Why Don T We Begin Our Conversation with a Statement of Where We Would Like to End Up

4 Lent C—March 6, 2016

Joshua 5:9-12

Psalm 32

2 Corinthians 5;16-21

Luke 15;1-3, 11B-32

The Rev. David R. Wilt

Why don’t we begin our conversation with a statement of where we would like to end up.

Desmond Tutu writes in God Has A Dream:

“I have a dream, God says. Please help me realize it. It is a dream of a world whose ugliness and squalor and poverty, its war and hostility, its greed and harsh competitiveness, its alienation and disharmony are changed into their glorious counterparts where there will be more laughter, joy and peace, where there will be justice and goodness and compassion and love and caring and sharing. I have a dream that swords will be beaten into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks, that my children will know that they are members of one family, the human family, God’s family, my family.”

That is where we would like to end up. Right? I suspect we may not be there yet. Our Gospel story today gives a place to begin.

We begin with our family, that may entail our genetic family, our church family, our work family, some smaller unit we can identify and get a grip on. Our story emphasizes to us that far too often we yearn to enable larger, major, significant, healing and reconciliation in the world when we have not learned the basic principles from the family into which we were born or raised. 2

The story, we so narrowly call the parable of the prodigal son is just such an example of where we need to learn the basic lessons

First we have the profligate son who takes his money and hits the road only to squander everything in dissolute living. Things become so bad this Palestinian Jewish boy hires himself out to a pig farmer. Having reached the depth of despair he, with some trepidation, decides to go home and face the music.

Don’t we all have some member of our family that just seems to get away with murder, that one individual that just causes us to roll our eyes whenever their name is mentioned?

It doesn’t make for very comfortable dinner conversation in our genetic families, and in church families, when we are all going up to dine at Christ’s table together it can get really dicey. After all has a sinner ever knelt next to you at the rail?

We will come back to the father, but for now lets skip to the elder son, that pious, shoulder to the grindstone, I’ll make Dad or Mom proud of me son, or it could be a daughter.

This child who when he sees the celebration for his returned “evil” brother refuses to attend the party, and when his father comes out to see what the problem is, sets off on a little pity party.

“Listen! For all of these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command, yet you have never given me…blah, blah, blah...”

My goodness, it sounds like my two much older sisters who just couldn’t get a handle on my parents having another child at all and then to suffer the utter dismay that this child should be male. 3

Now let’s look at the father. “While he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion, he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him.” This was even before the younger son could repent.

Very important concept. The Father’s love is not reliant on the groveling capacity of the younger son, but merely on the fact that he was back with the family.

When it comes to dealing with the older son he offers the same level of compassion, “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.

Let me try to rephrase what it is the father is saying to the older son. Son, this is not a party for your younger brother. This is a party for me, and I wish for you also because he has returned.

Beautiful story here full of family dynamics that all of us face and which we are called to address if we are to move toward wholeness.

We may not ever get to the level of that unconditional embrace offered by the father in this story, but we can even find some answers if we can identify with any of the feelings of any of the the other characters in the story. Movement toward wholeness is coming to grips with our own feelings about others in the many family scenarios that we find ourselves in during the course of our lives.

There remains in this story today yet one even greater question which stills cries out for an answer.

Why did Jesus tell this story? 4

He told this story because, then, and even today it touches upon God’s dream.

How did this story begin?

“Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And, the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

Isn’t that exactly what the older son said to the father? You are throwing this party for this sinning brother of mine.

This whole attitude is filled with a denial of God’s redemptive ability. This whole attitude pervades in the world still today whenever we dare to get into the business of judging another person. This whole attitude destroys our own relationship with God when we become bitter and resentful and seek revenge.

This time of Lent is quickly drawing to a close. How appropriate that we grapple with this story today because if we have spent this Lent reading and studying and praying and meditating and listening for the voice of God in our life, but are still looking down our noses at someone else’s behavior then we are running out of time to truly observe a holy Lent. We cannot become reconciled with God until we become reconciled with each other.

How important is this story for us?

If a Jewish son lost his inheritance among Gentiles, and then returned home, the community would perform a ceremony, called the kezazah. They would break a large pot in front of him and yell, ‘You are now cut off from your people!’ The community would totally reject him. So, why did the father run? He probably ran in order to get to his son before he entered the village. 5

Our question at this point of our Lenten journey for us is, are we waiting in the village eager to reject someone or are we running out to greet them so that they will not in their differences or repentance have to enter the village alone?

Where will we appear in God’s dream.