Sermon: "God's Glue"
The Right Reverend Charles G. vonRosenberg
Third Bishop of East Tennessee

During my senior year in seminary, my classmates paid me a compliment … and, of course, the compliment had a catch to it. I was picked as one of the senior preachers that year … and, I had to preach to the entire seminary community, filled with fellow students and professors. It was an honor - but a bit frightening as well.

The passage on which I was to preach included the Parable of the Prodigal Son, which is our reading from Luke's Gospel today. And I preached on it in a very personal way. That is, I affirmed, "I am the elder brother," and I described that conviction in personal kinds of ways.

That point of nearly thirty years ago continues to be valid today, I believe. After all, I am an elder brother, and I can identify with that character much more easily than with the other one … you know, that one who was impulsive and irresponsible and unreliable.

Most of the time anyway, I have tried to do what seems right. That's been true for most of my life. Ideas like responsibility and duty have weighed pretty heavily on my conscience.

"Elder brother types" seem to have things in life put together fairly well. We seem to be in control of situations. We are reliable. In other words - the words of today's parable - elder brothers have always been with the father, and the father has counted on their presence and on their contributions for the common good.

While there are attractive things about that kind of personality, there are some inherent dangers as well - the dangers of self-righteousness and of an inflated estimation of self worth, for instance. Those traits also are fairly common among us "elder brother types" - those who really are older brothers and those who just seem like ones…In other times, by the way, we would be likened to the Pharisees.

The sins of the younger brother in the parable are more obvious. He was a charter member of the "me generation." The first words he says in the parable are "Father, give me." And then, when he gets what he wants, he goes off on his own irresponsible quest for self-fulfillment. He was reckless; he was thoughtless; and he ended up being a bum. Only then did he come back home. That younger brother did have lots of shortcomings that are quite obvious - especially to elder brother types.

The great British statesman, Winston Churchill, once wrote a novel whose title and theme were taken from this parable - A Far Country. The far country in that novel was the place where standards and ideals were lost … much like the distant country of the parable. Of course, in the novel and in the Gospel, the distant country may represent a state of mind or of conscience more than a place … a possibility wherever we happen to be.
Perhaps now we may draw some initial conclusions in the examination of the parable. Even though there may be significant differences among us, we all share the human experience. This is true whether we are in a far country or at home … or, whether we are elder brothers or sisters, or younger ones. Our common humanity marks us with unmistakable similarity.

The parable we read is about two brothers in two places reacting two different ways. It is easier to see contrasts when presented in those terms. It is also easier to identify with one character or the other, as I did. However, actually we are both those characters - at least, potentially. This parable has to do with brokenness, incompleteness, and with being lost. These are traits we all share.

In a few minutes, we will affirm our Baptismal Covenant - the agreement we share with each other and with God as the result of Baptism. One question in that Covenant seems especially relevant today: "Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?" We all sin, you see. We all fall short of the completeness to which we are called as children of God. We all are in need of God's grace and of God's forgiveness.

The central character in today's parable really is not the younger brother - the prodigal son … nor is it the elder brother. Rather, the main character is the father. The parable actually should be called "The Forgiving Father." That's what the parable emphasizes - the forgiveness of the father.

Ultimately, then, this is a parable about forgiveness, mercy, and grace. Those are the attributes we observe in the father. Those are several characteristics of the Kingdom that St. Luke puts before us in this parable. And those are manifestations of God's love so desperately needed by both brothers - and by us. Forgiveness, mercy, and grace.

In one of his plays, Eugene O'Neill had a character say these words: "This is (the) secret for today: Man is born broken. He lives by mending. The grace of God is glue" (The Great God Brown).

That elder brother in the parable is broken, just like the younger one. The cracks may not be quite so obvious, but he is broken, too. And these brothers share that characteristic with all people. We all are broken. We all need to affirm that whenever we fall into sin - and we will - then we intend to repent and return to the Lord.

That which makes us whole is not something that we are. What we are is not whole. We are all born broken. We do live by mending. The wholeness we see in some people simply indicates that the pieces are better put together. The important thing is that the grace of God is the glue that cements those pieces, no matter how well or how poorly they are attached to each other.

In conclusion, may we rejoice that God always seeks the lost in His Kingdom - because some of the time we cannot find our own way. May we celebrate that God values each part of His creation because we - and others - might not put much value on ourselves from time to time. Finally, may we be joyful when one that was lost is found and welcomed again - for such a welcome indicates forgiveness, mercy, and grace. Without those gifts - God's glue - all of us would be a good deal less than whole.