The Parable of the Loving Father

March 10^th, 2013       “The Parable of the Loving Father”      Rev. Heather Jepsen

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32         

Today we are talking about what is quite possibly the most well known and well loved of all Jesus’ parables.  I would even bet that the majority of you could sit and tell me some version of this story from memory.  It is such a rich story because it is all about human relationships and we all can relate to at least one character in the story in a very personal way. 

          I have chosen this morning to refer to this story as the “Parable of the Loving Father” because I don’t think “The Prodigal Son” accurately sums up this tale.  There is so much more to say and find in the role of the father and the role of the older brother.  The journey of the Prodigal son is only half of the story.  But that is the half with which we begin . . .

          Our scripture reading begins with an introduction to the story and it is important not the leave that part out.  The Pharisees and scribes have noted that Jesus’ followers include tax collectors and sinners and this bothers them for it is not in line with their vision of the kingdom of God.  Tax collectors and sinners are people of questionable moral character, not the type of people who will get into heaven.  The Pharisees and scribes grumble amongst themselves saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

          Jesus with the ever listening ear hears their grumbling and responds with three stories, all of which have become well known parables to us.  He tells the story of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and finally this story of the lost son. 

          In the story we find a young son who is eager to see and experience the world.  He approaches his father and basically says, “Since your dead to me, let me have my share of the inheritance now.”  Well, I am sure some father’s in this room can imagine their response.  “You won’t get anything with that attitude young man.”  But not this father, this loving father honors his son’s request and divides his property up giving the younger son his share now.  It is quite possible that the younger son’s share was in land holdings, so to give it away would have been a great loss to the family business.

Well, the younger son heads off to a distant country and lives it up, wasting away his money in dissolute living.  A famine comes to the land and this young son finds himself hungry and in need of work.  He gets a job tending pigs, (very disrespectful for a Jew) and there he longs to eat the pig food.  Finally, this young man comes to his senses, or comes to himself as the text says and realizes that even if we was just a worker on his father’s farm he would be better off.  So he leaves the pig sty and heads home; prepared to apologize, grovel, and beg in exchange for a job.

          Well, you all know how the story goes.  The son is nearing home and the father seeing him runs out to greet him.  Mind you that it is very unbecoming for a grown man to be seen running at this time, it shows a loss of dignity.  But ignoring etiquette the loving father runs to greet the son and before the son can even get his apology out of his mouth his father begins to celebrate.  “My son was dead and is alive again, he was lost and is now found, let’s have a party!”

          Many of us would be tempted to end the story here, and many story tellers do.  This is the story we have all come to know and love.  The prodigal who returns home in repentance to find abundant forgiveness and love; the father who runs out to greet his wayward son, it is an image that is familiar and comforting to us all.  But hold on a minute . . . the story is not over yet, we are missing one character.  Enter the older son.

          I like to imagine that the older son was out, working as he always was, when he begins to hear a commotion up at the house.  He heads over to the building and asks a slave what is going on.  “Well, your brother has come home and your father is throwing a party” the man replies.  The older brother becomes angry at this and refuses to go inside.

          Now, enter the loving father again.  Note that once again the father goes out to meet his son, this time the elder.  The loving father pleads with his son, “Please come in and celebrate with us.”  The elder son responds with a resentful tirade, “Listen!  For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends.  But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes; you killed the fatted calf for him!”  I can just see this man seething with anger; his face all scrunched in hate, his eyes burning into his father, his mouth a sneer as he nearly spits on his father relating his great indignation.  “This son of yours”, he says, not even acknowledging that he speaks of his own brother.

          But again the loving father responds with love and grace. “Son, (which is better translated, “my child”) you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.  But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.”

          All of us as Christians can identify with the younger son.  His is the story of the sinner returning to the loving embrace of God the father.  But what about the older son?  I think that many of us also identify with him in that we want God to deal with us according to what we deserve.  There are those of us who want to live by justice and merit and not by grace.

          Think about it a bit.  The grace in this story offends our sense of justice and fairness.  We all can see that the younger son deserves punishment for his treatment of the father; he told his father that he was as good as dead; he wasted his all father’s hard earned money on prostitutes among other things.  He was a disrespectful and bad son.  The forgiveness that the loving father offers the son comes across as condoning that son’s behavior.  “Hey, that’s ok you wasted everything, I’m just so glad you’re back.”

          By contrast, the older son deserves reward and praise.  He has been the faithful son, staying behind to maintain the family farm.  Isn’t he worthy of the finest robes and the fattened calf?  He has certainly earned them.  The father’s actions seem to imply that he would give these things to his older son as well, but the occasion has not presented itself.  In fact, the father seems to value and treat the sons equally, regardless of their behavior.

          That is why I like to think of this as “the parable of the loving father.”  The father loves two sons, the father goes out to meet two sons, and the father is generous with two sons.  God’s love is not an either/or it is a both/and.  We see this theme in the parable’s setting as Luke tells us that Jesus does not just eat with tax collectors and sinners; he eats with the Pharisees and the scribes as well.  If God is the Father and we are the sons, it seems that God loves us (and others) regardless of our actions.  And if we read the story this way, then naturally we find it difficult not to be offended.  I think many of us have this in common with the older son.  It can be hard to understand or accept God’s grace toward another when we question that person’s conduct and character. 

          This is the message of the parable to us.  It contains the Lenten message of repent, come home, return to the arms of the loving father who is coming out to meet you.  But it also contains what I would consider to be the more difficult message; that God’s justice is not like our justice.  God will bring those into the fold whom we would reject.  Even folks whose moral character is questionable are welcomed by our God. 

During this Lenten season I want you to consider the moment when you finally arrive home at the loving father’s house in the sky, and you see all the folks inside at the party.  As the father runs out to greet you will you peek over his shoulder to see who else is there?  I would wager that there will be folks there that you thought were of questionable character and that you would judge as not being worthy to be at this particular party.  When you see those folks inside celebrating will you go in as well and join them, or will you stay outside in a huff because you feel that God’s grace offends your sense of justice and fairness?  Who is in and who is out? 

In our stories today, Jesus reminds us that God’s justice is that grace applies to all of us, not just those whom we deem worthy.  That’s what’s so amazing about grace and about the parable of the loving father.  God’s love and forgiveness are for all people, even those who don’t deserve it.  And frankly, my friends, that’s us.  Amen.  

Come and Be Fed

March 3^rd, 2013      “Come and Be Fed”       Rev. Heather Jepsen

Isaiah 55 and Psalm 63:1-8

          We are a hard working people.  Oh, how we labor.  Each works diligently to earn his keep.  Many of us have jobs, we are busy 9-5, 8-6, hours and hours we toil away.  Then there are the jobs at home; washing, cooking, cleaning, caring for children, grandchildren, pets, gardens, and flowerbeds.  There is trash to be taken out, dinner to be made, dishes to be done, snow to be shoveled, and clothes to clean; our work load is ever growing.  And don’t forget those trips into Kansas City.  For some its work, for others it is a need to do some special shopping, see a special doctor, make that appointment, or just to get out.  No doubt about it, we are a hard working busy people.

          Why?  Because we have to, because we want to, because we need to, because we hunger.  We have to work to buy the food and pay the bills, we have to labor around the house to have a clean and safe place to live, and we have to head to KC to get things done.  These are things we have to do, and that is why we spend so much time doing them.

          But you and I both know that our labor often goes beyond our desire to fulfill our needs, and into our desires to fulfill our wants.  We work harder so we earn more, we buy more than we can eat and store it in our pantry until it spoils, we save our money not for donating to the needs of others, but for buying a bigger house or car.  The world around us constantly urges us to hunger for more, more, more!  Even though we are overweight and overfed, we are still an over hungry people.

          “Ho!” Isaiah calls to us, “everyone who thirsts, come to the waters! . . . Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which does not satisfy?” he asks.  Why are you working so hard for things that you do not need?  Isaiah is preaching to the people in exile.  They have gotten comfortable in their ways.  They have been laboring away in their daily routines and have forgotten the promises of the Lord.  Isaiah calls to them a reminder of the abundance that God longs to give to them.  “Listen carefully,” he says, “come to me and listen so that you may live.”

          The people have wandered in the wilderness of exile and they have wandered away from God.  Similarly we have wandered in this land that continually calls us to ask for more.  We have ignored our God, and worshiped the dollar and all that it can buy instead.  In his essay “The Religion of the Market” David Loy writes that the threat to Christian worship is not other faiths, rather it is the religion of the market.  It is money that demands our time and energy and it is the stock market that demands our worship.  Even this church carefully watches the values on the market as our endowments fluctuate up and down.  The power of the stock market is just a reality for many of us. 

Isaiah reminds the people of Israel and us, that this is not the way things should be.  God has made a covenant with them.  And not only that, this everlasting covenant will extend to all nations, including us.  God has promised a great banquet where those who are hungry can come and buy wine and milk without money.  Through this covenant God has promised us a great supermarket where the shelves are never empty and the price is always right.  God promises us that we will be filled until we are satisfied.

          Following this theme from Isaiah, Psalm 63 speaks of the deep hunger that resides within every person.  All of us are hungry for God.  I believe that in our created form, this is simply the way that we were made.  There is a hole in each of us that nothing but God can fill.  The Psalmist writes, “O God, you are my God.  I seek you, my soul thirsts for you; my flesh longs for you.”  O, how we long for a genuine experience of God, a true relationship with the one who created us. 

          I believe that often we try to fill this hole in our lives with everything but God. We fill up on the world around us, consuming as much as possible.  Not only do we consume physical things, we consume entertainment as well.  In our modern age, we deaden our senses with a huge amount of screen time.    From computers to TV, I-pads to smart phones, we constantly have our faces in the screen.  I don’t need to be troubled by the hole in my soul if I have my face in a screen 24/7.  

You can see the effects of this beginning in folks of my generation.  Now we have people struggling to fully enter adulthood, because we have spent so much time disconnected from reality.  I am sure you can all think of someone who fits the description of the new extended adolescence; nearing 40, living at home, and unable to grow up.  Then there are the generations that follow, over weight and short on attention.  We have raised our kids with a face constantly in a screen and a stomach full of processed foods.  We have filled ourselves and our children on everything but God.

          This is not the way it was meant to be, nor the way it has to be.  God longs to fill us with more than these things.  As the Psalmist writes, “My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast.”  The Psalmist finds God in the sanctuary, here in corporate worship, and the psalmist sings God’s praises with joyful lips.  We need to come out to worship to receive the food that God longs to give us.  We need to come and be fed here together.  Sure you can find God in the wilderness and beauty of nature, but you can’t be fed the way you can when you come before God as part of a community.  Worship is the place to unplug, come, and be fed.  Of course, you all know this as you got out of bed this morning.  This is a real case of preaching to the choir!

          But, there is a message here for us regular church goers as well.  Even those who actively seek the Lord in worship, need to be reminded that the sustenance that God provides can take a while to sink in.  Our lectionary couldn’t be more fitting today as Isaiah says “As the rain and snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth . . . so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty.”  We’ve got a great illustration outside as the snow comes down and just sits there.  Eventually it will all melt and water the earth, “giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater” but right now we have to wait. 

          So too, for us, it sometimes takes a while for the word of God to sink in.  For those of us who recognize our hunger and come to worship to be filled, it can take a while for the snow of God’s word to fully melt into our hearts.  Sometimes we need to ruminate a bit before we fully understand the message and purpose of our worship.  I often think of this as taking our worship out into the week.  I might understand things one way on Sunday, but come to a whole new understanding on Wednesday.  We can rest assured that understanding will come, as the word of God shall “accomplish that which is purposed, and succeed in the thing for which it is sent.” 

We gather together today as a hungry people, and as a people who thirst.  Often we seek after that which does not satisfy, and spend our hard earned money on moldy bread.  God is calling us to the banquet, calling us to feast on food that will fill our bellies, and to drink from fountains that never run dry.  God is calling us to Gods-self.  But God will not force our hand, we must come of our own accord and be fed.

          “Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near,” Isaiah urges us.  “Let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”  Isaiah’s call is a call to repentance.  We who have wandered from the Lord are called to turn back to God, and to embrace the gift that God has offered to us.  We who have looked for comfort in the vain things of this world, are called to return and find our comfort and our sustenance in God.

          Like the people in exile, we have wandered away from our God.  We have gotten wrapped up in our labors and our busy tasks, and we find ourselves unable to make time to worship and pray.  We have hungered after any number of desires, and have not committed our time and energy to the gifts that God has promised to us.  As Isaiah says, we have spent our money on that which is not bread, and our labor on that which does not satisfy.

God has called us to the banquet, but we must respond to that call.  We must turn from our selfish ways, and turn toward our God who longs to feed us with the food that we really need.  If we are willing to give ourselves to God, then God promises to change our lives.  Isaiah tells us that “Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall be to the Lord a memorial, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.” 

God will take the weeds from our lives, God will take the thorns from our stalks, and God will uproot the spiny bushes that are growing in our hearts.  In their place God will plant trees and bushes that will benefit us, fruit to feed and nourish us as we need.  God will change our lives for the better, if only we will allow it.

          “Ho” Isaiah calls to us, “Everyone who is thirsty, come to the waters!  Drink and be fed, partake of the banquet that the Lord has prepared in your name.”  And if we are willing to accept this invitation, and to turn from our hunger for worldly things we will be a blessed people.  Isaiah calls us to come and be fed, if we do than “we shall go out with joy and be led back in peace, the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.”  Sound familiar? We’ll sing it at the end of worship.  This is a promise that the whole earth will celebrate if we turn our hearts to God.

          As we continue our journey through Lent, I invite you to consider how you spend your time.  Are you so busy working that you can’t rest in the Lord?  Are you hungry for that which does not satisfy?  Or are you interested in coming to the feast of milk and honey?  God’s banquet table is set for us, if only we will come and be fed.  Amen.