Middletown Reformed Church

THE MIDDLETOWN REFORMED CHURCH

 

4^TH SUNDAY IN LENT                                                       MARCH 14, 2010

 

GREETINGS

Last Sunday I shared with you the tragedies encountered by the protagonist of a novel, the Kite Runner. When I was halfway thought the book, I was discouraged, the main character was a depressing coward. But several people encouraged me to finish the book, and I did, and I’m glad. It was inspiring.

 

The protagonist found grace and redemption. He found grace by confessing his cowardice, and he found redemption in the process of becoming a father. He goes back to Afghanistan and rescues an orphan, the son of his half-brother, and puts his life on the line for the young boy to bring him with him to his home in America.

 

It is in relationships where grace and redemption are found. In “The Kite Runner” grace is found in the relationship between husband and wife, redemption is found in the relationship between father and son.

 

In our Christian faith we say the same thing. It is in relationship where we find our redemption. It is in family relationships where we find our salvation. We belong to a holy family, God’s family, and our salvation is found in our relationship with God,  our heavenly Father, and Christ our Savior.

 

On behalf of Jesus, it is my great privilege to greet you with your heavenly Father’s grace, mercy, and peace.

 

Good morning.

 

SERMON “The Extravagant Father”

 

Text: Luke 15:12

The younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.' So he divided his property between them.

 

Prayer: from Psalm 19:14

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

 

The parables of Jesus can be compared to those painted wooden Russian dolls that are nestled inside each other. You pry apart the outer layer and find a smaller doll inside. Open that one, and lo there’s a smaller one inside that. Finally when the smallest one is opened there is a surprise inside.

 

Or the parables of Jesus may be compared to an onion. You have to peel away the layers, layer after layer, to get to the heart of it.

 

Even the most familiar parables of Jesus catch us by surprise when we get inside of them. Today our gospel reading tells the story of, what has been called, the prodigal son. It is perhaps the most familiar of our Lord’s parables. We’ve heard the story hundreds of times, and we are familiar with every line of the story.

 

A man has two sons. The younger of them asks for his inheritance. The father divides his living between his two boys. The younger son leaves home. Squanders all he has in riotous living. In his poverty he comes to himself. He goes back home. His father accepts him back and throws a party. But the older son isn’t at all happy with his brother’s return or the celebration.

 

That’s the story, and we all have images in our minds as to how that played out. We may have acted it out in a Sunday school play, or seen others act out this story. We are so familiar with it that we are apt to think that there is no surprise in it. As a matter of fact we may have to stifle a yawn when we hear the story one more time.

 

At the risk of putting you to sleep, let me analyze the parable one more time. And let me begin by asking: What is the story about? Who is the central character in the story? I suspect that most people would say that the parable is about the prodigal son, the younger son. After all, the parable is known as the Parable of the Prodigal Son. But is that so?

 

There are three main characters in the story: the younger son, the older son, and the father, or we may call them the prodigal son, the obedient son, and the good father, or so we have come to see them.

 

We know them, we think, and we can identify with them. The younger son is the person who wants to leave the farm and go to the big city, or the aspiring daughter who wants to make it big in Hollywood. We know their type. We may have been there ourselves. The prodigals leave home and waste the inheritance they have received, their training, their religion, their education, their morals. All gone! And then their dreams go bust. They live a lifestyle alien to their upbringing, and find themselves in the gutter.

 

In our Lord’s story it says that the young man came to himself. We’ve usually taken that to mean that he repented, that he was sorry for what he had done. But I don’t think so. When I take away another layer and look deeper into the parable I find that the younger brother is still an ungrateful and conniving wretch. He’s not sorry at all. He is figuring out how he can get back into the good graces of his father so that he can take advantage of him again. There is no repentance, at least not at that point. Perhaps there is redemption but it comes later in the story at the father’s initiative when he throws his arms around his wayward boy.

 

Then there is the older son. He doesn’t figure much in the story. But many of us can identify with him. He is the good guy. He’s the obedient son. He’s the one who does his father’s bidding. He’s a serious fellow. Obviously, he doesn’t party very much. He keeps his nose to the grindstone. He’s the type that goes to work early in the morning and comes home late at night. But when you peel away the layers and look inside, he’s not such a nice guy after all. He’s resentful and cheap. He resents his younger brother for getting his share of the inheritance. He resents his brother for having left him alone back home. He’s not willing to see his brother, let alone party with him. He resents the money that the father is wasting on this extravagant party. And, the older son does all the work, not because he loves his father, but because he’s building up his own wealth, fattening up his own portfolio. He’s not a nice guy at all.

 

Then there is the father. I think he’s the central character in the story.

 

I remember the first time I saw the ballet, The Prodigal Son, set to the music of Prokofiev, and choreographed by George Balanchine. It was a production aired on a public television network. If I remember correctly, the leading role was danced by Rudolph Nureyev. I was moved to tears by the performance, and cried at the end when the father enfolded and held the prodigal son.

 

But Balanchine had it all wrong. His interpretation of the story may have been traditional, but it’s all wrong. The father was not sternly sitting there waiting for the son to return. Nor did the son run into the father’s arms. It was very different. Read the story carefully and you’ll see.

 

This was a crazy father. There was nothing normal about this father. Those who first heard Jesus tell the story saw the humor in the story and must have laughed with Jesus as he told the story about this crazy father.

 

Fatherhood was taken very seriously by people in Jesus’ culture. As a matter of fact books were written outlining the duties and responsibilities of fathers. You’ll notice, of course, that no mother, or daughters are mentioned in the story of this family. It was a patriarchal culture. Mary, my wife, tells me, that if there had been a woman involved things would have gone differently. Nevertheless, if we understood the role of fathers in the Jewish culture of the first century, then we would see the humor in the story.

 

·        First of all, it is doubtful whether any son, let alone a second born son, would dare to ask his father for his inheritance.

·        Secondly, no father would listen to such a request made by his son, especially a second born son. He would have to wait, like everyone else, until the father died.

·        Thirdly, no father would give his entire inheritance away. Read the story carefully. It says that the father divided his living between the two sons. Both of them got their share. He gave away everything. He saved nothing for himself. He gave it all away. No father would do such a thing.

·        Fourthly, should by a strange set of circumstances such a think have happened, the younger son would have been disowned by his family. He would have been considered dead. No one in his family would ever have spoken to him again.

·        Fifthly, a father with such a son would not ever expect to see his son again. We read in the parable that the father was on the lookout for his son, for he saw him at a distance.

·        Sixthly, the image of a father running towards his child would have cause uproarious laughter. A father would never, ever, run towards his son. Father’s did not run. It was undignified. It was the children who should come to him.

·        Finally, there would have been no party, only the affirmation that the son was dead to the father.

 

This was a crazy father. Jesus had the audience in the palm of his hand, when, surprise! He says this is what God is like. God is not like any father you know. He is extravagant. He doesn’t care about his own dignity. He gives all that he has. And, he always welcomes you back home. This is divine love, all loves excelling.

The father is undoubtedly the central character of the story. But the story is about the relationship between family members. It is the story about brothers, siblings. It’s a story about fathers and children. The story is about a family.

It is a story about our human families and our human frailties. It’s about greed and jealousy, about anger and separation. It is also about love and grace, about mercy and forgiveness. The protagonist of the Kite Runner found grace and redemption in the process of claiming a young boy for adoption as his son, and accepting the responsibility of parenthood even to the point of offering up one’s life.

 

The story of the Prodigal Son is also about the divine family. All of his have been adopted into this holy family. None of us are alone. None of us are orphans. We all belong to God. He is a crazy father, willing to give everything, willing to give whatever it takes, willing to give even himself for our sake and for our redemption.

Thank you, God! Thank you!