A Calvinist Retelling of the Prodigal Son Story

The younger brother wantonly asks for his share of the inheritance, and that means, of course, he wants his daddy dead and nothing more to do with his elder brother.

The father must have been outta his mind and converted half of the estate into cash and gave it to the younger son.

So, off the boy went, cash in the pocket, to find his dreams.

But such things rarely if ever pan out, and what he found, rather than his dreams, was poverty - his money ran out and so did his "friends." His only recourse, hire himself out to a pig farmer, of all things, munching on their food, making a pig out of himself, so to speak.

Well, he comes to his senses - yeah sure - and realizes that he'd be in the gravy again if he could go back home, but, first, he has to construct a worthy repentance sorry, the classic sob-story, to win his father's forgiveness.

When he finally has his thoughts put together, he heads home ...

He's welcomed with joy, or so it seems.

Good food and fine clothing.

All seems good ... but no elder brother to be found.

"Where's my brother?" asks the boy.

"He's dead," says the father.

"What happened?" exclaims the younger son!

"A sacrifice was needed to pay the price for you, m'boy. You offended heaven and earth, you transgressed your family's honor, my honor, and only death, only blood, could set it right. And it had to be someone I loved, loved very much. Only that kind of blood could fill the bill, pay the price, put it right."

"Upon your elder brother, I took out my wrath, my anger, my disgust with your sin. All that you deserved, but I gave it to my eldest son, instead. I had your brother beaten within an inch of his life. My servants here beat him with whips and sticks, spat upon him, humiliated him, and then dragged to that tree on the hill over there, you see it? And there they tied him. And after a few hours, a servant slit his throat."

"His hot blood cascading upon the earth paid the price for your sin. Plunged beneath that crimson flood, so to speak, your sin was washed away by your brother's death. All was set right, which is why I was able to welcome you home, and restore you to your proper place of sonship with me. It's all yours now. Don't you just love me all the more for what I've done. I killed my first-born son for you."

"Oh, but don't ya' know, it was a sad day for me. I wept bitterly at it, but it was necessary. Blood was required. Death was needed. So you could live. Only with the death of your brother for your sake could my wrath be appeased. Only with his death, could my anger be lifted and my mercy flow again. Only with his blood shed on that terrible tree could I love you again."

The younger brother cried out, "But father, was it necessary to kill him?"

"Of course it was. Justice required it. I required it. To put things right again."

"Your elder brother died for you, m'boy. He died for your sins."

The younger boy went away that night and wept.

"Have I done this?" he anguished. Did I cause the death of my brother?

And the next day, he left home again, because such a father could not be loved.

But only feared.

Who might be next?

In a such a world.

Of violence.

And blood.

Vision, Voting Booths and Faith

Written for the August newsletter of Calvary Presbyterian Church, Hawthorne, CA

As the Presidential Campaign heats up, both parties are offering their vision for America.

What’s our vision for America?

And more importantly, could we explain to someone how our vision for America correlates with our faith?

Our vision is shaped by all sorts of things:

1. How we were raised and how our parents saw the world.
2. Our schooling, what we majored in and our favorite professors.
3. Our work history - good jobs and bad jobs.
4. Our personal lives - joys and our sorrows, wins and losses.
5. How we feel about ourselves, how we see our lives and our place in the world.
6. Newspapers and magazines and books.
7. TV and radio.
8. Obviously, the internet - from the ridiculous to the sublime.
9. Our religious background and spiritual proclivities.
10. And our DNA.

In high school and college, I was formally introduced to Calvinism, a “world and life view” - a faith perspective into which I was born, with many a fine pastor proclaiming the gospel with Reformed Style! For me, as a person and a pastor, such breadth and depth captures the heart of the Christian Faith, the sweep of Scripture and the vision of the Saints and Leaders of the last 2000 years.

Everyone has a tradition, even those who claim to be “non-denominational” have a tradition behind them, and it’s called Anabaptist. 

Anyway, as Christians of the Calvinist, or Reformed, persuasion, our world and life faith is big; big enough for the world, and small enough for every-day life. Including the candidates we support and our vision of America. So we pray: O God, may our convictions correlate with Jesus, the Bible and our Reformed Tradition.”

So, we rightly ask, “What are the elements of a Calvinist, or Reformed, faith”? 

1. This world belongs to God, and God yearns for the world to know and live this liberating truth. This is God’s Sovereignty!
2. God is at work in all things to restore creation to health and wholeness for all God’s creatures, great and small. At the heart of this work is forgiveness, or atonement. This is God’s Grace!
3. The object of the Christian is not to simply go to heaven (though that’s part of the deal, God be praised), but to live well here, as a child of God, a friend of Jesus. This is God’s Sanctification of God’s People.
4. The prophets of the Old Testament offer tremendous insights into the mind of God and provide the foundation for Jesus and the New Testament. This is God’s Instruction.
5. The Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount describe specifically the world envisioned by Jesus. This is God with Us!
6. Paul the Apostle writes about the effort of God to persuade us, lead us, guide us, command us, through Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit, to be, as Jesus says, the salt of the earth and the light of the world. This is God’s Call to Follow Christ!

We shall serve Christ well when we take his life and love, and the whole counsel of God, into our hearts and minds, and our hearts and minds into the voting booth.

To God be the glory!

Interim Pastor Tom Eggebeen

Calvin's 500th Birthday - July 10

It's helpful to know where we come from (okay, you grammar mavins, "It's helpful to know from where we come" ... or for those who love the cadences of the King James Version, "from whence we cometh").

Anyway, like our biological family of origin, we have a spiritual family of origin located in Geneva, Switzerland. Though we can trace our faith-roots all the way back to Abraham (we are the children of the promise made by God to Abraham - see Romans 4:16-16 - Jew and Gentile alike), our immediate "church" history begins with the Reformation and specifically with John Calvin, a Frenchman who was converted to the Protestant way of things under a Paris Law School professor who had been reading Luther's tracts (Calvin was trained as a lawyer).

Both Calvin and his professor fled Paris in the night when Roman Catholic authorities mounted a fierce campaign against the Protestant movement, and by fierce, I mean, the possibility of being executed.

Ultimately, Calvin goes to Geneva, a city of refuge and freedom; there, he begins to write and teach, ultimately framing his "Institutes of the Christian Religion" or commonly called, "The Institutes" (1536-1554, in its various editions).

A Scottish gentleman by the name of John Knox fell under Calvin's teaching and upon Knox's return to Scotland, formed what would come to be termed "the Presbyterian Church."

In turn, Scottish immigrants brought the Presbyterian Church to America, and the rest is history.

In the way we think about God and the way we govern ourselves (with Elders), we are descendants of John Calvin - and can rightly be called Calvinists, though what this means exactly varies widely among his descendants.

In sum, Calvin's greatest contribution is "peace of mind and heart" with regard to God - that is, in Jesus the Messiah, we have a clear and perfect representation of Yahweh, the Lord Almighty, and we see God favorably and lovingly dealing with us - to forgive our sin, to overcome the snares of death, to help us fulfill the original mandate to Abraham (to be a blessing to the the nations, to creation itself - see Romans 8:20) with eternal assurance, as well. God's perfect love casts out all fear (1 John 4:18).

In his extended discussion on "Justification" - that is, "God putting us right with God," Calvin writes:

Here, indeed, we are especially to note two things: namely, that the Lord's glory should stand undiminished and so speak, in good repair, and that our consciences in the presence of his judgment should have peaceful rest and serene tranquility (Book 3, Chapter 13, Sections 1).

In a world where fears run high, it is a good thing to be anchored in Calvin's grasp of God's goodness and faithfulness to us! For body and for soul, in life and in death, for this life for the life to come. In Jesus the Messiah (our spiritual location - "we are in Christ"), we are safe! Though this life has its share of perils, "we fear no evil" (Psalm 23), and though death awaits all of us, Christ has conquered death in his resurrection from the dead. In Christ, we make our journey through time with confidence, liberated from the spiritual craziness of a desperate world and freed from the material consumption of a frightened world.

In Jesus the Messiah, the Christ, we are right on track!

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, I give myself to you in faith and obedience.

Amen and Amen.

Happy 500th Birthday to John Calvin

Pastor Tom

Our Part of the Bargain

From Psalm 63:8

My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.

Throughout the story of our faith, a partnership with God. Though God remains the “senior partner” (the Presbyterian, or Calvinist, side of the story), we, too, have a genuine role to play (the Methodist, or Arminian, side of the story).

God’s right hand – the ruling, governing, caring and comforting, hand of God upholds us – through thick and thin, sick and sin. “I will never let you go” (Romans 8:37-39) is the love of God for us, in life and in death, now and forevermore.

God’s hand upholds … our soul clings – our follow-through.

Daily I learn that my faith in Christ, my walk with God, my journey through life, is enriched when I’m following through.

The follow-through of faith: in some ways, simple: prayer, Bible reading, devotional/theological reading, faithful in worship, fellowship with believers, striving with all our might to love one another as Jesus loves us.

But then the follow-through grows a bit more complex: being a witness to others, in word and deed. Striving for justice and the wellbeing of our neighbor. As a Christian recently put it – “I’m tired of feeding and clothing the poor; I want to do something about the conditions that produce hungry and ill-clothed people.”

Yet even as I strive to fulfill my part of the bargain, I realize time and again “how far short of the glory of God I fall” (Romans 3:32).

So I’m glad to be a Presbyterian, because this much of it, I believe, we have right – a solid and unyielding reliance on grace … and it’s Biblical to boot – So it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who shows mercy (Romans 9:16).

See ya’ in God’s House tomorrow, and we’ll hear a little more about Romans and the Apostle Paul – a man passionate for God!