Prodigal Son Luke 15: 11-32 Sermon for Lent 4 - March 21, 2004 The Rev. Diane Livingston, Interim Chaplain and Deacon Church of the Resurrection, Starkville, Mississippi This beloved parable is one that can beckon us to revisit it over and over. It is a compressed slice of life with complexity and texture. Our own life experience can relate to it on many levels including adolescent rebellion; alienation from family; the appeal of the new and foreign; the consequences of foolish living; the warmth of home remembered; the experience of self-encounter, awakening, and repentance; the joy of reunion; the power of forgiveness; the dynamics of brotherly or sisterly love; and the contrast between relationships based on merit and relationships based on faithful love. The parable is about life and its ups and downs and about being loved and about receiving that love or rejecting it. About three or four years ago I read, along with a group, Henri Nouwen's book - The Return of the Prodical Son, a Story of Homecoming, which describes Nouwen's chance encounter with a reproduction of Rembrandt's painting, The Return of the Prodical Son, and the long spiritual adventure it led him on. After the first or second time that the group met to discuss the book, I shared that I had wept as I read the first part. It was all so real and so clear to see myself in so many parts of the parable. For many reasons, it simply struck a chord within me, as the expression goes. Now I do not read the words of the parable without visualizing the painting and the richness that Rembrandt gave to the story by his artistic reflection of it. Henri Nouwen used the painting as a spiritual aid to guide him (and then his readers after he wrote about his journey relating to the painting). All of us are all of the characters. Look at the younger son. His request of his father was disrespectful and highly irregular for his time. By asking his father for his share of the property that belonged to him, he was breaking family ties and in essence treating his father as though he were already dead. This son was cutting loose from the way of living, thinking, and acting that has been handed down to him from generation to generation as a sacred legacy. Each of us has left home, not just our physical home from our growing up days, but we have followed other voices than God's as we searched for love or acceptance. We have followed those voices that tell us that we cannot be loved unless we prove ourselves and earn the love through hard work and success. Somehow we don't hear that love is a totally free gift and instead we follow the voices that offer a great variety of ways to win the love we seek. These voices may have been our parents, spouses, friends, teachers, colleagues or the media and they tell and ask us such things as you had better be better than your friend; what are your connections; are you sure you want to be friends with those people; you have a lot of trophies or plaques on your wall therefore you must be really great; you will go far in the world IF you are good looking, intelligent, wealthy, have a good education and job and IF you produce much, sell much and buy much and on and on the Ifs go. These are not the questions or voices from God, but at times we each have followed these voices and sought to find what we were seeking in a world that does not include God. We are the prodigal son every time that we search for unconditional love where it cannot be found. In Rembrandt's painting there is significant attention on the elder son. The father welcoming the younger son home as the younger kneels before him in very battered clothes and in a horrible physical state is the central event of the painting, however, it is not in the physical center of the canvas. The tall, stern, elder son dominates the right side of the painting. Rembrandt paints the elder son to look very much like his father. In the painting both are bearded and wear large red cloaks over their shoulders. The artist shows a light on both the father's and the elder son's face. But what a painful difference between the two! The father bends over his returning son. The elder son stands stiffly erect, a posture accentuated by a long staff reaching from his hand to the floor. The father's hands are spread out and touch the younger son in a gesture of blessing; the son's are clasped together and held close to his chest. Not only did the younger son, who left home to look for freedom and happiness in a distant country, get lost, but the one who stayed home also became a lost man. Exteriorly he did all the things a good son is supposed to do, but, interiorly, he wandered away from his father. He did his duty, worked hard every day, and fulfilled all his obligations, but became increasingly unhappy and unfree. For this son obedience and duty became a burden and service became slavery. If we are honest, it is likely that we too are, or have been, the elder son. Outwardly people may praise us because we are dutiful, obedient, law-abiding and hardworking. There is nothing at all wrong with these attributes but within ourselves we may harbor resentment, pride, unkind and selfish thinking and actions resulting from these qualities. When we consider ourselves just and righteous, it often follows that we are judgmental and condemning and though we avoid "sin" we are quick to be prejudiced toward others. When resentment fills our being, there is no room for joy. In the parable the father left the party when he became aware of the elder son's arrival and he pleaded with him to join them. There was no comparing his sons on the part of this father. I remember a moment when our son Christopher was about 4 years old and he and I were in the backyard when one of the neighborhood children came up to play. The other child was a couple of years older and I entered a conversation with him asking about various things and commenting on things about him. Christopher was quiet and soon came up to me and said, "Would you talk to me like you are to Jeremy?" Of course, I began to greet Christopher with much enthusiasm and to tell him that I was glad to see him and ask him things and so forth. He smiled and then seemed content to begin playing. There is that need in everyone to be acknowledged and recognized and it is vital that we do this as we show acceptance to others - whether they be family or newcomers among us at church. Fortunately with Christopher he had the spontaneity of childhood and so he could ask and then he could go forth and join in the celebration of play. The reader of the parable is left to question whether the elder son ever reconciled himself with his brother, his father or himself and for that matter it also leaves us with the question of how the younger son accepted the celebration or how he lived with his father after his return. What is a certainty in the parable is the compassion of the father. No other image has come closer to describing the character of God than the waiting father. In ancient Palestine it was regarded as unbecoming and highly undignified for a grown man to run. From God's perspective though, one hidden act of repentance, one little gesture of selfless love, one moment of true forgiveness is all that is needed to bring God from God's throne to run to a returning child and to fill the heavens with sounds of divine joy. Henri Nouwen takes us to another level when he writes that he realized that his spiritual journey would never be complete as long as the father remained an outsider - an "other" who would receive him, forgive him, offer him a home and give him peace and joy. The final stage of the spiritual life is to so fully let go of all fear of the Father that it becomes possible to become like him. What we are called to make true is that whether we are the younger or the elder son, we are children of our compassionate God and so are heirs. Indeed, as an heir we are to become a successor. We can offer to others the same compassion that God has offered us. This is the very core message of the Gospel. The way human beings are called to love one another is God's way. We are called to love one another with the same selfless love that we see in the father in this parable. The compassion with which we are to love cannot be based upon a competitive lifestyle. It has to be this radical love of enemy. If we are not only to be received by God, but also to receive as God, we must become like the heavenly God and see the world through God's eyes. As the image of God grows in us through compassion, forgiveness and generosity, our circle of love expands to include those with whom we live in our family, our church and out in the world who all may need us to respond as God desires us to. Our hearts can become open to a genuine solidarity with others. When these images grow in us and allow us to welcome and forgive and love, we can step over the wall and welcome others into our midst without expecting anything in return. As your deacon, I can assure you that many out there would like to be welcomed into a warm and loving body or see signs that someone cares and will help them with their much too heavy burdens. A parable that Jesus told many, many years ago, but one that we have touched and experienced ourselves whether as the younger son, the elder son or the loving father or some mixture of all three....God, give us the grace now to stand and run to welcome home those who return and those who stand to the side unsure of that love. Let us extend our hands to touch them and offer a blessing and may compassion, forgiveness and generosity flow forth.