<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA man had two sons\u2026\u201d I know you are all Biblically literate so I know that just this simple phrase has already set your teeth on edge. I\u2019m sure you are already bracing for the rest of the story. Because we know what happens in the Bible with stories that begin this way. Adam had two sons: Abel and Cain, and Cain killed his brother. Abraham had two sons, Isaac and Ishmael, and the rivalry between them is used to explain the millennia long conflict that in our time is represented by Israelis and Palestinians. Isaac had two sons, Esau and Jacob and Jacob stole his brother\u2019s birthright. King David had two sons who were rivals, Amnon and Absalom, and the result was a civil war that almost destroyed the kingdom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA man had two sons.\u201d Think how Jesus\u2019 listeners, who knew all these stories, for whom these were family stories, must have heard these words. Think how they must have cringed. \u201cA man had two sons.\u201d I know you\u2019ve heard this story before; today I want to ask you to set aside everything you know about it, everything you\u2019ve heard, and try, like someone who has just cleaned their glasses, to see it in a new light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA man had two sons.\u201d The older one is a lot like his father, must have learned from his father, as farm kids do, all the skills and patience of sowing, caring, reaping, up at dawn to feed the animals, working by lamp light when the harvest has to be gotten in. He\u2019s grown into a sold man by the time of this story, I\u2019m sure his father is proud, I\u2019m sure he\u2019s beginning to take his place in the community. He never disobeyed his father, he never asked for anything, he just worked like a slave on the farm day in and day out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA man had two sons.\u201d The younger one; what shall we say about him? He isn\u2019t any of those things I just mentioned. I think of him never quite getting farm work, never wanting to do it, avoiding it whenever he can, growing up with the farm asi a burden threatened to press the life out of him. I think of him always wanting to go to the city, eagerly listening to stories from travelers, imagining a day when he himself would see the sights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You know what happened. As soon as he was old enough, he went to his father and asked for his share of the inheritance. You may have heard that this was treating his father like he was dead but the father doesn\u2019t object; he sells some property and gives his son the money and the younger son takes off for the city, where he squanders all of it in dissolute living. I\u2019m going to pause just a moment for you to imagine that. Ok, that\u2019s enough, a little dissolute living goes a long way. Once the money\u2019s gone, of course, he has to find work and he works for a Gentile on a pig farm. Have you ever been to a pig farm? Have you ever driven by a pig farm? A pig farm can make your eyes water. Of course, pigs are forbidden to Jews, but there\u2019s no suggestion he\u2019s eating pork, just helping raise it, and he\u2019s so poor and so hungry that he wishes he could eat the feed he\u2019s giving to the pigs. Ironically, he\u2019s back doing farm work, and he\u2019s doing the worst kind. Now it doesn\u2019t take much thinking in this situation to realize that if he\u2019s going to do farm work, he\u2019d be better off back home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is all prelude, isn\u2019t it? This is the set up for what comes. This isn\u2019t the only son who\u2019s ever taken part of the family fortune and squandered it. Families are full of guys like this. You probably know a family that\u2019s dealt with something similar. What if it was your family? What if it was your kid? We all want our kids to find their way but this one has already spent his father\u2019s trust and money. How would you handle him?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What happens is a party. Amazingly, his father goes to his son, rushes out to the son, before he even gets all the way home, greets him, gives him a festal coat, puts a ring on his finger and tells the servants to cook up some barbecue. They have a huge party, with brisket and I\u2019m sure beer and wine and every good thing. You\u2019d think this kid had just graduated and gotten a plum job; you\u2019d never know he was a refugee from his own reckless, selfish squandering. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s the father\u2019s joy in finding him alive and home that demands celebrating. The family can never be complete without him. At the end of the story, the father says, \u201cWe had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.\u2019\u201d Wow: it\u2019s hard to resist singing Amazing Grace, isn\u2019t it? Well, it\u2019s a good song and this is a good story and it might just as well end there but\u2014it doesn\u2019t, does it? No, this isn\u2019t just a man and his son: remember where we started? \u201cA man had two sons.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The noise of the party is wafting out over the hills, the music, the loud voices, everyone is there except: the other son, the older son. Where is he?\u2014out in the fields, working away, getting jobs done just like he\u2019s always done. Something is growing there and it isn\u2019t just the crop, it\u2019s his resentment, his anger. He\u2019s pouting. Surely he knows about the party, surely someone has told him that his brother\u2019s back, his brother who forced his dad to sell that lovely olive grove, his brother he never really shared the work, even when they were kids, his brother who always got away with everything. Now his brother\u2019s back and he\u2019s not about to pretend he\u2019s happy about it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So he stays in the field, works away, until finally his father finds him. His father finds him because it\u2019s dawned on the father that he has two lost sons: one has just returned, one needs to be called back. One is at the party; one is pouting in the field, using work to express anger, his absence from the party speaking his disapproval. Absence doesn\u2019t always make the hart grow fonder; sometimes, it just makes everyone sad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The father goes out to find him. Because the older brother is so often treated as an after thought, we miss this detail. If you just read the beginning of the story, it seems the action is controlled by the younger brother: he leaves, he squanders, he returns. But it\u2019s the father who is the main agent. He gives the two sons a home, he gives the younger brother what he asks, he goes out to find him when he is on the way home, he makes a party, he goes out to the field to find the other lost son. It\u2019s the father who moves this story forward at every stage and now he does it by talking to his older son. The older son has a grievance and its foundation is the disruption of the family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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!\u2019 [Luke 15:31f]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The younger son came back because in his heart he re-discovered a relationship. Remember his inner dialogue? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.\u201d [Luke 15:17-19]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He expects to be treated like a worker at the farm; the older son speaks of working like a slave. The father always has one relationship in mind: they are his sons, they are family. When the younger son realizes this, it is the invocation of \u2018father\u2019 that causes his return. The older son has also lost his relationship.\u201cI worked like a slave,\u201d he says\u2014not like a son. He\u2019s lost the right relationship with his brother, too; he calls him, \u201cThis son of yours.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The father\u2019s response is simple. When the family is complete, when everyone is together, he feels joy and the party is the result. It\u2019s the restoration of relationships that makes the joy. In each encounter, he addresses them as \u201cson\u201d and the party is unstoppable because it comes from the joy of completing the family. \u201cWe had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.\u2019\u201d Notice the imperative: \u201cWe had to celebrate\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This story is often told as an allegory of forgiveness but that\u2019s a mistake. He says he\u2019s sinned against his father and heaven but it\u2019s not his confession that causes the joy; his father has already run out to find him He is not embraced because he is forgiven but because his his father\u2019s child, because of the father\u2019s joy at his return. He was lost; now he\u2019s found. That\u2019s all that matters to the father. It\u2019s all that matters with both sons: that they be found, that they know they are beloved children. The older brother doesn\u2019t say he\u2019s sorry about pouting, about his resentment. The father embraces him where he is, out there in the field, as he is, for who he is, because he, too, is a son. He embraced the younger one before he even got all the way home; he embraces the older one to bring him home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This isn\u2019t forgiveness, it\u2019s grace. It isn\u2019t about how we get to where God can love us\u2014it\u2019s knowing that this is what God is like. It\u2019s part of a set in Luke. We don\u2019t have time to explore them all this morning but here is the short version. A man has a hundred sheep, one gets lost and he goes and finds it and when he does, he\u2019s so happy he throws a party to celebrate. A woman has a necklace with ten silver coins; one gets lost and she sweeps the whole house looking for it and when she finds it, she throws a party to celebrate. Are you seeing the pattern?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A man has two sons. One gets lost squandering his life; when he is found, his father is so happy, he throws a party. It\u2019s imperative: he says, \u201cWe had to celebrate.\u201d Another son is lost too, lost in resentment and rules. What happens when he is found? The surrounding context of these parables is a group of people who are just like the older brother, angry that Jesus eats with sinners, unhappy about the company he keeps. Those new people don\u2019t know the rules, they don\u2019t know how to behave. So they miss the party God is giving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Are you going to the party? Paul says, \u201cIn Christ there is a new creation.\u201d And he goes on to say that we are God making an appeal through us. This is what God is like, this is what Jesus is teaching. God is like this father who wants to embrace us. Are you going to the party? We live in a world of boundaries and expectations, rules for what\u2019s polite, what\u2019s right. All those rules keep us safe; all those walls are made because of our fears. The tough thing, the annoying thing, about Jesus is that he won\u2019t have anything to do with our walls and he wants us to live from faith in God\u2019s joyful embrace instead of our fearful wall building. Jesus lives in a society that is divided up, you heard it at the beginning: there\u2019s Pharisees, teachers of the law, sinners, all these different kinds of people. And he just makes a party for all of them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Are you going to the party? This is an enormously loving and wonderful congregation. This is an enormously welcoming and appreciative congregation. That is what God wants and God blesses that. Maybe one more thing: realize that out there in the surrounding community there are people who don\u2019t know that\u2019s what God\u2019s like and lots of people who assume that if they came here, they would be treated like people who lived dissolutely; like the older brother wants his younger brother treated instead of as beloved children. So, Paul says, \u201cWe are God making the appeal, ambassadors\u2026\u201d It\u2019s up to us, each of us. If you want to see the love of God flourish here, go be an ambassador. Make this place a party where the love of God is celebrated. Are you going to that party? It\u2019s not easy. Sometimes they play different music, sometimes they hang different banners. God just loves them all. He wants us to live like we are beloved children and his whole life is an example of what that looks like. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I hear this story, I hear the sound of that party and I want to go. Are you going? Are you coming to the party? I want to get there; I want us all to get there. But more than what I want\u2014God wants us, God wants you, God wants me, God wants all of us. Two Sundays ago we heard Isaiah say for God,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nHo, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.[Isaiah 55:1ff]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s God\u2019s hope: that we will all, every single one, come to the party. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Are you coming to the party? Can you let go of everything and just come celebrate? Sing different songs some Sundays, tear up the bulletin and make it confetti, throw it, celebrate, make it the party of the reconciliation of God. When we do, the angels sing and the joy of God overflows like a wine glass poured too full. Jesus is the wine: \u201cpoured out for many,\u201d he says. Among them are you; among them are me. Are you coming to the party?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The parable of the prodigal son intends to invite us to imagine a party where God embraces us as beloved children.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[12,371,3,32],"tags":[237,317,26,118,25],"class_list":["post-1699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lent","category-luke","category-sermon","category-year-c","tag-grace","tag-love-in-action","tag-parable","tag-party","tag-prodigal-son"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1699"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1701,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1699\/revisions\/1701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}