There was a man who had two sons
Two Sons + Dad
Calling this well-known story (Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32) "The Parable of the Prodigal Son" reduces our focus to the one son. But the parable opens with the line: "There was a man who had two sons."
Cain and Abel. Ishmael and Isaac. Esau and Jacob. two sons.
And there's the father. (We might ask where's the mom?) We have three main characters in this story. Yet, we typically identify with the younger son.
How might we take a moment this week to find ourselves in each of these characters?
Like the younger son, we can be reckless and wasteful. Like the older son, we have the capacity for jealousy and resentment. Like the father, we can be forgiving and lavish. We need all three perspectives in the parable.
God Loves Sinners
Dr. Amy-Jill Levine, in a Christian Century article, succinctly lays out the problem with most Christian interpretations of this parable.
"One common way that parables are interpreted is by drawing a contrast between what Jesus taught and what “the Jews” generally understood. Thus, the Prodigal Son teaches that God loves sinners, whereas the Jews thought God loved only the righteous and didn’t give a damn about sinners.
But such a reading should make no sense to anyone who has read in the scriptures about Adam and Eve, Cain and David, and indeed the nation of Israel. God does not give up on sinners; to the contrary, God is always waiting for us to repent and return. Humanity may violate God’s covenant, but God remains faithful. Jews knew that God cared about the sinful; were that not the case, there’d be no reason to send prophets to Israel, or Jonah to Nineveh."
I might add that the interpretive move of contrasting Jesus and "the Jews" as if Jesus stands outside of the Jewish tradition participates in anti-Judaism. Jesus was born a Jew and lived his whole life as a Jew. He may have had disagreements with his Jewish siblings (because Jews then and now are not a monolith) but they were disagreeing as members of the same faith family.
"God loves sinners" is not a brand new slogan created by Jesus, but is a result of Jesus's knowledge of his faith tradition. Jesus's friendship with sinners may have been scandalous to some in his world, but completely faithful to others.
Perhaps the better question for us this Lenten season is whether we love sinners.
Things! Burn them, burn them!
The following Mary Oliver poem strikes me as rather appropriate for Lent.
Storage by Mary Oliver
When I moved from one house to another
there were many things I had no room
for. What does one do? I rented a storage
space. And filled it. Years passed.
Occasionally I went there and looked in,
but nothing happened, not a single
twinge of the heart.
As I grew older the things I cared
about grew fewer, but were more
important. So one day I undid the lock
and called the trash man. He took
everything.
I felt like the little donkey when
his burden is finally lifted. Things!
Burn them, burn them! Make a beautiful
fire! More room in your heart for love,
for the trees! For the birds who own
nothing — the reason they can fly.
Of course, some "things" we need, but not nearly as many as I have. So, this Lent, I take a moment to look around at the accumulations in my house, in my heart, and ask what might be in need of Holy Spirit's fire. It will be a beautiful fire. I need more room in my heart for love, and for the trees!
A Lenten Musical Meditation: I Sat Down Under His Shadow by Edward Bairstow
A Benediction (Or Miscellaneous Thoughts)
- If you know someone who might like to read this newsletter, forward this email to them.
- If you are thinking about preaching or using the Old Testament Lesson for this coming week (Joshua 5:9-12), I wrote a brief commentary on it for Working Preacher.
- You can read an online version of this newsletter here.
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