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THE THIRD SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY July 6, 2025 Pastor Tom Steers Christ the Saviour Lutheran Church, Toronto Our Opening Hymn is: “Jesus Sinners Doth Receive” Lutheran Service Book, 609 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RODV7z-UQhI&list=RDRODV7z-UQhI&start_radio=1 Confession and Absolution – Page 184 LSB The Introit – Psalm 25:1-2a, 5b, 15, 20; antiphon: Ps. 25:16, 18 Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted. Consider my affliction and my trouble, and forgive all my sins. To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. O my God, in you I trust; let me not be put to shame. You are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long. My eyes are ever toward the Lord, for he will pluck my feet out of the net. Oh, guard my soul, and deliver me! Let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen. Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted. Consider my affliction and my trouble, and forgive all my sins. The Kyrie (Lord Have Mercy) Lord, have mercy upon us. Christ, have mercy upon us. Lord have mercy upon us. The Gloria in Excelsis (Glory to God in the Highest) Page 187 The Collect Prayer of the Day – O God, the protector of all who trust in You, without whom nothing is strong and nothing is holy, multiply Your mercy on us that, with You as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal that we lose not the things eternal; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. Our Bible Readings – Old Testament: Micah 7:18-20 Psalm 103:1-13 (antiphon: v.8) Epistle – 1st Timothy 1:12-17 The Verse: Psalm 18:1-2a Alleluia. I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer. Alleluia. Gospel – Luke 15:11-32 The Nicene Creed – Page 191 Hymn of the Day – “As Rebels, Lord, Who Foolishly Have Wandered” LSB 612 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8eOtDCTsng&list=RDO8eOtDCTsng&start_radio=1 The Sermon— Many of us know the wonderful parable of the Prodigal Son, or what I prefer to call the Parable of the Merciful and Loving Father. A young man does something outrageously disrespectful to his father. He has the nerve to ask for his inheritance before his father dies. As the younger of two sons, he would have received one-third of his father’s estate. This was not like asking your Dad for $20. The older brother would receive two-thirds, but would be expected to take care of members of the family. The young son is asking for a huge amount of money that would have caused his father to sell part of his land and livestock. Just as surprisingly, the father grants the request. The young man squanders the money on wild, ungodly living, bringing further disgrace to his family. The merciful forgiving father represents God, the Prodigal Son, sinners -- us. We know this story, and what it means. But maybe we don’t know it as well as we need to. A critical fact to keep in mind is the audience Jesus was speaking to when relating the parable. When we turn to the Bible, we see in the first three verses of the passage that Jesus directs this parable not to the tax collectors and sinners who were drawing near to Him, but to scribes and Pharisees who were grumbling that Jesus was receiving and eating with such vile, sinful trash. “So He told them a parable….” This still doesn’t prevent us from self-identifying with the prodigal son, which we all can, perhaps a number of times each day. We can all relate to the son’s lack of perfection, his wayward ways. And besides, we’re not like the scribes and Pharisees, are we? We’re the good guys. We’re the ones who’ve been mercifully and graciously restored to sonship, just like the prodigal. And yet…when we examine ourselves how often do we see our behaviour resembling the older brother? We see how the Father behaves when His delinquent son returns home after losing everything. Dad runs out to meet him. This, in itself, is huge. Great men in that culture didn’t run. It was beneath them. It wasn’t dignified. Great men especially didn’t run to undeserving ‘disgraceful prodigal’ sons. If a father even acknowledged such a son was alive, which oftentimes they didn’t, they would wait for the rogue to come and grovel and beg. They waited for a chance to rub their face in the failure and say, “I told you so.” But not this dad. He hikes up the long robe he would have worn and runs out to meet His epic failure of a kid, and He doesn’t care who sees, and He certainly doesn’t care what anybody else has to say about it. He runs and embraces out of love. Not only that, but then He does the unthinkable. The father treats this brat like royalty. He completely restores the scoundrel to the household, even after this son basically told dad he considered him as good as dead and wanted his money now. The Father gives him a fine robe to wear. Places a valuable ring on his finger. He kills the fatted calf and throws a huge party. “For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.” This is what drove the older brother around the block! A little cultural background is helpful here. A fatted calf was only butchered for two reasons: 1) A king or notable person as coming to visit, or 2) The eldest son was getting married. This is why the eldest, at first, is confused by the sound of celebration – music, the smell of barbecue. He knows the music he hears is only played when the fatted calf is killed. We can imagine him looking around and thinking, “I know the king isn’t coming, and I’m not getting married, so what’s happening here?” This is when the servant tells him the good news, “Your brother’s come back and your father has killed the calf to celebrate, for he’s been received back home safe and sound.” This is just too much! “How dare he?!” Well…dad gets wind of this and goes out to beg his other waywardly prideful son to come in and celebrate. And this is when the older kid lets dad have it with both barrels. “Look at all that I’ve done for you over all these years. Look at how good I’ve been, without fail. I haven’t disobeyed you, and yet you never even gave me a goat so my friends and I could throw a party. Did you notice something? This son doesn’t want to celebrate with family. He wants his prize so he can celebrate with friends. He wants to be the center of their attention, and you and I both know that if you have money, food, and booze, you’ll never have a shortage of people who claim to be your friends. The older son protests, ‘My brother comes home after wasting all your hard-earned wealth on prostitutes, and you treat him like a king!’ And there’s his point. “Dad, it’s not fair! I do this, that, and the other thing, and I don’t get the honour I think I deserve, and yet you go and throw a party for someone who everyone knows doesn’t merit it! You treat the royal foul-up like royalty!” And this is why Jesus taught this parable specifically to the Scribes and Pharisees. They didn’t get it. They didn’t understand the Father’s mercy, love and joy over repentance and faith in God’s Word. When it came down to it the Pharisees and Scribes firmly believed their good works and personal righteousness made them more deserving of God’s gifts than anyone else. They showed that they firmly believed that others “less deserving” had no right to the honour they felt personally entitled to. Jesus was sitting there eating with the Prodigal sons and daughters, and how dare he? Brothers & sisters, we’ve all been there—every one of us. We’ve all looked down on those who don’t do as much as we do. We’ve all been indignant and acted like the older son when we don’t get the honour and accolades we feel we deserve. We say, “Look at all I do. Doesn’t this count for something? Shouldn’t this at least merit more praise than what those sinful, undeserving stinkers are getting?” This becomes clear when trouble comes our way. We say, “God, what’s the deal? Look at all I do! I’m not like those other sinners, and yet they keep getting ahead, and I keep getting the short end! What’s the problem? Don’t you care?” Now, of course we all know the right response to this self-centered anger. Our good works do not earn us salvation. They are not badges of honour. They are evidence of the faith God works in our hearts that reflect the perfection of our Saviour Jesus, not our own perfection. God provides us daily bread, not based on a gold star system tracking our good deeds, but based solely on His divine Fatherly love, mercy and goodness. Our salvation is not bought by our merits or accomplishments. We are saved by God’s grace alone; grace which He freely lavishes on us, not because we deserve it or have earned it, but because of the all-atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Father’s only true “good Son.” And this lavish gift of grace and life isn’t just bestowed on us, but on all who repent of sin and trust through faith alone in Christ Jesus and His all-redeeming death and resurrection, alone. As Lutheran Christians we know this, and yet so often we can forget it. This is why I said this parable is for our ears today, not because we need reminding of our sinful prodigal ways, but because we also need reminding of our proud, entitled, ‘elder brother’ ways as well. Most importantly, we need reminding of our heavenly Father’s lavish ways of unconditional and undeserved grace, mercy, and love for each and every person who has, or ever will, live. ‘For God so loved the whole world that He gave His only-begotten Son to die for it.’ There are many other things we could say about this parable. And I know that some of you may have ‘prodigal’ loved ones in your life. People who deny or who’ve left the Christian faith. Some also have angry ‘older brother’ types to deal with. The self-righteous. We all know people that have gone off on their own with all the riches and talents God gives them and squandered it. And we all know people that won’t forgive them, even when they do repent. We can look to a parable like this for some kind of instruction or direction. “Tell me what I can do in order to get the prodigal in my life to turn around and return to God.” The simple answer is, on our own, very little or nothing. But we can pray for the help and intervention of God, for others, for ourselves. We can give them God’s Word of Law and Gospel. God can turn them. You cannot make someone repent. Just look at the son in this lesson. You can’t help someone who doesn’t think they need help. Until they hit rock-bottom, you basically have to sit back and wait for them to crash so God can pick them up, and you can be there at that point to help. The same goes for church and faith. You can’t make people believe, see their sins, and accept their Saviour. As long as they want to stay away, they will. As long as they’re healthy, the money keeps coming in, their needs are met… as long as life is going according to their plan, they probably won’t recognize their sinful, prodigal ways. They’ll stay away. As a Pastor, I can tell you I know it’s not a good feeling. All you can do is sit back and wait for the next tragedy to hit, and pray they’re only knocked down and not wiped out. You pray that when they are knocked down, you’ll have the opportunity to run out and meet them where they’re at in their pain and misery, anguish and helplessness. Meet them and embrace them with the love and peace of Christ. And this is our celebration today. It’s a feast for sinners; a feast for prodigal sons and daughters, and I’m included in that group of Facebook friends. This morning there is reason to celebrate. On our Altar the table of mercy has been set. Our God and Lord feasts with us today! This is His meal, the Lord’s Supper; His feast of thanksgiving. Better than any fatted calf, the Lamb of God has been slain, once for all. It’s finished. The wages of sin have been paid in full. Today our Lord of lords and King of kings not only feasts with us, but serves us His true Body and Blood. The loving Father embraces you and feeds you with the foretaste of heaven. His beloved children have come home. Amen. The Prayers of the Church Service of the Sacrament – Page 194 The Sanctus (Holy, Holy, Holy) Page 195 The Lord’s Prayer – Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. The Words of Institution Page 197 The Agnus Dei (Lamb of God) – Page 198 The Distribution – Page 199 The Nunc Dimittis (Song of Simeon) Page 199 The Post Communion Collect (Left-hand column) Page 201 The Benediction – The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen. Our Closing Hymn – “Father Most Holy” LSB 504 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_BMgnm7uVc&list=RDk_BMgnm7uVc&start_radio=1