Mooroolbark Uniting Church (St. Margaret’s)

Lent 4C 30 March, 2025

Sermon – Howard Wallace

John 15:1-3, 11-32; Psalm 32

Lent is a time for reflection, for self-examination in preparation for Easter celebrations of the death and resurrection of Jesus. The story of the prodigal son is a natural choice for this time of contemplation.

It is the story of a man and his two sons. The younger is anxious to inherit the share of the family property that would eventually come to him. He secures this from his father and soon after gathers all he has and travels to a far-off land. We soon hear, and it is no surprise, that the temptations of that distant place are too much for the young man who squanders what he has ‘in dissolute living’. Circumstance beyond his control also affect him and he is cast into poverty. To survive he hires himself out to another who sends him into the fields to look after the pigs. Even their food is a temptation to him. There is a great sense of disgrace and shame in all this and we are told no one gave him anything.

Eventually the young son ‘comes to himself’. He considers that the servants at home are better off than he is. He says he has sinned against God and his father and he plans to go home, admit his actions and conduct before his father and offer to take on the role of a servant.

We can almost hear the words of today’s psalm (Psalm 32) on the young man’s lips:

³While I kept silent, my body wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
⁴ For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah

⁵ Then I acknowledged my sin to you,
and I did not hide my iniquity;
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,”
and you forgave the guilt of my sin.

The young man realises his foolishness, is prepared to admit his sin, as he calls it, and plans to return home and accept his penance. But as he nears home what happens is beyond expectations – his and ours. His father has been waiting for him and sees him coming from ‘far off’. He runs to his son, is filled with compassion and emotion and kisses him. All this is not what a dignified man of property would do then. He runs, he does not walk. He goes to the ‘lesser’ party. He shows emotion publicly. The son can only begin his prepared speech of contrition before his father overwhelms him with gifts of clothes, a ring and a welcome home party.

The young son has been thinking of his situation, his foolishness, in contractual terms – of an act that has consequences, of a wrong-doing for which he will have to pay with some ‘punishment’. But his father has not been thinking in these terms. He can only think in terms of their relationship. This is his son. He was dead but now is alive to his father. He was lost but is now found.

But there is another son in this story and another story to be told. The older brother, out working on the property when his brother returns is angered by the treatment of this young reprobate when he hears of it. He refuses to join the party when he hears what is happening. He says he has worked like a slave, obedient to his father and yet has never received any reward. The father acts toward this brother as he did toward the younger one. He comes out to him, although he does not run. Again, this goes against his dignity. He pleads with the elder son speaking of the return of ‘this brother of yours’ while the older son can only refer to his brother as ‘this son of yours’, i.e. of his father. The older son will not own his blood relationship with the younger son.

The elder brother thinks of the family in contractual terms, as did his younger brother when he realised his foolishness. He thinks only of what is owed and what is earned. But note that the father calls the older brother ‘son’ too, as he did with the younger brother. He still speaks in terms of relationship and says to his elder son that he has always been with him and all the father has is his son’s. yet his brother was dead and is alive again, to his brother and to his father; he was lost but is found.

We don’t know what happens with the brothers after this, if there was some reconciliation or not. How did the younger son feel about the welcome he had received. Did he thank his lucky stars that he had landed on his feet or did his contrition remain and he had a deeper understanding of his father and his love? Did the elder son continue to harbour resentment against his younger brother or did he gain a deeper understanding of his father’s love for both?

These questions remain for us too. The parable is commonly titled the parable of the ‘prodigal son’. The word ‘prodigal’ refers to someone who is willing to spend or waste money, time or resources especially in a rash or extravagant manner. The actions of the younger son become our focus. But as we note there is also an older brother who has things to learn in the story. But really, this parable is not so much one about the brothers as it is about the father and the nature of his love, his yearning for reconciliation in the face of rejection and resentment. He sweeps aside thoughts of retribution and seeks to overcome thoughts of jealousy that can linger and eat away at the one who holds them.

The parable has a lot to say to our world as it is evolving. It is easy to see its relevance for our individual lives and actions. How do we react to the one who has wronged us? Is reconciliation or retribution our first thought? Do we maintain a contractual view of relationships – what is there for me in this relationship? But it goes beyond the individual and addresses our social policies and attitudes too in relation to welfare, immigration, taxation, citizenship etc. And the parable’s relevance is emerging with full force on the international scene currently especially with Donald Trump’s view of the world. We often hear of him as a transactional person and his transactional view is affecting much of the world directly or indirectly. The image of the father in our story cuts across all this and asks where are love and compassion to be found?

Lent is a time of self-examination, a time to think about the nature and reality of our discipleship of Jesus Christ. It is also a time to examine once again the nature of the love of a God who doesn’t just wait for us beyond Easter, beyond the cross and resurrection of Jesus. God doesn’t wait for us to come to him in contrition. No, God rushes down the path of the cross and resurrection to greet us who are no longer lost to him but are found.

Amen