Luke 15: 11-32
The
Monday evening book group has been reading Anne Lamott’s book, ‘Small
Victories: Spotting Improbable Moments of Grace’. She makes a brief analogy to the prodigal son when she
introduces her essay, ‘Brotherman’.
After giving a vivid description about their despondent childhood, and
John, the oldest and the ‘star’ of the family who moved three hours away, you
can see that for many years she harbored resentment towards him. She and her other brother Stevo took
care of their parents as they were dying.
She and Stevo were the ones to never have left the area. She and Stevo were always around to clean
up the messes of her family’s life, not John.
But
she writes this about his return after many years, “John found refuge among the
people he had hurt and neglected.
I still had some little grudgelets and feared he would leave us again,
but the three of us were slowly growing up. That, grace, and exhaustion with myself allowed me to
forgive. I did not want to keep score anymore.” [i]
It’s
not hard to figure out that John was analogous to the younger brother who went
off to seek his fortune in today’s parable of the prodigal son and Anne and
Stevo identified with the older brother who stayed back at the ranch.
We
continue the sermon series the ‘The Genius or Way of Jesus’ reflecting upon the
character of Jesus and the ways it shows us a deeper and fuller life. Jesus as encourager,
balancer of power, resister of violence.
Last week Beth showed us the part of Jesus’ character as seer of soul. This week Jesus shows us that God is
ever present in our lives, no matter how we choose to live or to act.
The Prodigal Son
Swanson
Then Jesus said, “There was a man who
had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the
share of the property that will belong to me.’ So he divided his property
between them. A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled
to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living.
When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that
country, and he began to be in need.
So he went and hired himself out to one
of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs.
He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating;
and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of
my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of
hunger!
I will get up and go to my father, and I
will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no
longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.”’
So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his
father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around
him and kissed him.
Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I
have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called
your son.’ But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe—the
best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.
And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son
of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began
to celebrate.
“Now his elder son was in the field; and
when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. He called
one of the slaves and asked what was going on. He replied, ‘Your brother has
come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back
safe and sound.’ Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out
and began to plead with him.
But he answered his father, ‘Listen! For
all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never
disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I
might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came back, who has
devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’
Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine
is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours
was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’”
This is an extremely
complicated parable. So much of it
rings true about human nature. Greed.
Loss. Loneliness. Hunger. Realization. Jealousy. Anger. It’s all there, the worst of human nature; neither one of the
sons will win the humanitarian award for outstanding behavior.
Yet we are also privy to see,
and understand if we can, the best of divine nature. Love.
Acceptance. Generosity. Mercy. Forgiveness. Grace.
Jesus tells this story. A man had two sons. The younger son wanted, and was given
his share of his inheritance. At
that time the older son too was given his portion of the inheritance but we
don’t hear much about that. Being
the “respectable” son he probably socked it away somewhere to increase in value. Maybe an early Palestine venture
capital fund or something like that, who knows?
The younger son, the party animal,
left home to seek his fortune, or rather engaged in ‘riotous living’ as the
King James Version of the Bible puts it.
Now his father was a rich man, which meant that the son was the
recipient of a good hunk of change.
However, as people who engage in riotous living do, he goes through it
all pretty quickly. Wine, women
and song perhaps and then, the famine hit. Does that sound familiar? It reminds me of the extravagance of the 80’s and 90’s that
was suddenly quashed by the recession of 2007. Or the stock market’s correction this week. The party’s over….for a while.
The son had nothing. Not a morsel of food or dignity at that
point. He hired himself out, a
good Jewish boy, to work with the pigs.
TREF! So NOT kosher! He was at his lowest even though he was
instrumental in getting himself there.
But then the Bible says, ‘he came to himself’ (v. 17) rather, he figured
it out, he got it, the light-bulb went on, he had an a-ha moment. He did some introspective work, some
soul searching on his situation and his heart. He thinks, “I’ll go back to my father.” He rehearsed what he was going to say
and then went home.
While he was still in the
distance, his father sees him.
Runs to him. Greets
him. Kisses him. Accepts him. And makes a big party for him. For what was lost, now was found. He that left, returned. Let’s face it, we’ve all been that younger son.
But that’s only part of the
story. The oldest son was jealous
and angry when he heard the music and laughter. And, why shouldn’t he be? After all he was the son who stayed at home, who invested
wisely, who was at his father’s side. It’s only natural to get your nose out of joint and hold
‘some little grudgelets’ much like Anne Lamott and her brother Stevo in ‘Small
Victories’. Let’s face it again,
we’ve all been that older son too.
Human nature at it’s worst.
But rather than focus on the
actions of the sons, or our actions for that matter, let us focus on the
extravagant and compassionate love that the father offers. I believe that’s what Jesus would like
us to focus on as well; the extravagant and compassionate outpouring of love
from God and seeing the sacred that is presented to us in all of our life
situations.
Both of the sons are
broken. And yet God met them where
they were, warts and all and in their brokenness. Being broken is not such a good thing, it doesn’t feel like
a good place to be in but I do believe that there is value that can be gained
in that brokenness because that is where God chooses to meet us head on, and
takes care of us giving us what we need to survive.
Stuff happens in life to all
of us, but what sets us apart as Christ followers is that we know that God is
with us and for us. That is
something you can always count on.
The sacred, divine and holy wiggles into those places with you all you
need do is know and recognize that’ healing can begin.
There is a wideness in God’s
mercy as the hymn proclaims. There
is a wideness in God’s mercy like the wideness of the sea. God’s mercy and love is
incomprehensible, it knows no limits or boundaries or colors of skin. God’s ability to receive and forgive is
beyond what we can even imagine.
Thank goodness and thank God for that.
God extends mercy and grace
to each and every one of us even if we’ve squandered away our inheritance, even
if we’ve left home in search for something better - even if we have been
faithful servants of the word. In our brokenness we find wholeness.
The reassuring message for
today is that God loves!
Amen.
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