Lent 4 (C) + Join the grace party! + 3.31.19

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M. Campbell-Langdell

All Santos, Oxnard

(Joshua 5:9–12; Ps. 32; 2 Corinthians 5:16–21; St Luke 15:1–3, 11b–32)

Ah, the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Or the profligate father. Or of the two brothers. Or what-have-you. The truth is this is one of the most glorious and multifaceted parables of Jesus, and yet almost no two opinions about it are exactly the same.

I think this is because there are so many levels on which you can read the text. The first I think of is the familial level. Isn’t it true that the family is the crucible in which we learn about ourselves and sometimes about God, for good or for ill? Here we have clear family dynamics. A father who may be seen as permissive but who is, after all, a father who goes through the grief of losing a son, albeit temporarily. Any parent would welcome that kid home. Tomorrow is the time to talk things through, but tonight, we celebrate! Then we have the younger son, who makes some pretty poor choices. His priorities are all wrong. He has been drunk with the wine of the world. And he comes literally crawling back. But he never loses his son-ship. And the older brother, who nursed that calf that has just been slaughtered and enters the scene, always the last to know (one assumes), always the one with the blessing and the curse to be able to welcome or not. All of us, depending on where we fall in families, identify with the wastrel who finds grace, the father whose grief is turned to joy, or the responsible older son who projects the meanness, that is the limitations, of his own life onto others- is his father ungenerous with him, or has he never asked? I know as an older child in a family, I always marveled at how my brother seemed to feel entitled in a different way, but now as a parent I realize he was just being a normal kid, asking for what he felt he needed. Sometimes we might identify in a completely different way with the characters in this story, or with different characters at different times.

Another level, of the many, on which you might perceive this biblical narrative is on the cosmic level. We are all children in God’s throne room, and we are all welcomed back if we have strayed, and if we have remained in God’s presence, we are welcomed to rejoice in the return of those who have strayed. Don’t worry if there’s enough grace for you, and don’t judge another on how far they’ve fallen, or see yourself as beyond redemption. All of that would be sinful, because it would separate you from the Father’s embrace; better said, from God’s embrace, God who is mother and father and beyond. Because the point is grace.

Grace is the point here, because we will all at some point be or witness each of these figures. We will be or witness the grieving person whose sorrow is turned to joy and who has a chance to embrace someone who has wronged us or left us and has now returned. A case of this would be when I witnessed an exchange between two friends in Christ several years ago. One of them felt she was in need and took from the other. I saw such joy in the way that the friend who had been taken from affirmed the other as her sister in Christ and welcome back into her friendship, after the other had owned up to her actions.

We all may be the prodigal son, returning. There is so much of my life that I waste. When I get too busy with the details of the day, and I forget courtesy for those around me. When I focus on catching up on technology and instead just end up falling down the Facebook rabbit hole. There are times when I feel I misuse what God has given me out of such abundance. And I feel ungrateful and I need to fall on my knees, whether physically or in my heart or both, and return to God. Which is what repentance is – re-turning.

And sometimes we may all be the older son, who is at risk of not accepting the father’s mercy and love for another son. How dare that wastrel get treated the same way as me, the faithful and long-suffering one? How many times have I judged in my heart someone who seems to be new to faith but who is acting as if they are the golden child of God? Those of us who have endeavored (albeit with mixed results) to be faithful Christians from our birth can get rather snooty with those we feel haven’t been Christians as long or faithfully as us, for example, or perhaps I am just talking about myself. But is God’s grace really that small? Of course not! Another child of God can be rich spiritually even as I can embrace the gifts God has in store for me.

If the key word of this parable is grace, a second key is to find reconciliation with God. Reconciliation of both sons with the father. Just as mentioned in the reading from 2^nd Corinthians, God has redeemed us through Christ and does not hold our sins against us, but has made us a new creation and ambassadors of Christ – what an image! And all of this is not due to what we have done but instead is dependent on our ability to repent and return to God so that we can glory in God’s abundant mercy.

I love that this parable ends open-ended. We don’t know what the older brother does. Does he say to his father, “That makes sense!” and join the party? Does he sulk for a bit and slink in? Or does he storm off in a huff? I think that ending is left open for our benefit. It is the question God is asking us. Are we willing to be generous and loving and merciful as God is generous and loving and merciful?

If we do so, we know that we do this not just for ourselves. But as ambassadors of Christ, we live for others, not for ourselves. This other life is just around the corner, calling us out of ourselves. This makes me think of the Joshua passage from today. After wandering in the desert, and subsisting on manna, they are now settling in the land to which God has called them. They have reconciled with God and God now calls them to eat the produce of the land. No more manna. They are in it for the long haul now. In what ways is God calling us out of eating the manna that sustains temporarily towards eating the food of the land, and being sustained by that which will feed us and others long-term?
Is there something in your life- whether in your personal relationships, or in your relationship with God, that keeps you lingering at the door of grace?
Be reconciled to God. Return, step through the door, and join the party!