josephholubsermons
Lent 4
March 14, 2010
Luke 15:11-32
The Parable of the Father Full of Grace
This parable known as “The Parable of the Prodigal Son."
But that title is
misleading and perhaps
even misnamed, for it puts
all the emphasis
on the wayward son and
minimizes the older son and, most significantly, the
Father - both of whom are
key figures in the
parable.
This classic story has long been the staple
of evangelistic emphasis.
A wayward son who leaves home and wastes his inheritance on fast
living and winds up humiliated and homeless has been a
principle point
for those who preach that we must “get things right with God” and the
way to do that is through repentance defined as confession of
our sins and wrongs. Now, I
don’t doubt or minimize that confession
can be good for the soul,
but to make it the over-arching theme of this story is to
ignore a huge part of the story and
subtle details that are revealed in a careful reading of the
story.
First of all there are
two sons in this story.
Jesus puts as much
emphasis on the older
son who never left
home, who had earned a sash of merit badges and had worked
hard, as the younger wayward son
who did leave home and had
nothing to brag about.
As I see it, these two brothers have more in common than it first
appears, but I’ll get to that in a moment.
First, I will make some points about
parables that we must consider before proceeding:
One is that
parables have great
depth of meaning. They are
short stories
that are long on
layers of meaning. That’s
what is so wonderful
about them. You can return
to a parable again and see something new and fresh every time.
Another thing is
that parables are not about doctrine and propositions,
but have more to do with the
mystery of the kingdom of God and the
mysterious workings and
ways of God’s grace in the world.
Parables are metaphorical stories of
living the life of grace as
revealed in Jesus.
Parables give us a glimpse
of what a life centered in grace might look like.
Parables don’t lock us
into a static, rigid religious life expression, but parables
launch us into a
fluid spirituality of centering in God’s amazing grace and love.
I experience parables as
living and alive,
dynamic and full of energy,
and they continue to speak to me with ever-unfolding dimensions of
meaning and application.
A third thing is
it helps to look at them with unconventional eyes, to
see those things that are not so obvious; those subtle and hidden
aspects that are very much there waiting to be discovered and integrated
into one’s life.
So with that in mind, let’s look at this parable again with a fresh
perspective.
The story begins with a father and two sons, and the youngest son comes
to the father and says, "Give me my share of the inheritance now."
What he was in effect saying,
especially for that culture, was "Dear Dad, drop dead now, legally!
Put your will into effect now, while you are alive, and give me my
inheritance." So, for whatever reason, the father legally drops
dead and divides the property
between both sons
– a part of the story often overlooked.
The younger son squandered his inheritance on reckless living.
When he hit bottom slopping hogs and couldn’t
stand it any longer, he said to
himself, "I will go to my father and I will say, ‘Father, I've sinned
against heaven and before you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your
son." So far, pretty good; score
one for the boy! But the
next thing he says is dead wrong and changes the tone of the whole thing and casts doubt on his sincerity,
"Make me one of your hired servants."
It
sounds less like repentance and more like a plan – a proposition.
In other words, his PLAN
was to not go back as a
son, but as somebody who could earn his father's favor back again
-- and unfortunately, in my mind, 20
centuries of gospel preaching has
mistaken the boy’s
PLAN for repentance. It was not real repentance -
not even close. It was a
PLAN, a STRATEGY, a SCHEME,
a PROPOSTION to
save face and
do something to
regain his father's favor.
He minimized his father’s love as something that had to be earned.
One day the father was sitting on the front porch of the farm house scanning the horizon with an aching heart longing for his wayward son (remember it was the farm house he no longer owned, but now belonged to the oldest son). In the distance he sees the silhouette of younger boy against the setting sun. What does the father do? Does he wait for the boy to come all the way to him? Does he preach an admonishing sermon about his sinful ways and demand confession. No! He rushes off the porch, runs a half mile down the road, throws his arms around the boy's neck and kisses him and makes a total loving, slobbering fuss over him.
That triggers a memory for me. My
mother who would do exactly that when I came home to visit.
Seeing me coming, she would come at me with open arms and fuss
over me, and kiss me, and tell me how I was her adorable and precious
child!
The boy didn’t even get a chance to engage his
PLAN
and well rehearsed speech.
When he does engage his
PLAN and begin his speech, his father could not have been
less interested.
Instead, he called the servants to prepare for a party, because
the son that was lost has now been found.
It’s a scene of total joy that
gushes with grace!
The focus of the story now shifts
to the elder brother who we could call
Mr. Scorekeeper. He
hears the music and the dancing, and he sees the servants scurrying
around with platters of roast beef with all the trimmings, so he asks
one of them, "What's all the fuss about?
I didn't commission a party!" (after all it was now his farm)
The servant says, "Your brother
has come home and your father has killed the fatted calf to celebrate."
Mr. Scorekeeper instantly began a
red-hot disdainful burn.
He adamantly refused to
attend a party for his wayward brother.
Notice he didn’t even acknowledge his brother as his brother
anymore, referring to his
brother as “this son of
yours”, which
was a slam aimed at
both his brother
and his father. He is insanely jealous. He will not attend, and
he chooses to remain and wallow in
the simmering stew of his own private little self-righteous hell.
The father's response to him can be boiled down to this: "Look
junior, what are you complaining about? Everything
that is mine is already yours, or have you forgotten that minor
little detail? Throw away your score-card on your brother and
everybody else in the universe and just come in and join the party
because your brother was lost and now is found. Come and celebrate the
joyous news that our family is reunited again.
Religious score-keeping is not allowed at this party, so throw
you score-card in the trash and come and celebrate a new beginning."
I said earlier that the two brothers had more in common than at
first appearances.
They both wanted to make it all about them and not about their
Father’s astounding grace.
They each were given the Father's inheritance of grace
that they squandered.
The
younger brother made it all
about him when he came home with
his concocted PLAN to
get out of the doghouse and
earn his way back into his father’s graces.
It was all about him
and not about the amazing grace of his father.
He totally
underestimated his father.
The older
brother also made it all about
him when he refused to let go of his
score-keeping.
He refused to be a co-player in his father’s grace.
The older brother’s self righteousness caused him to lose sight
of his common humanity with his brother – insisting he was no
longer even related to him.
The older brother couldn’t celebrate life because his life was framed by
legalisms and rules that
restricted
him to judging others
and
prohibited
him
from extending grace.
I
began by saying that, in my mind, this parable is
misnamed. I now think
of it as
“The Parable of the Father Full of Grace”
This parable is invitation
for us to come home
and center our lives
in God’s astounding grace, especially at those times and in those
situations when we might come to resemble one of the sons in the parable
who both had squandered their inheritance of grace.
·
When we squander our inheritance of grace
by making it into a religion of blanket rules and regulations
that often lead to an attitude of self-righteous score-keeping - from
the heart of this parable we are invited to let go of that and
come home and live with
a spirituality of grace
that empowers us to embrace
those our self-righteous religion of rules would not
·
Or, when we squander our
inheritance of grace by minimizing the magnificence and mystery
of God’s love by
stuffing it into a small box that says in we must have to
do something to earn or deserve it – from the heart of this
parable we are invited to
come home and simply rest back in the cherishing and
unconditional love of God.
That is the center of this parable. It is from that center that we are called “to live and move and have our being.” The heart of God’s grace that beat in life of Jesus can beat in us to as we live centered in the mystery of God’s astounding grace and bring it to expression in our everyday lives as we follow him.