Who is the Prodigal?

Joshua 5:9-12
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32


The Rev. Suzanne Rudiselle

March 18, 2007

Jesus tells parable that are read and heard by generations of people in so many different ways. People of different cultures and times have insights that broaden our own understandings. When I saw the parable of the “Prodigal Son” or the parable of the “Forgiving Father” or “The Man with Two Sons” (see, already there are different names for this parable born of different emphases) I decided to preach on the other text! Any other text! How can I bring new life and understanding to such a familiar text? However, here I am with a new appreciation of an old story, and a lot of questions.

Mark Allen Powell describes an exercise he learned from David Rhoads in which people are paired to read a text silently. Then they close the book and each recounts as faithfully as possible what s/he has read. After each has spoken they look at the reading to see what details they recalled accurately, what was omitted, added or changed in the telling. (The Forgotten Famine, Personal Responsibility in Luke’s Parable of “the Prodigal Son” Mark Allan Powell, ¬Literary Encounters with the Reign of God, edited by S. Ringe and P. Kim).

Please, listen closely as Jessenia reads this familiar story and retell it in your mind as, together, we seek to refresh our memories and find new meaning and application.

Reading: Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Did you notice the famine in verse 14? If not, you were typical of Americans who have plenty to eat. But people in Russia, the older ones who had memories of, or those younger who had heard about, the terrible famine of 1941, noted that famine was the reason the young man had to return home. Their corporate cultural memory is that 670,000 people died in that country after the German army laid waste to Leningrad, leaving the population to die of starvation.

However, American readers noted in verse 13 that the young man “squandered his property in dissolute living”, and for most that was the reason the young man had to return to his father‘s home. We know more about “squandering and wasting”. It is probable that the people of Jesus’ time would also have first hand knowledge of famine and less of excessive living.

Might we have more sympathy for the young man if he was caught in a disaster not of his own making? I confess that I have always read this as an immature and irresponsible youth who carries on in riotous ways and has to eat humble pie by going home and confessing to his gracious father. The text only says that the young man acknowledges that he has “sinned against heaven and before his father“. While the older brother certainly thinks his sibling is guilty of the worst human sins, Jesus does not say so. Western translators have continued to use the words “wasted” or “squandered”, while Eastern translators more typically use “expensive” or “luxurious” implying foolishness, with no hint of immorality. (Kenneth Baily, Finding the Lost: Cultural Keys to Luke, p.123) For the Eastern commentators the greater sin was leaving the family in the first place.

I have also questioned the father’s wisdom for giving the son his inheritance too soon. I cannot imagine my father acquiescing to such a request. He wouldn’t even give me a car for my 17th birthday! Actually he said, “yes” when I asked if I could have a car. Then he paused and added “just as soon as you earn enough money to pay for it and the insurance.” He was no pushover.

What was that other father thinking? What was he thinking when he threw a party for the returning son who had treated him as if he were dead? Where is the justice in that? Aren’t the sinners supposed to be glad to be able to return at all without any further expectation of new robes and rings and fancy parties? We understand the older brother’s disappointment and outrage. And like him we struggle to celebrate the lost being found when it confronts our sense of place or position.

Luke places this after two other related parables of Jesus, which the NRSV calls “parables of grace”: the lost sheep where the shepherd leaves the 99 in the wilderness to find the lost 100th; and the lost coin, which is sought diligently by the woman. In all three there is something lost and something found, and the finding is cause for great rejoicing. It is the finding that gladdens God’s heart. That is the reason for celebration. And while in the first two the lost is sought and found, and in this story the one who is lost may not understand that of himself, it is still God’s initiative in finding and reclaiming and reconciling.

Jesus tells these parables in response to the complaints of the religious authorities that he welcomes and eats with sinners, people his critics find “contradictory or inappropriate, or unsavory, or repulsive, or socially disruptive, or in violation of the nature and purpose of true religion.” (Fred Craddock, Luke, p.184) More than that, by sharing table fellowship with them Jesus indicates that the kingdom of God which he proclaims includes these sinners, even before they repent - if, in fact, they do repent. Sharon Ringe writes, “While Jesus’ challengers might be convinced to accept much of his argument, at least given evidence of repentance, the suggestion that the return of one sinner evokes more joy than their own habitual ’righteousness’ would certainly grate on their nerves. … sinners would be valued only after they had repented” (Sharon H. Ringe, Luke, p 204-205) The implication of grace to the unworthy is offensive - now as then.

Now here is the challenge for me. Friday night I attended the Christian Peace Witness for Iraq, at the Washington National Cathedral, and the candle lit march to the White House for prayer. The worship service was magnificent in its power and beauty. Letters were read from a young U. S. soldier, a young Iraqi soldier, and woman in Bagdad, and from the testimony of a detainee at Abu Ghraib and a member of a Christian peacemaking team. The mother of a fallen soldier gave a moving witness to the pain and suffering of families of the dead. But it was the resounding words of the Rev. Dr. Raphael G. Warnock that resonated with me as I pondered this text.

Dr. Warnock asked what has become of our soul? With an unjust war continuing to be waged in spite of blue ribbon commissions and public dissatisfaction demonstrated in the recent election; with revelations of secret prisons and abuse in other prisons, and acceptance of torture from the highest quarters of our defense department; with the conviction of government operatives and lies from so many parts of the executive branch; with neglect of our poor everywhere, the still displaced victims of Katrina, and the wounded military personnel who served this nation; with justification of unjust policies cloaked in religious language, where is our soul? “What does it profit us if we gain the whole world and lose our soul?” he asked.

O, God, as a nation we are among the lost! Are we simply foolish in our extravagance or starving through forces beyond our control? Have we squandered all that God has given us so that we have to come limping back rehearsing our story in hope that you will let us eat better than pigs? Are we jealous of some because they have the oil that we want, or just greedy so that we can continue to live in luxury while many do without the basic necessities? Have we lost our moral compass because we have made idols of everything except what is holy, and elevated our national identity and interest to a religion? Do we try to escape our surroundings just to get away from it all and still find no satisfaction in the riches of the world? Have we forgotten that we are God’s sons and daughters and nothing in the far country is as good as the riches God offers? Have we lost our connection to God as the only Righteous One? Why are we so lost?

As with Joshua and the Israelites, we at Rockville United Church, stand at a point of transition from the wilderness of the interim time to a time of settledness of home. This can be a place where God’s promises take root in shared experience and the faithful following the Prince of Peace. It requires honest assessment and commitment and action.

So let us “come to ourselves” as the lost ones - the prodigals, and let us repent of our ways and seek first the wisdom and guidance of God’s Spirit, no matter where it leads. Let us insist on a government of the people, not special interest groups. Let us humble ourselves and recognize that in God’s perfect will and way there are answers yet to be discerned, if we will listen and hear and heed. And let us know with certainty that this magnanimous God still rejoices in finding and claiming the lost. Let us turn to God alone. Let us follow alone and together, let us bear witness that our eternal and loving God, is One who loves an seeks – and finds and rejoices in all people.