The Prodigal Son

Running Away from Home
Luke 15:11-32
October 10, 2010

Rev. Selena A. Wright

Did you ever run away from home as a child?

One of the great stories I have heard since I entered into the Wright family is of the big escape that Pat and his sister Adrien made when they were children. They were upset with their parents – no one remembers why – and so they decided home was no longer the place for them. They could do just as well out in the world – without parents to give them rules and to limit their fun.

And these were organized children. When I ran away from home as a child I just took off down the block, as if I were going on a walk, but Pat and Adrien were prepared. They made 3 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, one for each and one to share if necessary, and a box of Kudos bars – a popular candy & granola bar mix as well as a water bottle. Then Pat very strategically tied a wagon to the back of his bicycle so that he could ride his bike while his sister rode in the wagon. He even lined the wagon with his cookie monster sleeping bag so Adrien would have a comfortable ride.

On their way out the door they announced to their parents that they were running away and both remember their surprise that their parents didn’t stop them. And off they went, down the hill in front of the house into the cul-de-sac. When they reached the bottom of the cul-de-sac Pat felt like they had gone a fair distance – after all they had passed 4 houses, so it was probably time for a break. He stopped his bike but unfortunately he hadn’t had the forethought to think about what would happen with the wagon when he tried to stop the bike and a crash ensued. They found a good place to set up on someone’s lawn right at the end of their street. They had their lunch but Adrien’s injuries sustained during the crash were too much for them to handle alone. There was a conversation about how much trouble they would be in if they decided to go home, but both were confident that their parents would care for the scrapes before any punishment ensued – so the best choice was to go home. They packed their lunch back in the wagon and Pat and Adrien walked back home – Pat walking the bike this time with the wagon behind.

I wish I could have been there to see this all unfold. I wish there was some recording of the conversations that took place from the decision to leave, the packing of necessities all the way through the very difficult decision to return home. Its not that unique of a story really – I am sure many of you could tell me stories either of when you ran away from home as a child or when your children decided that home was no longer the place for them. What is it about children that leads them to the conclusion that they would do better out in the world alone then they would in the safety and comfort of the home that they have known.

Maybe it is the fact that they don’t know any different than a life at home, that leads them to make this decision. They don’t have a big enough perspective to see all that they have at home and all that they won’t have away from it. Maybe it is as simple as the human assumption that the grass is always greener on the other side. They venture out into the world because there must be something better than what they have at home. Or maybe it is just about declaring your independence – and identity. Rejecting everything you have known to “make your own way” – to prove to your parents that you don’t need their rules or their food or their care – that you can get by just fine on your own.

But its not just children that do this, is it? We do it all the time, especially in relationships – relationships not only with our parents but with siblings, children, even spouses. I have spoken to couples considering divorce and while some have experienced true brokenness in their relationships others are falling prey to these same emotions – wondering if there is something better out there, seeking independence and freedom from a prescribed identity or desiring the self-satisfaction of making it on your own.

We all worry about these things – we worry that we are not in the best job, in the best relationship. We worry that we are missing out on something or someone. Our self-worth is caught up in being the best, having the best, and doing the best. And part of being the best is not owing anything to anyone. We want to be able to say, “look what I did, all on my own!” For some reason we don’t want to need anything but the shirt on our backs. Call it rugged individualism or being self-centered…it is the way of our world and far too often we buy into it.

***

The story of the prodigal son is well known both in the church and in the world – it is a story about many things but truly it is a story about running away from home. The younger of the two sons tells his father he wants his inheritance now – he wants to leave, to leave his home, to leave his family, to leave everything he has known and not look back. We hear nothing in the scripture about what led him to this decision, probably because it was forgotten like Pat and Adrien can’t remember why they ran away from home. And just as Pat’s parents let their children go – the father gave the son what he was asking for – and the son went on his way. He went to a foreign land where he “squandered his money on a life of debauchery”

The question we must ask ourselves – is why did he go? Was there an incident? Did something happen that sent him over the edge? Or not? Maybe it was simply boredom? Or rebellion that led him to walk away from his life, his family, to walk away from everything and everyone?
And what was he looking for? Was it freedom? Pride in saying he can live on his own – that he doesn’t need anyone? Or was he in search of his own identity, a deeper sense of self? Or was it something else?

Often we run away – in search for something better…we leave not knowing what we are looking for – be it a person or money or fame or fulfillment – we just feel an emptiness and we travel to a distant land to find that which we lack.

Ok, it might not be a distant land for all of us, but we have all run away. Maybe not from our parents, maybe not from the houses we live in – but we have all run away from God. Sometimes we run away from God because we are angry – and like Pat and his sister told their parents, we say to God – if you loved me you wouldn’t be like this, life wouldn’t be like this.

Or we leave because we are bored. It doesn’t seem as though God is offering us what we really want, we are not getting the best of the best – and we just know there is something better out there.

Or we leave because we don’t want to have to trust anyone, we don’t want to owe anyone anything – not the church, not God. We want to show ourselves and the world that we can make it on our own. And we run away from home.

From God…from love.

Henry Nouwen writes, “leaving home is a denial of the spiritual reality that I belong to God with every part of my being, that God holds me safe in an eternal embrace. Leaving home is living as though I do not yet have a home and must look far and wide to find one.”

Nouwen wrote a book about this parable, called the Return of the Prodigal Son where he examines not only the scripture but Rembrandt’s painting of it…this painting that has been hanging in our church for the past 13 years. The painting was given to the church by the elder’s who as I have heard it studied this text with then pastor Don Beal. I imagine those elders read this same book – the book I am basing not only this morning’s sermon on but the next two weeks as well. But that is ok, because hearing this story once, twice, again and again is still not enough. This parable, the parable of the Prodigal Son has been called a mini gospel in and of itself because within it is so much truth and the good news we expect to find in our gospels. But good news in the gospels does not stand alone. It is always the response to pain and suffering and we see in this painting and we know in our hearts the pain and suffering of running away from home, running away from God.

Look at this man. His clothes are dirty and torn, his shoe is tearing off his foot, and he has no hair…which in his culture is a sign of a complete loss of identity – heads were shaven for prisoners or those in concentration camps. As we hear from the text he is weak, hungry, for he was not even permitted to eat the food given to the pigs. He looks nothing like his father – no jewlry or cloak, no beard – and he hopes not for the life that he had before he left, but to be treated as one of his father’s hired men, just for a job and food, not for the home that he abandoned. But according to Rembrandt’s painting – he has one thing that remains…a sword. Certainly a sword he left home with – his last and only tie to his father, his family. Nouwen points out that he could have sold it for food but he clung to it, remembering that if nothing else he is someone’s son.

And now he kneels before his father, not asking to be forgiven, not asking to be welcomed into the family – just asking for survival. He can’t even dream of reclaiming what he left.
What if we were to ask this man…the one bruised and broken – physically and spiritually – why he left. Will he remember? Certainly the specifics are not important because they didn’t make it into the gospel, but I imagine he would say…
I left to find exactly what I had.

We have all run away from home, we have all run away from God’s love and Nouwen confesses for himself and for all of us when he says, “I am the prodigal son every time I search for unconditional love where it cannot be found.”

We have all run away from home, run away from God looking for exactly that which God promises us. Sometimes we leave God for the love of another person – which feels right for a time – as relational love is an expression of divine love – but it is not the same, not as full, as whole as God’s love.

We run away from God trying to love ourselves, to find ourselves but the farther we get from home the less we know who we are at all.

Sometimes even we in the church and sometimes even the church runs away from God – we trust in our rituals and our community and our leaders and our music so much that in the good times and in the bad we put the church before God. Yes, we can run away from home, even in the church.

But there will be that day – when our hunger will be too much, or when our knees are scraped and we will realize that all that we want, all that we need is exactly what we have run away from…

and God will call to us…Come home…come home…ye who are weary come home…earnestly tenderly Jesus is calling, calling O sinner come home.