(Based on Luke 15:11-32 - posted below the sermon)
When Thanksgiving rolls around we tend to reflect on those people, things and situations for which we are thankful. We sometimes even enumerate them, making list to remind ourselves that we have so much to be grateful for.
How many of those lists, I wonder, include “I am grateful for being a child of a loving God”. I’m just mentioning it because I don’t think it ever occurred to me, to share as we used to gather around the Thanksgiving table, – not once - did I ever say anything remotely like: I am grateful for being a child of God, a Christian, or a member of the United Church. And that’s OK because I’m sure my children would have been more than a little upset and I, like most people, would focus on family at a family gathering.
OK, so I’m going to remind you (again) about the story of “The Prodigal Son” found in Luke 15:11-32 really quickly because it is quite a long parable.
Basically you have a father and two sons. The youngest son goes to his father and asks for his share of his inheritance. I’m guessing he is wanting to see the world and feels like he is missing out with life at home. So off he goes and has a good time until the money runs out and he is reduced to getting a job feeding pigs (I’m guessing that this would be the worst job in the world for a Jewish audience).
Finally, he sees that there is no way out of the situation where he is, and that he might be better off if he returns home. Hoping, I am sure, that if he repents, maybe his father will forgive him, and hire him to work as a labourer.
When his father learns that his son is on the road home, his father rushes to embrace him, calls for clothes to be brought and tells the household to prepare a feast to celebrate his son’s return.
But the other son, who had worked faithfully alongside his father for years, is a little – well, a lot put out at the news; that here his father was giving a party for his returned brother. OK, he gets really angry and confronts his dad.
And his father answers him: “My son, you are always here with me, and everything I have is yours. But we have to celebrate and be happy because your brother was dead and now, he is alive; he was lost but now he has been found.”
The father tells his son: “Everything I have is yours.”
This parable focuses on family, just like we tend to do around Thanksgiving. And the more I think about this story that Jesus told, I become aware of that it is one of the passages where Jesus opens a door and reveals to us the image of God as a loving parent.
When Jesus is on the cross and calls out to God using “Abba”, he is referring to God as Dad, Daddy, Papa, Baba, Tata – what a child would call a loving father, someone they were close to.
In the first century, a period known as Second Temple Judaism, this would not be common, as the main images of God at the time were of God as Lawgiver or Judge, think of Moses and the Ten Commandments. And Numbers and Deuteronomy; with all the rules and laws governing food, dress, ritual, festivals and all kinds of minutiae concerning all aspects of life.
Another prevalent image was God as King of creation, as a royal authority who has the right to decide anything just because he is God the King.
In both these ideas the relationship is defined through loyalty to the One God, Yahweh, and adherence the law as judged by the temple and it’s representatives.
But, here and there in the Old Testament we see glimpses of other faces of God: God as father, God as mother, God as lover in Hosea, God as shepherd in Psalms.
And in our story of the Prodigal Son, we have the loving father come to life as the one who embraces and celebrates the return of the lost son and who
says to his other son “everything I have is yours”
Jesus calls God “Abba”.
The father who embraces you,
the source of all existence knows your face,
knows you by name and cares about you.
Not only you but your brother and sister.
Not only them but your neighbour,
and not only your neighbour but the neighbour you have never met who lives half the world away,
and not just the people you don’t know but your enemy,
and not just them but all peoples
and not just people but the whole of creation,
because this God is the God who works in and through love.
It’s not that Jesus dismisses the other images of God, it’s more like he reframes all that God is and how God works. God is still Judge, God is still King, God is still Creator but Jesus sees that the relationship between us and God can be so much more than one mediated through the Temple and the Law.
When the King is Abba, when the Judge is Abba you show up and discover that God has adopted you.
We are sons and daughters of God. Any fear and trepidation we may have had is embraced and changed by a loving and gracious Abba, just like the Prodigal Father embraces the Prodigal Son. Just like the Prodigal Brother is told by the Prodigal Father “Everything I have is yours”. We are heirs to God’s Kingdom revealed to us through the message and life of Jesus the Christ.
That’s a lot to be thankful for. It is more than we expected, I think. When we read the Prodigal Son story, maybe when we read any parable, we sit comfortably outside looking in, but there is no escaping the father’s embrace. We are loved by God. Jesus reveals to us that we are in relationship with Abba, we are a part of the family.
There are no tests, there are no right answers, there is no prepackaged travel itinerary that will get you to the right spot, there is no one right way to be a follower of Jesus.
You just show up and God comes running up the road to greet you and embrace you and says “Welcome home, you belong here.
Wherever you have been, whatever you have done, you are my child. Welcome home and come take your place at the feast.” And then God turns to our brothers and sisters and says “Everything I have is yours, come join the feast and let’s celebrate with Thanksgiving”
This Thanksgiving when asked what I am thankful for; I will say that: “I cherish our children, who have taught me so much, who have enriched my life and softened my heart.” But I just might add “and I am thankful for a loving and gracious God who picks me up when I fall and gives me the courage to try again. I am thankful to be included in a loving and gracious Christian community. I am so thankful, that through the life and words of Jesus, the power of God’s love continues to change hearts, change minds and change lives.
May it be so. Amen
Luke 15:11-32 (GNT)
11 Jesus went on to say, “There was once a man who had two sons.
12 The younger one said to him, ‘Father, give me my share of the property now.’ So the man divided his property between his two sons.
13 After a few days the younger son sold his part of the property and left home with the money. He went to a country far away, where he wasted his money in reckless living.
14 He spent everything he had. Then a severe famine spread over that country, and he was left without a thing.
15 So he went to work for one of the citizens of that country, who sent him out to his farm to take care of the pigs.
16 He wished he could fill himself with the bean pods the pigs ate, but no one gave him anything to eat.
17 At last he came to his senses and said, ‘All my father's hired workers have more than they can eat, and here I am about to starve!
18 I will get up and go to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against God and against you.
19 I am no longer fit to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired workers.”’
20 So he got up and started back to his father.
“He was still a long way from home when his father saw him; his heart was filled with pity, and he ran, threw his arms around his son, and kissed him.
21 ‘Father,’ the son said, ‘I have sinned against God and against you. I am no longer fit to be called your son.’
22 But the father called to his servants. ‘Hurry!’ he said. ‘Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and shoes on his feet.
23 Then go and get the prize calf and kill it, and let us celebrate with a feast!
24 For this son of mine was dead, but now he is alive; he was lost, but now he has been found.’ And so the feasting began.
25 “In the meantime the older son was out in the field. On his way back, when he came close to the house, he heard the music and dancing.
26 So he called one of the servants and asked him, ‘What's going on?’
27 ‘Your brother has come back home,’ the servant answered, ‘and your father has killed the prize calf, because he got him back safe and sound.’
28 The older brother was so angry that he would not go into the house; so his father came out and begged him to come in.
29 But he spoke back to his father, ‘Look, all these years I have worked for you like a slave, and I have never disobeyed your orders. What have you given me? Not even a goat for me to have a feast with my friends!
30 But this son of yours wasted all your property on prostitutes, and when he comes back home, you kill the prize calf for him!’
31 ‘My son,’ the father answered, ‘you are always here with me, and everything I have is yours.
32 But we had to celebrate and be happy, because your brother was dead, but now he is alive; he was lost, but now he has been found.’”
When Thanksgiving rolls around we tend to reflect on those people, things and situations for which we are thankful. We sometimes even enumerate them, making list to remind ourselves that we have so much to be grateful for.
How many of those lists, I wonder, include “I am grateful for being a child of a loving God”. I’m just mentioning it because I don’t think it ever occurred to me, to share as we used to gather around the Thanksgiving table, – not once - did I ever say anything remotely like: I am grateful for being a child of God, a Christian, or a member of the United Church. And that’s OK because I’m sure my children would have been more than a little upset and I, like most people, would focus on family at a family gathering.
OK, so I’m going to remind you (again) about the story of “The Prodigal Son” found in Luke 15:11-32 really quickly because it is quite a long parable.
Basically you have a father and two sons. The youngest son goes to his father and asks for his share of his inheritance. I’m guessing he is wanting to see the world and feels like he is missing out with life at home. So off he goes and has a good time until the money runs out and he is reduced to getting a job feeding pigs (I’m guessing that this would be the worst job in the world for a Jewish audience).
Finally, he sees that there is no way out of the situation where he is, and that he might be better off if he returns home. Hoping, I am sure, that if he repents, maybe his father will forgive him, and hire him to work as a labourer.
When his father learns that his son is on the road home, his father rushes to embrace him, calls for clothes to be brought and tells the household to prepare a feast to celebrate his son’s return.
But the other son, who had worked faithfully alongside his father for years, is a little – well, a lot put out at the news; that here his father was giving a party for his returned brother. OK, he gets really angry and confronts his dad.
And his father answers him: “My son, you are always here with me, and everything I have is yours. But we have to celebrate and be happy because your brother was dead and now, he is alive; he was lost but now he has been found.”
The father tells his son: “Everything I have is yours.”
This parable focuses on family, just like we tend to do around Thanksgiving. And the more I think about this story that Jesus told, I become aware of that it is one of the passages where Jesus opens a door and reveals to us the image of God as a loving parent.
When Jesus is on the cross and calls out to God using “Abba”, he is referring to God as Dad, Daddy, Papa, Baba, Tata – what a child would call a loving father, someone they were close to.
In the first century, a period known as Second Temple Judaism, this would not be common, as the main images of God at the time were of God as Lawgiver or Judge, think of Moses and the Ten Commandments. And Numbers and Deuteronomy; with all the rules and laws governing food, dress, ritual, festivals and all kinds of minutiae concerning all aspects of life.
Another prevalent image was God as King of creation, as a royal authority who has the right to decide anything just because he is God the King.
In both these ideas the relationship is defined through loyalty to the One God, Yahweh, and adherence the law as judged by the temple and it’s representatives.
But, here and there in the Old Testament we see glimpses of other faces of God: God as father, God as mother, God as lover in Hosea, God as shepherd in Psalms.
And in our story of the Prodigal Son, we have the loving father come to life as the one who embraces and celebrates the return of the lost son and who
says to his other son “everything I have is yours”
Jesus calls God “Abba”.
The father who embraces you,
the source of all existence knows your face,
knows you by name and cares about you.
Not only you but your brother and sister.
Not only them but your neighbour,
and not only your neighbour but the neighbour you have never met who lives half the world away,
and not just the people you don’t know but your enemy,
and not just them but all peoples
and not just people but the whole of creation,
because this God is the God who works in and through love.
It’s not that Jesus dismisses the other images of God, it’s more like he reframes all that God is and how God works. God is still Judge, God is still King, God is still Creator but Jesus sees that the relationship between us and God can be so much more than one mediated through the Temple and the Law.
When the King is Abba, when the Judge is Abba you show up and discover that God has adopted you.
We are sons and daughters of God. Any fear and trepidation we may have had is embraced and changed by a loving and gracious Abba, just like the Prodigal Father embraces the Prodigal Son. Just like the Prodigal Brother is told by the Prodigal Father “Everything I have is yours”. We are heirs to God’s Kingdom revealed to us through the message and life of Jesus the Christ.
That’s a lot to be thankful for. It is more than we expected, I think. When we read the Prodigal Son story, maybe when we read any parable, we sit comfortably outside looking in, but there is no escaping the father’s embrace. We are loved by God. Jesus reveals to us that we are in relationship with Abba, we are a part of the family.
There are no tests, there are no right answers, there is no prepackaged travel itinerary that will get you to the right spot, there is no one right way to be a follower of Jesus.
You just show up and God comes running up the road to greet you and embrace you and says “Welcome home, you belong here.
Wherever you have been, whatever you have done, you are my child. Welcome home and come take your place at the feast.” And then God turns to our brothers and sisters and says “Everything I have is yours, come join the feast and let’s celebrate with Thanksgiving”
This Thanksgiving when asked what I am thankful for; I will say that: “I cherish our children, who have taught me so much, who have enriched my life and softened my heart.” But I just might add “and I am thankful for a loving and gracious God who picks me up when I fall and gives me the courage to try again. I am thankful to be included in a loving and gracious Christian community. I am so thankful, that through the life and words of Jesus, the power of God’s love continues to change hearts, change minds and change lives.
May it be so. Amen
Luke 15:11-32 (GNT)
11 Jesus went on to say, “There was once a man who had two sons.
12 The younger one said to him, ‘Father, give me my share of the property now.’ So the man divided his property between his two sons.
13 After a few days the younger son sold his part of the property and left home with the money. He went to a country far away, where he wasted his money in reckless living.
14 He spent everything he had. Then a severe famine spread over that country, and he was left without a thing.
15 So he went to work for one of the citizens of that country, who sent him out to his farm to take care of the pigs.
16 He wished he could fill himself with the bean pods the pigs ate, but no one gave him anything to eat.
17 At last he came to his senses and said, ‘All my father's hired workers have more than they can eat, and here I am about to starve!
18 I will get up and go to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against God and against you.
19 I am no longer fit to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired workers.”’
20 So he got up and started back to his father.
“He was still a long way from home when his father saw him; his heart was filled with pity, and he ran, threw his arms around his son, and kissed him.
21 ‘Father,’ the son said, ‘I have sinned against God and against you. I am no longer fit to be called your son.’
22 But the father called to his servants. ‘Hurry!’ he said. ‘Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and shoes on his feet.
23 Then go and get the prize calf and kill it, and let us celebrate with a feast!
24 For this son of mine was dead, but now he is alive; he was lost, but now he has been found.’ And so the feasting began.
25 “In the meantime the older son was out in the field. On his way back, when he came close to the house, he heard the music and dancing.
26 So he called one of the servants and asked him, ‘What's going on?’
27 ‘Your brother has come back home,’ the servant answered, ‘and your father has killed the prize calf, because he got him back safe and sound.’
28 The older brother was so angry that he would not go into the house; so his father came out and begged him to come in.
29 But he spoke back to his father, ‘Look, all these years I have worked for you like a slave, and I have never disobeyed your orders. What have you given me? Not even a goat for me to have a feast with my friends!
30 But this son of yours wasted all your property on prostitutes, and when he comes back home, you kill the prize calf for him!’
31 ‘My son,’ the father answered, ‘you are always here with me, and everything I have is yours.
32 But we had to celebrate and be happy, because your brother was dead, but now he is alive; he was lost, but now he has been found.’”
