Fourth Sunday in Lent
Joshua 5:9-12; Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32; 2 Corinthians 5:16-21
Two stories. Two stories that might be viewed as stories of children and their father. The one is almost unknown and the other almost too familiar.
The first story is the Old Testament lesson but it actually begins more than 40 years before the events described in our first lesson. After Moses led the great exodus of people out of Egypt and after they had visited Mount Sinai and received the Ten Commandments the Israelites had finally arrived at the southern border of the Promised Land. Scouts were sent into the land that Israel was preparing to invade and they came back with reports of a land filled with "milk and honey". And one more thing, the people of the land were giants. Well, maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration but there was no denying they were strong and well armed. All the scouts but two agreed that there was no way Israel could be successful in an attack upon such a people. Having been led to the brink of the promised land by their God, having been provided with manna, other food and water in the wilderness journey by their God, the people were not willing to believe that this same God could deliver to them the promised land.
In frustration God declares that he is giving up on the people he has so blessed, but Moses pleads once more to remind God of the promise made. God relents but the result is the people spend 40 years in the wilderness just outside the Promised Land until those who had doubted God had all died. Then Moses goes up on Mount Nebo and looks across the Jordan River at the Promised Land. There Moses dies and Joshua becomes the new leader of the people.
Following God's commands, Joshua has the priests carry the Ark of the Covenant into the Jordan River and as the priest's feet touch the water the river stops flowing and the people are able to cross over on dry land, just like they had crossed the Red Sea when they began their great exodus. And when the various kings of the Canaanites heard how the waters had been stopped by Israel's God, we are told their spirits melted. Then Joshua renewed the covenant between God and the people as they prepared to take the land promised to them. And our lesson for this morning tells us God declared, "Today I have rolled away from you the disgrace of Egypt" which caused them to name that place Gilgal based on the Hebrew word "gilal" which means "to roll away". And the people gathered for the Passover meal on the plains outside the city of Jericho, remembering the beginning of their exodus from Egypt by eating the same bread, cakes and fruit that had been theirs to eat at the first Passover decades before. And the manna that God had provided for the people to eat each day for all the years they had been in the wilderness ceased. From that day on the children of Israel ate the crops produced by the land they had been given.
The other story is actually the concluding story of three. Jesus is faced with a group of very religious types complaining about his associating with less than desirable people. So Jesus tells a story about 100 sheep and one gets lost. Then he tells about 10 coins and one gets lost. Finally he gets to our gospel story about a man who had two sons. We all know this story. It is perhaps one of the most familiar parables Jesus told. If I say the word "prodigal", odds are that most of you will complete the phrase with the word "son". The prodigal son is the title most often given to this story and yet the word "prodigal" never occurs in the story. It is not a bad title however, since prodigal refers to profligate or squandering behavior and certainly that is what the young son does with the money he is given. We all know the story, how the youngest son takes his share of the inheritance and goes off to a distant country where he wastefully spends all the money until he is homeless and destitute, working as a hired field hand.
Of course, some have suggested that the title of the story might more correctly be the prodigal father since the father is certainly lavish and overly generous with his resources toward the young son which also fits the definition of prodigal. And not only is the father indulgent of the son by giving him all the money and property he asks for, but the father also waits for the son to return. Waits each day and when the son finally does return he is greeted with new clothing, jewelry, and a great party. The father is then even prodigal in his welcome home party, which is to say extravagant and overly generous in his celebration.
These are actions which do not escape the attention of the brother who had stayed at home all these years. He reacts to the festivities and joy with great anger. The stay at home brother demands to know why he, in his faithfulness, had never been so blessed with new clothes, jewelry and parties. The father replies by declaring that such blessings had always been the sons to claim at any time because the father also loved this son as much as the other. The problem, it appears, is that even the stay at home brother had been prodigal in the sense that he had squandered his father's love. Both brothers failed to recognize the true gifts they had been given until confronted by a truth that made them really look at themselves and their world. And it is not clear that either of them really understood what they saw.
Back in the 60's there was a song by Joni Mitchell that was rerecorded in the last decade by Counting Crows which contains a phrase that summarizes the challenge in our lessons for today. "Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you got 'til it's gone." In our prodigal moments, there is no question that his poetic line cuts to the heart of our human condition. I can't tell you how many times I have been told by someone who has seen their world suffer a serious reversal that if they had only known what they know now, things would have been different. They would have lived their life with more joy; they would have enjoyed their health more fully; they would have spent more time with their children; they would have called that certain friend more often; they would have visited their parents more regularly; they would have been more expressive of their love for their spouse; they would have taken more time for self, others and God. "Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you got 'til it's gone."
The ancient Israelites wandering in the dessert got so use to measuring each day by the amount of manna they could collect to eat that they never considered the possibility their God wanted more for them. God wanted them to live not in the dessert moments, trying just to survive from day to day. God offered so much more but Israel could only wander in the wilderness. Only after all those years and the death of so many of the people could they at last discern the grace of the God who was trying to lead them into the promises that would open their future.
The story Jesus told contains a multitude of insightful moments which may explain why it is so well known. We all seem to find our place somewhere in the story. It seems that all of us, sooner or later, find ourselves in a situation or moment when we pause and consider how different things could be or should be or would have been if only...In the story, the youngest son finds himself in a far off land having spent his way into poverty and desperation, it is then we are told "he came to himself". The term used in counseling alcoholics is they hit bottom. It is the moment when someone is finally able to honestly admit that this is not the life they expected or that God intended for them. We tend to assume that this happens only to people who are leading miserable lives filled with illness, poverty, and any number of troubles. But the younger brother was not the only brother confronted by the need to face him self honestly. In the midst of a busy day of business as usual that had begun with a good nights sleep, a filling breakfast, a morning of checking the growing crops, a working lunch and then assessing the livestock the stay at home brother heard the beginnings of a party for his prodigal brother. The stay at home son confronted his father only to be faced with the fact that he had been missing one of the greatest blessings he could have had, his father's love and appreciation. Working so hard to be something the stay at home son had become obsessed with his own needs, wants, and expectations with no ability to appreciate the blessings that surrounded him. It is not clear that he really understood this even after his father pointed it out to him.
It is so easy to become comfortable with our way of seeing the world. It is so easy to make ourselves the center and measure all things against our standards, expectation and criteria. But there is another view. This is undoubtedly what the apostle Paul is writing about in our second lesson for today when he declares that "If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: Everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!" To see everything become new. That is what the prodigal son far from home experienced as he remembered his father's home. He suddenly remembered things from home and they grounded him and brought him to himself.
I often hear young people who head off to college mentioning certain things that they really miss about home. It is that piece of home that is just not the same anywhere else. Often it is a food item or routine that had more meaning then expected, like macaroni and cheese for lunch every Saturday or brunch after church each Sunday. Talking with our son in Togo, West Africa the other day I asked him what he was looking forward to most about coming home to visit in May after more than a year and a half away. Without so much as a slight pause, he said, "ice". In 90-105 degree heat with no electricity he has no fan or air conditioning or refrigeration and no ice. I couldn't resist telling him the driveway had been slippery with a thin coat of ice when I went out to get the morning paper and all he said was, "Did you lick it? I would have licked it." Then he laughed.
Don't it always seem to go, you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone. Even our faith is tested when we are confronted by our real selves. What is it that reminds us of our faith home? What is it that brings us back to ourselves. It's not a matter of losing it all or even hitting bottom. It's a matter of seeing the grace that surrounds us, the grace that helps us to see the world in a new way.
The prodigal son in a distant land was able to consider the possibility of starting life over again. The possibility of leaving the past behind. I believe this son knew his father loved him and believed that his father loved him so much that he would not be rejected if he returned. This is a prodigal love that will embrace even that which has been rejected, abandoned and discarded. This is the kind of prodigal love that can be wasted and lost or embraced as a source of newness and life. God told Israel, Let me make of you a great nation but the people decided they knew better the ways of the world and they rejected God's vision. So they wandered once more into the wilderness until finally God could roll away the disgrace of Egypt and they entered the promised land. Centuries later God would once again provide a new vision by rolling away a rock from a tomb in a Jerusalem garden. This is where our Lenten journey is taking us this morning. Presenting us with an opportunity to once more meet the prodigal father we know to be our God. A God of extravagant mercy, lavish gifts of love and grace generously offered to all who come to his table.
What we have this morning are two stories of children and their father and us, prodigals all.
Amen