Sermon-Sunday-March 18, 2007
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32 2 Corinthians 5:16-21
Brothers and sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I greet you every week as brothers and sisters and you probably don’t really think that much about it. But with this week’s Gospel lesson it seems particularly appropriate for me to greet you in such a manner, and really for all of us to greet each other in such a manner. This week’s Gospel contains probably the most beloved of all the parables; the parable of the prodigal son.
Jesus uses familiar family dynamics to tell this story of God’s mercy, love, and forgiveness. He uses a context that is just as easy for you to identify with today as it would have been for those who had gathered around Him when He told this parable. Jesus begins the story by identifying the key players in the story. And the first person He identifies is not either one of the sons but the father and He introduces the siblings not as brothers but as sons. They are defined not by their relationship to each other but by their relationship to their father.
Jesus uses a situation and context that you can all relate to and identify with. I am guessing that most of you have siblings and even if you don’t, you all can identify with what it means to have a relationship with a parent. And really when Jesus talks about how the two sons relate to each other, what He is really talking about is how you all relate to each other as baptized children of God. In baptism you are siblings to each other. In baptism you are brothers and sisters to each other and God is your heavenly Father.
It’s not always easy to be in relationship with siblings. The difficulties that exist in sibling relationships are deep-rooted in Israelite traditions. It goes back to Cain’s jealousy of Abel which led to murder. Or the envy and dishonesty that led to Jacob and Esau being separated from each other for many years. And of course, there is the petty jealousy that led Joseph’s brothers to sell him into slavery.
In the two siblings from this beloved parable, you can see yourselves. In the younger son, you can see how his actions lead to his progressive estrangement by himself from his family. Through the mismanagement of his inheritance and his living fast and loose you can see yourself.
In the actions of the younger son you can see how, like him, you give in to the temptation to love, trust, and fear things other than God, such as money, power, status and prestige. You can see, how like the younger son you have sought good, comfort, and delight from your own efforts rather than simply trusting in God’s faithful promise. In the actions of the younger son you can see how you have measured worth and value by how much something pleases you, as opposed to how much it helps you to fulfill your call to love and serve your neighbor. And you can see that, like the younger son, you have sought out your Father in Heaven, more often as a last resort, rather than as a faithful impulse.
So, it must then be the older son whom you are to draw inspiration from right? Well despite his claims of perfect piety, he’s no prize either. When the younger son returns home after squandering all of his inheritance, the older son does not share his father’s joy at his son’s return. But what upsets the older son is not that the younger son has returned home, but that their father would have the audacity to actually rejoice at his return. He couldn’t fathom why his father would throw a party for his son after he had been so disrespectful and taken advantage of his father the way he did.
There is no indication that the older son would have objected to the younger son simply being allowed to come home. Judaism and Christianity have clear provisions for the restoration of the penitent returnee. But the older son was probably expecting that there would be some sort of punishment for what the younger son had done. The older son was probably also expecting that he would have a little gloating time. And when things didn’t go the way he expected them to, he was jealous.
And who among us can say that we also wouldn’t have been at least a little jealous? You can see yourself in the actions and attitude of the older son also. You see that, like the older son, you have longed for the honor, wealth and happiness of others that seems to come to them easily. You can see in the older son your own tendency to resent the blessings that God has given your neighbor.
In both the older and the younger son you see yourself and you see your sin exposed to you. Even when the younger son decides to return home, it is not with the humble and contrite heart, as is often suggested. It should probably be recognized that his intention is to be welcomed as a hired hand, as opposed to a slave. That is an important distinction that you can’t necessarily see in a modern reading of this. A hired hand would have actually been one of the higher paid employees, whereas a slave would have been paid little more than their food and a place to sleep.
Regardless, when you look at both the younger and the older sons and you see how much they are like you, then you see just how much in bondage you are to sin, death, and the devil. You see that whether we are talking about your selfish pursuits of happiness, or your attempts to justify yourself to God through your best efforts, it’s all futile, and it all leads to death.
But, there is another player in this story and through his actions you can see that there is hope, that there is promise. As the father in this story runs after the younger son when he sees his younger son in the distance, you can see the actions of your Father in Heaven. You can see that He doesn’t wait for you, but He comes running after you, in His Son Christ Jesus who takes your sins to the cross and gives you His perfect righteousness. He comes running after you filled with love, mercy, compassion and forgiveness, and the promise of eternal life and He won’t be stopped or held up, even by selfish motivation.
As the father reaches out to the older son in the midst of his older son’s petty jealousy, you can see that your Lord does not sit idly by and wait for you to make a decision for Him, but that He comes to you offering words of comfort, promise, forgiveness, mercy, and salvation. He comes to you in Word and sacrament, as He is doing right now in the Word proclaimed to you and He will do for you in a few minutes as you come forward and receive His supper, and He comes to you in the wine and the bread.
He came to you in the words of promise that were proclaimed at your baptism; that you in fact are a child of God, and you have been claimed by God, through the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus. And He continues to come to you daily in His word and the sacraments and in fellowship with other believers.
He comes to you and frees you from bondage to sin, death, and the devil, and frees you from the burden of seeing you brothers and sisters in Christ from a human point of view, as Paul refers to in the lesson from 2nd Corinthians for today. He frees you from the burden of seeing them with pride and jealousy and frees you to see them in love, mercy, compassion and forgiveness.
In baptism you have been reconciled before God, not through your own efforts or understanding, but through Christ Jesus and you have been made brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus.
And now you have been entrusted with the ministry of reconciliation and you have been made ambassadors for Christ, to your neighbors, who through Christ, are also your brothers and sisters. It is through Christ Jesus that we are made brothers and sisters for all eternity. And it is Christ Jesus, who has reconciled us to God, that people should see in us, through our words of Gospel proclamation and our deeds of love, mercy, compassion, and forgiveness.
Amen
Brothers and sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I greet you every week as brothers and sisters and you probably don’t really think that much about it. But with this week’s Gospel lesson it seems particularly appropriate for me to greet you in such a manner, and really for all of us to greet each other in such a manner. This week’s Gospel contains probably the most beloved of all the parables; the parable of the prodigal son.
Jesus uses familiar family dynamics to tell this story of God’s mercy, love, and forgiveness. He uses a context that is just as easy for you to identify with today as it would have been for those who had gathered around Him when He told this parable. Jesus begins the story by identifying the key players in the story. And the first person He identifies is not either one of the sons but the father and He introduces the siblings not as brothers but as sons. They are defined not by their relationship to each other but by their relationship to their father.
Jesus uses a situation and context that you can all relate to and identify with. I am guessing that most of you have siblings and even if you don’t, you all can identify with what it means to have a relationship with a parent. And really when Jesus talks about how the two sons relate to each other, what He is really talking about is how you all relate to each other as baptized children of God. In baptism you are siblings to each other. In baptism you are brothers and sisters to each other and God is your heavenly Father.
It’s not always easy to be in relationship with siblings. The difficulties that exist in sibling relationships are deep-rooted in Israelite traditions. It goes back to Cain’s jealousy of Abel which led to murder. Or the envy and dishonesty that led to Jacob and Esau being separated from each other for many years. And of course, there is the petty jealousy that led Joseph’s brothers to sell him into slavery.
In the two siblings from this beloved parable, you can see yourselves. In the younger son, you can see how his actions lead to his progressive estrangement by himself from his family. Through the mismanagement of his inheritance and his living fast and loose you can see yourself.
In the actions of the younger son you can see how, like him, you give in to the temptation to love, trust, and fear things other than God, such as money, power, status and prestige. You can see, how like the younger son you have sought good, comfort, and delight from your own efforts rather than simply trusting in God’s faithful promise. In the actions of the younger son you can see how you have measured worth and value by how much something pleases you, as opposed to how much it helps you to fulfill your call to love and serve your neighbor. And you can see that, like the younger son, you have sought out your Father in Heaven, more often as a last resort, rather than as a faithful impulse.
So, it must then be the older son whom you are to draw inspiration from right? Well despite his claims of perfect piety, he’s no prize either. When the younger son returns home after squandering all of his inheritance, the older son does not share his father’s joy at his son’s return. But what upsets the older son is not that the younger son has returned home, but that their father would have the audacity to actually rejoice at his return. He couldn’t fathom why his father would throw a party for his son after he had been so disrespectful and taken advantage of his father the way he did.
There is no indication that the older son would have objected to the younger son simply being allowed to come home. Judaism and Christianity have clear provisions for the restoration of the penitent returnee. But the older son was probably expecting that there would be some sort of punishment for what the younger son had done. The older son was probably also expecting that he would have a little gloating time. And when things didn’t go the way he expected them to, he was jealous.
And who among us can say that we also wouldn’t have been at least a little jealous? You can see yourself in the actions and attitude of the older son also. You see that, like the older son, you have longed for the honor, wealth and happiness of others that seems to come to them easily. You can see in the older son your own tendency to resent the blessings that God has given your neighbor.
In both the older and the younger son you see yourself and you see your sin exposed to you. Even when the younger son decides to return home, it is not with the humble and contrite heart, as is often suggested. It should probably be recognized that his intention is to be welcomed as a hired hand, as opposed to a slave. That is an important distinction that you can’t necessarily see in a modern reading of this. A hired hand would have actually been one of the higher paid employees, whereas a slave would have been paid little more than their food and a place to sleep.
Regardless, when you look at both the younger and the older sons and you see how much they are like you, then you see just how much in bondage you are to sin, death, and the devil. You see that whether we are talking about your selfish pursuits of happiness, or your attempts to justify yourself to God through your best efforts, it’s all futile, and it all leads to death.
But, there is another player in this story and through his actions you can see that there is hope, that there is promise. As the father in this story runs after the younger son when he sees his younger son in the distance, you can see the actions of your Father in Heaven. You can see that He doesn’t wait for you, but He comes running after you, in His Son Christ Jesus who takes your sins to the cross and gives you His perfect righteousness. He comes running after you filled with love, mercy, compassion and forgiveness, and the promise of eternal life and He won’t be stopped or held up, even by selfish motivation.
As the father reaches out to the older son in the midst of his older son’s petty jealousy, you can see that your Lord does not sit idly by and wait for you to make a decision for Him, but that He comes to you offering words of comfort, promise, forgiveness, mercy, and salvation. He comes to you in Word and sacrament, as He is doing right now in the Word proclaimed to you and He will do for you in a few minutes as you come forward and receive His supper, and He comes to you in the wine and the bread.
He came to you in the words of promise that were proclaimed at your baptism; that you in fact are a child of God, and you have been claimed by God, through the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus. And He continues to come to you daily in His word and the sacraments and in fellowship with other believers.
He comes to you and frees you from bondage to sin, death, and the devil, and frees you from the burden of seeing you brothers and sisters in Christ from a human point of view, as Paul refers to in the lesson from 2nd Corinthians for today. He frees you from the burden of seeing them with pride and jealousy and frees you to see them in love, mercy, compassion and forgiveness.
In baptism you have been reconciled before God, not through your own efforts or understanding, but through Christ Jesus and you have been made brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus.
And now you have been entrusted with the ministry of reconciliation and you have been made ambassadors for Christ, to your neighbors, who through Christ, are also your brothers and sisters. It is through Christ Jesus that we are made brothers and sisters for all eternity. And it is Christ Jesus, who has reconciled us to God, that people should see in us, through our words of Gospel proclamation and our deeds of love, mercy, compassion, and forgiveness.
Amen
posted by Steve at 1:33 PM
1 Comments:
This wasn't bad-a little lengthy it seemed and you spent a lot of time explaining why they are the younger or the older, which made the parable seem that it was all about them. I like when you finally got to the Gospel aspect of the story, but it just seemed to get lost amoung the rest. Overall it is was good-but, like you told me, it wasn't your best.
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