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A Story of two sons and their father
Fourth Sunday of Lent
Joshua 5
The LORD said to Joshua,
“Today I have removed the reproach of Egypt from you.”
While the Israelites were encamped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho,
they celebrated the Passover
on the evening of the fourteenth of the month.
On the day after the Passover,
they ate of the produce of the land
in the form of unleavened cakes and parched grain.
On that same day after the Passover,
on which they ate of the produce of the land, the manna ceased.
No longer was there manna for the Israelites,
who that year ate of the yield of the land of Canaan.
Psalm 34
R. (9a) Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Let my soul glory in the LORD;
the lowly will hear me and be glad.
Glorify the LORD with me,
let us together extol his name.
I sought the LORD, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.
Look to him that you may be radiant with joy,
and your faces may not blush with shame.
When the poor one called out, the LORD heard,
and from all his distress he saved him.
Brothers and sisters:
Whoever is in Christ is a new creation:
the old things have passed away;
behold, new things have come.
And all this is from God,
who has reconciled us to himself through Christ
and given us the ministry of reconciliation,
namely, God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ,
not counting their trespasses against them
and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
So we are ambassadors for Christ,
as if God were appealing through us.
We implore you on behalf of Christ,
be reconciled to God.
For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin,
so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.
Luke
Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus,
but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying,
“This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
So to them Jesus addressed this parable:
A man had two sons, and the younger son said to his father,
‘Father give me the share of your estate that should come to me.’
So the father divided the property between them.
After a few days, the younger son collected all his belongings
and set off to a distant country
where he squandered his inheritance on a life of dissipation.
When he had freely spent everything,
a severe famine struck that country, and he found himself in dire need.
So he hired himself out to one of the local citizens
who sent him to his farm to tend the swine.
And he longed to eat his fill of the pods on which the swine fed,
but nobody gave him any.
Coming to his senses he thought,
‘How many of my father’s hired workers have more than enough food to eat,
but here am I, dying from hunger.
I shall get up and go to my father and I shall say to him,
“Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.
I no longer deserve to be called your son;
treat me as you would treat one of your hired workers.”’
So he got up and went back to his father.
While he was still a long way off,
his father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion.
He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him.
His son said to him,
‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you;
I no longer deserve to be called your son.’
But his father ordered his servants,
‘Quickly bring the finest robe and put it on him;
put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.
Take the fattened calf and slaughter it.
Then let us celebrate with a feast,
because this son of mine was dead, and has come to life again;
he was lost, and has been found.’
Then the celebration began.
Now the older son had been out in the field
and, on his way back, as he neared the house,
he heard the sound of music and dancing.
He called one of the servants and asked what this might mean.
The servant said to him,
‘Your brother has returned
and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf
because he has him back safe and sound.’
He became angry,
and when he refused to enter the house,
his father came out and pleaded with him.
He said to his father in reply,
‘Look, all these years I served you
and not once did I disobey your orders;
yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends.
But when your son returns
who swallowed up your property with prostitutes,
for him you slaughter the fattened calf.’
He said to him,
‘My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours.
But now we must celebrate and rejoice,
because your brother was dead and has come to life again;
he was lost and has been found.’
The young man's confession and his promises to make reparation are brushed aside by this father as he wraps his lost child in a huge embrace. The response to the older son's protest is also calm, warm and supportive. The father is looking to mend all the relationships, looking not at the past but to the future with the joy of living and working in the harmony of love.
In another place Jeshua said there's more joy in heaven over one sinner having a change of heart than over 99 'just ones' who don't need it (or think they don't). These may be so locked in and locked down that they cannot function. The poor in our ghettos don't lock their doors, while the mansions of the wealthy are locked up and often surrounded by a high wall. Social life is by some accounts more vigorous among the poor.
The older son imprisoned in his faithfulness is the image of the pharisee, or in today's world, of the conservative, the traditionalist and the fundamentalist. ‘Look, all these years I served you and not once did I disobey your orders.' A good descriptiion of the pharisee. In this section of his gospel Luke relates the on-going conflict with the Pharisees; this story is addressed precisely to them which means its focus is on the mistake of the older son.
However, even as we examine the sons' attitudes we are always conscious of the father in the background working steadily for reconciliation within his family, for this is our parent whom we dare to call God.
This is the sort of passage we could commit to memory:
Whoever is in Christ is a new creation:
the old things have passed away;
behold, new things have come.
And all this is from God,
who has reconciled us to himself through Christ
and given us the ministry of reconciliation,
namely, God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ,
not counting their trespasses against them
and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
So we are ambassadors for Christ,
as if God were appealing through us.
We implore you on behalf of Christ,
be reconciled to God.
For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin,
so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.
Paul puts it so plainly: "God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ." This formulation is the best description of the meaning of Jeshua's life and death, even though it does not tell us much about the how of it. Efforts to explain 'redemption', 'atonement', etc., often go too far and only end up contenious. But God seen as taking the initiative to heal the wounds we have inflicted on one another and to bring us together, so that we no longer cause the father pain but give him joy is the heart of it. God reconciles us to himself and to each other, and vice versa.
The fight with God is over.
Now is the time for us to absorb this without being sceptical or rebelling again. Both young men in the parable would have found it hard to accept the extent of the father's lofe for them, not only because it took them out of their comfort zone in the way they thought of their father but for that extra step when they had to approach one another and shake hands, the one having to overcome his shame and humiliation, the other his pride and sense of entitlement. There are problems here for us on all counts.
The process of reconciliation goes is a series of familiar steps. First, trying to see from the other's point of view. Look at these questions and close your eyes:
1. Do I know the Creator's frustration at our behaviour?
2. Do I accept forgiveness for all my mistakes, even the really bad ones?
3. Do I live with a sense of entitlement expecting a guaranteed reward?
Each of these could lead to hours of wondering/wandering investigation. My wording of these questions is as simple as I can make it to leave room for personal elaboration.
Just as we have the sinner and the pharisee snugly at home within us, so the whole of humankind has the problems of misunderstanding the Parent-God and of experiencing alienation as a confusing darkness of mind. Jeshua tried to get us to see it from the Father's point of view, at the same time himself being the Father's attempt to see it from our side. That final terrifying cry of despair from the cross embodies the despair of all humankind: My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? It's like when I am faced with the things I have done, and ask in horror: How could I have done that?
So this is the first step to reconciliation, to see it from the others' point of view, which mens we get to experience what they experience. If we have any sense of honour the next step follows inevitably: we suffer remorse for our part in this conflict. We acknowledge we too have done wrong. Jeshua would say the Father has done no wrong beyond this too risky experiment of allowing consciousness to develop and to grow from the very primitve to the too sophisticated. It is part of the deal that God cannot intervene when people do dreadful things to one another because development of conscious into conscience entails the freedom to choose. Without it we do not evolve.
Satisfactioin would be the next integral step, but in the story the father brushes aside the talk of reparations and puts on a party instead. Paul found it very hard to believe this, returning to it time and again as if trying to convince himself, for he was conscious of the ambassador's mandate he'd been given, to set before us the terms and conditions of our reconciliation. The primary condition is to accept that we are reconciled, that the war is over, that the Father does not want to be paid reparations. The second is as close as the reverse side of sheet of paper: that we remain conscious of our status of dependency and with humility respect everything we have as being given to us. All we owe to God is to be grateful - and to live accordingly.