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the story before us today is familiar enough. In fact, it's probably all too familiar. We know the general storyline, young brash hothead demands that his inheritance be delivered to him early. He takes off

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to another country waste as wealth on wild living. And to make matters worse, just as his money is running out of famine sets in so that whatever kind of backup plan the young son may have had

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has now vanished along with the crops, homeless, penniless without food, the lost son realizes that he has two choices. He must either swallow his pride , do an about face and return home or choose

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to say away from home to be jostled between the pangs of starvation and the pungent pig slop that he is so used to dealing with recently. Of course , faced with this dilemma, the son miraculously comes

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to his senses. It's always amazing how we come to our senses. We faced with these kinds of choices and the sun decides to return home as the estranged son nears his old home, the anxiety overtakes

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him and he begins to try to piece together maybe something of an apology, something of an excuse, something of an explanation to legitimate why he's been away so long. But before he can get the words

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out of his mouth, his father overtakes him with tears and and embrace open arms. A fatted calf is slain in his honor. Welcome back! Celebration ensues, as I said, The story is familiar

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enough and in fact, it's probably all a little too familiar, so familiar. In fact, that we often subconsciously assigned to this text, any of a number of familiar titles. The Lost Son,

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The Two Sons, the Prodigal Son, the Running father, the crying father, the texas known by these and many other titles. But if you have looked at this text through the eyes of something,

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the Sun being something of an unlikely holy anti hero . But it seems to me that we could read this text in such a way today and that in doing so, it might challenge our understandings of both

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God and church. Of course, when I say that the protagonist of this story is something of an anti hero, assume that you know something about what it means to be a hero in the first place

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, hero mythology reaches back at least as far back as Greco roman world where a host of figures, an icon stand to represent that aspect of humanity thought to be in doubt with some kind of supernatural skill

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, some kind of supernatural ability or prowess who can forget of course, the story of Achilles who was made immortal after his mother grabbed him by the heel of his foot and dipped him in the river sticks

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or Hercules who even as a baby false snakes and created the milky Way galaxy as he spewed up similac . Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. I can enlist a host of other heroes Not only in 20 times

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but also in contemporary times as they now litter are comic books and films but they are in most respects . Similar in all hero tales. Heroes engaged with some type of process of separation. Trial in return

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that is the hero is separated from her or his homeland or people or language. Then the medal of the hero is tested. Apart from this, the hero then returns usually to do battle in this new

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souped up form that the hero has taken on after his or her medal has been tested. Yes. All heroes, whether we are talking about the mighty morphin power rangers or even unlikely heroes like the care

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bears who performed the care bear stare. Yeah, All heroes function in similar ways and it's exactly this knowledge of how heroes function, the knowledge of the typical hero that makes the parable in luke so familiar

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, so memorable for in many respects, our protagonists is not the typical hero. Just look at his behavior, which really is downright embarrassing from beginning until end. Now we have two bracket and acknowledge that

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along with 18th century French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau, that no hero is perfect and in fact it often seems that the strength of a hero is necessarily inversely proportional to the strength of their vices. Heroes are

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not known then for their virtues. Justice, temperance , courage. Heroes may have flashes of these virtues , but it is not common, and if they have one of these virtues, they do not have

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all the purest soul, says Rousseau, can stray even on the good road. All virtues are eventually corrupted, especially for the hero to a degree the sun and the story fits this description. It is

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also problematic for so that heroes are often worshiped for their military prowess, their ability to make war. We're so argues that it is foolish of us to worship these kinds of figures well, at the same

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time, believing that they can bring peace to us . Courage indeed counts for something, but Russo, no, said outside combat, it doesn't count for much. The courageous proved themselves only on days of

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battle, but heroes every day. All this is to say that Russo eventually settled on one virtue in particular that he thought all heroes had and that is fortitude, or what he also called Force of Soul

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. This was a true foundation of heroism. And even this element is that element that is precisely not in the parable before us today. For so force of soul refers to that unique quality of a hero

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. That means that this hero can sustain a longer period of concentrated focus, work over a period of time, while others may take up a spade and work the ground. A few moments they are soon

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exhausted and worn out. But a robust husband, men, according to Rousseau, cannot stand great labors without respite, but he could stand them without straining . He owes this to his power, his or

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her bodily force. The strength of soul or fortitude is the same thing. It consistent, always being able to act forcefully. For so, of course this culminates in the ability of self mastery. It

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is through self mastery. This heroic virtue that our minds are enlightened, that are genius is expanded and that all other virtues are endowed with energy and vigor . Only a quick glance at the Sun and the

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text, of course, revealed that he stands at the opposite pole of the typical hero. Whether in classical mind or in early modern thought, the Sun leaves home not to preserve a particular way of life

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, not to protect his people, but to abandon them. He seems to be a relatively little value where he lives. Heroes are normally worshipped and appreciate it. Instead of the story blessings upon his lineage

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, he curses it and he snatches away his inheritance when separated from home. In this volition volitional e rather than unwell feli as it is a case with most heroes, the Sun doesn't really engage in battle

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with anyone, but instead spends his time and money on wild living. While not privy to the nature of his trials, we can be sure that he has failed all of them. And then there is

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that pathetic, embarrassing turning of tail and crawling back home after life has beaten up this unlikely holy anti hero, He has to crawl back to the place where he left with such defiance so long ago.

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Yet I want to suggest that this figure, this coward, this reveler, this self involved and self interested son is something of an unlikely holy anti hero anti heroes. Unlike regular heroes are those central figures

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that somehow are vital to the plot and move the plot forward, even though they do not possess any of the vital characteristics or virtues of the typical hero . I mentioned earlier that heroes are in our current

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movies, 1999. There was a film produced called Mystery Man. This film was about a band of unlikely heroes heroes who wanted to be like the typical heroes, but who did not have the attributes that

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typical heroes possess If you save the movie? You know that janeane Garafalo is cast as the bowler, her superpowers, being good bowling skills using the bowling ball that has her father's decapitated skull inside of it

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. Oh there is Ben Stiller as mr theories whose superpower is getting enraged. Kill Mitchell is a superhero with a very unique power. He claims to have the ability to become invisible, but only when people

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are not looking. Yeah. Yes, it seems to me that the son of this story and even those of us in this room today probably have more in common with mystery man than with the typical superheroes

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that we often imagine ourselves to be when we go to reach for our superpowers in the face of trouble , we find ourselves becoming enraged to the point where we can no longer think or act rationally, as

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in the case of mr furious when we try our best invisibility tactics. As with the case of invisible boy, we find ourselves like him often caught in the news exposed. That is in our attempts at

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secrecy and most of us are frankly very bad bowlers . Yeah. Mhm. Nevertheless, there are a few good things and one thing in particular that I believe redeems the Sun as a hero in this story

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. If I have more time today, I would talk about how the sun took a risk and walking away from home. Okay, And it is a difficult thing to take risks in parting or separating with

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those traditions, histories or practices that have become so familiar to us, even if we don't like them . If I have more time, I would tell you about how the sun also eventually learn something about

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responsibility. After a season of while living, the sun comes to his senses and realizes that although he will have to engage in things that are not ideal , he will at least have a viable form and

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way of life. And lastly, I would tell you about how the hero have the courage to return . After risking separating from home, after rejecting his past and his tradition. After seeking for something beyond

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the bounds of what was familiar and after learning responsibility , the Euro returns and returns with a purpose. If I had more time, I would go into all of that. But I want to focus on

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one thing in particular and that is that the hero causes us to rethink our understandings of power, and as a result, the hero causes us to rethink what it means to be in christian fellowship. It

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has always been interesting to me that this story is comprised And is told through the lenses of three men . There are no women in the story. The men dominate the plot, and yet the ways in

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which the men behave are not typical of the masculine hero type. We have a son who tries to go off and prove his self sufficiency But ends up face 1st in pig slop. We have a father

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who a son expects to be angry when he returns , expects to push him and hold him at arm's length, expects him to say fend for yourself, like you wanted to do in the first place,

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but the father does not act in the way of a typical hero. The father cries, the father runs and the father embraces his son, and finally , there is the oldest brother who rightfully so is

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upset at the actions of the younger brother. But again, the father emphasizes community and relationship over independence and self sufficiency. Peace over punishment, love over lordship. These three men cannot make it on their

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own. It is indeed true that they fit into different categories and classifications. But the truth of the matter is that none of these men could make it without the others. I often wonder even with full

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awareness of the particular charity of each of our struggles , the ways in which each group thinks about particular issues. If we are not frequently so classified, so divided, so categorized, so parsed that we

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begin to lose sight of the fact that we all have to live in the same home. Mhm. That certain concern to do more to unite us, that divide us in the text, in one of

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the classes that I'm teaching, there's a scholar name and a case winners who talks about the ways in which our understandings of both divine and human power as domination, control and omnipotence have skewed. Not only

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are true understanding of the nature of divine power, but I've also made it so that the way in which we act out our own relationships are reflective of this problematic thinking. The anti hero reminds us.

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Mhm. That there is another way to relate to others. The Sun needs to return home. In this way, he once again rejoins community. Once again leaves behind self sufficiency and control. While the

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sun needs to return home, it is the father who needs to extend the hug. In this way , the father rejects self self sufficiency, domination and control and as for the brother, he just needs

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to hush. Mhm. Yeah, we are living in difficult days and we are faced with the challenge . It seems now more than ever living together. I often find it helpful to think not only of

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the words of anarchist winners, but also a figures such as martin Luther King Jr, Who in his 1964 Nobel lecture presented us with an image of something called The Great World House. Let me read you

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a quote from what King said this, he said is the great new problem of mankind. We have inherited a big house, a great world House in which we have to live together. Black and white

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easterners and westerners, gentiles and jews, Catholics and Protestants, muslim and hindu. A family unduly separated by ideas, culture and interest. Who, because we can never again live without each other, must

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learn somehow In this one big world to live with each other in peace. King's image of the great world House brings with it an ethical claim that no one should be excluded based on race, class,

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gender, sexuality, or any other kind of defining categories. That these classifications, whether they be the ones I just referred. We're the ones noted in the text. Generational classifications, differences in agreement about

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work ethics, these and all other divisions. Our relative eyes in light of christ. It seems to me that these days we don't need classical heroes. We don't need early modern heroes. The type of

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which Resource spoke, we need unlikely holy anti heroes , much like the ones that we find in the text before us today. Those who are willing to take risks, Those who embrace responsibility, those who

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are critical of their traditions, but also those who return and who began to participate in the building of the world House. This is my hope and my prayer this morning. Peace of christ Be with you