Sermon: The Prodigal Father
Now, I freely admit this will strike many of you as kind of odd, but invariably at some point the conversation would come around to Sunday morning, and the sermon: “So, what are you preaching on Sunday?” Our friend Carol - and Judy would usually have some idea of where they were going with the sermon. Linda, another friend - worked on the Synod staff - so she didn’t preach all that much, but she would offer an opinion. And poor Mike, he’s a chemist – so he didn’t say too much. Then there was Scott - who I think to this day writes his sermons late on Saturday night. He usually had no idea what he was preaching on – and he’d often say, “What is the text anyway?” All of us preached from the lectionary, so we’d use one of the four scheduled readings. One time, when Scott asked about the reading for Sunday, somebody told him. I forget what it was – but it was a very familiar one, like we have this morning. So I said, “Oh Scott, don’t worry about your sermon. That text – it preaches itself.” And since that time, whenever we talk, and the subject comes around to the sermon, Scott reminds me of those words –“Don’t worry Ken – that text preaches itself.” Without a doubt, those words ring true with today’s text – this story – this parable which many of us know very well. Most of us even know the title that scholars have given this parable – a title which has a word in it that does not even appear in the parable itself. This is, all together now, the “Parable of the Prodigal Son.” This parable really does “preach itself” – all by itself it contains a number of messages, a number of teachings – so much so that part of me just wants to read the parable, read it a second time, and then sit down and have us all ponder it for a few minutes. Like Jesus says sometimes after a parable, “He – or she – who has ears, let them hear.” As one Parable scholar puts it, this parable, like most parables: “teases the imagination into every more expanding perceptions of the kingdom of God.” How does this parable of the prodigal son tease our imagination? Where and in what ways does this parable open for up to some insight, some deeper awareness of the kingdom of God - into how and where God is present and event in our lives today? This morning I will suggest two – and the graphic on the bulletin might help. See if these interpretations work for you. But if they don’t, then you then just sit and ponder the parable and come up with your own interpretation. One is this whole matter of running away. “I’m going to run away from home.” We’ve heard these words – maybe we’ve even said them to our parents – and maybe a few of us have lived them out by actually running away from home. Arguing with our parents, resisting some authority that is imposed over us – rejecting the plans that some other person had for us – sometimes we run away from home, or from our work – or from what we are “supposed to do.” In the face of grief loss – at times we even run away from God. Dealing with a tragic loss, some people blame God for the loss – and we can become so angry with God that we push God out of our lives – and want nothing to do with God or with the church. In the parable there is some running away, by the younger son – the “prodigal” son - though we have no clue as to why he wanted to run away. Before he goes he asks his father for his share of the inheritance – the inheritance that he would have gotten when the father died. Was he so angry with his father that, to him, his father was already dead? And what’s with the father, agreeing to this? Was he so angry at his son that he wanted him gone: “Here – take this money and leave?” As angry as the son might have been – or as angry as the father might have been – when the son becomes desperate and destitute and decides to come back home, in hopes of becoming one of his father’s hired servants – the father welcomes him back – lavishly, extravagantly – generously: “Get a robe, find shoes, and a ring – and prepare a feast.” As angry as the father might have been, when he sees his younger son still a far off, he runs out to meet him. It seems that the father must have been looking down the road – every day – wondering if today would be that day that his son would return. And if there was any anger – upon seeing his son alive and coming back, enough of the anger was but aside – and he welcomed his son back home. Here is one sign of the kingdom of God – a time when we see God is present and at work – when someone who has run away is welcomed back home. Maybe that has happened to you - when you ran away, when you left or withdrew from where you should have been in your home or your marriage or your family - and you were welcomed back – reconciled back into relationship. Perhaps, like the father, you have welcomed back into your home and into your life someone who somehow ran away from you. This welcoming back, and being welcomed back – they are signs that God is present, that love is real and hopeful and forgiving. Another “teasing” that I will leave us with this morning comes from the word in the assigned title: Prodigal. That’s not a word you and I typically use in conversation, though we assign it to this younger son, who ran away. I looked it up, and according to my Merriam – Webster’s there are two definitions: the first, more common definition, is “characterized by wasteful expenditure – being reckless.” This is clearly what the older son, the older brother thinks of his younger brother – he is wasteful and reckless. And he says as much to his father - when the father tries to get this son to come to the homecoming party for the younger brother: “…When this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!' This “son of yours” the older brother says, has been reckless and wasteful with the father’s inheritance – he “devoured the father’s money” - he is the prodigal – “and I’m not coming home to celebrate his homecoming.” Here we see the older brother, in a different sense, also running away from the father. Not leaving home, but not wanting to come home now in this new reality. And here we do know why. He is angry at his father to welcoming “this son of yours” back home, for giving him this huge party. He is jealous of his brother getting this lavish feast, while he, the older, good, hard working, loyal son, has stayed home and worked – and the father never threw him a party like this. Perhaps you and I know how this older brother feels – when we have witnessed others welcomed back into the family, or the work place – or into the church – and someone makes a big fuss over it all. And we stew a bit, angry that now one seems to recognize us like that. Notice the father’s reply – and notice what is lavish and extravagant in that reply: “Then the father said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours…” “All that is mine is yours.” How lavish, how extravagant – and how prodigal of the father. Here is the second definition of this word prodigal, one less known and used. Not only does prodigal mean reckless and characterized by wasteful expenditures. It also means “lavish, extravagant, yielding abundantly and luxuriant.” This is now the father acts toward his older son – “all that is mine is yours” – and toward his younger son – “this brother of yours” - by throwing him this welcoming home party. The father is lavish, extravagant, and abundantly generous in love, in forgiveness, and in times for celebration. Friends, when you and I act that way, when we are generous in love and forgiveness, in celebration, in offering, in service – in all the many and various ways we can be lavish and generous, this is another sign of the Kingdom of God, another instance when we know God is present and real. For this is how God is toward us. When we have run away, God welcomes us back – like the prodigal father. When we feel like we have never left – and at times become angry and jealous, God bids us come back again – again to live in the generous, extravagant, and lavish love and grace of God, which is always ours. And when we are able, by God’s grace, to live and act like this prodigal father, we are living out God’s purposes – our actions become signs of the kingdom – signs of the very presence of God in our midst. May we follow this example of lavish and generous love, and grace, and forgiveness toward one another. And all God’s people said. Amen.
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