Coming to Yourself in the Pig Pen: Bishop Ron C. Hill on the Prodigal Son

He was a Jewish kid who wouldn't normally go near a pig. Now he was working on a pig farm, and he was so hungry that the animals' feed started to look like dinner.

"He was so poor and so hungry he even thought about eating pig food," Bishop Ron C. Hill says. "That's when you are down."

In this message, Bishop Hill, pastor of Love and Unity Church of God in Christ in Compton, retells the parable of the lost son from Luke 15. His subject is not how far a person can fall. His subject is the moment the son turned around, and who was waiting when he did.

A Smart-Mouthed Kid With Money

Bishop Hill describes the younger son without any softening. He was a smart-mouthed kid whose parents couldn't tell him anything. He wanted to be on his own, so he asked for his share of the inheritance, said goodbye, and left for a far country to party.

The money ran out, and a famine hit. The friends went with the money. "It's amazing," the bishop observes. "When you have money, you got friends. When they find out that you're broke, they can't answer your calls anymore."

He doesn't treat the pig pen as bad luck. He treats it as where pride leads. "When you get off into pride, when you get stubborn, no matter how much money you have, you can end up in the pig pen."

He is also clear about who he is talking to. It's someone who is tired of the way they're living, "sick and tired of being sick and tired," and who knows a change has to come before it's too late. That includes people who were once with God and walked away, and people who have never been with Him. In a sense, he says, some listeners are in a pen of their own right now. Their lives are in a tizzy and have gone down the tube.

"When He Came to Himself"

The turning point in the story is a single phrase: when he came to himself. Sitting among the pigs, the son remembered that even his father's hired servants had more bread than they could eat.

Bishop Hill points out a detail that is easy to miss. The son didn't go home expecting to be a son again. He went home to ask for a job. He had worked out that his father treated the hired help better than the pig farmer was treating him. His pride was gone. What was left was an honest look at his situation and a willingness to say, "I have sinned."

This is the step the bishop presses on his listeners. God loves you and wants you back, he says, but you have to come to yourself first. "Stop being prideful, stop being stubborn, admit that you need God."

God Won't Take Over Without Permission

Bishop Hill learned this himself when he was young. He had heard the older saints pray, "Oh God, have Your way," so he started praying it too. Then he waited for God to take over. Nothing happened. He kept praying it, and eventually he was praying it with an attitude.

Then God answered: I will when you allow Me.

"I didn't like that," he admits. He had wanted God to do it all. What he learned is a line he now asks his congregation to say aloud: "God cannot have His way in my life without my permission."

He admits that this is uncomfortable, because it means the next move belongs to us. People and the devil, he says, will come up with all kinds of reasons not to obey: I can't. That's too hard. He also warns about what happens when a person keeps delaying. "It is very, very dangerous to sit in a place where the word of God is being taught and it has no impact on you." If someone keeps hearing the truth and saying no, their heart can harden until they can no longer hear God at all.

The son in the pig pen could have stayed there and blamed the famine. He chose to get up instead.

The Father Was Already Running

This is where the story turns from hard to hopeful. The son was still a long way off when his father saw him. The father didn't wait at the door with his arms folded. He ran to his son, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him.

The son had prepared a speech about being a hired servant. The father called for the best robe, a ring for his hand, shoes for his feet, and the fatted calf. Bishop Hill explains that this was the calf they killed when they were getting ready to party. This my son was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.

Bishop Hill says God will do the same thing for anyone who comes home. He wants to forgive, to cleanse, and to give a brand-new start. The way back is simpler than most people expect. Jesus paid for our sins, so "you don't have to do anything to save yourself," the bishop says. "All you need to do is change your mind."

The son left home full of pride and ended up among the pigs. He didn't clean himself up before going home. He came to himself, got up, and started walking, and his father ran the rest of the way.