God simply wants a party

Saturday March 16^th, Luke 15:  28-30 "The older brother stalked off in an angry sulk and refused to join in. His father came out and tried to talk to him, but he wouldn't listen. The son said, 'Look how many years I've stayed here serving you, never giving you one moment of grief, but have you ever thrown a party for me and my friends? Then this son of yours who has thrown away your money on whores shows up and you go all out with a feast!'  31-32 "His father said, 'Son, you don't understand. You're with me all the time, and everything that is mine is yours—but this is a wonderful time, and we had to celebrate. This brother of yours was dead, and he's alive! He was lost, and he's found!'"  We are the church, the body of our Lord, we are all God’s children and we have been restored.  And we want everyone else to be restored just like us.  Jesus was confronted by the Piety Police who wanted to know why Jesus would hang with the wrong crowd.  After answering with the triptych verbal painting of the lost sheep, lost coin and lost son, he comes around to point a mirror at the Piety Police with the image of the older brother.  The older brother in this third parable of lost and found is all too often the church.  All three stories about the lost being found in Luke 15 end in rejoicing.  We are called as the church to party hardy. There is a reason for the words, “we had to celebrate.”  There is no other option for God, and we are called to have no other option for ourselves than to celebrate. Celebrate at the gift of salvation for others, yes, but also celebrate that we too are included in the recipients of that undeserved grace. Our tendency all too often is to focus on whether the other has repented enough, and it has more to do with our sinfulness than on the prodigal’s.  Our sin is to want the returning, the repentant, to grovel a bit more, be repentant a bit more, pay with humility a bit more, while God simply wants a party.  Sometimes we are far too busy putting on a good front to have a good time. Remember, we are the church, the body of our Lord, we are all God’s children and we have been both restored ourselves, and called to party hardy at the restoration of others.