Prodigals Are We All

The text this week was Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Musical mash-ups.  Some of them work, some of them do not work.  But in most cases, you may find yourself saying something like, “Wow, never ever thought of putting those songs together” or “You got your chocolate in my peanut butter!” (before you discover what a great combination THAT is…)  But, depending on the skill of the DJ or the mash-upper, you may expect to always hear those songs blended together happily ever after.  One mash-up is called “Boulevard of Broken Songs” by a DJ called Party Ben.  The song has elements of Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Green Day, Wonderwall by Oasis, and songs by an artist called Travis and a song by Eminem which samples “Dream On” by Aerosmith.  There’s another one called “Somebody Rock Me” which combines “Somebody Told Me” and “Rock the Casbah” by the Killers and the Clash.  If you think these might be a train wrecks of a song, or something like I mentioned before, you’d be surprised at how good it actually sounds.  Kind of like the invention of the peanut butter cup.  

It strikes me that the religious folks are bothered about Jesus hanging out with sinners. “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”  It’s like they can’t imagine the idea of a holy man, a man of God like Jesus--and others--claim that he is, hanging out with “those kind of people.”

There’s a running joke in our house about a missing ingredient.  Whenever the question, “How’s it taste” gets asked, the reply is “Great.  But…you know what it needs? Habanero salsa!”  It doesn’t matter what the meal is, the needed extra ingredient is Habanero Salsa.  Now just imagine all the horrible possibilities that could create, and you have an idea of how the religious folks were feeling about seeing Jesus hanging out while people who were anything but holy, anything but religious, anything but worthy of his time and God’s presence.

I’m not sure that we’re all that different.  If you saw your local pastor hanging out in Sake Town, or a red light area, spending time with unsavory people at bars, your first instinct may not be positive.  If so, good on you, but for the vast majority of people, they’d be questioning their pastor’s integrity, getting the pastor-parish relations team together, or the vestry or the board of elders on the case, to get to the bottom of why pastor has been seen going in and out of the tattoo parlor and the “gentlemen’s club”.  Because religious folks and those locations, and the people that frequent those locations, are like habanero salsa and sweet potato pie…just a bad idea.

So to help religious folks like us understand what God is doing Jesus tells three parables, the most poignant of which is the story about the two brothers.

I’ve shared previously that this is one of parables that Jesus tells which is most personal to me.  In so many ways I identify with the son who squanders his inheritance in the far country.  I identify with his shame and his embarrassment as he sits in the filth of the pig sty.  And I think it is easy for us to boil this parable down to the “sinner who needs to come home” and leave it at that.  But there is so much more.

There is the father who waits and looks for the son’s return.  The father who does not condemn the son for squandering but welcomes and embraces and celebrates the son who has returned.  This is someone from the parable who should give us pause as we think of the character of God.  Do you accept that God accepts our repentance and our returns, no questions asked?  His only concern is making his son legitimate again.  Wrapping the cloak of protection and son-ship around him; placing the ring of identification on his finger; and throwing a feast so that everyone can celebrate his child having come home. 

The father stands in stark contrast with the brother of the prodigal.  The brother is ever faithful, never really straying far from home, but also never really enjoying or trusting the depth of love that the father has for his children.  He has toed the line and he has worked hard in the hopes of earning his father’s favor and, with favor, love.  And yet in his work and efforts he has missed the joy of being loved.

The other brother would expect a welcome home feast if his wayward brother had been a war hero—homecoming shows are a big hit, because we recognize the sacrifices of those who choose to leave home and family for honorable reasons.  Heroes deserve ticker tape parades and best robes, father’s rings, and fatted calf feasts.  But the Father in this story doesn’t throw a feast for a hero, he throws it for a zero.  The deserter should not come home to a party…

At least that’s what the religious think as they stand outside of the feasts where Jesus welcomes sinners and eats with them.

I, for one, am happy that Jesus does welcome sinners, that he breaks bread with us to this very day, and in so doing, invites us to join in the celebration for those who have finally come home.  Even those of us who may not have ever wandered, from time to time miss the joy of continually being in our Father’s presence, and that is a far country in it’s own respect.

We are prodigals, all of us.  Whether we know it or not, the feast being thrown is for all of us.  We may not like the idea of mingling with the not-so-holy folks, or mingling with the holier-than-thou’s depending on who we relate to the most, but we all need grace.  We all need to celebrate in the presence of the One who came to set us free.