Rejoice with Me! Sermon for the Funeral of Jim Hellwinckel
 |
| "The Return of the Prodigal Son" by James Tissot |
Now the tax collectors
and sinners were all drawing near to hear [Jesus]. And the Pharisees and the
scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”
So He told them this
parable: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them,
does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that
is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders,
rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his
neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was
lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner
who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance
(Luke 15:1-7).
Grace to you and peace
from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!
As we met to plan for
this service, you shared a few stories about Jim. Bob recalls the day that his
mom and dad brought baby Jim home. You talked about Jim’s goofy sense of humor.
How he knew all the words to classic rock songs and his favorite movies. You
also talked about how he played hard and had fun. He’d stop to enjoy a 6 pack of
Keystone with whomever would join him. How he’d admit that he hadn’t always
made the best decisions in life. And how Jim’s dad said Jim always liked to run
with the big dogs, but when the authorities arrived, they would scatter and Jim
would just stand there like a lost pup and be the only one to get caught. That’s
who Jim was. Jim had a colorful history.
We’re not going to
glorify those stories, but we won’t ignore them, either. One of the most
remarkable features of the biblical narrative—and one of the most
instructive—is how it makes no attempt to clean up embarrassing—even
scandalous—episodes from the lives of God’s people. Righteousness Noah gets
drunk, passes out, and shows the world his birthday suit. King David, the “man
after God’s own heart” seduces another man’s wife and has him killed to cover
up the affair. When push comes to shove, Peter denies even knowing Jesus. Paul
persecutes the Church. Yet God chose to use each of these sinners to fulfill
His promise of a Savior and for the furthering of His Kingdom.
In our Gospel reading
for today, we see that Jesus’ willingness to associate with the “wrong people”
shocked many of His fellow Jews. In the eyes of His pharisaical critics, it was
bad enough that Jesus had any dealing with sinners and tax collectors. More
provocative still was the fact that Jesus repeatedly shared table with such
people. Within Judaism, eating with someone had religious implications. Jesus’
opponents made this aspect of His ministry a special target of their attacks.
In response, Jesus offers
three parables. All three have to do with joy over finding what was lost.
First, a shepherd calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, “Rejoice
with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.” A woman calls together her
friends and neighbors, saying, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my lost coin.”
A father gives a joyous banquet to celebrate the return of his son who had been
lost. Why did Jesus reach out to sinners and tax collectors? Because there is great
rejoicing in heaven over even a single sinner who repents.
And that is good news
for Jim and you and me, and anyone who has ever left the straight and narrow way
and took a dangerous detour, no matter how close or far off the beaten path, whether
for most of a lifetime or a momentary lapse.
The younger son in our Gospel,
amasses an impressive list of skeletons in his closet. When he demands his
father give him his share of his inheritance now, he’s saying, in essence, “Old
Man, I wish you were dead. But since you’re not, let’s pretend you are so I can
pocket my inheritance, move out of the house, and go live it up in the world.”
Astonishingly, the father heeds his request. The son packs his suitcase, heads
off to a distant land, and soon gets down to the business of squandering “his
property in reckless living.”
You’re familiar with
the story. He has an impressive rap sheet. He’s insulted his father; shamed his
family and no doubt made them the laughingstock in the community; wasted his
wealth on selfish pleasure. And he’s made himself the center and god of his own
pathetic little universe.
When his pockets are
empty and a famine plagues the country, he settles for the only job he can
find—a feeder of pigs. So raw is his hunger that he longs to drops to his knees
and belly up to the slop trough with the swine. With the bottom fallen out of
his world, he comes to his senses. What’s he doing, starving so far from home?
His father’s servants have it much better than this.[i]
Now, to be clear the
son still isn’t repentant at this point when he “comes to himself.” All he
realizes is that he’s reached the end of his rope. He devises a plan for
re-acceptance: He will earn his way back into the family’s good graces. He will
say to his father, “I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as
one of your hired servants.” In other words, he returns on his own terms. He plans
to atone for what he did by relinquishing his place in the family.
But the father will
have none of this. The moment he spots his son off in the distance, his heart
overflows with compassion. He sprints out to meet him, takes him in his arms,
and kisses him. Before his son can finish his rehearsed plea for re-acceptance,
his father proclaims, “Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put
a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill
it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again;
he was lost, and is found” (Luke 15:22-24).
This moment of complete
acceptance was the moment of his repentance. The father’s embrace was this
son’s day of resurrection. The father’s love repented and restored him. This
parable enacts in narrative form what Paul meant when he wrote to the Romans,
“God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance.” Repentance was the
father’s work, the father’s gift, to his wayward son.[ii]
Here’s the hard yet
simple lesson. Repentance is not a work that we perform, but a gift that Christ
gives. It’s not an emotion that we stir up within ourselves, but a motion that
Christ enacts within us. This motion is always away from us—away from guilt,
away from self-devised methods of atonement—and towards Jesus.
Like the shepherd looking
for the lost sheep in the parable of Luke 15, Christ trails after us when we go
astray. He finds us, put us atop His shoulders, and rejoices to restore us to
the fold. Notice that He is the active one: He seeks, He finds, He brings us
back. It is not so much that we repent as that He repents us.
Do we contribute
anything to this? No, not a thing. From beginning to end, repentance in the
divine work of compassionate restoration. Lost sheep don’t find their way back;
they’re the object of a search-and-rescue mission. This is repentance: a gift
we receive, not a work we do.[iii]
This is amazing grace.!
I have one last story
about Jim I’d like to share with you:
Four weeks ago, I
finally got the chance to meet Jim. He was in the rehab unit at Good Samaritan.
Because of COVID it was first time I was able to see anyone there in a year.
When they asked who I wanted to see, I added Jim to my list because Bob had
asked me to visit with him if I had a chance.
I introduced myself as
the pastor of St. John’s at Trosky. Jim told me it had been a long time since
he had gone to church. He would probably go back to Trosky because that is
where he and his family had gone when he was growing up, but now it was tough
for him to get there. I invited him to come home. I told him if he wanted to
rejoin, that I would bring the church to him. Even if he wasn’t able to make it
there himself, I would keep visiting him and serving as his pastor.
That day I welcomed Jim
back as a member of St. John’s. That day Jim joined in worship with his fellow
Christians for the first time in a long time. He confessed his sins with fellow
redeemed sinners. Jim heard Christ’s absolution, the good news that he was
forgiven for all his sins in the triune name into which he’d been baptized back
in 1956. Jim confessed with fellow believers his Christian faith in the words
of the Apostles’ Creed. Jim received Christ’s very body and blood for the
forgiveness of his sins and the strengthening of his faith. That day the angels
in heaven rejoiced!
And so can we rejoice
today. Rejoice with me! For Jim, death is not the end of the story, but the next
chapter of everlasting life, as he awaits the Day of Resurrection, a never-ending
story of love and peace and wholeness in the presence of the Lord.
And always remember: There’s room for many
more in the household of the Lord. No matter how lost you’ve become, no matter how
far you’ve strayed, no matter how poorly your life has turned out, you can
always come home. You can always come back and the loving, gracious Father will
receive you with open arms, freely forgiving, no strings attached. I’d love to
have a chance to talk with you about it more. Amen
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture
quotations are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001
by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.
[i]
Chad Bird, Night Driving: Notes from a Prodigal Soul (Grand Rapids: Wm.
B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.) p. 52-53.
[ii]
Chad Bird, Night Driving: Notes from a Prodigal Soul (Grand Rapids: Wm.
B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.) p. 108-09.
[iii] Chad Bird, Night Driving: Notes from a Prodigal Soul (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.) p. 107.
Comments