Arms Wide Open

Sermon-Study Luke 15:1-3,11-32 March 6, 2016 Lent 4C FMPC

Arms Wide Open Discussion study in Café Church

How do we feel about the younger son’s repentance? How do we feel about forgiveness?

How was it possible for the father to be the first one to meet the son on his return home?

How would it have been if it were the elder son who saw him first? How do we feel about

parties? The party of the son returning home was it his party or his father’s? How much

room is there in the Kingdom of Heaven?

These are the questions before us as we begin our study of the Scripture known as the prodigal son.

This parable of Jesus has been called the greatest of all parables. It is so well known that it has been the subject of literature, art, music and philosophers throughout the centuries. Rembrandt’s painting depicts the eldest son lurking in the shadows, while the younger son is being celebrated.

Luke is the only Gospel to present this parable and it is presented in a series of three lost things.

First the lost sheep, then the lost coin and last the lost son.

In each of these parables the focus appears to be on that which was lost, yet the central figure is really the one who seeks.

Which of you would risk everything to go out and find something that wasn’t worth much, which of you would go and dismantle your house just to recover a lost penny?

It all starts with the group of self- proclaimed ‘righteous people’ challenging Jesus about why he hangs out with tax collectors, low lifes, sinners and all the ‘wrong’ people.

But, these very people are the ones who hold nothing back. They are able to admit the things they’ve done wrong, they are able to state where they’re lost and they are willing to have the God of love come and redeem them.

The righteous though believe they have God in their pocket and no longer need to be sought by God. They hold on to the fact that they have been redeemed once and therefore do not need transformation or growth in faith.

This story is about those who yearn for God and also struggle in life. It is about so many of us in so many walks and ways we find ourselves.

We live in a world that is not fair. Good people lose everything and bad things happen to them and yet the evil guy gets away with tax evasion and lives in mansions and earns his millions through illegal means. The world is not fair.

And so we, the religious, expect our God to be fair, to help us make sense of things that don’t make sense.

We expect our God to love us and give us what we deserve.

As Christians do we sometimes feel like we are the eldest son?

Why is it that the worst criminals who find Jesus get all the attention?

What about us and all the hours we spend helping the poor and the needy and nobody gives us a party?

This parable would make sense to us if it ended at the point of which the father greets his repentant son and welcomes him home.

But it becomes reckless and foolish and spendthrift when the father throws his robe and his ring on the boy and then roasts the fatted calf and has a feast with music and dancing.

And he invites the entire community to join in the celebration!

It is this scene that ruins everyone’s understanding of what is fair.

It is the father who acts foolishly!

The father is characterized by profuse wasteful expenditure.

It is the father who is yielding abundantly!

In all three stories of the lost being found the result is immeasurable joy.

God’s love and mercy call for celebration.

And it is this reckless behavior of the father that makes his love unfair.

This parable is really a sad tale of humanity’s rejection of God.

The son, at the point of starvation finally “comes to his senses” and addresses his sin.

·         The actions of the father demonstrate the fullness of reconciliation and redemption.

The eldest son however is still holding on to the grudge against his brother for running off and leaving him with less inheritance to run the family business.

He is angry because the younger brother has now returned and will be living off his portion of the money that was left.

He is angry because he has done everything right and yet the father has never shown this kind of reaction to all he has done.

The joy of the father is not fair.

The elder son’s response is similar to the workers in Matthew 20:11 “These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.”

The father has not displaced the elder son.

His place is still a place of honor.

The father points out to the elder son that reconciliation is with the whole family. Reconciliation occurs: father to son and brother to brother.

Jesus tells this parable leaving us all wondering if the younger son was really honest in his repentance and if the older son got over his anger and joined in.

*Maybe, just maybe this is where we are invited into the story.

Perhaps this is the place we can examine the invitation to the feast.

What risks does it take to be part of the celebration?*

God’s mercy for us is beyond measure.

Henri Nouwen says, “Joy does not simply happen to us. We choose joy and keep choosing it every day.”

God’s banquet Table is for all of us every day and is spread fresh and new, filled with nourishing and delicious food.

Let us make this story our story and discover how important joy is in the life of our faith.