SUNDAY REFLECTION FOR OPEN PRAIRIE UCC – NOVEMBER 5^th, 2017

THE PRODIGAL SON

In the gospel of Luke, Jesus tells a story that’s commonly called “The Prodigal Son”, but some of the more modern bibles today are calling it “The Parable of the Compassionate Father”, which I like a lot better (I don’t know what the word Prodigal means, but that’s how I learned it).
Just so you know, the manuscripts that make up the bible weren’t written with any titles, or headings, or verse numbers, or even chapter breaks. All those annotations were added later, to make it easier to understand and easier to reference.

So the passage that we’re looking at today is a story that Jesus told. Charles Dickens called it the greatest short story ever written, and although this is the longest parable that Jesus ever told, it’s very short for a short story. Part of the reason for calling it great is because in only a few sentences we can easily understand all three of the characters. We can probably imagine ourselves as any one of them; as a loving parent, or as a loyal child who stays close to his family, or as a rebellious child who made decisions that he later regrets.

The story is easy enough to understand on its own, but we can get even more out of it by going back a little bit earlier in the text, to look for answers to questions like;
“Why was Jesus telling it?” and “Who was He telling the story to?”
So, the background of this parable is found at the beginning of chapter 15, where it tells us that tax collectors and sinners were drawing near to Jesus, and the scribes and the Pharisees, the religious people, were grumbling about it.
So Jesus tells THREE stories in response to their grumbling.

The first one was a story about a lost sheep, where we learn about a shepherd who leaves his ninety-nine sheep to go look for the lost one. When he finds it he rejoices, and when he gets home he calls to his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Jesus tells the audience that, “there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance”.
He tells them exactly what the story means; there will be MORE JOY in Heaven
over ONE PERSON who’s lost and then found, than over ninety-nine righteous people.

Then he tells a story about a woman who has ten coins but loses one of them. So she lights a lamp and sweeps the whole house until she finds it. And when she finds it, she calls to her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’
And he interprets THIS story for them, too.
“Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

So he’s primed the audience already for the third story. He’s told them two short stories about finding the lost, and He’s also explained what they mean. There’s no uncertainty about what He’s talking about. When a lost person comes to Him, it’s a reason to rejoice.

Then we get to the third story, “The Prodigal Son”, or “The Compassionate Father”. We know that all three of these stories are related because there no break between them. He tells all three of them one right after the other, with no other text between.

The third story that he told is about a father who has two sons, and the younger one asks for his inheritance early, not wanting to wait until his father dies. To his Jewish audience, this was probably unheard of. So, from the first sentence, his listeners would have been shocked.
And I want to present this story with the Jewish perspective in mind, because that’s who He’s talking to. How would THEY have heard it?

In a patriarchal society, the first-born son would have gotten an extra share of inheritance, because he is taking on the responsibility for taking care of the family. What that means is, this younger son is asking for a third of everything his father owned.  Well, you can imagine that he probably wouldn’t have had that much in cash, so he would have had to sell some livestock or some of the family land. And it plainly says that the younger son spent it on extravagant living, he would have been using cash for that, so it isn’t hard to imagine that suddenly they are seeing someone else in town take over what used to be family land or family assets,
which would have been a huge embarrassment to his father. AND to his family.

Then the story says that the boy went to a far country and squandered everything on reckless living. It might have been different if he had simply wanted to move into town to be with his friends, or something like that. But moving to a far country implies that he just took the money and ran, out of his Jewish community completely. To the people listening to this story, this second fact would have been not only a slap in the face to his family, but turning his back on God, too. They would have written him off as truly lost at this point.

Where is this horrible story headed, anyway?

Then we learn that his money ran out, and he got a job feeding pigs. What? Pigs are the most impure, unclean animal of them all. And that proves that he is now in Gentile country
(because Jewish societies don’t have pigs), so he has left his Jewish culture altogether.
And he’s a SERVANT now? To pigs?

The thought of Serving Pigs would have been unimaginably grotesque. The ultimate degradation. Lower than the lowest. They probably couldn’t even imagine a worse story, and Jesus is telling this in public? This is a filthy, disgusting story.

And now the boy dreams of coming home. He’s hungry. He composes an apology in advance, thinking of what he should say to his father when he returns, hoping to become just a servant in his father’s household at this point. The scribes and Pharisees listening to this story probably can’t even think of an appropriate punishment for someone wanting to return. They probably wouldn’t have allowed him to come back to the village AT ALL. If it was up to the listeners, he probably would have been banished forever.

But the boy starts making the journey back.

The father sees him from a long way off, and feels compassion, and runs to embrace him and kisses him. Well, could this story get any worse?
No Jewish father would have reacted that way, in this place and time!
Even today, you will never see an older Jewish man running, because it is considered undignified. It would be embarrassing. But the loving father RAN to him and welcomed him back, BEFORE he even heard the son’s apology!
He was willing to humiliate himself for the love he felt for his son.

He could have invited him back in the status of a servant for a period of time, but no. Not only did he welcome him back, he immediately elevated his status with a ring, and robes, and he calls for a big party. The listener’s minds would have been reeling by this point in the story.

But then something happens that they could certainly have understood. The older brother becomes upset by both his brother AND his father, and complains about the party and refuses to go in. Understandable, right? It’s just not fair! The older brother has been good and loyal all along, but he never got to have a party with his friends!

Jesus uses this older brother’s behavior to convict the audience, because they would have immediately identified with him. They had just been grumbling about a similar situation,
Jesus welcoming sinners. Jesus was responding to scribes and Pharisees, and they were grumbling about Jesus welcoming the sinners back into the kingdom of God. His audience, the religious people, were assuming that they were all on the right side of the dividing line. They thought of themselves as the chosen people, and they would have been identifying with the loyal brother.

In all three of Jesus’ responses; the story of the shepherd who left the 99 “good sheep” to go after the one that was lost, the woman who rejoices over finding her lost coin,
and the father who runs to welcome his son with open arms,
the result is rejoicing over finding something that was lost.

Jesus’ audience was not rejoicing. The focus of the story (in the minds of the religious people) would have been that they THEMSELVES were the ones who are left trying to decide whether to enter the party or not. That would have been very uncomfortable at this point. They are being put on the spot, facing a decision whether to share in the rejoicing or to stay outside, isolated by their own pride and self-righteousness.
Because they’ve been grumbling just like the loyal brother in the story is grumbling.

So I started out by mentioning that this passage is usually referred to as “The Prodigal Son” or “The Compassionate Father”, but the real key to the story is the older brother.
Maybe it should be called “The Parable of the Grumbling Brother”.

When you think about how the story ends, the brother is outside, the father is appealing to him to come in, but it never tells us whether he joined the party or not!
In that respect we don’t even know how the story ends.
Leaving it that way would have been very troubling to his listeners.

Although we don’t know how the grumbling son responded, we aren’t told whether he joined the party or stayed outside, the story ends with the father having that last word.
This what he said to the older brother:

And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’

There will always be grumblers, even in a time of rejoicing there will be others who are on the outside, maybe by their own will or their own fault but still suffering and confused and bitter. The story is over, but I don’t want to end on that note.

I want to close with the image of the Compassionate Father in our minds.
A father who is ready to leave the flock to rescue that one lost sheep.
Ready to turn up the lights and sweep the whole house in hopes of finding one lost coin. Always looking down the road, hoping to see us appear over the horizon.

And what does He want from us?
“Father, I’m sorry. I know I don’t deserve it, but is there still a place for me at home?”
As he runs to embrace us with open arms…

THAT’s the picture I want to leave you with.

Thank You.

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A READING FROM THE GOSPEL – OPEN PRAIRIE UCC – NOVEMBER 5^th, 2017

Luke 15:11-20  And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything. “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise 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 as one of your hired servants.”‘ And he arose and came to his father.

Luke 15:20-24  And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.

Luke 15:25-32  “Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’ But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.'”

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