Crazy Love

Luke 15:1-3, 11b- 32 (Lent 4c, 16) (March 6, 2016)

 

I want to tell you about a 'crazy' family. Do you know any crazy families? Might we, ourselves, be part of a 'crazy' family?

 

This family is composed of a mother, and 2 daughters. As you know each and every child in a family is unique making them different from each other.  That's particularly true in this family. The younger daughter is a tad bit, 'wild'. She's head strong. She knows what she wants and she wants it NOW!

 

One night, this younger daughter, barely 21, approaches her mom. She makes a demand. "Mom, I want my inheritance. I want it now!"

 

Usually people don't or can't receive their inheritance until their parent or parents have died. There are some instances where one or both of the parents are extremely generous deciding of their own volition to give one or all of their children a portion of the inheritance well prior to their own death (s).

 

But this younger daughter demands that she receive her inheritance now. It's as if she's saying to her mom, "I can't wait for you to die. Your stuff is more important to me than you. I want what's 'mine', now!"

 

Surprisingly the mother meets this demand. To do so, the mother needs to sell some of her own stuff including her car. I'm not sure but the mother may have also had to remortgage her house. I'm not sure why the mother does this. It certainly could have been out of love. It may also have been the result of profound insight. It may have even been decided as the result of resignation, "My daughter's going to do what she's going to do – with or without these resources".

 

What do you think will happen to this younger daughter once she has received 'her' inheritance?

 

As you may have guessed, things don't go well for her. Immediately upon receiving 'her' inheritance the younger daughter leaves home.  In a short period of time she blows all of her money. Initially she had thought that things were great. How she loved her freedom: partying, drinking, drugging . You may be able to piece the rest of the picture together. In those days and nights she feels that she has a ton of friends. But once her money runs out, she finds herself often alone. Towards the end of her money she is trying to survive in cheap apartments, more accurately rooms without a toilet. But now she is unable to make rent so she is couch surfing.

 

Somehow, she manages to exist like this for awhile. But eventually, she "comes to herself". She thinks, "If I could go back to my mother and tell her how sorry I am, how terribly I have treated her, who knows, maybe she'll ask one of her friends for a favor, which would give me the opportunity for a decent job? Then I could have a roof over my head, my own bathroom again. Then I wouldn't be hungry. "

 

With this in mind, the younger daughter heads home planning a full blown apology to her mother. She reasons, "What do I have to lose?"

 

But now things become even crazier. When the younger daughter arrives fresh off the bus outside of her mother's home, her mother spots her.  It's still early in the morning. The younger daughter had no place to sleep. Upon spotting her daughter the mother races outside in her bathrobe.  The mother almost falls as her bath robe is flapping in the breeze.  Almost before the younger daughter can get out her well rehearsed speech, her mother embraces her, almost dragging her inside the house. The mother announces that they are going out shopping for new clothes. The younger daughter's old room is ready. But the mother makes another announcement. "We will renovate it." Inside of ten minutes the mother is on the phone inviting her friends to attend a grand party for her returned daughter THAT NIGHT.

 

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? Has that mother lost her mind? There isn't any guarantee that the younger daughter has learned anything or is even remotely sorry for the pain she has caused both her mother and her older sister. There isn't any guarantee that within a week or two she won't repeat her same or similar mistakes. 

 

The older daughter wasn't around home that morning. The older daughter is very responsible. Her job is demanding. Yet the older daughter has remained nearby her mother's home because her mother's health has been declining. Part of that could be attributed  to the younger daughter's delinquent behavior. The older daughter feels compelled to check up on her mom, especially since her younger irresponsible, deadbeat sister abandoned both of them.

 

Over the last weeks and months the older daughter has been on the road for her job. Each day she checks in with her mom. Lord knows, there isn't anyone else to do that. Tonight she is finally coming home. She pulls up in front of her mom's house. Opening her car door she hears loud music. There's a band in the back yard by the pool. She asks the neighbors who are about to go into her mom's house, "Hey, what's going on?" They reply, "Your sister's home. Your mom is throwing a party for your sister, sparing no expense. Everyone on the block is invited. We know, it's crazy but it's also fun. Aren't you coming in?"

 

Now, the older sister is flabbergasted! How could mom do this? How could her irresponsible, wasteful, selfish sister even show her face? Suddenly the older sister is tired. She leans up against her car, with paralyzing anger. Her self-righteousness is welling up within her, threatening to explode.

 

Then the house door opens. Her mother  is running up to her. Her mother pleads with her, "My daughter! Please come inside. Join our party.  Your sister's home. She was lost but now she's found. She was nearly dead, but now she's alive!"

 

The older sister can no longer contain herself. "That daughter of yours has cost us, so much! She takes advantage of you. She lies. She's so selfish. You can't depend on her.  And now you are spending some of our hard earned money, some of my inheritance in welcoming her back here?"

 

Tears cascade down the mother's face. With quite urgency she begs her older daughter, "Please, come in. We can celebrate."

 

There they are.  One 'crazy' family composed of a loving, forgiving, some would venture foolish, mother and two of her daughters, neither of whom has any real understanding of what it means to be their mother's daughter.

 

I wonder, do you know any 'crazy' families like that? Do you know any crazy families like that?

 

And where is God in the midst of that, of our, 'crazy' families? Might God race in a bathrobe, to embrace even us – or beg us to come inside, to join the party? I wonder. Amen