Lent 4 C Parable as Mirror
Lent 4 C Parable as MirrorMarch 26, 1995By Rev. Ernest F. Campbell
There is a poem “Counting on Sunday” by Margaret Britton Vaughn. The poem tells of her being bored in church and how she counted everything around her. [Maggi Vaughn was Tennessee’s poet laureate in 1995]
on the back side of the arch over the choir steps in Christ Church, Winnetka. We can all see ourselves in the poem’s truth.
I remember a story that tells about a little boy who ‘discovered’ himself in the mirror…. “That’s me!”
A parable is meant to work like a mirror. We look into the parable and discover something of ourselves looking back at us. Sooner or later, we will have to say, like the little boy, “That’s me!” If we fail to see ourselves reflected back to us from the parable it is not likely that we will appreciate any of the good news that it has to offer.
With that in mind, let’s take another look at the parable of the prodigal son. First, we need to keep in mind the audience that Jesus was talking to. They were highly orthodox Jews known as Pharisees (the word means – Separated). They believed that the promises of God’s grace were only for doers of the law. To the Pharisee, the disposition of the heart was less vital that the outward act. They believed that anything less than strict adherence to the law would result in grave consequences.
They watched Jesus like circling hawks, hoping to catch him breaking the law. On one occasion they “caught” him healing on the Sabbath. Healing is considered work and no work is allowed on the Sabbath; therefore, Jesus was… “breaking the law.” They did not hesitate to point their “Orthodox Finger” and roll their “Orthodox Eyes” and with an “Orthodox Shrug” say, “And this man calls himself a man of God!” (he even eats with sinners!)
It is to this very hostile audience that Jesus holds up the mirror of the Prodigal Son Parable. I wonder if Jesus might have been asking himself…. “How can I get these guys to lighten up?” Then He tells a story calculated to “bother” their orthodox way of life. If we see ourselves in the story… so be it.
"There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.' So he divided his property between them. A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself he said, 'How many of my father's hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands."
To Jesus’s audience, asking the father for his inheritance took unmitigated gall! Why did he do it? Maybe curiosity for the world, tired of life on the farm, sick of playing little brother, or just plain discontent. He goes to a foreign country (an orthodox no, no) and spends the money with RECLESS EXTRAVIGANCE!” And ends up feeding PIGS! (another orthodox No, No!). Only then…. he thinks of home.
In our age, we are expected to “leave the nest,” we set sail with the Prodigal. Maybe we don’t head straight to LA, as he seems to have done, and maybe we don’t run through a trust account doing drugs, or drinking a fifth-a-day, or showing our “friends” the time-of-their-lives. But what everyone does do… just as the younger son did… is come to the realization that his or her way, is not working! Self-salvation is not the answer. We ponder a different way, usually in direct proportion to the severity of the consequences we suffer. We live the irony. The Prodigal sets out to be free, and ends up enslaved. He seeks to gain his life, and loses it. Under the bravado of self will, he leaves home to feast, and ends up famished. He leaves home to be merry, and he ends up miserable. He gets sick of home, only to end up in the throws of homesickness. Welcome to the human race. Oh yeah, there’s a lot to learn out there, and as life would have it, “out there” the only place that some of us see the light. We could call it a “Pig Pen Revelation.” The Prodigal comes home, maybe more driven by his empty stomach than a penitent heart.
Now Jesus is watching the faces of his audience…. How will the father handle this wayward son? – This son who has put stress on the farms financing…caused hurt and embarrassment…and made everyone, including his older brother, work harder. Not to mention wasting the money, living with foreigners, and slopping pigs! Jesus can see his audience lean into the story…and then he BLOWS THEM AWAY with the Prodigal father’s reckless extravagance.
So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. Then the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the father said to his slaves, 'Quickly, bring out a robe--the best one--and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!' And they began to celebrate.
His son is completely restored! Robe, shoes, ring, feast! Here is the great reversal. The Gospel surprise that shatters all human scales of rightness. The Prodigal comes home expecting the worst, and he receives the best. His boy is back, and that’s all that matters to the father.
I think I am safe in saying that neither son knew their father very well He truly is a man of extravagant love!
"Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. He replied, 'Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.' Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. But he answered his father, 'Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!' Then the father said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.'"
How well do we know the Father? The love of God is broader than we can imagine. There is a quote by William Langdon writing in the fourteen hundreds—“All the wickedness in the word which humans may do or think is no more to the mercy of God than a live coal dropped in the sea.”
We have been given the ministry of reconciliation. To work things out in the Father’s love.
I have always wondered how things went the next morning as the father and his two sons sat down to breakfast. Did older son share how he was feeling? Did the younger son admit that he didn’t deserve the welcome?
I can hear the father say to his sons after breakfast, “Boy’s – we’ve got some work to do today.”
I can hear the father say to his sons after breakfast, “Boy’s – we’ve got some work to do today.”
This is the poem that Dad quotes in his sermon. It's called Counting Sunday and its by Margaret Vaughn (Poet Laureate of Tennessee)
Counting on Sunday
He didn't have his Heart in his sermon.
If he did, it didn't Show up in any
enthusiasm
in his voice.
And I didn't have
My restless soul
In church.
If I did, I wouldn't Have counted
The 823 bricks
on the wall.
Outside one of the 48
Window panes
Behind the 16
White shutters
That helped shade
The sunlight
Off the 11 crosses,
2 brass, 4 on cloth,
1 on a plaque that's nailed
To the rail that leads
To the wooden one
That's carved on the altar
Just left of the
Wooden one that holds
The page numbers
That face
The one in concrete On the
baptismal font
That stands beside
The organist
Who is married To the preacher
who
Has a silver one
Hanging around his neck
As he speaks to
10 women, 8 men
And 4 children
Who sit in 21 pews
That hold 161 Hymn books
Under 78 electric candles
That shine on 5 doorknobs
And 2 flags That stand
Over 11 eyeglasses,
7 necklaces.
2 flower arrangements.
1 hair bow,
1 bow tie,
1 silver barrette,
And a sermon
In a pear tree.
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