Commentary

“As we grow up in Christ we will grow in empathy. Empathy is the capacity to imagine what someone else might be thinking or feeling; what they want, what they believe, what they fear. Empathy is also how we recycle our own heart-hurts turning them into opportunities for connection with others. There is no godly reality that permits our indifference to our neighbors’ well-being.

“As we grow in Christ we will grow in empathy my favorite story from Jesus is a story of a family rupture and the road to repair one son takes his inheritance and heads to the big city. Another son stays dutifully on the farm. You can feel the heat of his resentment. The father’s gaze is focused on his front gate longing for his son’s return. Just imagine his whispered prayers. There are dozens of words that come to mind.

“When you hear this story today I hear empathy. Empathy is the capacity to imagine what someone else might be thinking or feeling, what they want what they believe and what they fear and even why they make the mistakes they make.

“Empathy is also how we recycle our own heart hurts turning them into opportunities for connection with others. The initation to empathy is central to our life with God. Remember the great commandment is to love God with all your heart mind soul and strength and your neighbor as yourself. There is no God Godly reality that permits our indifference to our neighbors well-being.

“Empathy brought the Run Away Home – he comes to himself. The Bible says empathy is deepened and perfected in reflection. Now he’s clear his actions have injured his family. He rehearses his apology all the way home. It is empathy that prompts the father to run to his returning son. If empathy is understanding, compassion are its legs. Empathy is not the sole property of the intellect. To grow up in Christ is to put Flesh on Christian ideals empathy and compassion are always bundled then. There’s the other son the one who stayed and see the one struggling during this homecoming celebration. The story closes with him forehead to forehead with his father. The father hears that he could have been better and more balanced day to day at empathy rather than reserving it for dramatic occasions. Te sun hears an invitation to think about this family rupture in terms of Lost and Found because only empathy can launch the healing he needs.

“It’s easy to pick sides when you hear this story but I wonder if stretching your empathy wide enough for all the members of this family simultaneously is actually Jesus’s main point.

I. Theme –  Our individual and collective reconciliation with God

 “Return of the Prodigal Son” – Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1667-1670)

“He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.’ Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. 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. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’ Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 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.'”

The lectionary readings are here  or individually:

Old Testament – Joshua 5:9-12 Psalm – Psalm 32 Epistle – 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 Gospel – Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Today’s readings invite us into the welcoming, forgiving arms of our loving God. In Joshua, the people of Israel celebrate their home-coming in the promised land, eating, for the first time, of the produce of Canaan. In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul describes our reconciliation to God in and through Christ. The gospel story tells of a father’s prodigal love for his lost sons.

Although the focus shifts just a little bit, to themes of forgiveness and reconciliation. . This week’s readings, however, bring together the individual and the communal. Our reconciliation with God leads us into the “ministry of reconciliation.” Our forgiveness brings wholeness, not just to ourselves, but to others through us. This connection between the “me” and the “we” is such an important theme of the Gospel, and a good place to linger in this week’s worship, while also looking at the implications of the practice of forgiveness for justice in our world.

The theme this week stands out very clearly in these readings – God removes disgrace; God forgives and restores; the prodigal is welcomed home and reconciled to his family; God reconciles us to God’s Self, and to each other, and we are called to do the same. Forgiveness flows from God’s infinite and unconditional grace, and is received through honest confession and repentance. But reconciliation with God, as much as it brings personal healing and restoration, is not only personal. It is also social, drawing us back into reconciliation with others, and into passing on to others the healing and grace we have received

We should seek restoration in the world this week in nature. Be alert to God’s enlivening activity in the world. Look for signs of spring in the most unexpected places, even in the valley of the shadow of death. Bring pussy willows and forsythia branches into the warmth of your home, and enjoy new life as they bloom. Listen as every branch and petal proclaims the good news of the Gospel: that life has put death to death, love has conquered violence, God is our shepherd and a whole new world is possible.

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One of the most famous depictions of the Prodigal son was by Rembrandt toward the end of his life.

Rembrandt’s painting was done in 1669 and features his characteristic dark with light shining on the main characters of the father and prodical son. It is a striking painting that brings the emotional return of the son’s return to life

From a site on Rembrandt’s painting:

"Particularly vivid are the ragged garment of the son, and the old man’s sleeves, which are ochre tinged with golden olive; the ochre colour combined with an intense scarlet red in the father’s cloak forms an unforgettable colouristic harmony." The observer is roused to a feeling of some extraordinary event. The son, ruined and repellent, with his bald head and the appearance of an outcast, returns to his father’s house after long wanderings and many vicissitudes. He has wasted his heritage in foreign lands and has sunk to the condition of a swineherd. His old father, dressed in rich garments, as are the assistant figures, has hurried to meet him before the door and receives the long-lost son with the utmost fatherly love."

"The occurrence is devoid of any momentary violent emotion, but is raised to a solemn calm that lends to the figures some of the qualities of statues and gives the emotions of a lasting character, no longer subject to the changes of time. Unforgettable is the image of the repentant sinner leaning against his father’s breast and the old father bending over his son. The father’s features tell of a goodness sublime and august; so do his outstretched hands, not free from the stiffness of old age. The whole represents a symbol of all homecoming, of the darkness of human existence illuminated by tenderness, of weary and sinful mankind taking refuge in the shelter of God’s mercy. "

The eyes of the father are striking from one who has struggled wondering about his son finally now being able to welcome him.  It is a wonderful resolution of someone who has endured heartache.

Dutch priest Henri Nouwen (1932–1996) was so taken by the painting that he eventually wrote a short book, The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming (1992), using the parable and Rembrandt’s painting as frameworks. He begins by describing his visit to the State Hermitage Museum in 1986, where he was able to contemplate the painting alone for hours. Considering the role of the father and sons in the parable in relation to Rembrandt’s biography, he wrote:

"Rembrandt is as much the elder son of the parable as he is the younger. When, during the last years of his life, he painted both sons in Return of the Prodigal Son, he had lived a life in which neither the lostness of the younger son nor the lostness of the elder son was alien to him. Both needed healing and forgiveness. Both needed to come home. Both needed the embrace of a forgiving father. But from the story itself, as well as from Rembrandt’s painting, it is clear that the hardest conversion to go through is the conversion of the one who stayed home."

Luke 15 , the Gospel reading for March 27, starts out with 3 parables, the Prodigal son the third.

First, he imagines a shepherd who leaves his flock in order to find one errant sheep (“Lost Sheep”). Second, he describes a woman who loses a coin (“Lost Coin”). These parables are about being lost and now found. The first two have three common threads running through each. 1) Something or someone is lost. 2) The lost is sought for. 3) Great joy is shared at the recovery of the thing (person) found. The third parable, the Prodigal son, is slightly different. In it, the one who is lost returns to where he came from.

The prodigal son is Luke’s best known parable and also the longest.  It is one with an ending that seems not fair. The word “prodigal”  basic meaning is “wasteful”–particularly with regard to money.

There are many levels of the story. It is a story of the consequences of sin both in terms of what happens to us but also the promise of the return from separation from God. It is a story of welcome and reconciliation. This story is found only in the Gospel of Luke

We see a progression through the three parables from the relationship of one in a hundred (Luke 15:1-7), to one in ten (Luke 15:8-10), to one in one (Luke 15:11-32), demonstrating God’s love for each individual and his personal attentiveness towards all humanity.

The parable is Jesus response to the Pharisees and Scribes since they believe his behavior is an affront to the community. Jesus is associating with the’ wrong people.” He is welcoming those who have been cast out; and honoring those who have been shamed by sharing a meal . To invite a person to a meal was an honor that implied acceptance, trust and peace. Jesus response is not to rebuke the Pharisees and scribes but to teach through parables.

The parable has 3 scenes with the first part focusing on the younger son and the last two parts on the father

(1) the negotiations of the younger son with his father and his subsequent departure to a foreign country where he is wasteful and becomes impoverished (15:11-19);

(2) the homecoming of that son and the welcome by his father (15:20-24); and

(3) the interchange between the father and his older son (15:25-32).

We can associate the father with Jesus, the older son the Pharisees and scribes, the younger son the lost (the tax collectors and sinners of that day)

The Pharisees and scribes would focus on the behavior of the family. Not only is Jesus hanging around with the wrong set but the characters actions violate community norms. Honor and shame were big parts of the culture. Honor was connected to how one was perceived in the community.

Here are the issues that would have irritated the Pharisees and scribes about this parable:

– Father and old son should have refused the request of the younger son to divide the father’s estate. In a sense the younger son is wishing his father’s death! The granting of the request soils the honor of the family and they can’t be trusted. If anything, the youngest son should have been disinherited immediately.

– The younger son not only endangers the family in the distant country but also the community. He goes to a distant country, squanders his property so foreigners have possession. Community survival requires trust and carefully guarded balancing of all obligations and debts

– Without knowing why the younger son is returning, when the father sees him in the distance, he runs to greet him. Family is shamed again by the father welcoming him back and honoring the son who has been shamed. The younger son is no longer worthy to be a member of the community. At best, he can be treated like one the daily wage laborers who survive on the edge of the community. Furthermore, fathers did not run to their children – that’s more of the mother’s behavior.

There are symbols of the reconciliation which would have increased the blood pressure of the pharisees and scribes. The robe is a sign of dignity and honor, the ring a sign of authority. The shoes are the sign of not being a servant. Servants did not wear shoes.

Everyone in the story is foolish.  The younger son’s foolishness is evident.

No doubt, the father’s actions can also be seen as foolish through the story. Jesus emphasis is that God’s love is beyond our current mores and practices as currently practiced. It surpasses everything we know. The sin is not only forgiven but the son restored. Jesus recognized that the father exposes himself to humiliation to prevent his son from being humiliated.

The older son does not rejoice in the son being welcomed and is also foolish and does not properly respresent his responsibility as the eldest son. He now is the lost one. Like the Pharisees, the older has lived a good life but inwardly their attitudes are questionable. One of the duties of the eldest son would have included reconciliation between the father and his son. He would have been the host at the feast to celebrate his brother’s return. Yet he remains in the field instead of in the house where he should have been. He focuses only on himself and provides no joy on his brother’s return. He is mad at both his brother and father. 

However, the community accepts the father’s actions. They accept the offer of reconciliation and attend the feast.

The Kingdom is not complete when one is missing, in the case of the youn ger son. God will never stop reaching for the one because God’s love is too wide, God’s grace too rich to cease looking for the lost, for those whom we deem unredeemable.

As David Lose writes “Jesus is introducing people to the relational logic of the kingdom of God that runs contrary to and way beyond the legal logic of the world”

There are several things we do not know. Was the younger son’s repentance sincere or was he just motivated by hunger? Dr. George Hermanson makes the following conclusion of the parable – "The story ends without telling us how the eldest brother responds. And without Luke telling us how Jesus’ listeners respond. In other words, the story ends with only our responses to it. We are the end of the story."

“To grow up in Christ takes curiosity. Moses was a felon on the run from Egypt. But now, he’s a husband, father and gainfully employed in his father-in-law’s livestock business. Life is good. That’s when everything changed. He saw a burning bush in the distance so, “he went over to see this strange sight.” And then, “God saw that Moses went over to look and called him by his name.” Moses’ curiosity was the precondition for a conversation with God that changed Moses’ life and human history. Moses’ curiosity was the delivery system for God’s disclosure of God’s self! And, that is still the pattern for spiritual growth and maturity today.

“When I say curiosity, I mean the desire to learn, know and to grow. What part of the faith life are you curious about? Curiosity is the equivalent of saying, ‘God you are interesting, I want to know you more. I want to know how you do things. I want to know if I can really trust you.’ Curiosity stretches the soul and keeps spiritual rigor mortis at bay. When you think about it, that the God of all the universes wants to meet you in your specific questions and wonderings is mind- boggling. Maybe more than ever, in our 24-hour-always-breaking-news and increasingly biblically illiterate world, more godly curiosity is exactly what we need.

“Notice this, Moses’ curiosity is rewarded with a relationship not simply information. Our curiosity has to be lived. Curiosity should cause us to live differently on the way to getting new understanding. We grow as we go. It is curiosity that frees us to live into the mystery of God and saves us from dry dogma and rigid religion. It is Godly curiosity that helps us see the majesty of God and delivers us to authentic worship. That is what happened to Moses that day at work. Wonder became worship. Years later, when Moses finally saw his people walk out of 400 years of slavery, I’ll just bet he was glad he had been curious.”

Exodus 3:1-15

Part 1 of this series
Part 2 of this series

I. Theme – We are called into faithful obedience

 “Parable of the Barren Fig Tree” -Alexander Master (1430)

“Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.'”

The lectionary readings are here  or individually:

Old Testament – Exodus 3:1-15 Psalm – Psalm 63:1-8 Epistle – 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 Gospel – Luke 13:1-9

Today’s readings call us to faithful obedience. One way to do this is to clear a space for God.

This week, try clearing space in your life for being in solitude with God. Like clearings in a forest, where suddenly the stars and moon above come into view, such solitude can rejuvenate and strengthen us for full-hearted life.

Be ambitious: remove every obstacle in your path. Turn off the TV, unplug the radio, shut down the computer, put away your phone (especially at mealtime!), light candles, revisit your favorite music, read aloud your favorite poem, or take a walk in the woods under the night sky.

Whatever clearings you choose, let your goal be to deepen your awareness of God’s companionship and serene presence all around.

In the first reading, God’s promise to rescue the faithful summons us to a new relationship. In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul looks at the experiences of God’s people in the past to show his readers how to live in obedience now. In the gospel, Jesus advises us to respond to calamities with a spirit of personal repentance.

Much of the text deals with the challenges of the wilderness, the hot desert in the Old Testament and Psalm and the need for new relationships . We who are given much squander our resources.

In any season, the garden is an organic model for a spirituality that is alive and growing. Each garden comes to maturity in its own time, producing its unique crop: figs or artichokes, pansies or sunflowers. Within each person lies this secret, sacred space. One person’s inner terrain cannot be compared to another’s; most people know intuitively which ground is barren, which is fruitful. Ultimately, like the fig tree, we are spared for our potential, not for anything we have done.

And if we are fortunate, kind gardeners sometimes intervene on our behalf. Friends “hear us into speech.” Coworkers make allowances. Someone takes us seriously; someone laughs with us; someone squeezes our hand in a tight spot. Family members forgive our all-too-obvious warts. Each gesture of respect and camaraderie stays the hatchet another degree, hoes the ground and manures it. With God’s grace fragrant as rain, we can come gradually to fruition. Sometimes, we can even become the compassionate gardener for another person.

The other bit of good news contained in this reading is Jesus’ interpretation of swift, violent death. While his hearers might be quick to read it as punishment for sin, Jesus knows that death will apply to himself as well. He who is sinless will also die a brutish death at the hands of Pilate.

We who hear about a disasters the moment after they happen can learn from Jesus that these events are not punishment for sin, but impetus for reform.

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The Gospel – Luke 13:1-9

Jesus is teaching a crowd about the importance of repentance, and he uses two events as examples to drive home the message.

• The Galileans:

Jesus asks, “Did you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because Pilate killed them?”.

• The Tower in  Gilead

He then asks, “Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Gilead fell and killed them, did you think that they were worse sinners than all the others who lived in Gilead?”

• The Lesson:

Jesus’s point is that these events were not punishments for greater sins, but rather a reminder that everyone is in danger of destruction if they do not repent.

• The Urgency:

He concludes by saying, “I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish”.