I'd like to report that the basement of Epiphany House is now dry.  After Lent service last Wednesday we discovered it filled with water due to a sewer backup.  It was unsettling to discover a sewer backup that happened during my sermon!  On Thursday I got to see (and smell) the inside of our septic tank and later watched as the plumber cleaned the gunk out the basement drain.  There's something humbling about seeing the inside of one's cesspool and know there's a hole in the ground where things go that we'd rather not think about.  And I'm surely thankful I don't clean sewers for a living.

          But some people live part of their lives in a sewer.  The Prodigal Son did.  He was a young man who had it made but threw it away in foolish living, following his desires that eventually led him to a pigpen.  I heard a memorable explanation of this story at the Family Treatment Center, Jordan, Minnesota, during Holy Week of 1979.  I was there for three days with a friend who was trying to stop drinking.  While other pastors were preparing for Holy Week, I was getting a lesson in life.

          The Founder of Family Treatment Center is Rev. Phil Hansen, Lutheran Pastor and author of a little book, Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired.  He writes how the Prodigal Son was probably an alcoholic.  But Hansen says there's a little of the Prodigal Son in each of us.  He was a worldly young man who wanted it all - "faster horses, younger women, older whiskey, more money".  Somewhere in his teenage years he stopped growing up emotionally and got the idea he could do anything, and the only thing holding him back was his stodgy old father.  He wanted to do things his way, so he said, "Okay, Dad, give me my half of the farm.  It's mine and I want to get out of this lousy place and live!"  And his father, amazingly, let him go.  Without argument, he just let him go.

          And away the young man went to do things HIS way - spending, drinking, womanizing, and wild living.  He had lots of friends, as long as he was buying.  But his dream life didn't last long.  He ran out of money, and when his money ran out, so did his "friends."  Then there was no money, no fun, no food, and he soon found himself alone, starving and dirty.  He got a job feeding pigs, the ultimate insult to a Jew, and to live he had to eat the food of pigs himself.  Jesus' story really takes us to the bottom of the barrel of life.

          And that's what happened;  he bottomed out.  He was alone, broke, living in a cesspool compared to his former life.  His way had failed him and he'd run out of options.  He was living a lie, at the end a dead-end street.

          But then an amazing thing happened.  He CAME TO his senses.  He realized he was self-destructing, so he woke up.  He came to realize his life was totally out of control.  He was sick and tired of being sick and tired and was going to die, unless he changed his life.  And at that moment of truth he remembered his father and decided to go back home.

          In 1935 two men, Bill W. and Dr. Bob, crossed paths.  They had been hopeless alcoholics whose lives had been ruined, but now they weren't drinking.  They met and discussed what was working to keep them sober and alive, and from this meeting came the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, steps which have changed millions of lives.  Here they are:

1. Admitted we were powerless over alcohol, and that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourself, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became wiling to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible except when to do so would injure others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry it out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to others and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

          I've studied and practiced many of these steps in my own personal life, and I am always amazed how Christian they are, how they almost could have been written by Jesus Himself.  They get straight to the heart of what God wants for sinful, fallen people.  He wants us to come to our senses; He wants us healed.  And the way to healing starts when we, like the Prodigal Son, come to our senses and see ourselves as we really are.

          The Prodigal Son was down and out, sick and tired of being sick and tired.  He came to realize that if he wanted to live, he'd have to live it on someone else's terms, not his own.  In the midst of his sewer he discovered he still wanted to live, so he dragged himself back home and found a Father waiting for him with open arms.  Though he now asked only to be a hired man, his Father gave him back his full rights as a son.  The past was left in the past and life became new again, because, "My son was dead and is now alive;  he was lost, but now is found."  What a beautiful picture of our heavenly Father who's waiting for us to come back!

          Well, friends, how's your life going?  Everything's under control, right?  You never left the farm or strayed off.  You may not have a problem with drugs or alcohol, although about 3-5% of us do and each of those negatively affects ten others.  But compulsive-addictive behavior isn't limited to alcohol.  It goes into other areas that develop into destructive patterns of life.

          Some of us are addicted to tobacco products, even though we know they're bad for us.  And some of us are addicted to TV, or food, or money, or sex, or even worry.  We all have an unmanageable part of our lives.  Perhaps it is impulsive buying, or gossip, or screaming when we're angry, or blaming others for our troubles.  Many compulsive behaviors aren't big problems, but some behaviors can be extremely destructive.

          Recovery begins with realizing you're powerless over that problem.  You see, it's not so much an alcohol or drug problem, but a life problem.  You and I all have a deeper problem within us called sin, and the worry or the screaming or the blaming or the feelings of superiority are just symptoms.

          But we can't sit and discuss why the fire started while the house is burning.  First we must put the fire out.  Then we can try to find out what caused it.  Too many people want to get counselling while they're still drinking, but that doesn't help them quit.  Finding out why you're doing drugs doesn't fix the immediate problem.  You must first come to, to first stop destructive behavior.

          Some people chase the imaginary butterfly called self-esteem, thinking the solution is within them.  If they just reach down deep inside, find a way to feel good about themselves, things will get fixed.  But the search for self-esteem ends in a blind alley.  Peel away all the layers of the onion and there'll be nothing left.  Only God can give us self-worth.  Only He can be the center of a lasting existence.  We have value because He values us.  The Father is always there for His sons and daughters and He's ready to forgive us and take us back.  The son didn't dig deep into his psyche and start to feel better about himself.  He admitted what he was and found love and acceptance!  He'd been rotten, but it didn't matter.  The Father's love gave him all the worth he needed.

          My friends, wherever you are, whatever you've done, there's hope.  If there's hope for the Prodigal Son, there's hope for you.  If your life is going great and you don't need this sermon, fine and good.  But if one day you COME TO and wonder how you got there, remember that you have a Heavenly Father who is waiting with open arms.  If one day you find yourself drowing in a cesspool, reach out to the Father.  He'll bring you out and help you to a better life, the forgiven life.

          Christ died to forgive us.  He went to the grave for people like you and me who slip and fall.  He's outside the empty tomb, ready to pick us up and give us a new beginning.  He loves that person starting back at you in the mirror.  We may not like the person in the glass, but He does.

          What are you doing for the unmanageable things in your life?  There's a great saying, "Let Go and Let God".  It sounds trite but it works.  Let go of the control and let God take over.  You and I don't have to be in charge of everything.  Surrender your life to God.  That's the step of faith and it gives us a new beginning, a fresh start.  Let Go and Let God direct your life!

          Proverbs 3:5 says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and don't depend on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths."  Good advice!  We don't know everything, but He does.  Thanks be to God that in Him we are loved and forgiven.  Amen

Copyright © 2001 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.