Fourth Sunday in Lent

March 14, 2010

Sermon by Rev. Dr. Marcus Pera

The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke. (Luke 15:1‑3,11b‑32)

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to [Jesus]. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” So he told them this parable: “There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’ So he divided his property between them. A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout 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 to his fields to feed the pigs. He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! I will get up 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 like one of your hired hands.” So he set off and went to his father. But 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. Then 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 slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and now is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate. Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.’ Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. But he answered his father, ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’ Then the father said to him, ‘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.’”

The Gospel of our Lord.

In the name of Jesus, sisters and brothers, grace, mercy, and peace be unto you. Amen.

There’s a question or two that gets asked every weekend, I think; it gets asked by young people, it gets asked by young adults, and it gets asked by older people as well. And that question sometimes is, “Where’s the party at?” And “Who’s going or who’s at the party?” That’s a reasonable kind of question; that’s part of our life of celebration and enjoying the blessings of creation. At a party, there is food and there is fun. At a party, there is music and there is dancing. At a party, there is conversation and community. At a party, it’s festive and celebrative. Yes, “Where’s the party at and who’s going to be there?”

God gives parties as well. In the First Lesson last Sunday, if you recall, I referred to it at the end of the sermon; and in that Old Testament Lesson, the children of Israel were anticipating coming back out of exile from Babylon. And they were looking forward to it as a kind of Year of Jubilee, a Year of the Lord, where everything was wiped clean and there was to be a big celebration. And then those beautiful words, “Ho, everyone who is thirsty, come to the water. Come and buy, without money; buy wine and drink, without money and without price.” What beautiful Gospel words these were to hear for the people then, and for us now as well.

Now, in the Gospel Lesson for today, we have a party; God throws a party once again. At least the father throws a party for his son, who was lost and now is found. That Gospel Lesson is one of the most familiar to a lot of people and also dear to a lot of people. And in one sense, it’s unfortunate that it is called “The Parable of the Prodigal Son,” because all the reference and attention gets placed on the Prodigal Son. But it isn’t just there that we give our attention. I have seen it identified as “the waiting father,” “the prodigal son,” and “the elder son.” There are many people that have written books on this. There are also a lot of paintings that are given over to it as well.

One of my very favorite authors, a theologian by the name of Henri Nouwen, now a blessed memory, came from Holland, came to this country a priest, and he taught at Notre Dame, he taught at Yale, he taught at Harvard. And then he finally ended up, interestingly enough, with a community of developmentally disabled people in Canada. But the first time he saw the painting by Rembrandt of The Prodigal Son, he was so taken by it, and he wanted to go and see it in person. And so he went to the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, and he spent a couple of days there. And with the contacts he had with the people there, he was able to go into the room where the Rembrandt painting was and just sit there for two solid days to examine every detail, to look at all the shades of light, to look at the colors, to see what Rembrandt was thinking and communicating as he was painting this painting. And after that, he wrote a book on The Prodigal Son. It’s interesting that I have a lot of Nouwen’s books, but I didn’t have that particular book. And I knew of it; and in preparation for the sermon this Sunday, I wanted to take a look at it and scan it once again. And so I thought, rather I not wanting buying books at this point, so I checked in the library here, and sure enough, the library had the book. And so I want to commend the library here for having that. And I also want to say that I will check it in on Monday, and for any of those of you who want to read those insights of Nouwen this week, check it out. You will be blessed by it.

The party that gets thrown by the father for the prodigal son is one in which he was lost and now is found. Now, the context for this parable is given in those first three verses, and then it jumps over to The Parable of the Prodigal Son. The reason that Jesus spoke about this party that he gives, and got into trouble for it with the scribes and the Pharisees, is because of the fact that the scribes and Pharisees said and say, “He eats with sinners and tax collectors.”

And then what happens is, Jesus tells actually three parables. And the first one is about the woman who lost one coin out of ten, and she sweeps clean her entire house and finally finds the one, and then rejoices because she has found that lost coin. The second one is about the shepherd, and one sheep is lost, and he leaves the other ninety-nine and goes and searches; finally to find the sheep and comes back; and, once again, there is rejoicing over the one that is found.

They mumble because he eats with sinners and publicans. The parable of The Prodigal Son: the prodigal son goes out as well. But we need to probably remind ourselves of the importance of food and eating with people in the time of the Mideastern culture. I remember traveling in Israel once. We came across and were invited into a Bedouin community, and the first thing the Bedouin community did is brought us into the tent and gave us some Mideastern coffee. It was the symbol of hospitality and the sign of welcoming us in and being in fellowship or communion with them. Certainly, that’s true in terms of the Jewish practices of food and eating food in the time of Jesus as well. Clean dishes are important; clean pots and pans are important; clean food is important; and gathering around with prayer. It becomes, in a sense, a spiritual or a religious experience; and not everyone, in that sense, joins around the table. It’s important who you eat with and who you drink with. That’s no longer so true in our culture, in our day of fast food and our style of eating today. But Jesus hears the scribes and Pharisees grumble because, “What’s this about eating with publicans and with sinners?” And so we have The Parable of the Prodigal Son, the one who went and squandered all he had; the one who lived in riotous living, what all that meant, and then who comes back home and the father receives him. So that is the context, and Jesus tells this parable to respond and answer the Pharisees and the scribes.

Now, probably we also ought to take a look perhaps at who the inviter and the invitees are to this particular party. The inviter obviously is the father. And what is interesting again, according to Mideastern practices, is there are some unusual things that happen here. First off, in that kind of conversation of the son with the father, the son would not initiate the conversation, and so that becomes a conventional no-no. Secondly, he brings up and asks about the inheritance. It was a way of almost saying to his father, “Drop dead.” It was a way of saying that “I want my inheritance so I am pretending as though you are dead.” In fact, in that culture, there absolutely would not have been a request of this sort because that was only something that was distributed at the point of death. But nonetheless, the father does not complain on either of these—at least it’s not indicated in the text—and he goes ahead and does it.

And after the son comes home, later on there are some irregularities as well. You would expect that the son coming home, and he had his speech prepared, would need to give an explanation. But, no. The father runs out. Another thing in that culture that would not have been done, it would have been kind of a disgrace. And, secondly, he embraces him before the son either gives much or any of an explanation. And then he does this kind of unheard thing: a robe, obviously for only the closest to him; a ring that indicates a position of acceptance, certainly within the family; and then sandals. A slave would not wear sandals; neither would a hired hand; again, an indication of son-ship. So these things are all unusual on the part of the inviter, who is the father.

Now, secondly, the prodigal son, the one that is invited to the party, there are some interesting things as well from him. He takes the money then and goes out, and the text says he squandered it. Squandered it. He spent it freely; he lived for the moment. It’s interesting that it’s the older son that says he probably spent in it on prostitutes. The younger doesn’t say that, and it doesn’t say it in the text at all. But that is an interesting dynamic as well. But nonetheless, he squandered it and he spent it on very fast-playing living. And what happens is he spends it all, and there is a drought in the land. And he’s even feeding the pigs, the only job he can get; sees the pea pods, and even he would like to eat that. Then it says he comes to his senses, he gets smart, and he hatches a plan. And the plan he hatches is to come back and say, “My goodness, my father’s hired hands do better than this. I will come back and I will say, ‘I will work as your hired hand. I will earn my way. I will live where the hired hands do.’”

And so he gets home. He isn’t even able to get those words of his plan out, and the father embraces him. And not only that, not only gives him the things I just referred to, but says, “Let’s kill the fatted calf,” meaning, “Let’s have a party.” And in those days where there wasn’t refrigeration, you didn’t kill a whole calf unless you were going to have quite a few people around because you needed to eat it. And so there probably was a party that was involving the whole community.

Now, we have the other one, and that is the older son. And it’s interesting, we’re probably often more critical of the older son, and yet it’s interesting because the older son, in a way, is probably the most like you or me. And I say that because we probably are the ones that kind of did what we were supposed to do. We probably lived up to the expectations of our parents, by and large. We probably did the kinds of things that were expected. We have a good sense of fairness and what’s just and what’s right. And this just doesn’t seem to be that way. He sees what has happened with the younger son. He doesn’t even call him “my brother.” He calls him “your son.” He is angry; he’s resentful. He’s a scorekeeper. He’s kept score about how much he has done in a good way and earned some reward, and his younger brother has not done that. And so the resentment and the anger come out, and he says to his father, “You didn’t even get a goat for me for one of my parties.” But the father assures him that, “What I have is yours,” and also expresses his love for him and invites him into the party. And what is interesting is we don’t know if he responded; the story stops with that invitation being there. But who’s at the party? We don’t know if the older son is there or not.

Now, the whole party is occasioned by the fact that the lost was found. The lost was found; that’s why there is a party. And the lost being found is as close as Luke gets in this story to talking a little bit about repentance, because what happens is repentance follows the being found. To be found by God’s grace and love makes possible at the most a kind of thing that recognizes and accepts God’s grace, God having found him. He says he was dead and now is alive; he was lost and now was found.

Father Capon, in talking about this parable, talks about how confession comes after death, after he was lost. But there is resurrection by virtue of the grace of God, and with this resurrection comes newness of life as well.

There’s another aspect of repentance here, and that is an interesting dynamic, is that we don’t know how the brothers worked out there relationship after this. Did the son, the oldest one, go in? What about the youngest after he had a party all night, and then started in the house, did he develop a relationship with the son? And was there a need? Yes, there was a need for a relationship of acceptance and love to develop between the two brothers, if the love and the acceptance of the father were to have any meaning at all.

And then finally there is joy, that is, the sign of repentance, the sign of acceptance, the sign of the lost being found. There is joy, first of all, on the part of the one that finds, on the part of the father. But there needs to be joy also in the son and in the older brother as well. Well, who’s at the party? Are we at the party as well; are you and I?

There’s an interesting part of this book by Henri Nouwen that he points out—and I know you can’t see this but I am still going to hold it up—and that is, here’s Rembrandt’s painting, and the father is holding the son. And with the left hand, the father’s hand, his fingers pretty spread apart. It’s a firm hand and it’s holding; it’s one of security, it is one of keeping him and holding him safe and secure and under the wings of the father. Now, interestingly enough, this hand is thinner, it’s more feminine, the fingers are closer together. It’s touching the son on the back, also with compassion, with acceptance, and with love.

When the heavenly father touches us as a loving parent in that kind of way, we recognize our foundness. And in recognizing our foundness, then we are people who respond by being invited into the party and living in loving relationship with one another. Are we at the party? To be sure, there is a party here once again this morning. The fatted calf is killed. Capon talks about the fatted calf in the parable as in fact the Christ figure in the parable. “Take, eat; this is my body.” “Take, drink, this is my cup.” This is the party that we are gathered around this day, recognizing our foundness once again. We are people who are filled with joy, and we are committed to living in loving relationship with all of God’s creation.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.