Prodigal God

Rejoice with Me!
Luke 15:11-32
October 21, 2010

Rev. Selena A. Wright

Do you know why Jesus told this parable?

It all started a little earlier in the text, at the beginning of Chapter 15 we read that Jesus was out preaching and the tax collectors and the sinners were gathering close to listen. These were, the bad guys, or so said the religious leaders of the day. Jesus’ followers were not the well respected folks of the community, just the opposite. The outcasts, the marginalized, these were the people who stayed close to Jesus and Jesus kept near to them. So in verse 2 we read that the Pharisees were grumbling and saying, “this fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

This was not a compliment. This was a judgment. What kind of example was this man named Jesus who welcomed sinners? Who even eats with them?

And in response to the statement of the Pharisees, offered as an accusation, Jesus tells them three different parables.

First he speaks of a shepherd who has 100 sheep. One of them wanders away and he leaves the 99 to go search for the one who is lost. When he finds it he calls his friends and family together and says, Rejoice with Me for I have found the sheep that was lost.

The second is about a woman who loses one of 10 coins and goes about looking everywhere for it. When she finds it she calls together her family and friends and says, Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that was lost.

And then we arrive at the prodigal son. The story of a father whose son ran away from and upon his return his father ran out to him and said, we must celebrate, and asked his friends and family to rejoice with him for his son was lost and has been found. But the man’s other son, the eldest, was angry and resentful of his brother’s welcome – he was lost too, and his father seeks him out, leaves the party to invite him in and asks, will you rejoice with me?

Where have you found yourself in this story?

I have tried to describe this parable in the past weeks so that we can find ourselves not just in one place, but in two places. We are all the younger son because we all at some point in our lives have run away from God, we have all tried to live or do or believe or hope on our own with no help from anyone, and especially not God. We want to believe that we will be just find on our own and so we leave, we leave God. Until it finally hits us and we realize that we can’t do it on our own and we return home, not even hoping for forgiveness and yet we are welcomed with open arms. Did you find yourself here? Broken, desperate, repentant, humbled – and yet loved, embraced, forgiven?

Or was it the elder brother you really identified with. The one who has lived a good life, made the right choices, done what was expected of him – but not because he wanted to but because he felt he had to. The elder son who was so desperate to receive his father’s approval, that he tried to earn the love that was freely given. And in the end, it made him jealous, bitter and resentful of those who had not worked as hard as he. He, who was unable to rejoice at the return of his brother because it wasn’t fair, because he deserved the party more than his brother. Did you identify with this man who remains a mystery – left outside with an invitation to come in – still unsure what he will do – to rejoice at his brother’s return…that is the question.
Where do you see yourself? Once you find yourself there, ask yourself…what is the point of this parable? Why did Jesus tell it?

Was it a parable for us to find our place, to see ourselves in the younger brother or elder brother or both? Is this a parable about us?

Or is it about more?

I want you to look at what is at the center of the painting. Nothing is very centered but more than anything else, it is not the younger brother, the prodigal as we often call him, and it is certainly not the elder brother who has been pushed to the side and in our painting, removed completely – it is the father. Rembrandt focused the light on him more than anyone else – on his face, his hunched shoulders and on his hands. It’s appropriate, isn’t it, for isn’t this parable not about the sons but about the father.

This is a parable about the prodigal – but not just the prodigal son, this is about the prodigal God.

Yep, you heard me right…the prodigal God.

I don’t think I have ever used the word prodigal in my life unless I was referring to this sc ripture and the son in particular and that has caused a problem. We don’t use the word and so we have forgotten the meaning. I don’t know about you but when I hear the word prodigal I think of recklessness, abandonment, arrogant, ignorant – all words we might ascribe to the son who left home, wasted his inheritance on debauchery and then stumbled home. But that is not the accurate definition of prodigal. Prodigal means reckless extravagance, which is different than recklessness. It also means lavishly abundant.

So it is easy to see that the son was recklessly extravagant in throwing all of his inheritance away on what scripture calls debauchery, you could also say stupid fun. But is it not also true that the father is recklessly extravagant in his forgiveness, is he not lavishly abundant in his love?
This story, this picture could just as easily be about the prodigal God as the prodigal son.
Lets look at it through his eyes. His son tells him I want my inheritance, now, I don’t want to wait till you die. And what does he do?

He lets him go? He gives him what he wants even though it is reckless and extravagant not to mention inappropriate for the son to have asked in the first place. He doesn’t hold his son close, even though the father has the foresight to know the pain that will come to his son, even though he knows he might be lost forever – his love is so lavishly abundant that it lets go…he gives his son the freedom to walk away. For any parent who has dropped a child off at college, you might know a bit of the anxiety and pain of letting go – you want to keep your kids close and safe but you love them enough to let them fall, and make mistakes and maybe worse. Your love frees them to go their own way, no matter how much it hurts you, you are truly reckless in your love.
And when that other child, the one who is close but distant says something hurtful, you calmly and steadily say again and again…I love you, and they say no you don’t, you love my brother more and you say again, I love you. And everytime that love is rejected or misunderstood or not taken seriously your heart breaks but you keep loving and welcoming and inviting.

We spend so much time on these brothers…thinking of the courage and humility it took the younger brother to return to his home…thinking of the change of heart and compassion that it would take the older brother to enter into the party and welcome his brother home…but do we think of the father?

How he was hurt to watch his son go? How he was hurt to watch his son stay – not out of joy but like a slave? How he celebrated at the return of one son and in that moment realized how much he had lost another?

How it feels to love so recklessly?

It sounds awful! It sounds like only a job for God.

And yet, here is this man before us, not a God just a parent.

Henri Nouwen says that whether you are the prodigal son or the elder brother – a return home, a return to the father, is first claiming yourself as the son or as the child of the compassionate father…but nto to end there. To truly come home is to commit to be the son no longer but to become the father.

We are to become the father. The prodigal son with all his recklessness now must turn that into reckless love. The elder brother with all his abundant work and dedication must transform that into abundant humility and compassion. They must grow into their father.

It is hard for us to hear that because this is not a text about us, really, right? It is about God, how much God loves us, how God will always welcome us home. Yes, that is true, but it is also a text about who we are called to be and how we are called to live into the prodigal love we receive from God.

The father in this story risked everything in love. He gave not only his money away to his son, but he gave his heart away as he watched one son leave in rebellion and one son stay out of fear or obligation. Nouwen says that to become the father we have to take part in the discipline of giving – giving of self. Giving ourselves away is not easy, it does not come naturally – what comes naturally are all the experiences of the children – rebellion, self-interest, greed, anger, resentment – but when we realize how God really loves us, forgives us, welcomes us and how much God will risk for us – we know that the ability to give – to give ourselves away – is there. That is what Jesus lived, as a human, and that is what we are called to do. Nouwen says that “giving all becomes gaining all” which we hear from Jesus when we says “anyone who loses his life for my sake…will save it!”

And this parable after all is about salvation, about gaining everything. The father let go, he gave his children the freedom to accept or reject his love but when they returned – (that is wishful thinking – we hope the elder son returned) but if he did and when his younger son returned, he is filled – filled with joy. So full in fact that he wants to share it with others…lets have a party, he says, just like the shepherd, upon finding his lost sheep says to his friends and family, “rejoice with me!” and the woman who found her coin says to those in her life, “rejoice with me!”

This is what God calls for us to do, to rejoice. This is what it means to be the father. To live in joy. And just like giving yourself away it is not easy and often it is not even natural. We want to dwell on the negative, we feel neglected and overlooked, we can count all of our ailments – physical, spiritual, social…and while we shouldn’t sugar coat the challenges of life – like the father we are called to live in joy. It doesn’t matter if your natural inclination is like that of the younger son – to run away or the older son, to do what you are told, when we return home – it is a choice not to continue as we are but to be better, to grow into the father. The father who lives his love in joy. He holds no resentment, he does not protect himself from pain – he has so given himself away in love all he has left is joy. Can you imagine – being so bold as to give away all your pain, all your jealousy, all your resentments, all your old hurts –and to hold on only to joy? What would that change in you? How would that change what comes from you? Do you think the brothers are capable – of living in the joy of their father?

It won’t be easy, joy, too, is a discipline. Nouwen says this discipline is choosing light even though you are surrounded by darkness, choosing life in the face of death, choosing truth in a culture of lies.

When the father sees his son coming up the road, he does not stand and wait. He does not remember the last words his son said to him, how harsh they were, or how they made him feel. Instead he chooses joy – and he runs – he runs to his son and embraces him – and then lifts up his joy and asks others to share in it.

Maybe you are the younger son

Maybe you are the elder son

But know, when you choose to go home – you go home to become the father.

That we must celebrate. Rejoice – rejoice with me! Amen.