Is this for real?

This story is all wrong. The younger son tells his father I want my share now! – which means I want what is coming to me after you die, and I'm not prepared to wait for then, so let’s just pretend you are dead.

This story is all wrong. The father does as his son asks, and sells part of the property.

This story is all wrong. The father throws a party for the younger son on his return, surely a reprimand, some suitable punishment, but a party? Killing the fatted calf was only for the most honoured of guests, not someone crawling back in shame.

This story is all wrong. We think of the younger boy returning home full of repentance, seeing the error of his ways. But the younger son didn’t recognise his sinfulness, he was cold and hungry, and he remembered that his father treated his servants better than the man he currently worked for. In his leaving and his returning he was not thinking of his father, his family or his village, but of himself.

This story is just wrong.

In some ways it is easy to hear this parable and think of people we know who fit the younger son and older son, it is possible to get misty eyed about love and duty and forgiveness and pig-headedness.

In Buechner’s classic Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy & Fairy Tale “…it is only when you hear the Gospel as a wild and marvellous joke that you really hear it at all?” 

“…it is only when you hear the Gospel as a wild and marvellous joke that you really hear it at all?” 

This parable shows the “…outlandishness of God who does impossible things with impossible people” Frederick Buechner

…..

This is one of three stories Jesus tells in response to the religious authorities.  

Luke writes: “Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them." So he told them this parable:” Luke 15: 1-2

“The religious authorities complain about the company Jesus keeps (….), and he responds not only with this story but with two other parables of lost-ness, about a sheep and a coin both precious in the eyes of their owners, both lost and then found, and both celebrated with a party, with everyone invited, that is, everyone who is willing to rejoice.” UCC SAMUEL

This isn’t a story about repentance, but a story about the foolishness of the father,
the father of 2 sons,
neither deserved the love he showed them.
This is a story about celebration,
relationships and love.
This is a story of undeserved love.
The older son is peeved, not because his brother has come home, but because there is a party.

Neither son recognises that he is loved by the father, neither son loves the father. One son is self-righteous “all these years I have been working like a slave for you” and you have given me nothing.  The other is self-absorbed and irresponsible.

Sure, the father is foolish.

·         foolish to agree to the request of the younger son to give him his inheritance early;

·         foolish to wait and expect a change of heart

·         foolish not to demand a proper apology

·         foolish to call him his son after all he has done

• foolish to risk being fleeced again.  [see David Lose]

But maybe one reason we value this story so much is because each one of us wishes we had someone who loves us that much, who loves us and accepts us no matter how long we have been away or what we have done.

Jesus tells this story to religious authorities and tax collectors and sinners

Jesus tells this story to people like us – people who need to hear again and again that we are treasured and cherished by God.

Not because we have acted out of duty

Not because we have said some formulaic apology

Not because we are perfect.

But because God is invested in a relationship with each one of us.  

Yet often we wish it were different.

We wish that people who followed the rules got more,
that life was fair.

See this story is all wrong! It doesn't talk about punishment and reward, it isn't about getting what we deserve. Christianity isn't about a set of rules that will get us God’s love. We are already loved. We are loved because that is the nature of God.

A quote:

Here's the gospel: you're more sinful than you ever dared believe; you're more loved than you ever dared hope.

—Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian and author of The Reason for God

You are invited to a party

-      a  party with sinners and tax collectors

-      a party with religious and political leaders

-      a party with the irresponsible and the self-righteous.

How will you respond to the invitation?

What does it feel like to know that God loves you more than you dared hope?