LOST – LAUNCHING CHICKENS

By Jane Marion

APRIL 20, 2008

Acts 27:27-32     Luke 15:11-20a

Today is my daughter Lauren’s birthday; some of you may remember that the day she was born the Lord came back into my life in an unmistakable way.  This is an important spiritual anniversary for me, so I feel very privileged and blessed to be speaking this morning.  All of the “lost” parables mean a great deal to me personally as I’m sure they do for many of you as well.  I relate to the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Prodigal Son because I’ve been there and done that.

Our reading from Luke this morning covers the first part of the Prodigal son’s experience.  Jesus doesn’t give us a lot of back story or any sense of the family dynamics; he simply says that a man has 2 sons.  The younger son basically goes to his father and says “I don’t want to wait around until you’re dead, so give me my portion of the inheritance now and then I’m out of here because this isn’t the life for me.  Just give me the money, that’s all I need from you.”  Even though it’s tremendously unorthodox and disrespectful to say the least, the father divides the estate and gives his younger son the money.

The son goes off to a foreign land and all that Jesus tells us is that he squandered away his wealth in wild living.  Now, I’m sure it was fun while it lasted, but obviously, he ran through his inheritance pretty quickly.  After his wealth is gone, the foreign country experiences a severe famine, and he’s reduced to feeding someone else’s pigs and envying their slop!  He has to really hit bottom – he’s penniless, he’s hungry, and he’s completely humiliated before it finally occurs to him “You know, even my father’s lowliest servants don’t go hungry.”  There’s a reversal in his attitude, suddenly his father goes from simply being the cash cow to being the means of survival, the very means of salvation.  He heads home with a true humility of spirit to ask his father to take him on as a hired hand because in his heart he knows he deserves no better.

This is near and dear to me not only because it applies to me personally, but nowadays I’m looking at this parable with new eyes, from a totally different perspective.  I’m on the other side of the equation; my own children are on the brink of leaving my sphere of influence.  After all, they belong to God and to themselves, not to Rob and me.  I pray for them, and I hope for them, but I can’t see the future any more than anyone else can.

As a parent, there’s a time when you simply have to let go and all you can really do is hope and pray that they will make good decisions and that they’ll survive the ones that aren’t so good.  The truth is, regardless of whether they are right or wrong we love our children, sometimes it’s painful and we may want to throttle them, but God knows we love them and so does He.  They are His, even if they don’t know it or recognize it.

I often refer to my girls as my chickens, which calls to mind a story that one of Christina’s teachers told.  He grew up in a rural area, where at Easter, instead of dyeing eggs; they would dye baby chicks bright colors for the children.  Well, this fellow went to the store and got himself a bright blue chick, he was just thrilled, so pleased to have this chick. He wanted to do the very best he could for this chick and he decided that what he really should do was set it free to fly.  So he took it up to the top level of the local parking garage, which was the tallest structure around and then, with all the excitement and good intentions that only a child can muster, he launched his bright blue chick to soar in freedom only to watch in horror as it splattered on the ground. 

Needless to say, I’m leery of launching my chickens.  Imagine then how our heavenly Father must feel, knowing how fragile and weak we are and so fully aware of the dangers and temptations and trials that await us.  But He lets us go.  Only He knows the ultimate plan, but I think that like the Prodigal son, when we return, maybe somewhat the worse for wear, we return with a new attitude, ready to worship - and its life changing!

Like Paul and his shipmates in today’s scripture from the Acts of the Apostles, sometimes our lives or the lives of those we love look like they’re headed to crash on the rocks or the pavement below and all we can do is pray for them and encourage them to stay with the ship just as Paul tells the terrified crew that they will only be saved if they stay with the ship.  Somehow, even the rough times play their part in His good plan for our lives.

It’s interesting that everything is turned upside down on this voyage.  Even though Paul is the ship’s prisoner, he becomes the authority figure, in essence, he becomes the one who is commanding the ship but he tries mightily to make sure that everyone understands that he is not the master, he serves the Master. 

The unchanging truth is that God will care for us if we stick with Him and while we might not always get the neat, tidy solutions we crave, we’re not privy to God’s ultimate plan.  But even when things seem totally bleak and hopeless, I’ve found He ALWAYS finds a way to inject a spark of hope into our hearts so that we can go on.

I think that all the paternal and shepherding images of the LOST parables we’ve been hearing and the shipwreck disaster images from the book of Acts are all leading us to the same place, the same sense of purpose which reflects a kind of spiritual maturity.  No matter who we are, God sets us free to go to the brink and back, sometimes over and over again, so that we can have the opportunity to grow and change and return to Him with gratitude, humility, and the right attitude to worship Him with the whole of our hearts.

I was so moved by what Pastor Scott said last week that I have to reiterate it today, because it is such a beautiful and eternal truth, whether we stray or whether we remain in the fold, He never leaves us or forsakes us.  He will seek us and bring us to safety even when we are in peril of dashing against the rocks.  There is no guilt, no blame, and no regret, only Jesus.  In whose precious name we pray.  Amen