Party On!
(Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32) Lent 4c, March 10, 2013
How many of you like to celebrate, dance, sing, eat and make merry? What a question!
I will tell you a story.
I knew a woman once. Over time I learned a bit about her life. She was one of 4 daughters. Three of them were doing relatively well - not that they didn't have any struggles. Being human includes struggles. But the 4th sister lived with major struggles. Her family would hear from her for months at a time. Then in the face of all her struggles - financial, emotional and mental, she had moved to the Lower East Side of Vancouver. She didn't even have a telephone. She would rarely if ever call "home". Her family was filled with anxiety. Over the years they have tried many things. When she was much younger different members of her family would make unannounced visits. For years her parents regularly sent her money and gifts. When she demanded or politely asked for money from her parents even promising that it would be paid back, she never did. Her life continued to spiral downwards. When I last heard her family had not heard from her in a very long time. Can you imagine what it would mean for them if she were to come home, to get whatever help she may need and allow them to become an important part of her life? What joy would flow into their lives then, particularly the life of her mother and father? Would everyone in the family then rejoice? (Pause)
This story pushes us into the middle of Jesus' parable. It's so familiar, almost too familiar. Do you identify with anyone in the parable – or perhaps even more than one?
At the parable's outset the younger son can't wait for his father to die. This young man wants everything he can have from his father not eventually but RIGHT NOW! He wants the future without waiting, freedom without responsibility, rights without sacrifice or work. Amazingly, surprisingly, (some would even say foolishly), the father gives the younger son his inheritance. This would have cost the family financially and in terms of shame (reputation).
Immediately the younger son leaves home. Wherever he goes, he is the life of the party spending wildly. But eventually unforeseen circumstances arise. This too is part of life: perhaps the price of housing escalates, the job market crashes, or there is a recession, a famine hits. Now the younger son needs a job. He is reduced to feeding pigs. This for any Jewish person would be the lowest of the low. Things get so bad that he is sorely tempted to eat the pig's food. In this state of despair that he "comes to his senses". He remembers his father, the life of his father's house, even for his father's servants. He decides to return home. He rehearses an apology, hoping against hope that his father might agree to employ him. There is no doubt that his father's hired hands have a much better life than his present state.
The older son appears so responsible. He is a diligent worker. However, he isn't close to his father. Yet one day he will be the boss! I have to wonder if this first-born son is close to anyone , if he is capable of ever celebrating, dancing and singing, letting go? Others may respect him, but is he capable of relationship?
One night this older son is returning from a long day of work. Nearing the house he hears the loud sound of a HUGE PARTY. It's unusual. Curious, he asks one of his father's employees, "What's going on?" The response, "Your 'lost' brother has returned. Your father has welcomed him back. The best animal on the place has been slaughtered. Everyone has been invited. They are all dancing, singing, eating and drinking!"
The older son is …FURIOUS! He refuses to partake in any such party! How could his father throw a party for that other "son", that irresponsible ****** jackass?
It is then that the father again comes into view. When the younger son first approached him demanding his inheritance, the father had divided his "living" between his two sons. This was an extremely unusual action for a Jewish man then and there. From that point on the younger son had been lost to the father. The father longed for him to return home. I expect that the father often glanced to the horizon hoping against hope that his son would return. How he misses his son!
Then one day the younger son appears on the horizon. Instantly the father forgets himself. Hiking up his long robes the father begins to run. His eyes burning, he extends his arms to his son. The younger one mumbles some confession. None of it matters. All that matters is that HIS SON, has come home. The father hurriedly makes ready a party for the entire community. Everyone will share the father's joy! His son is home.
But the older son refuses to join the party. To be sure the father loves both his sons. So he goes outside to plead with the elder. Do we hear his pleading, the ache in his voice? "Son. All that I have is yours. But now your brother who has been lost has come home. He is found. Come let's celebrate together!"….
In so many ways the father seems to be a fool! He has given his living, his property, all that he has worked for, to his two sons before he dies. But neither of his sons appreciates their father. Neither of them lives as if they are truly sons. The younger one lives with a "gimmme, gimme, gimme" approach! Even after he returns home seeking "employment" there isn't any guarantee he has changed at all.
Nor does the older son realize who he is. All that the father has is also his. But the older son chooses to see himself as a slave: a very good and faithful slave but a slave nevertheless! The older son is bitter and resentful of his father's graciousness to the younger son who continually abuses his sonship. The older son might even be wondering about the old father's mind. By the parable's end the older son refuses to acknowledge that he has either a brother or a father. Do you hear him speaking to his father, "That son of yours"? It is SO SAD!
In these 2 son's lives there is both tragedy and hope. Neither one of them appreciates nor lives within the love that their father has for them. Tragedy!
But their father doesn't give up on them even though it is unclear what will happen in his son's lives.
We gather around a symbol that speaks of the heart of our Father and Mother, God. This symbol is the cross of Jesus. God reaches out to all people, to all creation, to love and care for them, to restore and rescue us from our broken relationships: with God, with each other with the rest of creation.
We have been and probably are at many different places in our lives. Sometimes we may have attempted to live with the younger son's attitude of "gimme, gimme, gimme". In such times we may have attempted to manipulate those who love us, including God. How tragic not to realize whose we are!
At other times we may have tried to live like the older son feeling pretty darn good about ourselves. Surely we deserve what we have! We work hard. We keep the law, most of the time. But then, do we ever truly experience the joy of being loved by God, the excitement of seeing others being loved and discovering that God loves them – far beyond anything we could ever deserve or earn?
Look closely! God the Father and Mother of all, is the one who gives His/Her for us. As a result we can now liv in caring relationships with God, with each other and with the rest of creation now and forever. It's not us against them.
Such living is not easy. It is anything but possible if left to our own devices. Examine our track record individually and collectively. There has been a whole lot of excluding, a whole lot of fear, hatred, envy, jealousy and strife happening.
But God, through Jesus wills to transform us. Just as the parable's father rejoices when his son returns home, so God rejoices when any of God's children return to God, regardless of their motives. When the lost is found, when one who has been dead experiences new life, what can any of us do but be rejoice and be glad! Do you hear it – the sound of a party! God help us. Amen.