excerpt from "Being the Prodigal"
Tradition has not done us any favors by baptizing this story as "The Parable of the Prodigal Son" because, you see, such a title shifts the attention from the whole family and focuses on only one member. The title makes the assumption that the prodigal son story and history is the only legitimate and sole history of the entire parable. So which of the two sons is the prodigal? Some assume the younger elder son was the prodigal. Some argue it might have been the older one. And some say, "Of course, both sons are prodigals." Prodigal. What is prodigal anyway? To tell the truth, I have never heard anybody use the word prodigal in an ordinary conversation. So with only this parable's neighborhood of a lost and found coin, a lost and found sheep, I have always assumed the meaning of prodigal is "lost." Until I looked it up for this sermon I didn’t know the real definition of prodigal. Turns out being prodigal is actually not too bad a thing.
Webster's dictionary says prodigal means extravagant. Prodigal means reckless. Prodigal means profuse, means squandering, means wasteful. Prodigal means abundant. Prodigal means bounteous, bountiful, lavish – wastefully extravagant. The opposite of prodigal is miserly, the opposite of prodigal is mean, the opposite of prodigal is stingy, the opposite of prodigal is close-fisted or in some cases just frugal.
When prodigal behavior is practiced on another, prodigal is radical. Prodigal means reckless. Look and see when the returning son is met by a father who drops whatever he's doing--an old man runs across the public square. That is prodigal! Prodigal means bountiful. Prodigal means too much, extravagant, overflowing, unconstrained, like a father who forgets the cultural codes and overjoyed falls on his returning son embracing him and kissing him.
Prodigal is the reckless, dishing-out of heaped helpings of mercy. Dishing out extravagant portions of love. Prodigal is doling out grace in squandering and wasteful servings. Look and see the picture before us. The father offers his returning younger son nothing but the finest robe on his battered and bruised body. Nothing but the most precious of rings on a finger that is a stranger to manicures. And the best shoes for dusty, callused feet. And barbecue the fatted calf. There is no better day we're saving it for. And call the musicians. And everyone dance, dance, dance! And now a toast--a prodigal, passionate toast. Raise your glass one and all. Here is to welcoming home what was gone but is now back!
But what of the older… as an older I can relate. He was mad. Here he had been working for his father for all this time – probably doing not only his chores but some of the chores that lazy younger brother should have been here to do - and feeling very unappreciated. But look what that loving father did again – he came and got him. He consoled him and in love invited him to the feast. It doesn’t say in the story if the older went in but I choose to believe he did.
Jesus told a story, a parable about a family, and how their histories are inter-related, how they learned to live by prodigal grace. Jesus told a story simply about two brothers – one older and one younger – and a forgiving prodigal father who rejoices when the lost is found.
Pastor Lorah Houser Jankord 
March 14, 2010
|
