Text: Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32 March 17, 2007
Introduction
Today in the time reserved for the reading of the Gospel and the sermon we are going to do something a little different. We are going to mix the reading with a dramatic reflection of what’s happening in the story. We did this three years ago, and we are going to try it again today, because it seems to me that it puts the dynamic of the story in relief.
The story is the one often called the Prodigal Son. This is a powerful story, and for many a difficult one. Many see the story as an allegory—with they, or their work, or God, being represented by one or more of the characters. And that may be so. But it might also be just a story about three people and how they live their lives.
So: we are going to play with this story a little, go beyond what is obvious in the text, and put the story into our imaginations. Members of the congregation will speak for the characters in the story.
Part 1: Context
Pastor reads:
The Gospel according to Luke, the 15th chapter.
Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” So he told them [a] parable.
The scribes and the Pharisees object. Jesus is violating a law and tradition that excludes law-abiding people from sharing a meal with unclean people. Not only does Jesus eat with these folks, he is the host. The righteous ones are unhappy.
In response, Jesus tells three parables. One is about a shepherd who searches for one lost sheep among a herd of 100. One about a woman who searches for one lost coin among ten. And the story we are about to hear today is about a father, a son who wanders, and a son who stays at home. The man-and-his-two-sons story is common in the Bible. Think Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau, Isaac and Ishmael.
In each of the three parables Jesus tells, something that is lost is found again. In each of them, the finding leads to a party. But only in the story for today does that cause a problem.
Part 2: Son leaves home (v11-20a)
Pastor reads:
11 “There was a man who had two sons. 12 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. 13 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. 14 When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. 15 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. 16 He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. 17 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! 18 I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; 19I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.” ‘ 20 So he set off and went to his father.
Young son (member of the congregation) speaks:
It wasn’t so hard to decide to leave. I mean, he hardly ever talked to me while I was there. It was always about my older brother, “Mr. good brother.” He was good, too. Always did the right thing, always did it well. All I every heard was “why can’t you be like your brother?” He was always around when my father needed him, he never put off doing the chores, never got in trouble for forgetting the animals. He never fouled up, as far as I could see.
But I don’t think he ever had any fun, either. And if you thought I was planning to spend my days like that, day after day, you don’t know me very well. It was time to leave the old homestead. I was in line for my part of my old man’s inheritance. It was mine, I deserved it. I wasn’t going to wait around until he died. By that time I’d be too old to enjoy it.
Things didn’t quite work out as I had hoped, as you’ve heard. I admit it, I was a little careless in the spending department. Maybe a little too generous. I had good friends; why shouldn’t I spend money on them if I wanted to? I mean, I wasn’t stupid about it. If this famine hadn’t happened, I’d be telling you a different story today, that’s for sure.
Except: it did happen. That wasn’t too good for me. After a while, I couldn’t buy any thing for myself, much less for my friends. Who seemed to have wandered off somehow. It was no fun, especially no fun when I had to hire myself out to a Gentile and to feed his pigs. Pigs! What would my friends back home think of that, me a son of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And the pigs ate better than me.
I’m not that clueless. It didn’t take me long to figure out that I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I wised up. Maybe I could make my father take me back. Though he’d be pretty upset. I mean, who wouldn’t be, I guess. And my brother. I didn’t even want to think about my brother. So I concocted this plan. I’d go back to him on my knees. I’d tell him I messed up. I’d offer to work in the field picking weeds, if that’s what it took. So that’s what I did.
Part 3: Son returns home (v20b-24)
Pastor reads:
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. 21 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.’ 22 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. 23 And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; 24 for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.
Father (member of the congregation) speaks:
I won’t lie to you. I was not a happy about it. Not at all. I was angry, to tell you the truth. Asking for half his inheritance now. While I was still his living father. I’d never heard of anything like it. It was like as far as he was concerned, I was already dead. You are dead, he might as well have said. Give me my half of your life, he might as well have said.
And leaving me and his brother to do all the work around here. Just walking off like he could have cared less. I wouldn’t exactly have called that “honoring your father and mother.” I didn’t get it. It was very confusing to me. Still is, really. I guess I could have refused him, but … And I thought: he’ll have to learn the hard way.
But when he was gone, I missed him so much. That little jerk. I worried about him. It was hard to sleep at first. I’d wake up in the middle of the night, thinking I’d heard a sound. What was that? Maybe he’d come back, maybe he’d changed his mind. I wondered: was he ok? Really, I wondered (though I didn’t admit it to myself): was he still alive? And I prayed so hard that God would watch over him. Pray, God, that he be kept safe.
And sometimes I’d think: at least my oldest son is still with me. At least he is here. I’m proud of him. He is a man who knows his duty and does it, no complaints. And who respects his father, at least. So I thought that was how things were going to be. That was it.
When I saw that boy coming up the road. I can hardly tell you. I just about had a heart attack. I thought: that can’t be. This is just like those noises at night. Don’t get your hopes up. But of course, it was him. I made a fool of myself, running down the road like that. They must have laughed to see an old proper man like me acting so undignified. What did I care. My son was not dead! He was alive. God be praised! It was like he was raised from the dead (and I felt that way, too: me being raised). Raised from the dead. And that’s why I set up this party. If there was one day in the year to eat meat, this was the day. And I’d invite all the neighbors, let them come, too. What a day!
Part 4: Brother is unhappy (v25-30)
Pastor reads:
25 ”Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. 27 He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.’ 28 Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. 29 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. 30 But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’
Older brother (member of the congregation) speaks:
Ah. When I came down from working, I thought: what is this? What’s going on here? There were a ton of people, all making noise. I thought: has something bad happened? Was there an accident? I thought: Is my father all right?
Like I should have been so worried. It was a party. But no one had told me about any party. In my own house! It still ticks me off just thinking about it. Here I was, like some alien. Stuck on the outside. As usual, I guess. Sometimes I felt like we were a modern-day version of Jacob and Esau. I’m the hard worker, and he gets all the attention. He always was my father’s favorite. I don’t know how I know; I just know it. I never understood why. Here he might as well have spit in my father’s face, and still he allows him back. “Your brother,” they called him just now. Not my brother, friend. Maybe my father can call him his son, but if you ask me, he lost rights to that a long time ago.
To be fair, when he first told us he was leaving, part of me said “you are such a light-weight.” You are leaving us in the lurch. But the other part of me thought: Maybe I wish I could go with you. A little. I mean, it’s good to be here and all, but sometimes I feel kind of stuck. I mean, I have this whole place, really, but even so… And when he goes, I thought, it will be even more lonely here that it is now. He always gets the adventure. He’s the one who gets to have the fun. There is never a party for me. Never for me. My father takes me such for granted, as if I was a piece of furniture or something. I know I could get my own calf and cook it if I wanted to. But I didn’t want to do it myself; I wanted my father to.
Part 5: Father reconciles (v31-32)
Pastor reads:
31 Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 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.’”
The Gospel of the Lord.
This story is commonly called the Prodigal Son, but it is misnamed. It is has little to do with the son’s extravagance, which is what “prodigal” means. It has also been called the Lost Son, but that’s not much better. If anything, as in the parables of the coin and the sheep that precede it, it is the finding, not the losing, that is important. It is the found coin, the found sheep, and the found son who make the searchers celebrate. Nor is the focus on the extravagance of love in the father, or his forgiveness. By welcoming his son, he does only what nine parents out of ten would do.
Instead, Jesus uses this parable as he does the other two in the series: as a way to respond to and deflect the Pharisees’ remarks at the very beginning.
The Pharisees and scribes see two kinds of people. Us good ones and them bad ones. Jesus is eating with them bad ones. It makes us good ones mad. We don’t know how it makes the bad ones feel. But where the Pharisees see two kinds of people, Jesus sees one kind.
What makes this story different from the others is that it does not end with the return of the son, as the others end with the return of the coin and the sheep.
In this story, the younger brother and the older brother are two people separated by hate and hurt. One will not eat with the other. Yet the way this story ends is that the father reconciles the two. The father comes out to see the younger son. And the father comes out to see the older son. Both sons. In the father’s eyes, they are both beloved sons. It is not enough that each son is joined to the father. They are joined to one another. “Your son,” says the older son. And the father corrects him in return, “Your brother.”
Jesus is a reconciler. Not only between us and God. But between us and us, between one and another. Though we might have good and clear reasons, no doubt, to remain apart, those reasons are not God’s, not Jesus’. These days—and it seems dangerously so—we are separated from one another as the brothers were, by hate and hurt. We are all of us lost to each other. And when we are found to be brothers and sisters, then God rejoices. And invites us not to grumble, not to quote some law or other, not to be aggrieved, not to seek revenge, but to rejoice with God.
Thanks be to God.
No comments:
Post a Comment