The parable of the two beloved sons

Luke 15: 1-3, 11-32
New Ark United Church of Christ, Newark, DE
March 6, 2016

         When I was an adviser to a Jr. High youth group, I was introduced to a great book entitled Would You Rather…?: 465 Provocative Questions to Get Teenagers Talking. Some examples of the questions: Would you rather pet a porcupine or lick a cactus? Get locked out of the house naked or trip and fall at your wedding? Be known as someone who is arrogant or someone who is untrustworthy? Be yelled at by a friend or by a stranger? Have no values or no friends? A quick, painful death or a long boring life?

         Like the wisdom writers of old, the questions are “either/or” to get us thinking. Neither answer is better than the other, but how we answer sheds some light on who we are and perhaps on the person we’d like to become. What if we applied “Would you rather…?” questions to the gospel lesson?

         Would you rather sit at table and share a meal with tax collectors and sinners or would you rather stand with the scribes and the Pharisees? Would you rather eat with a prostitute, an arms dealer, a terrorist, a drug addict, a thief, a gang member, and a child molester with Jesus at the head of the table, serving and smiling at everyone? Or would you rather be with the local religious leaders association who are meeting with a group of lawyers, but can’t keep their eyes off Jesus and the folks he is eating with?

         By associating with the outcasts of his day, in plain sight of the religious authorities, Jesus is asking this question of those present: would you rather join me, follow me, or stay where you are? And he answers the question by telling three stories, one of which is the story of the prodigal and his brother.

          Who would you rather be? Would you rather be the younger son in the story or the older son? Would you rather be selfish, have the time of your life only to wind up homeless and hungry, repentant and willing to be a servant in your father’s house, then be forgiven by your father and have a lavish party thrown for you? Or would you rather be faithful, diligent, self-sacrificing, live a comfortable life, have your father’s constant love, but be unable to forgive your brother, possibly miss out on his homecoming party, and be estranged from your loving father?

       Since this is a parable, the story can be read on several levels. It could be a story about birth order, about an oldest child and the youngest child, one the hero, the other spoiled. Or it could be good kid/bad kid pitted against one another to see who gets Dad’s or Mom’s attention.

         At a faith level it is a story about Israel’s children to whom Jesus was sent and the Gentiles who were coming into the faith before and during the time the gospel of Luke was written, around 80-85 CE. There were serious questions regarding the Jewish purity laws, about what food was allowed; would circumcision be required; what kind of lives had the Gentiles lived before committing themselves to the Way of Jesus. We can hear the voice of Jewish Christians in the elder brother and his refusal to accept his younger sibling of the faith, these Gentile Christians who do not appreciate the inheritance: the history and relationship of God with the Jews. How can a covenant with God be shared and include those who may have no idea what it means to live in covenant with one another, folks we would call today ‘unchurched’? How can the prodigal Gentile, those were once considered to be unclean and depraved, be called brother and sister?

         In some versions of the Bible, this story is entitled “The Parable of the Lost Son”. The word ‘prodigal’ has been used popularly to mean ‘one who has strayed and has now returned’. Actually, to be prodigal means to be wastefully extravagant, to squander, to lavish. It is easy to see that the younger son was wastefully extravagant and foolishly so, but truly both were prodigal sons. The younger son was prodigal of the flesh: he was wastefully extravagant upon himself and the pleasures of the flesh. The older son was prodigal of the spirit: inwardly he starved himself of joy, squandering his father’s extravagant goodwill and generosity by never asking for that party with his friends, which his father surely would have given him.
 

         Throughout the Bible and in human history we witness time and again humankind divided against itself, families and tribes, citizens of the same nation divided against one another, for similar reasons. Each one thinks themselves the righteous brother or sister; the other is the prodigal who squanders and wastes, if not outright destroys. Violence, whether it is verbal, political, or physical, or all three, usually ensues.
 
         A colleague of mine tells the story of him and his brother when they were slugging it out over something he can no longer remember. Their mother came upon them fighting and she put herself between them, shouting, “Stop it, stop it!” The other brother was distracted by his mother, and the brother telling the story took advantage of the moment, swung his fist, and hit his mother instead, which ended the fight right there.

         At its deepest level, this story is about God as the ultimate prodigal, who loves to the point of being wastefully extravagant with that love. God is that One who puts God’s self in the divide between the estranged brothers, that though they may not have enough love for each other, God’s love is more than enough to go around. Jesus is the embodiment, the incarnation of that love.
 
         I had asked you whether you would rather be the younger brother or the older brother. Often we tend to think in either/or questions, but God’s love is a both/and answer. It doesn’t matter whether we are the younger son or the older son, God wants everyone at the lavish party of reconciliation and forgiveness. It doesn’t matter whether we are religious or spiritual or seeker or of no faith, male or female, conservative or liberal, sinner or righteous, wasteful or frugal, lost or found or somewhere in between any of these—God wants all of us at the party, no matter who we are, because we are all part of one family, one tribe. God is wastefully extravagant, for we can never squander God’s love; there is no end to it. To be sure, we can suffer when we turn away from love; we can abuse God’s and others’ goodwill, but God will always be there, waiting for us to come to ourselves, to come to our senses, to repent and turn to find God running toward us, God waiting for us to join the party.

         In the end that is what the story is really about, what the true title of the parable should be: The Parent Who Waits Up for Every Child. This story gives us the whole picture of who God is and thus, what we are called to do and be as God’s children. We are called to love wastefully and extravagantly and lavishly, especially those whom society would call outcasts, especially those who are not sure they are welcome at God’s celebration, at God’s table, especially those we are not sure of. When others are engaging in and widening the divide and trying to get us to choose sides, God calls us to the table of reconciliation, to stand in that divide, to pray for healing and to work toward wholeness. We are called to forgive one another and search out the hurt and forgotten as God has done with us. God is the seeking and yearning one who comes offering a restored relationship. We who have been renewed and raised to new life—we help to restore God’s shalom when we offer those gifts to others unrestrainedly.
 
         And so New Ark United Church of Christ, in what ways do we need to come to ourselves, to our senses, to repent and turn? Who are the sisters and brothers we take for granted? Where do we need to grow in our extravagant welcome? When was the last time we had a party, just for the sake of enjoying being together, inviting any and all to the celebration?

         Jesus’ greatest gift to us is that he invites us “to step into [our] own humanity so deeply that [we] will find it a doorway to God”. [i] We step into that depth of humanity when we love as Jesus loved, that is, extravagantly and wastefully, so much so that he gave his life. Thanks be to God. Amen.

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[i] Spong, John Shelby.  A New Christianity for a New World.  New York: HarperCollins Publishers.  2002.