Rev. Will Rice
Grace United Methodist Church
Corpus Christi, TX
pastorwillrice@gmail.com
“Prodigal, Repentance, Fatted Calf and Other Terms that Don't Tend to Come Up in Polite Conversation”
From Luke 15:
15Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. 2And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” 3So he told them this parable:
11b“There was a man who had two sons.
Wait a moment. Does anyone have a Bible and know what I have just done? I have skipped over 10 and half verses. I have warned you before about keeping your eyes on preachers with slick PowerPoint presentations. However, today, I do this with the most honorable of intentions. The assigned reading today is the parable contained in verses 11-32. Verses 1 through 3 just do a nice job of setting that up.
There is some grumbling going on. Thank God there is never any grumbling in the church these days! The Pharisees and the scribes, in other words, the religious folks of the day, were aggravated at who Jesus was hanging out with. “Tax collectors and sinners” is a sort of general term here for the riff-raff, those not adhering to the proper teachings of the “church.” Think about it this way, there are some exceptions, but most of you would rather see me sitting in the fellowship hall sharing a pot-luck dinner with nice church folk than stumble into me at the Whiskey River Dance hall on Saturday night.
So that is the setup, but what am I leaving out? Stories about lost things.
4“Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?
8“Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?
The scripture also tells us that these are parables about repentance.
10Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
But what is repentance? Let’s come back to that one.
Anyway, this setup piece and these stories about lost stuff prepare us for today’s reading famously called, “The Story of the Prodigal Son” which might not even be the best title. What is unfortunate about the famous stories in the Bible is that those who already know them think they already know what they mean and those who don’t know them rarely get a chance to hear about them because people think everybody already knows them. So let’s slow down a bit.
As Christians, we need to spend some time in the dictionary trying to figure out what we are talking about. What does prodigal even mean?
prod•i•gal
–adjective
1. Wastefully or recklessly extravagant: prodigal expenditure.
2. giving or yielding profusely; lavish (usually fol. by of or with): prodigal of smiles; prodigal with money.
3. lavishly abundant; profuse: nature's prodigal resources.[1]
Now with that definition in hand, let me read you the story.
3So he told them this parable:
11b“There was a man who had two sons.
12The 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. 13A 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. 14When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. 15So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. 16He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. 17But 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! 18I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; 19I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.”’ 20So 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. 21Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22But 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. 23And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; 24for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate. 25“Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. 26He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. 27He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.’ 28Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. 29But 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. 30But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’ 31Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32But 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.’”
Who is the prodigal one here?
prod•i•gal
–adjective
1. Wastefully or recklessly extravagant: prodigal expenditure.
2. giving or yielding profusely; lavish (usually fol. by of or with): prodigal of smiles; prodigal with money.
3. lavishly abundant; profuse: nature's prodigal resources.[2]
The son?
13A 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.
Or the father?
22But 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. 23And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; 24for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.
Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves.
11b“There was a man who had two sons.
12The 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.
Inheritance and divvying up of property is fairly normal stuff in that culture.
The firstborn was entitled to a double share of the inheritance. So, if there were two sons, the property got divided up three ways. The first son got two shares, the second got one share. Dividing property was normal, asking for it before your father was dead, well that was kind of tacky.
My father and mother used to joke with me and my sisters that they were going to give us each our own distinct colored labels so that we could mark things in the house that we wanted when they died. They would catch us talking between ourselves saying, “I am getting that table” and “that piano is mine” and they would say, “You know we are not dead yet.”
13A 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.
We jump to all sorts of conclusions about this dissolute living. The phrase translates more literally, “he scattered his property recklessly” which nearly everybody in my generation is guilty of. We have too much credit card debt; we spend too much on our cars and televisions, etc. We draw conclusions about what this means in our story based on something the older brother says later:
30But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!
Now, you just heard the story. The older brother wasn’t with him, he hadn’t even come out of the field to see him; he is just making that up. Siblings do this all the time. They embellish the story to get their sibling into even more trouble. I have never done that.
14When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. 15So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. 16He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything.
So he has a run of bad luck. He wastes his money. The famine comes. He gets a horrible job. This feeding pigs thing is certainly in here on purpose. The boy is a Jew, Jesus is telling the story to Jews. For Jews, pigs were unclean. You weren’t supposed to even touch them and this boy has to feed them. And on top of it, he is hungry. He is even willing to eat the stuff the pigs are eating. Some of you in this congregation have raised pigs. That is just gross.
17But 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!
Here in Lent, when we are talking about repentance, this is sometimes quoted as the moment of repentance. But it is just a moment of common sense. “Wait, I could go work for him! It is no worse than this!” I remember, in high school, giving up my farm job for a job at a fast food restaurant, and not a nice one like What-a-burger. After about two weeks, of standing on a tile floor getting splashed with grease, I was back on the farm. I don’t think I was repentant, I just “came to myself.” And so the boy came to himself and he practices a little speech:
18I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; 19I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.”’
He is practicing a bit of a prayer of confession. I have sinned, I am not worthy, can I have a job? But look what happens:
20So 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.
If you hear nothing else I say today, hear this. I want you to notice the sequence of events. The son has practiced his little confessional speech but he has not delivered it. The father, the one who has a perfect right to be angry, hurt, and dishonored by this boy, who does not know that he is coming to plead for forgiveness, this father acts first. The son has not confessed, repented, made up for it, explained himself, for all his father knows, he is just walking home.
This is the kind of God we worship.
It is easy to rewrite this story in our heads but the father, before he hears anything from the son, “was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him.”
“He ran” is startling alone. This is the father, the head of the household, in that time, truly the king of the household, running was far beneath him. This was shocking behavior, prodigal behavior. He sees, he runs, he embraces, he kisses. He doesn’t wait for explanations, confessions, promises of better behavior. The father is not looking to have his honor restored, he doesn’t want to know where his money is. No test, no penance, he just sees, runs, embraces, kisses. Who is the prodigal here?
The son is probably a little surprised at this reaction, but still launches into his prepared repentance speech.
21Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
The father is not listening. There was more to this speech, “treat me like one of your hired hands,” but the boy never gets to it.
22But 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. 23And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; 24for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.
He doesn’t wait for the son’s repentance. He is already lavishing him with love. The ring, a sign of status, of high family position, the sandals, certainly not something the hired hands got to wear. And the fatted calf, that might take a little explanation. Without getting into too much detail, slaughtering the fatted calf meant there would be a lot of meat. Now please remember this is like 2000 years ago in the Middle East. You couldn’t butcher this, have it separated, packed in plastic Styrofoam and freeze the part you didn’t need. Meat went bad pretty fast, so when you were killing the fatted calf, not only were you having a party, you were having a big party! This is lavish, prodigal behavior.
All the son has really done is walked home. The son who has said the equivalent of “I wish you were dead, give me my money” has simply walked homem, mumbled a little bit of the speech he had written to see if he could get a better job on his Dad’s farm, and the father has run to him, embraced him, kissed him, clothed him, honored him and is now throwing a party for him.
I could go into the older brother’s not so graceful reaction, but I don’t even think I need to. In lent, as we journey to the cross and beyond, part of what we talk about it repentance. Remember this series of parables is about repentance:
10Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
But what does that mean? Too often we hear this word in an overly limited sense as in “too feel bad about” or “to regret.” But the Greek word, metaneow, actually conveys a sense of turning -- of changing one’s mind. My favorite translation of metaneow is to turn one’s heart toward God.
Too often the emotion that is tied to repentance is sorrow. We think of ourselves or others on their knees filled with remorse and regret. But the true emotion of repentance is joy.[3] Because the true work of repentance is in the hands of God. The story doesn’t say the father scolded the son and sent him to his room to think about what he had done, he threw a party! He killed the fatted calf.
I wonder, in what ways, during Lent, as we journey with Jesus to the cross and beyond, we need to “come to ourselves.” In what way do you need to turn your heart toward God and realize that God is already watching for you, waiting to embrace you, kiss, you honor you. Practice your little speech all you want, God is probably not going to let you finish. This isn’t about regret our feeling bad, this is about simply turning around and letting ourselves be embraced by our prodigal God, our lavish, recklessly extravagant God.
Before we finish, I want to put this story back in the context we found it.
15Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. 2And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” 3So he told them this parable:
After a couple of stories of lost things Jesus tells the amazingly rich tale of the prodigal father which raises the question for us, are we willing to be a prodigal church?
prod•i•gal
–adjective
1. Wastefully or recklessly extravagant: prodigal expenditure.
2. giving or yielding profusely; lavish (usually fol. by of or with): prodigal of smiles; prodigal with money.
3. lavishly abundant; profuse: nature's prodigal resources.[4]
If part of our role as a church is to be an outpost of God’s kingdom, if we are to be conduits of God’s love, if we are to make tangible the amazing grace of God, are we willing to be this recklessly extravagant with the love of God?
When people come near us, are we running and embracing and kissing them? (figuratively in most cases) Are we clothing and honoring, are we throwing a lavish party? Or when people come near are we pausing and evaluating, waiting for proof of their intentions?
I want you to think about this for a moment
If you are going to accept God’s grace, who is waiting for yours? Are you waiting for someone to repent so you can forgive them? Do we expect people to feel sorry for their bad behavior before they are truly welcome back into our lives? Into our church?
Are we imitating the extravagant party-throwing grace of God or sitting in judgment? Of ourselves, of others?
As we come to the table today, it is especially important for me to say that all are welcome. It doesn’t matter is you have worked everything out with God. Just “come to yourself” and make the turn toward God. God will do the rest.
[1] prodigal. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/prodigal (accessed: February 26, 2007).
[2] prodigal. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/prodigal (accessed: February 26, 2007).
[3] Brian P. Stoffregren, “Luke 15.1-3, 11b-32, 4th Sunday in Lent - Year C” at Exegetical Notes at Cross Marks Christian Resources, http://www.corssmarks.com/brian/luke15x1.htm
[4] prodigal. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/prodigal (accessed: February 26, 2007).
