The Two Lost Sons

As I  prepare to head off to Poland in 3 weeks I have been reading a book called The Prodigal God by Tim Keller. It is a book that we will be studying during our intern training when I arrive to Poland and God has really been using it in my life.
God has clearly been sending me a message. You know those moments where everything around you seems to say the same thing and it feels like God is just holding a big neon sign trying to get you attention? This weekend I had one of those moments.
My devotions, the sermon at church and the book I began reading were all reminding me of two very important things.
1) God uses the weak, and accepts sinners as we are because there is nothing we can do.
2) God hates when we as Christians act righteous and boast in ourselves.

Maybe you read that and found that to be fairly straight forward and extremely obvious but I believe that I can forget both 1 and 2 in my own life.
In the book The Prodigal God, Tim Keller reminds us that the parable of the lost son is really a parable about two lost sons and this I feel is often overlooked. Seeing the recklessness of the younger brother I am reminded of my sin and how just as the son I do not deserve the love of my Father. The older son's bitterness reminds me that I can be judgmental and proud as a Christian which also makes me unworthy of my Father's love. So where does that leave me then if I have all of this sin? The incomprehensible truth is that I have a gracious Father in heaven. Keller reminds us of this, "Jesus is showing us the God of Great Expenditure, who is nothing if not prodigal toward us his children. God's reckless grace is our greatest hope, a life-changing experience.." Jesus is telling this story to a group of pharisees and religious teachers meaning he is speaking to a group of "older brothers". I think I so often imagine this story written for those like the younger brother, the brother who is lost with his rebellion against his father but Jesus specifically uses the attitude of the elder brother as a reflection of the religious teachers in his midst. These were the people who couldn't comprehend why Jesus would eat and associate with sinners.
I was reminded of this again on Sunday when the guest speaker at my church (Brett McBride) spoke on Matthew 9; the calling of Matthew as a disciple. Just as the parable in Luke 15 we see two different people. Matthew the tax collector or sinner and the religious teachers who don't understand why Jesus would associate with this horrible sinning man.

But the beauty of it all is that we are all sinners, we are dirty and lost and we do not deserve the love of Christ but He accepts us just as we are. He uses the weak, He loves the broken, the rejected and the despised. If that was not so I would not have any hope.
I love verse 12 when Jesus says, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go learn what this means, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.' For I came not to call the righteous but the sinners." 
One thing that stuck in Brett's sermon was when he said: " Its not just a call to relationship its a call to missions." Jesus used Matthew as His disciple as a missionary to others who were sick, and broken and despised. And so I am reminded that I have been called as a sinner to minister to other sinners this summer in Poland. I read through 1 Corinthians 1 the other day and I was once again reminded of my weakness, it is by God's grace that I have been saved through faith not by works so that I cannot boast. 1 Cor 1:27-31 has been a constant reminder for me, " But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being may boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written 'Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.'" 
So in summary I have been reminded that God has chosen me this summer to serve Him, not because of anything I can do, but despite my sins and failures He has chosen to use me to share his gospel in Poland. So I give my weakness over to God and I come as I am, as his servant ready to follow him wherever He takes me this summer.

-Kat