The Prodigal Father

I love the gospel story that we usually call the Prodigal Son. We seldom ever use that word, "prodigal," except with this gospel. My dictionary defines the word as "given to extravagant expenditure, lavishly bountiful." Those words obviously apply to the father in the story even more than the son -- in fact, delightfully so.

I can really visualize this father being in anguish, trying to hold his sons together. It is only a small leap from there to the notion that God anguishes over the violent divisions within our human family.

4th Sunday of Lent, 2007

Good morning. This weekend we mark the Fourth Sunday of Lent. We’re halfway home! I know many of you have taken the “Stewardship of Time” idea to heart, and have found an extra 2 or 3 hours for God during your week. If not, if you’ve been too busy or too distracted, and found that Lent has just whizzed by so far -- you still have another three weeks. In fact, this second half of Lent really gets good.

Both this weekend and next weekend feature wonderful gospel stories about Forgiveness. And this week, right in between, we will offer our parish Reconciliation Service on Thursday night at 7:30. We usually have 250 or 300 parishioners who make it to our service, and it’s a very restful and peaceful time, a good opportunity to search our own hearts, take a longer look at our lives, and open ourselves up to God’s love and healing. If you’re someone who doesn’t usually come to this service, I hope that today’s gospel might just give you the inspiration to join us on Thursday night.

Today’s story is so familiar to us that we can probably all tell it. But what we sometimes forget is the context, which makes it all the more emphatic. It begins even before Jesus gets into his story; the scripture notes that Jesus was spending time with sinners and outcasts – people much like that younger son in the gospel. He was even having meals, sitting at table with them, which was a real social intimacy for the Jewish people; you just couldn’t go that far with public sinners! And the Pharisees and scribes were grumbling about it all.

And so when Jesus tells this story, you can just imagine how delighted the sinners and outcasts must have been. It’s no wonder that the gospel got the name “good news.” I’m sure they recognized themselves as the younger son. We might too! Haven’t we ever wanted to be completely freed of any responsibility, and even have a big wad of cash to blow any way we wanted?

I suspect, though, that very few of us think of ourselves as living a loose life – and I’m pretty sure that most of us would not want the rest of us here to think that of us. But there are many ways that we can have a life that’s too loose, without being public sinners. There may be areas of our lives where we’re a little out of control, not balanced. And I think most of us know how that might apply to us, especially if we make the kind of examination of heart and soul that Lent is for, that the Sacrament of Reconciliation is for. In what ways is my life out of balance? Do I work too hard? How am I too wrapped up in myself? Am I too concerned about my bank balance instead of my life balance?

But the story gets better, and more complicated. The Pharisees and scribes surely saw themselves in the person of the older son. Weren’t they faithful with their commitments, responsible to their obligations – just like that older son? Don’t we all here try to be faithful and responsible? Don’t you think that the Parisees and scribes felt that because they fulfilled the law, that they were entitled to the good things they had in life? That whatever the good things they had, they were the rewards of their own efforts, their own faithfulness, their own hard work? That they were going to be rewarded by God for everything they had done. And aren’t we guilty of that too, sometimes? I can just hear them thinking – No! It’s the elder son who deserves the party! And we might feel that way too. But that’s the temptation of complacency, of self-satisfaction, of self-righteousness. That grows into a disastrous belief that life owes us something … that God owes us something. Or worse, it’s the sign of a shriveled and shrunken spirit that cannot rejoice when the poor and broken are welcomed in, when someone “undeserving” is given another chance. In what ways might we have that self-righteous spirit inside of us? In what ways are we too unforgiving? Are there times when we just don’t want to go into the house because our brother or sister is getting something that we don’t think they should be getting?

But the story doesn’t stop even there, because in the end, the story is not about either brother. The reason Jesus tells us this story is to reveal to us what God is like. The story is about that loving Father, who is trying so hard to hold his children together. Just like God does…just like God does. He doesn’t get angry that the elder brother is sulking and spoiling the party. He goes out to him. He bares his soul; he pleads with him: “All that is mine is yours, you are with me always. But we have to celebrate your brother coming back from the dead. You must come in to the house.

This is the kind of God we have, who wants us all to come into the house, who wants us to be together as family, who wants us to rejoice and celebrate together so badly that will he bring a scoundrel of a son back in, and shower him with fine clothes; and at the same time will seek out his other son and open his heart to him.

God does all of this with us, too.

And so this morning, as we turn now from this Gospel to celebrate this Eucharist together, let us remember that we are given this Eucharist as a Sacrament of Unity. Not just a unity that we individually long for, with God. Not even just the unity that we try to build with everyone else in this room, or in this parish. Not even just the unity we long for with Christians everywhere, all over the world. But this sacrament is given for the unity of all of God’s children. And let us pray that we may receive the nourishment here, the grace and strength, so that we might live in the spirit of that Loving Father, who wants all children to come home together, one family, in peace. Amen.

Deacon Denny Duffell