Scripture:  Luke 15: 1-3, 11-32

15 Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. ² And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” ³ So he told them this parable:

¹¹ Then Jesus said, “There was a man who had two sons. ¹² The 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. ¹³ A 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. /  ¹⁴ When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. ¹⁵ So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. ¹⁶ He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. ^17 /  But 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! ¹⁸ I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; ¹⁹ I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.”’ ²⁰ So 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. ²¹ Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’^[d] / ²² But 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. ²³ And get the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and celebrate; ²⁴ for 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. ²⁶ He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. ²⁷ He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.’ ²⁸ Then he became angry and refused to go in. / His father came out and began to plead with him. ²⁹ But 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. ³⁰ But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’ ³¹ Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. ³² But 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.’”

This is the Word of the Lord.  Thanks be to God.  Amen

Prayer for Illumination 

Almighty God, by your Holy Spirit

open our minds and bodies to the re-creating power
of your Word,

that we may see the world though the mind of Christ

and live in the world as a foretaste of your new creation.

In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Reflection: The Unrepentant Son

Today is the fourth Sunday of Lent.  The liturgical season of penance when we come face to face with our human condition and, from a place of humility, focus on repentance.  Remember last week that we described repentance as the decision “to change one’s mind”. [i]   As we discussed, to repent, while it signified a changing of one’s moral direction, it also involved changing the focus of one’s life … a dynamic change in the way of living.  Or as I described last week to repent is to decide to live in a new and different way!

You’ll remember as well that Jesus told parables to reinforce the point that he wanted to make.  The parable that we heard today is no different.  However, I will suggest that the parable that we heard today holds a variety of different lessons if we are open to listening in a new and different way. (Pause)

Did you ever notice that we hear what we expect to hear and see what we expect to see?  A little bit of the science that stretches back to 1763 to the Presbyterian Minister Thomas Bayes who described how a person makes rational inferences by combining observation with prior knowledge.  This concept informs an influential model of brain function known as hierarchical predictive coding.  This theory suggests that in any given brain region, one population of neurons encodes the sensory evidence coming in from the outside world, and another set represents current ‘beliefs’ about what the world contains. Under this theory, perception unfolds as incoming evidence adjusts our ‘beliefs’, with the ‘beliefs’ themselves determining what we experience.

In a nutshell, what the science tells us is that our brains interpret our observations, shaping reality into what we expect. That’s why we see what we believe.^[ii]

Did you get that?  The conclusion of this branch of science is not “you believe what you see” but rather “you see what you believe.”

I invite you to hold on to that conclusion as we begin our reflection of the passage from Luke’s Gospel that we read today.  This is perhaps one of the most familiar parables of the entire Gospel – and one that for many has shaped their understanding of the entire Gospel message.

A show of hands:

Raise your hand if you have heard this story referred to as the parable of the prodigal son.

Now, raise your hand if you have heard this story referred to as the parable of the forgiving father.

And now, raise your hand if you have heard this story referred to as the parable of the unrepentant son.

As you can see, the majority of the responses indicate, that the usual way that the story has been told and interpreted, has had as its focus the prodigal son.  And I expect that throughout our lives as disciples of Jesus, that this has been the predominant interpretation that has shaped our meaning of the passage.  Over countless exposures to this parable, the prodigal son has come to represent the human condition and by extension what we are to believe related to who we are in the eyes of God.  This predominant interpretation informs us that we are sinners, who squander our lives, who turn away from God and who, if we come to our senses, will make our way back begging to be forgiven for the miserable lives that we have led.  The good news, we are told, is that the Father is a father on mercy and grace … and that even from our condition as sinners we will be welcomed back as beloved children of a loving God.

I expect that this explanation of the passage, rings true for most of us.  We have heard it countless times before and it is what we have come to believe is the central message of the passage as well as who we are in the light of the Scriptural interpretation.

So … what if I were to suggest that perhaps this predominant interpretation has skewed the meaning of the parable?  Or that it is more appropriate for us to hear the parable through the ears of the older brother?   Would we be open to hearing the parable in a new and different way?  Or would we be unable, because of our past beliefs, to see the new and different thing that God is doing?

What if I were to suggest, that for us who sit in a church, and for many years have been engaged in the life of the church – reading scripture, attending worship, maintaining the buildings and the structure of our faith – that the central character in this parable is the unrepentant son.  Remember that Jesus told parables to illustrate a point.  So for us to truly appreciate the lesson that Jesus was teaching, it is critical for us to begin with the people with whom he was interacting at the time and the reason why he told the parable in the first place.

15 Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. ² And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” ³ So he told them this parable:

It wasn’t the tax collectors and sinners – who were grumbling!  I expect that if the Pharisees and scribes hadn’t been around, that Jesus would have continued doing what the Pharisees and scribes were accusing him of doing.  He would have sat down in the midst of the people who had come to hear him teach, poured himself another beer, and engaged in conversation.  I expect that without judgement he would have told them that life could be different and that it was possible to think about life in a different way.  I expect that he would have told them about the God who he knew as Father:  a forgiving God of love who would support and encourage a different way of being and engaging the world.

But the Pharisees and scribes were there.  And they were grumbling.  And it was to them that Jesus told the parable.  The purpose of the telling of the parable was to bring the Pharisees and scribes to a place of decision – to a place where they could decide to see and think about life and God in a different way.

You see, and this is critical to understanding this story, the Pharisees and scribes believed that they were better than those that they determined were sinners. Further, they believed that God should punish those who lived in a way that was outside of the religious laws as they interpreted them. What they believed in was a God who punished those who didn’t behave according to their interpretation of the law.  And when they looked at the tax collectors and the sinners – what they believed determined what they saw.  And guided how they responded: with judgement and contempt.  Thus, the purpose of the telling of the parable was to challenge the beliefs about God that were held by the Pharisees and scribes and to invite them to think about life and God in a different way. (pause)

To do this Jesus actually told three parables: the parable of the lost sheep, the parable of the lost coin and finally a third parable, the story that we heard this morning.  He told these stories to illustrate, that the God he called Father, will go to unreasonable lengths to find those who are lost, as well as to demonstrate the overflowing joy that God has when those who have strayed comes back.  The main character in these 3 parables is God and the purpose of these parables is to illustrate the loving nature of God.  These parables point to God’s deepest desire, greatest yearning, and passionate dream for all of God’s children and the whole of God’s creation: It is God’s dream to renew, reconcile, repair and restore creation and the relationship between the creator and the created.[iii]

And when he had finished speaking about the loving, merciful and forgiving nature of God … Jesus turned toward the Pharisees and scribes to whom he was telling the parables and came to the point of why he is telling them the story in the first place.  He held up the mirror that reflected the image of the older son to the Scribes & Pharisees and asked them to make a choice.  You have a choice to repent, he invited the Pharisees and scribes, you can change what you believe about God and see others in a new and different way.[iv]   The implicit question that lingers unanswered in the story is whether or not the Pharisees and scribes were open to a new and different way of knowing God and whether or not they repented and joined with Jesus in welcoming and eating with the sinners.[v]  (pause)

So, as we discussed, for many years we have engaged this parable from the perspective of the prodigal son and focused on how we needed to repent – to change our way of thinking and being- so that we would live lives that were no longer self-indulgent and self-focused.  Engaged this way, it is a wonderful example of a dynamic change of life that is possible. However, today, we are also invited to listen to the parable from a different perspective, reflect upon the lessons that it teaches, and decide if we are open to repenting – seeing and acting in a new and different way.

So what are the lessons of this passage from Luke and the parable that Jesus told that we are asked to believe?

From the way that Jesus engaged with the tax collectors and sinners we are asked to believe that in the eyes of God we are not seen as sinners who squandered our lives but rather, we are seen as beloved children … cherished, forgiven, blessed. 

And from the lessons of the parable we are asked to believe that no one is beyond forgiveness, and it is possible for anyone and everyone to reconcile with God if they so choose. and that God is a loving, merciful, and forgiving God who works toward reconciliation of all things.

Be careful here … remember that we started our reflection by saying that we will see what we believe. 

And if we actually believe that these are the lessons that are contained in the passages from the Gospel of Luke this morning, then we must be willing to hear the words of Jesus that indicate that we too must engage with the “other” with kindness, compassion and hope … providing through our words and actions a new and different way of relating to each other and engaging the world.

Will it make a difference?  I will answer that question using the words of Archbishop Desmond Tutu who believes that God has a Dream.

I have a dream, God says.  Please help me realize it.  It is a dream of a world where ugliness and squalor and poverty, its war and hostility, its greed and harsh competitiveness, its alienation and disharmony are changed into their glorious counterparts, when there will be more laughter, joy and peace, where there will be justice and goodness and love and caring and sharing.  I have a dream that swords will be beaten into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks, that My children will know that they are members of one human family, God’s family, my family.[vi]

From our belief in a God of love, mercy and reconciliation may we have the faith to repent and engage the world in a new and different way.  Amen

[i] Connections, Year C, Vol 2, p72

[ii] How our brain sculpts experience in line with our expectations | Aeon Essays

[iii] Feasting on the Word, Year C, Vol 2, H-117-119

[iv] Feasting on the Word, Year C, Vol 2, T-120

[v] Feasting on the Word, Year C, Vol 2, E-121

[vi] Feasting on the Word, Year C, Vol 2, H-121a