March 31, 2019

Fifth Sunday in Lent
Joshua 5:9-12
Psalm 32
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
grace and peace to you from the one who wants all the children at the party. Amen
 
The story of the Prodigal Son,
 we’ve all heard it, at least a couple times
so we know what comes next
 when we hear the line “there was a man who had two sons”  
 
now these two sons are wildly different,
as often happens with siblings.
We hear about the younger son first,
 
 how he doesn’t want to wait for his father to die
to receive his inheritance,
 so he asks for it,
 and when his father gives him his half
he takes it and sets out,
 traveling to a distant country,
living in a way that uses up all his inheritance.
 
when a famine hits
the younger son finds himself starving without any money
so he finds a job feeding pigs
 
- remember pigs are religiously unclean animals
so we know that he’s hit rock bottom
when he’s hanging out with the pigs
 and the pig food is starting to look pretty tasty-
 
 and that’s when he realizes,
life in his father’s house is good, even for the servants
so he forms a plan to go home,
confess his sin to his father
and knowing he doesn’t deserve to be considered a son in the household
 asks to be considered as a servant.
 
He acts on his plan and heads home
 but before he can even get up the driveway
his father sees him and runs to him,
and before he can confess and lay out his plan
 his father is already throwing a big welcome home party.
 
And this is where we hear about the older son,
the older son who also received his part of the inheritance
when the younger son asked,
but stayed at home,
he did was he was supposed to,
carrying on the family business
working with his father.
 
So he’s coming in from working in the fields
and he hears a party going on,
 a party he didn’t know was happening,
 a party he clearly didn’t receive an invitation to,
 
so he asks one of the servants about it
 and only then does he hear that his younger brother has returned
and that dad is throwing an extravagant party for him.
 
At this he gets mad
and refuses to go in the house,
and when his father comes out to plead with him to come to the party,
 years of resentment and bitterness come pouring out,
 
 “I’ve been the good one,
I did what I’m supposed to,
I worked with you all these years
and you’ve never celebrated me,
 you’ve never thrown a party for me
and now your son
who told you he wished you were dead so he could have your stuff comes back
- without all that money you gave him by the way-
and you throw a party for him?’
and he refuses to come inside
 
 and his father reminds him that their relationship is intact
and that all that is the father’s is the older son’s,
his life is good,
but the father stands firm in his decision to celebrate the return of the younger son.
He loves both.
 
A man had two sons the story starts
and at the end it seems to ask us,
which is the better son?
 
Tradition would have us say
 the older son is the better son
but despite his honoring his father
 and the good life that he has
 he ends bitter and resentful at his father,
 
 feeling left out
that he wasn’t invited to a party in his own home,
 a place he was already and always welcome,
 and he ends up not looking so good.
 
The younger son on the other hand
shows personal growth,
sure he starts off looking pretty bad
 there’s no denying that he squanders the love of his father
and ends up hungry sitting in a mess of his own making,
 
 but when he considers the situation and realizes that life with dad was good
he repents hoping his father will treat him as one of the servants
because he knows that’s all he really deserves,
and he ends up humble and appreciative of life with dad.
 
In the end neither son is better than the other.
And yet, the father chases after both sons.
 He wants them both at the party.
 
He rushes to celebrate the son that returned of his own volition
and he goes out and pleads with the son
who refuses to come in
 reminding him that the grace and love of a father
 is not a zero sum game,
showing love for one son does not diminish the love felt for the other son.
 
God loves in a way that is hard for humans to understand,
so we apply our own standards
 
which means that whether we are like the younger son
 sitting in a mess of our own making
 
or like the older son
 filled with bitter resentment
 
 
 when we look across at our neighbor
 it doesn’t seem like they deserve God’s grace and love.
 
when we judge our neighbor our sin is exposed,
to decide who God loves is God’s role,
and if we’re honest,
 we admit that by any standards no one deserves God’s love
 but in Christ God has made it clear that God’s love is for all
 
Which is why Paul,
when writing to the Corinthians,
 instructing them in the way of living in Christ
says “From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation everything old has passed away see everything has become new.”
 
In the waters of baptism Christ washes away our messes and our bitterness,
Forgiving us again and again
So that each day we are given new life.
 
 And Having been given new life in Christ
we are to look at others with the eyes of God,
we are to see others as God sees them,
 beloved children who God wants at the party. Amen