Rector's Sermon - Sunday, March 21, 2004

First Reading	Psalm	Epistle	Gospel
Joshua 5:9-12	32: 1-7	2 Corinthians 5:16-21	Luke 15:1-3,11b-32

   The story in today's Gospel has been called the parable of the prodigal or lost or the wasteful son. It has also been called the story of the forgiving father. Rarely is it called the parable of the found son, or the parable of the jealous or resentful son, even though they, too, could apply. The titles, however, never seem to do justice to the depth of Jesus' story about two brothers and their father.

   We are first told about the youngest son who rebelled against his family, packed up and left home. He foolishly spent all his resources. When at last he hit rock bottom he came to his senses and began to understand how selfish and stupid he had been. Make no mistake about it; this guy had behaved like a real stinker. Nonetheless, with some sense of knowing how much pain he had caused, he decided to return to his family and ask forgiveness. He had no expectations of being taken back and of things returning to the way they had been before he left. His older brother is the inheritor of the father's resources. All the youngest could hope for was to be taken on as a hired employee.

   The scene now turns to the father, who has grieved for his son ever since he left. The father was no fool. He knew that his son behaved badly, and yet his son was still a part of him; no matter what would happen in the future, the son would always be his child and he will always love him. One day, he saw his son, returning. The son was a long way off. The father had no idea if the son had truly repented or was genuinely sorry.

   We all know people who feign remorse when they are caught or when there is no other recourse. There was no guarantee that if the son had found another bottle of booze, or had come into a source of more funds, he wouldn't go off again. Perhaps the son was planning to make up some contrived story and was just there for a loan, to squeeze just a little more out of a gullible dad. Yet the father does not wait for the son to come to him, he does not first ascertain if the son is properly repentant. Instead the father ran out to the son and meets him more than halfway.

   Much to the son's surprise, the father treated him still as a son, and it was obvious that his father was pleased and thankful that he was alive and had come home. The father called for a celebration and all the younger son could do was weep for joy.

   The story then focuses on the older son, the good son who has been faithful, hardworking, loyal, and responsible. It was the older son who had comforted his father in his pain. Not only did the older son share the burden of his father's sorrow, he had to assume the work his brother left behind. Of course, when the younger bother left, he didn't have to share the bathroom any more, he could take as long a shower as he wanted, there were all those CDs his brother had left behind. There was no question that he was in charge of the estate. Yet his father’s sudden and uninhibited joy took him by surprise. Shouldn’t his younger brother have proved himself first? Should not the welcome have been restrained, considering all the suffering this guy had caused?

   Very likely, the older son was tired at the end of the day, and the resentment and frustration got the best of him. Let's face it. Some of us probably can identify with the younger son in some past occasion, but most of us are much more like the older son. We see so many people who are irresponsible and foolish around us and who make our jobs so much harder.

   The older son’s anger took the edge off the celebration. The father went out to the sulking older son just as he went out to the younger one crawling home. The father seemed to understand. He didn’t scold the older son for feeling jealous or resentful. Rather he assured him that he, too, was loved and that the father had always been there for him. We are left to wonder. Did the older son truly appreciate the presence of his father? Was the older son as lost as the younger one?

   Like many of Jesus’ parables, this one is not just about one foolish or repentant son, or an indulgent or wise and loving father, or an unappreciated, sullen and self-righteous son, all characters in a far off land, once upon a time. It is about all three members of one family and a tangled matrix of conflicting emotions. The Canadian priest, Herbert O'Driscoll has suggested that the parable is also about the paradoxical emotions deeply within each of us as we are called to offer forgiveness.

   Not only forgiveness, but repentance and genuine hospitality are all hard work, not mere romantic, easy tasks. When we have been really hurt, resentment can truly eat at us, and take the edge off any celebration even if we would like to believe that there are fresh starts and hope out there. It is so easy to swing back and forth between taking hold of hope of a new future and holding on to the old baggage of the past. Like the father, our hearts are pulled by the younger son's inclusion into the family again and the older son’s indignant departure, the younger son's acceptance of the father’s love and the older son's refusal to recognize his brother. I can understand how the father felt, and how the older son felt and how the younger son felt. The parable, whatever it is called, is really the parable about us and the family we call the church, for both sons live and struggle within our hearts.

   And I offer this to you in the name of the Loving and Living God, Amen.