00:00:10.340 - 00:00:23.720

when I realized that the election every reading for this morning was the Prodigal son story. My reaction was a deep groan. Um, there are a few stories in scripture as you know, that have garnered

00:00:23.720 - 00:00:39.280

as much commentary and as many diverse interpretations by theologians and biblical scholars throughout time than the story of the Prodigal Son add to that the way that the story has been reinterpreted and represented in art and poetry and

00:00:39.280 - 00:00:51.750

it plays. And I think what we're left with ultimately is one of the most over analyzed stories in human history. If you're tired of asking how many possible remix of the batman story, there can be

00:00:51.940 - 00:01:02.470

, I know that you're retired of hearing sermons about the Prodigal son. So I'm less than a minute in. We've got places to be is there, you know, much more to do with this passage

00:01:02.480 - 00:01:11.890

. You know, maybe we should just, you know, the word of the Lord thanks be to God and go. Um, and as tempting as that is, I also consider just doing the classic

00:01:11.890 - 00:01:21.130

youth ministry turn and talk to one another about the best Prodigal son sermon you have ever heard. And at the end of the 15 minutes, I'll just quietly slip out and after the sermon, some of

00:01:21.130 - 00:01:33.210

you may wish that I had actually done that. Nevertheless, I felt like I was my duty to sit with the passage for a while and I combed through various interpretations, both ancient and modern. I

00:01:33.210 - 00:01:42.720

spend time I spend time looking at all the ways that this has been explained in terms of a complex allegory, The older brothers, the Pharisees. No , no, no. The older brother represents angels

00:01:42.720 - 00:01:56.990

who are angry at God's reconciliation of humanity and on and on and on. Some commentators have decided it's time to step back from the layers of interpretation, interpretation and strip off the history of how we have

00:01:56.990 - 00:02:10.240

read this passage across centuries and and that does seem helpful. You see when stripped down to its core . This is the story about a father, a father who had two sons who in the very act

00:02:10.250 - 00:02:29.880

of compassionately loving his younger stun and extending reconciliation to him, creates the conditions for the other son to be estranged in bringing home the one lost son, He loses the other one isn't that just about how

00:02:29.880 - 00:02:42.650

families work sometimes by the very act of simply loving a family member, you sometimes find yourself at odds with other members of the family. This is sometimes the tension that parents face, isn't it? Just

00:02:42.650 - 00:02:55.970

simple attention to one child over the other sometimes creates rivalry. So how much more the radical unexpected act of restorative love shown by the father. In this story, Of course it creates rivalry. Of course

00:02:55.970 - 00:03:08.620

it creates tension and luke tells us that jesus gives this parable and the two preceding it. In response to the grumbling complaints of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. He eats with sinners and he

00:03:08.620 - 00:03:20.060

welcomes them. And this has traditionally led many commentators to Alga rise. The story, God is the father of the younger son is those of us who have strayed and the older brother of the Pharisees.

00:03:20.540 - 00:03:37.870

And I think there's certainly some fair reasons for seeing the parable allegorically, but maybe it's also simpler than that at its most basic level, jesus seems to be exposing the impossible tension faced when extravagant love for

00:03:37.870 - 00:03:53.300

one group alienates another, much like the father. In the story, jesus finds himself in a situation in which the very active, extravagant love and forgiveness for tax collectors and sinners causes alienation and estrangement from

00:03:53.300 - 00:04:08.610

the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. Now , as you may well know, sitting with scripture for too long is dangerous because you may find yourself implicated by that scripture. And I had just about

00:04:08.610 - 00:04:24.750

escape this danger until yesterday when it suddenly dawned on me that hey, I'm an older brother. In fact I'm the oldest brother and by extension the best . And when I had this realization, I immediately

00:04:24.750 - 00:04:42.110

said to myself, but of course, given the circumstances, I would never act like this until I remembered christmas, not just any christmas I'm talking about like this past christmas when one of my siblings ruined

00:04:42.110 - 00:04:54.890

the entire holiday season. That's all in caps entire holiday season. The details aren't really important except for the fact that the sibling of mine behaved in such a way that was inexcusable and unforgivable and I was

00:04:54.890 - 00:05:03.780

happy to treat them for several weeks as if they had moved to a far off country and when I received an apology too little too late, I simply ignored it. I said, you know, I

00:05:03.780 - 00:05:17.350

need some time. But meanwhile, as they tend to to do, my parents welcomed this child if there's back with open arms when an apology came and then they had the audacity of saying to me,

00:05:17.840 - 00:05:30.280

we know you're upset, but you've got to let this go and forgive. To which I responded, Look, I did everything right here and your child has squandered grace and your money time and time again

00:05:30.290 - 00:05:43.420

. And frankly, I was angry with my parents at the reckless response of receiving back my sibling as I was with my sibling in the first place. And despite having sat with this parable for the past

00:05:43.420 - 00:05:56.690

several weeks, it truly was not until yesterday that all of this flooded to mind. No, yeah , I will stand here and tell you that I can make a strong argument that their response was reckless

00:05:56.700 - 00:06:06.210

in the sense that it didn't even seem to take into account any kind of restitution or a period of slowly regaining trust from this child of theirs or any accounting of the fact that this probably won't be the

00:06:06.210 - 00:06:18.470

last time this happens. Instead, their response was based out of the deep love of parents what I absolutely want to call a reckless, a reckless form of love. And yet at the same time as

00:06:18.470 - 00:06:34.360

a father, one that I can completely totally understand as well. Most commentators on this passage condemn the older brother for his response, he's resentful and angry rather than joyful over the centuries. The older brother

00:06:34.360 - 00:06:53.060

has even been labeled the emblem of sin, but recently esteemed Vanderbilt, Professor Amy Jill Levine has said , quote, the older brother should garner our sympathy . I like Amy Jill Levine sympathy. Indeed,

00:06:53.540 - 00:07:02.660

the older brother doesn't even get informed about his brother returning home, much less get an invitation to the party. He's working out in the fields and he's angry when he learns of his father's response, he's

00:07:02.660 - 00:07:14.420

been overlooked. Look here, the older brother says , I have never disobeyed you and been here with you the whole time. I've been working like a slave for you and yet he gets a ring,

00:07:14.430 - 00:07:27.930

he gets a road, he gets a fatted calf , and I haven't even gotten the goat. Levine notes that the parable starts with a father who had two sons. But the older brother is right by

00:07:27.930 - 00:07:41.000

the middle of the story. Only one son has received any attention and Levin asked this If we made all our Children feel loved or have we so attended to the prodigal child that the needs of other Children

00:07:41.000 - 00:07:54.080

go and addressed. It's a point worth considering, but back to the older brother's rant for a moment . All we've learned to this point is in the parable is that the younger son has squandered his father's

00:07:54.080 - 00:08:05.660

wealth on dissolute living, whatever that means. But now the older brother is happy to tell his father exactly what that means, making sure that the father knows really well what was up and that the younger

00:08:05.660 - 00:08:16.700

son had quote, wasted his property on prostitutes by attempting to amp up the nature of the sin. He's clearly trying to create some distance between the father and the younger son, and he's ultimately trying to

00:08:16.700 - 00:08:33.490

indict the father for what he sees as rewarding the younger son's bad behavior. Yeah, I can relate . Is it fair to label the father's actions as reckless? There's a sense that such a charge lingers

00:08:33.490 - 00:08:50.120

beneath the older brother's words. The parable itself sets up the structure for seeing the father's actions as impulsive , rash hurried, reckless. The greek construction here communicates that the father feels so much compassion that his

00:08:50.120 - 00:09:01.560

intestines are turned upside down. His stomach churns churns and he can't help but run to his son. He doesn't even let him get the apology out before he has accepted him back fully, given him a

00:09:01.560 - 00:09:13.970

robe and rings, giving him commands to to kill the fatted calf. And the party begins also fast , also fast that the older son doesn't even get word of what's happened. The father is clearly giddy

00:09:13.980 - 00:09:26.040

over the moon to the point, he's hurried to the point that it seems reckless and from the older brother's vantage, the father has also been reckless with the brothers own inheritance. Taking the road brings in

00:09:26.040 - 00:09:39.130

calf from the estate, which was left, which was rightfully the older brothers, he's given this to the younger brother. The father impulsively plans a celebration on the spot. A pop up party. Who

00:09:39.130 - 00:09:50.630

does this? The restoration of relationship that occurs here by the older brother's account isn't just reckless, it's mind boggling. I've been here with you the whole time, but you give that son of yours all

00:09:50.630 - 00:10:05.120

this from the older brother's standpoint, it makes no sense. And and he's right. The father has no idea about the level of the younger sons contrition . He doesn't think through any kind of restitution.

00:10:05.130 - 00:10:16.530

He doesn't pause to think whether or not the younger son might do this. Again, analyzed from the standpoint of wise or shrewd business decisions or wise, political actions or what leadership theory would tell us the

00:10:16.530 - 00:10:33.540

compassion of the father absolutely feels impulsive and rash and then wise. But if we look at it through the actions of a human parent in the context that jesus told the story, what kind of parent wouldn't

00:10:33.540 - 00:10:46.520

run to their child that they thought was dead, no matter what that child had done, I do the same with my Children and analyzed through human wisdom , it might feel reckless, Fine call it what

00:10:46.520 - 00:11:01.930

it is. But as a parent, it would be right seeing God as the father in the story , john Calvin's summary of this passage was simply if human beings sinful as we are, can generously forgive

00:11:01.930 - 00:11:16.730

our Children, how much more can we expect from God's kindness. Now, Amy Jill Levine turns that upside down. She inverts it. The God of the bible is gracious and forgiving, and so should

00:11:16.730 - 00:11:33.680

human parents be as well? Either way, I think both interpretations lead us to a similar place. Compassionate love doesn't operate within the bounds of human reason or our rational justifications or determinations of what would be

00:11:33.680 - 00:11:50.600

prudent. It seeks reconciliation that runs counter to our logic and expectations and from a human advantage, it appears reckless, but such love is the purview of parents and the purview of God. Still, this

00:11:50.600 - 00:12:09.800

kind of reconciliation is dangerous because an extending reconciliation to one party, reliable to estrange another, remembering compassion and love for both sides becomes important and that's the way that the parable ends with that tension is the

00:12:09.800 - 00:12:24.580

father affirms his love for the older brother. You are always with me and everything I have is yours . But we had to celebrate and rejoice because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again.

00:12:24.590 - 00:12:39.790

He was lost and has been found. The story is cut short is we don't know what the older brother's response in the end actually is. And as such, the words of the father linger as an

00:12:39.790 - 00:12:54.230

invitation to the older brother and to us to live into the tension of a love and reconciliation, that doesn't always make sense. And yet it's beautiful and