The Kingdom of God is Messy Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32 June 10, 2012

Transcription

1 The Kingdom of God is Messy Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32 June 10, 2012 Today we continue our June sermon-series on Jesus parables with a familiar story from the gospel of Luke. Last week I started the series by making the argument that, in his parables, Jesus isn t so much telling a story with a point, or a moral but that Jesus tells parables to help those who count themselves as disciples get comfortable with ambiguity because ambiguity is an important concept when you live between the time of this world and God s kingdom. And that is what I believe the parable do they describe, or reveal, God s kingdom so that we can recognize it in this time and in this place. Before I read this morning s second scripture, there are some things you need to know in order to really hear what it has to say. We often call what we will hear read this morning the parable of the prodigal son. True but there are two sons in the parable. And if you were one of the disciples or a face in the crowd hearing Jesus tell this story, the presence of two sons would remind you of some other Bible stories with which you would probably be familiar: Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau, Isaac and Ishmael, Joseph and his brothers. But this isn t just a story about two brothers it is a story about a family. A middle-eastern family. And middle-eastern families are big and they are influential. In fact, middle-eastern families sometimes encompass entire villages. From the details of the parable that Jesus tells, we can infer that the family at issue is connected to the community at large for at the end, those community members are all there to feast on the fatted calf when the youngest son comes home. Something else to know is how inheritance worked in ancient Palestine. We think of inheritance in terms of tax-brackets. In Jesus time, inheritance was bound to life and to honor and to birth order. Tradition held that the father the pater familias would never transfer his wealth to the next generation until his demise, because to do so would render him without power and without influence. In Jesus day, the eldest sons were entitled to 2/3 of the family s inheritance. A second son would be entitled 1

2 to 1/3. To ask for an inheritance early is, effectively, to tell your father that you wished he were dead. I m almost through with the pre-sermon, but also take note of this: Jews and pigs do not friends make. The story that Jesus spins is designed to describe the depth to which this youngest son sank. He not only ends up in a Gentile country, working for a Gentile boss-man, but he works with pigs and not only that, when he finally comes to his senses, he is fantasizing about eating the very food that pigs eat! Finally, it is important to know something about the decorum and traditional role of the head of the household in Palestine. There is no running. There is no begging. There is no leaving a party you are hosting to go after a disgruntled child. But none of this matters to the head of the household in this story; the father s sole purpose is to seek reconciliation, no matter the cost. With these things in mind, listen for God s word as we find it in the 15 th chapter of Luke s gospel. +++ 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. 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 travelled 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 2

3 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 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. +++ So, I am going to ask some questions that may make us uncomfortable especially if we read this parable as an allegory wherein the father is God. The first question is this: in the end, what, really, is gained by the father s efforts to offer grace to his two sons? Think about it. What happens at the close of the story? There is no happy ending. There is frustration. And alienation. 3

4 And a complete lack of clarity about how things will turn out. At the end of the story, the youngest son is home sure and he is enjoying the party thrown in his honor. But after the last bite of the fatted calf is eaten, and the last glass of the good wine is drunk after the last guest leaves his father s estate then what? He has already squandered his father s inheritance on his debauched living. That money is not coming back. His older brother is not likely to share his portion of the inheritance. What future does this youngest son have? At the end of the story, the older brother he is making a scene exacerbating the damage done to his father s and family s reputation by not being man enough to attend and host the party something that would be expected of him in the culture. And, because of his outburst, he drags his father out to make another public spectacle of himself when he begs his oldest son to come inside the house. When Jesus finishes telling the story there are unanswered questions. Will this eldest child stop being so willful? Will he come to the party? Will he ever recognize that his father s youngest is not only this son of yours but, in fact, a part of his own family? At the end of the story, the father what happens to him? Twice shamed, with both his children unclear about their future relationship with him; his inheritance all the way gone; the village, in which he was elder statesman, wondering what to make of his erratic and unseemly behavior what does the father s future hold? At the end of the story you have to think was it worth it? We romanticize the loving embrace after the father and youngest son run into each other s arms but is all of this fallout worth the price of a long hug and an extravagant meal? Really, what is gained by these expressions of grace? Or, put another way, what is lost these expressions of grace? What if the father took this youngest son back in with an appropriate amount of discipline and consequences? That would still be unusual, but maybe not so offensive. 4

5 Or what if the father would at least go out of his way to publically acknowledge the loyalty of his oldest son a young man who, by any measure, was owed some recognition as a responsible, rule-follower. Or, going all the way back to the beginning of the story, what if the father had just stuck to the cultural expectation and told this youngest upstart son no when he asked for his inheritance? Think of how different things would be! Everything would still be in its rightful place. The social order would be intact. The family would be together. To think that the whole thing started with that one decision for the father to give a little grace; to choose grace over tradition; to choose grace over the status quo; to choose grace over the community s expectations. That one, gracious choice set the whole thing in motion. Why, it s a slippery slope! One act of grace led to another Led to another Led to another Led to another And at the end of the story what do you get: a big mess. With no resolution. Only the question: will the family stay together? Can there be reconciliation? You know, the reason according to Luke s gospel that Jesus told this story in the first place was that the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling. They were grumbling because Jesus was sharing the table and himself with bona-fide sinners (at least sinners from the perspective of the Pharisees and the scribes). And I wonder how many times in the life of the church that same scene has played itself out? I wonder how many times one group of believers got upset over the fact that someone else was sharing the table and Jesus with folks that they deemed to be bona-fide sinners or, if not sinners, at least less deserving of Jesus attention than themselves? As we tell this story of the father and two sons yet again this morning, there are over 38,000 denominations within the body of Christ that is the church. 5

6 And I wonder if it is worth it to keep sliding down the slippery slope of grace? To keep choosing to expand the circle? It begs the question: Will the Christian family stay together? Will we make it? Is reconciliation possible so that the party can go on? +++ 6