Serving a Backward God
Joshua 5:9-12; Luke 15:1-3,11-32
NO 03/18/07 MW

Pastor Ben Padget

The Issue
God is Love! If we were asked to describe God how would we do it? When Moses asked God
for a way of identification God told Moses to tell the people “I Am.” We’re never told if Moses
used that description or not. I suspect I would have let it drop rather than to go and say, “’I am’
said we are to confront to Pharaoh and then leave Egypt.” But how would you respond to
someone who asked you to tell them about who your God is?
It seems that we are reluctant to say much of anything about who God is in our society today.
When we do say something it is generally going to be something that others will agree with:
God is good, God is omnipotent, God is everlasting, God is the Alpha and Omega – the
beginning and the end.

It seems that when we talk about God it is about a distant God that is out there somewhere
patiently waiting for us to die and enter that new life – whatever it might be. We just can’t
mentally reconcile our God with our society and we have to live in our society and so God
becomes a distant God.

Another reason we may not talk too much about God is that God is so backward. God just does
not get things in the right order and follow the rules that we are so certain about. This story that
Jesus tells to those who are listening to hear who God is just reverses everything that is held near
and dear.

Forgiveness
We know how to forgive even though we find it difficult at times. We know who is expected
when we have wronged someone or been wronged.

In AA we, in order to stay sober, believe we must make amends where it will not hurt another
and seek forgiveness. To do this one is expected to be clear about how another person was
wronged by oneself. Then we are to tell the other person specifically how we have wronged
them and ask forgiveness. If our divulging the wrong would cause the other person even greater
anguish we are to just live with the consequences. Or if the other refuses to forgive then we have
done what it expected.

That’s the process that we look for in forgiveness. For someone to be forgiven we expect that
they would recognize what they had done wrong, come to us and ask forgiveness. After all of
this we get to decide whether or not to forgive them.

My Friends Girlfriend
When I was in the Army I ran way with my best friend’s girlfriend. For thirty or so years I lived
with that event. As the Psalmist writes, it caused me to just shrivel up and dry out. Finally, I
contacted him to make amends and ask forgiveness. He told me that at first he just could not
believe what I had done and was deeply hurt. Then he realized one day that if he and she had
stayed together he would have had to go through what I did. At that point, he celebrated my
decision and forgave me. We have continued our relationship since that time.

Meeting at the Pearly Gates
This is the way that we tend to look at the whole issue of salvation. We die and meet Peter at the
Pearly Gates and he pulls out a book with our name on it (some of us have very thick books and
others very thin – mine I think is very thick) and begins to thumb through it. “Oh, how
interesting.” “Ah, Ben, I had forgotten about this one – wish I could forget it now.” “Hum, did
you really do this?” I can sense my eyes lowering toward that golden pavement and my
shuffling back and forth from one to the other foot.

Here St. Peter and I stand amongst many newcomers and he is making these sounds and
fragmented sentences. I can’t believe that we’re going to have to go through all this over again.
I was certain that I’d asked forgiveness for all my wrong deeds and here Peter is letting everyone
now how I lived.

Cultural Expectations
This is not far from describing our cultural expectations. We expect people to act guilty, be
sorry for what they have done, serve their time and then they can come and ask forgiveness. And
if they have done as expected, except for certain wrongs, they will receive forgiveness. That’s
the way it is supposed to be done.

In Steps The Backward God
Jesus is headed toward Jerusalem and people are gathering around him to hear what he has to
say. They question his motives and his accuracy as he calls God his and our Father. And then he
tells the story of the Backward God – the story of the Prodigal Son!

You know the story but I want to point out just a few very important parts that could easily get
lost in our attempts to make God fit our picture of God.

The Younger Son’s Confession
Their society is not much different from ours when it comes to forgiveness and that’s the reason
the younger son comes saying, “Father, I have sinned against you and do not deserve anything
but I ask that you hire me as a servant.” That was good on the part of the son. That is what was
expected then and now.

The Father’s Response
The father did not wait for the son to reach the house. He saw his youngest son in the distance
and ran to meet him. The father must have felt no need to make his son grovel before him. He
ran to the boy.

The father did not listen to the son’s confession at all. He forgives the son before there is a
request for forgiveness. This is terrible child rearing according to all I’ve ever be taught. How is
the son going to ever learn to be good if he doesn’t get to experience the consequence? How will
the son learn from his mistakes if the father forgives him first?

Jesus did not attempt to explain this to his listeners and neither will I except to say that the
younger son will experience the consequences as the years pass. The story just tells about this
father who did things backward – forgiving before forgiveness was sought..

Who Is the Father?
There is no question in my mind that Jesus told this story to describe God. He was telling those
with ears to hear that God is not like us and there is no way that we can possible squeeze God
into the boxes we feel comfortable with. God is God and does not have to fit into how we think
life should work. God forgives before we even know we need forgiveness much less before we
ask for it.

Who Are We
Many will doubt this perception because it pits us against that with which we have become
comfortable. It is just terrible to think that we might be called upon to forgive those who have
harmed us in some what even before they have made amends or asked forgiveness. Jesus makes
it clear that we are to be transformed in to the likeness of God. We don’t have to understand and
we don’t have to agree with our culture – our focus is to be God!

Conclusion
“Preacher, I just can’t swallow this stuff about God forgiving before we even ask for forgiveness.
What’s the use in asking?” I think the reason we need to ask for forgiveness has to do with us
rather than God. It provides us with a way to look at who we are and how we relate to others
around us and around the world. It also gives us the opportunity to look at which God we are
going to serve: the God who led His people out of Egypt and provided salvation on a Cross or
the many gods that society provides us with empty promises of health and happiness.

The Cross
We Christians focus on the cross of Jesus and his resurrection. For just a moment let’s set the
resurrection aside and focus on the cross. Imagine you are standing at the foot of the cross and
Jesus is hanging there looking down through glazed over eyes. Look around the crowd and see if
you can tell who is there with a sense of glee, see who are there as curious on-lookers, see if you
can find those who are suffering disbelief about what is happening. What do you feel as you
look up and see Jesus and see his lips begin to move and you hear, “Father, forgive them for they
know not what they do.”

“Forgive them!” Before anyone has decided they have made a mistake. Prior to anyone asking
forgiveness they are forgiven. These are words of God as he hangs upon the tree, shamed, in
pain, suffering for the sins of the world even when the world doesn’t know Him – Forgive them!
These are the words first spoken on the cross for us – for those who came before us and those
who will come after us – “Forgive them!”

These words from a Backward God who forgives before we meet the expectations are words that
allow us to look at the dark and evil side of life – out there and within ourselves. We Christians
can tell the whole world that we serve a Backward God. Our God calls us to be like Him as we
live in relation to others – all others. I can say, “I serve a backward God!”
I will tell people that I serve a backward God. A God who forgives before being asked to
forgive. Thus, I know how to forgive! A God who loves first even before we know how to love.
Thus, I know how I am to love. I serve a backward God! Amen