I’m not going to ask for a show of hands, but how many of you ever complained about someone else’s bad behavior? (I have too.) And when you complained, did you want an answer? (I have too.) I think it’s important for you to know that Jesus tells this story of the prodigal son in response to the complaint that he welcomes sinners. The story is part of Jesus’ answer to complaining about his own behavior of hanging out with people who behave badly. The complainers, according to Luke, were some colleagues of his. And the complaint was that Jesus welcomed sinners – people who were dangerously out of step with the well-being of the community, people who were unclean, unethical, unlawful, just plain gross -- and not only did Jesus welcome them, he even ate with them. Simply put, the complaint was, that’s foolish, that’s not right, and, for those who were jealous, that’s not fair.

That was the complaint, and Jesus’ response in the Gospel of Luke was to go on a kind of parable tear. In rapid succession, he told them about a shepherd finding a lost sheep, a woman finding a lost coin, and then this story of the man with two sons. Then he went right to a parable about a dishonest manager and then one about a rich man and Lazarus and it all ends with an instruction to forgive another disciple as many as seven times a day – which may be a clue as to just what kind of folks his disciples were and how often they needed to be forgiven!

This story, right in the middle of this cluster of parables, is the story that assures parents that siblings have been doing things that are not “right” and other siblings have been crying “it’s not fair” for thousands of years. There’s the son who is reckless and wasteful but then has the incredibly bad luck of finding himself living in a land that has a famine (which is certainly not his fault) – and most of us know stories of people whose lives seem to bounce between bad choices and bad luck – and some of us have been there ourselves. There’s the son who is steady and responsible, working his father’s land all the years that his younger brother was gone, no extravagant parties – not even a roasted goat to celebrate with his friends. In fact, since the father had already given him the land, he was working his own land. He was working like a slave for something he already had. And most of us know stories of people whose lives seem over-burdened with responsibilities that they dutifully, faithfully, and sometimes begrudgingly, sometimes resentfully attend to. That son worked so hard for so long that his muscles had become hard, even the muscle of his heart had become hard.  

And most of us know stories of parents who do crazy things for their children. Here it’s the father, who divided his property prematurely.  (In the Greek, the word for property literally is his “whole life” -- the means of his subsistence.) He did something that was actually extremely foolish and even reckless. He endangered the well-being of himself and the rest of his family. Once his property was divided he had no way to ensure that he and the rest of his household would be provided for. His sons had no obligation whatsoever to provide for his care in a legal sense. Legally he was dead to them. If both sons had done what the younger son did, the father and the household would have been out of luck. And yet the father was overwhelmed with joy at the return of his younger son, and he replied to his older son’s “not fair” complaint, “son you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.” (Of course if that was true, the stay-at-home-son was actually paying for the magnificent party, right?) And the father was not just feeding and clothing his returning son, he was honoring him (with his other son’s fatted calf)!

The parables that Jesus told were powerful because of their ability to surprise. And they were subversive enough that they made people in power mad enough to want Jesus killed. Our challenge with hearing parables that are as familiar as this one is that we think we know what they mean.  And often it’s what we learned in Sunday School, and we never go deeper. Many of you know something about sibling rivalry first hand (and the rest of you have seen it). And many of you know something about parenting – either from being a parent or watching other people be parents. So many people listen to this story and can imagine, “I’m that guy.” Many people listen to this story from the perspective of one of the characters.

So I want you to imagine something a little differently than usual. I want you to go deeper. I want you to imagine that every one of the characters in this parable is a part of you. Every single one of us has each of the three characters inside of us. Each one of us has a part which makes bad choices and has bad luck. And, each one of us has a part which works hard and is judgmental about others who make worse choices or have better luck. And each one of us is has a part that is called to be the one who goes out to forgive the stumbling self and goes out to appreciate the dutiful self. I want you to imagine that this story Jesus is telling is all about joy and forgiveness inside of you as well as among you.

And here is something that is surprising and scandalous. We have no proof that the younger child reformed and stayed home. We only know that this child tried to begin again and that the trying itself – the showing up -- was enough for the loving parent – and that he was forgiven. We have no assurance that the responsible, seemingly perfect, stay-at-home child ever repented his jealousy and resentment but we know that his father went out to greet him too and to remind him that his inheritance was in tact if he wanted it (even if he was now short one fatted calf)! We have no proof that the father was not stung time and again by both of them, or that he ever understood his own recklessness. We only know that the parent understood the struggles -- and forgave them – and didn’t seem to be particularly interested in morality or inheritance. He wasn’t particularly interested in accounting for the iniquities. We don’t actually know the long-term results, but this parable suggests that, like the parable of the fig tree that we heard last week, it is not the results that mattered. That is surprising and actually pretty scandalous for people as results-oriented as we tend to be.

If this parable is a glimpse into life fully lived in Love, or what Luke calls, “the kingdom,” then it may be about calling out from the depths to return and reaching into the depths to forgive. The younger son is not rejected. The older son is not rejected. In fact, in the parable, Jesus rejects the idea of one person (or one group) being rejected at the expense of another. “The kingdom is universal, not particular,” (1)  and it is big enough and wide enough to accommodate the foolish, the not right and the not fair. And in the end, all in the story share all that there is.

As Paul says in the Epistle this morning, “in Christ God was reconciling the world, not counting their trespasses against them.” The Redeeming Urge of Love (the Christ) is reconciling the world, with no accounting of trespasses or sins. We have been entrusted with this message of reconciliation. We are ambassadors for Christ – that Redeeming Urge of Love. So spread the Word!