2 Cor. 5: 16-21                                                                                                              Rev. Dr. Galen E. Russell III

Luke 15: 1-3, 11b-32                                                                                                                           March 30, 2025

“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare…’”

Prayer: May we listen to your voice in our inner spirit, O Holy One, to know your grace and wisdom. Amen.

You know, sometimes we run across a bible story that we’ve heard a million times, so much so that I wonder what could possibly be said that hasn’t been said about the Parable of the Prodigal Son? Or, as some call it, the Parable of the Lost Son? Or the Parable of the Two Brothers? Or, the one I like the best, the Parable of the Loving Father?

But whatever we call it… it’s a timeless story that still provides deep meaning and lessons on our spiritual journeys, I believe. And, in light of our Faith Mountain Climbing theme, it dawned on me that the parable could shed light on a pretty big mountain that all of us face every now and then—the mountain of a guilty conscience. I never considered that approach before with this parable.

But here it is… because maybe when the younger son got all his inheritance money and went out and squandered all of it... maybe he lost sight of his conscience. Maybe right from the start he was way off his moral center. Kind of like the tax collectors and the sinners Jesus was sitting with… the unclean, the unacceptable, those morally off-center.

And in the dissolute living, in the spending of the entire inheritance, he continued with abandon and let his appetite for all the seedy stuff in the world run amuck.  To obey our strongest appetites for drink, sex, power, revenge, or whatever leaves us like an animal taking what we want when we want it, effectively shutting out the voice of our conscience. Effectively keeping us off our moral center.

So, when the young son “came to himself, or come to his senses,” which I think can mean that his conscience finally got through to him, only now it’s a guilty conscience. It’s regret, wishing that he had done things differently. In his heart and spirit, he says, “I really messed up this time. I am not worthy to be the son of my father. So the best I can do is to go back to my father fess up and come clean. And hope for the worst, that he’ll at least treat me not as his son, but as a regular worker. Which is way better than my life as it is now.” Way better than living among the hogs and eating and sleeping with the hogs! That young man was doing some faith mountain climbing right there.

So, I wonder if all of us have at a time or two carried a guilty conscience that may require us to do some faith mountain climbing. I mean some of us carry some regret because we missed an opportunity to respond to a neighbor’s need and our guilty conscience bothers us. Some of us have dreams at night that take us to a place in our lives where we’re doing something that mat not be right.

Some people carry guilty consciences along for the rest of their lives. Several hospital workers were asked what were some deathbed regrets they’ve heard from their dying patients. One worker said that a man “wished he had been a better father to his daughter. He wished that they would have reconnected.” Whatever happened, I don't know. But, I wonder what his life would have been like if he climbed the mountain of his guilty conscience right there and turned back to his daughter.

Another worker said that her grandmother was a nurse, and she would say “I’ve seen a lot of people through their last days and heard a lot of regrets, but I have never heard anyone coming up to the end wishing they had spent more time working” Hospital Workers Share 26 Deathbed Regrets They’ve Heard That Changed Their Lives , retrieved March 28, 2025.)

Yeah, among the common regrets and guilty conscience statements were too little time spent with family and loved ones, missed opportunities, and broken relationships.  Like the song says, “It’s too late when we die, to admit we don’t see eye to eye” (“The Living Years,” by Mike and the Mechanics, https://genius.com/Mike-the-mechanics-the-living-years-lyrics, retrieved March 28, 2025).

But, as soon as we start climbing the mountain of our guilty conscience, we start to recognize our need for forgiveness and grace. As soon as we decide to be reconciled, brought back into relationship, the guilty conscience can pass away. As soon as we decide to turn back to God, a new creation begins, and as soon as we admit our powerlessness over our vices, a new future opens up.  Because we can never blunt God’s desire to forgive us, to receive us, to welcome us. God’s Grace is always greater than our sin. Always. Love always builds bridges. Always. God always welcomes without condemnation. Always.

Then, there’s the older brother in the parable. If he has a mountain of a guilty conscience to climb, what do you think that’s about? I mean he’s the loyal one. The obedient one. He acts righteously, living by the rules and standards of society and religion, not unlike the Pharisees and scribes the way they thought of themselves. They are angry because Jesus is hanging out with the riffraff of society who aren’t obedient to the rules of society and religion.

And now the older son is grumbling, caught up in his righteousness. Maybe even obsessed with it. For many of us, we would say he makes a fair point. Being obedient is a good thing.

But being the good child can be a burden, too. While it feels like it’s stable, righteous, and a solid foundation, being the good child can be its own prison, especially if you depend on your own goodness to earn grace for you. There is no grace in goodness that must earn its status. And anyone who receives that grace but is not aligned with your thinking, that makes you mad.

This is where I think the challenge in the conscience shows up. Because of the perception that ‘I’m right, everyone else must wrong.’ And others who are wrong make me mad.  And if unchecked, the ire and anger can make the differences irreconcilable. The river becomes too wide to even think about reaching out to the person on the other side, let alone building a bridge to that person. As I’ve told us before, people are lonely because we build walls instead of bridges.

The older brother may be like the congressional representative hellbent on punishing drag queens, transgender youth, and deporting undocumented residents. Or the school board member intent on banning books that honestly look at American history.

But to be fair, on the flip side, the older brother may also be progressives like many of us who can easily see the MAGA hat wearing man and others representing them as lost and unredeemable, as demeaning and dangerous, and are not welcome anywhere near us. Does that give us a guilty conscience? Maybe, but probably not. Not yet, anyway. It’s coming.

Because when the younger unacceptable son, the unredeemable one, receives grace, gets a party thrown by the loving father who kills the fatted calf saved for a special occasion, the older brother, the loyal one, the good one, stands outside the party.

And here it comes… the loving father comes out and pleads with his older son to come in. Grace and celebration and all that the father has are intended for him as well. There is always a celebration for the older son.  But, the fact is, the loving father loves and graces and welcomes both him and his younger brother who once was lost and is now found, thought dead but now is alive.

There it is.  The extravagant love and grace and compassion of God can produce a guilty conscience if we feel otherwise. If we are too busy with our righteous anger to accept it. But, we’re called to accept God’s grace—for our younger brother, or sister and for ourselves.

To be honest, I wish Jesus’ parable would have ended with how the older son responded to his dad. Did he go in and celebrate? Did he stay outside? Did he leave and distance himself from his father and his house? Did his father’s words give him a guilty conscience enough to do some faith mountain climbing? Enough to grow in faith and make a change? We don’t know… I guess that’s for us to answer for ourselves in our own lives.

I know I’ve shared this story with you before, but it’s worth repeating. Do you remember back in 2015 when Pope Francis came to speak to our US Congress? He spoke of God’s grace, of human dignity, of seeing the likeness of God in every person, of caring for the stranger and the immigrant.  And while he spoke, Speaker of the House at that time, Rep. John Boehner openly wept. And the next day, Rep. Boehner resigned from Congress. Of course, we were told that it was a case of party politics, but I have to wonder if he was doing some faith mountain climbing...all while the mountain of a guilty conscience (A Sermon On The Matrix, The Gospel And The US Congress | Nadia Bolz Weber, retrieved March 27, 2025). And in so doing, made a change. Because only then could his healing begin? Only then could he have peace in his spirit?

God is always calling each of us to peace, healing, and wholeness. Calling us to do faith mountain climbing. I encourage each of us to “come to ourselves,” be reconciled to God. Accept that we are loved. And welcomed, and welcome all in God’s presence. Amen.