Prodigal

Luke 15:11-32
Community Congregational United Church of Christ,
Clinton, IA

Today we have read one of the most famous stories in the Gospels, the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Two brothers--the younger wandered off with a vast sum of inheritance and squandered it on dissolute living.  He blew it all.

When he had nothing left, a severe famine struck the land, and he was quite literally starving.  It was at this moment, in a pig pen, far from home, that he realized the error of his ways.  He resolved that he would return home, not to pretend that everything was just fine as always, but to throw himself at the mercy of his father and ask to work among the hired hands, just so that he might have something to eat.

While he was still a long way from home, his father spotted him and ran to him and embraced him, then gave orders to his servants to host a celebration the likes of which that family farm had never seen before.

The older brother, who had been there all along, the responsible one, was angry.  He was resentful at both his brother and his father.  In the midst of all this celebration, he felt rather like chopped liver.

The father reminds him, "Everything I have is already yours, but this brother was dead to us, and now he is restored."

Oh, friends, there is so much in this story for us to explore--more than we'll begin to cover this morning.  Strained family relationships feature so heavily in the Bible, because so few of us ever manage our own family life without at least some.  There is even an echo to this parable in the Gospels, which instead of two brothers--one responsible yet resentful, and one who is wayward--there are instead two sisters--Martha and Mary, again one responsible yet resentful, and one who sits at Jesus' feet with nary another thought.

If we were to survey the room, how many of us are, or were, or have been at some point, the Responsible One? (a few hands)

How many of us were or are or have been at some point, the Wayward One? (a few hands)

How many of us have found ourselves at different points in our lives, to have played both roles?
(the most hands)

It's actually a bit surprising to me that the younger son had an inheritance to spend anyway--usually, the first born son received everything, including the family business, and the younger sons had two choices: work for big brother, or set out on their own, perhaps hoping to marry well, or to establish a new trade for themselves.  This system certainly had its flaws, and led to other strained relationships--Jacob and Esau come to mind.  Likely, this even further exacerbated the older brother's anger because the money had really come more out of his pocket than his father's --and taken his labor supply along with it!  What an enormous loss!  And all for nothing!

And yet, the father reminds him, there's still more than enough to go around.  In a time of famine, they still have a fatted calf and many more herds and help to see them through.  The father realizes that it's all just stuff, anyway--and that being reunited with this long-lost son is worth more than all of that.

Friends, we touched on this a moment ago, but we probably, almost all of us, could name a 'prodigal' story in our own family histories. Some of them may have had a happy ending.  Others, perhaps, maybe not--or at least not yet, or even in the foreseeable future.  Often these days, for example, we hear of children, siblings, who are lost to drug addiction--and families do spend vast fortunes trying to heal them and bring them home.  It is anguish for them all.

Another situation that seems to happen so often, is that the father or mother has already died, and the siblings become bitter enemies over the inheritance.  Sometimes there is the dynamic of one sibling who was the caretaker, the one who stayed home and shouldered much responsibility--and other siblings further afield--probably taking care of their own families and work where they were--and both parties become deeply resentful of the other, feeling that they lost out on something the other one had--whether it was freedom, or being able to spend more time with their parents at the very end.

It is hard to let these things go.  And sometimes, it's not really the things, the money at the heart of the matter, but the feelings that have built up, of anger and bitterness, of regretful things said that have split the family apart for years.  Or the silence thereafter.  These hurt, deeply, and they seem so hard to overcome.

If not in our own families, we might also see it in our church families.  We see it in so many churches that have a split or hardship, and some leave, and there are often raw, open questions--will those folks ever return, what would that be like, and will there ever be hope or room for reconciliation?

These open questions--and the paths forward--are not usually so simple and straightforward.   This parable conveniently leaves off before the morning after the great celebration, and that first awkward breakfast table conversation, then that next stilted dinner table conversation, and probably a few doozy arguments yet, and so many more days and weeks and months, perhaps even years to come. Reconcilation and forgiveness is so often a process instead of an action, and healing takes time.

We might all be prodigals--in one way or another, at some time, in some role in our lives.  And we may not always have a wise earthly parent figure to guide us through those first awkward steps back to reconciliation.  Yet, should we find this to be the case, we still have some hope:

While he was still far from home, his father saw him, and ran to him.

God sees us, God loves us, God has compassion for us, and God rushes to us when we are still so far away, to reconcile and restore us, no matter what we've done or how unworthy we feel.  Or even how tired and resentful we may be.  God reconciles all things to God's own self, and makes a new thing right when everything seems to be ruined.  This is the nature of God's abundant love for us, and for all people, all families, everywhere.

Thanks be to God!

Our First Duty

Our first duty is to our children:
To raise them up to be strong Christians
Who will not hesitate to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, care for the poor, tend the sick, welcome the foreigner, and befriend the outcast.
Who will not let any other claim or conflict from broken churches
Distract, entice, or corrupt them away from this primary calling.
It is not about the building.
It is not about the status of the people who attend.
It is not about following the values of corporate greed.
It is not about who has the loudest, flashiest A/V equipment.
Jesus didn't ask us to care about any of these things.
Jesus asked us to put all our resources, our treasure,
Into caring for the lowest and the least.
This is how we love the Lord our God
With all our heart and soul and strength.
This is how we love our neighbors as ourselves.

Forgive Us, Lord

Forgive us, Lord,
When we corrupt your churches 
When instead of worshipping you in the way you instructed us, 
By welcoming in the hungry, the homeless, the poor, the friendless, the foreigner, and people with disabilities, 
Instead we seek to keep them out. 
When we seek instead to make your church
A more exclusive private club
Attracting an ever-more elite clientele
Surrounding ourselves with luxury
And our own fear and hatred
While your people suffer
Outside our walls and gates,
Perhaps occasionally tossing crumbs
To assuage our guilt
As we feast.
We have failed to do what is pleasing in your sight.
We cannot plead, "safety!"
(Though we too often do)
Because you have sent us plenty
Of prophets and apostles
To this day.
Faithful disciple churches
Who have found the ways
To minister to the least of these
With safety and welcome for all.
Lord, help us to listen
to you, and the teachers you have sent us.
Instead of turning our churches
Into dens of thieves,
Turn our hearts
To worship you once more
By welcoming your Beloved People.

Some Folks

Some folks spend every Sunday in the pew, but have never been to church.
Some folks serve on every board in their congregation, but have never been to church.
Some folks have spent a fortune gussying up their sanctuaries, but have never been to church.
Church is a matter of heart--not a matter of status, of image, of power, of wealth.
We have been to church when our hearts have been so transformed that our highest priority becomes not the building, not the boards, but the willingness to welcome in and tend to the poor, the homeless, the hungry, the outcast, the foreigner, and the broken ones.
Not to throw a few nickels their way when we see fit, after we've spent tens of thousands on a more beautiful building for ourselves first.
Not to keep them confined to a social agency downtown because our houses of worship are 'too nice' to risk allowing them in.
When we can be bodily present alongside those we fear and despise the most in our society,
and become friends and neighbors,
When our houses of worship are houses for everyone
and tables for everyone
until everyone is fed, and sheltered, and loved,
Then, we begin to see as God sees.
For God, all the rest doesn't begin to matter.

What Would You Do If You Won the Lottery?

1. Write down all the things you would do if you won the lottery.
2. Share your dreams with others.
3. Now write down a plan to ***do them anyway.*** 
This might be:
a) writing up a savings plan and/or meeting with a financial adviser to do the 'big ticket' things in your personal or family life.
b) working with other people to pool resources to get the public good things done.
Chances are pretty good you'll accomplish a lot of them!

Here's my 'dream list' of what I'd like to do in Clinton where I live now, whether or not I might ever win a lottery (in no particular order):

+Finish the community kitchen at the Human Services Campus, so NOM-Northend Outreach Ministries can continue to serve a free hot lunch to kids when schools are on summer break;

+Help River Arts Center get a new elevator and develop into a full teaching museum for youth and adults, like the Charles H. MacNider Art Museum in Mason City;

+Help YWCA - Clinton get an elevator and make the renovations to the original Lamb mansion so it can continue to serve the community

+Help Dina White and the Jetter Youth Center, and Jorge Landa Rodriguez and Against the Ropes get the facilities they need to focus on their programs and not have to worry about repairs anymore

+Develop an Underground Railroad Museum/Interpretive Center at the old AME church (which I understand was a stop), and create student jobs there for the youth of Jetter Center

+Help get the shelter for homeless families with children up and running, likehttps://www.facebook.com/FamilyPromiseofLinnCounty/?fref=ts

+Help build a Tiny Homes Village here for chronically homeless individuals, like https://www.facebook.com/OMBuild

+Develop an Underground Railroad Museum/Interpretive Center at the site of the old AME church (which I understand was a stop), and create student jobs there for the youth of the Jetter Center

+Refurbish the 'baby pool' at the municipal pool with a muraled pool floor and sunshade canopies

+Create a year-round children's theater like Stebens in Mason City, and create a position for Kris Doss to run it smile emoticon

+Get a performing arts center for the school district at least as nice as the one at NIACC in Mason City

+Create an ecumenical, inclusive campus ministry at Clinton Community College, with lots of mission service opportunities

+Start a partnership among churches, the high school, and the community college to grow and mentor our own next generation of church musicians

...but that's just a start. This list is getting rather long. However, they are all doable, and can be done without anyone winning the lottery--just a lot of people working together who realize the impact that could be made.

What would you do where you live?