to be. This morning, in a moment, we shall have a
time of prayer. As we do pray, think
which character you might feel you are at this present moment – son, brother or
father – and ask God to guide you as you grapple with the issues which surround
you in that role at this present time.
Father God will hear your prayer just as the father in our story heard
and understood his son’s plea to return home.
Amen
MFB/08052018
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