Luke 15_The Practical Stepmother_Mar 31, 2019

Introduction:  The parable of the Prodigal Son is a familiar one to many of us.  The parable is so powerful and so poignant that a preacher doesn’t really have to expand on it.  All we need to do is tell the parable; it speaks for itself.  In the parable, Jesus describes the three characters: father, elder son, younger son.  You and I can see ourselves in each one.  We can enter into the story and experience it from each person’s point of view.  Maybe, as you listened, you imagined yourself as the younger son, lost and longing to go home again.  Maybe you imagined yourself as the older brother, always dutiful and following the rules.

Of course this parable of the prodigal son is a story of three men.  As I was preparing the sermon for today, I wondered what it would be like to experience the parable from a woman’s point of view.  So this morning, I’m going to try that:  I’m going to enter into the parable with a dramatic interpretation, speaking as I imagine a woman might experience the story.  After some deliberation, I decided that it would best serve the message of the parable if I took the role of a stepmother.  I imagined that the mother of the two sons had died and the father had remarried.  So I invite you to enter now into the story with me.  I’ll be speaking as the stepmother, the second wife of a man who was very generous with both of his sons.

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              I just don’t understand my husband sometimes.  How could he do that?  How could he go running from our home, running down the road for everyone to see?  Everyone could see his robe flapping out behind him as he ran.  His bare legs were on display to the whole neighborhood.  It was disgraceful!  People like us don’t show our legs like that.  It was so undignified! But my husband didn’t seem to care.  He ran as fast as his legs could carry him.  When he saw his younger son coming down the road, he couldn’t let another minute go by.

 

I think I know why he did that when his younger son came home.  The young man was returning home in disgrace.  He had brought terrible shame on the family.  And when a son brings shame on a family, everybody wants to punish him.  Sons who bring shame don’t show their faces in town because they know that if they do, people will shout insults at them.  People will even spit at them, or throw rocks at them, hoping to hurt them or knock them down.  So maybe my husband wanted to get to his son before the village heaped its scorn upon him, before the rock-throwing began.   My husband wanted to greet his son with open arms.

 

Did the boy deserve to be greeted with open arms like that?  You know, he’s full grown but I’m still going to call him a boy.  He’s acted like a boy.  He certainly doesn’t have the maturity of a man; he’s been so irresponsible.  Of course, both of my stepsons have had a hard time since their mother died.  It’s hard for a child to lose his mother.  After all this time, they’re still grieving.

 

But that’s no excuse for the awful thing the boy did. It’s just unthinkable really.  Good sons don’t do things like that.  This boy actually had the gall to ask for his inheritance before his father died!  He went to my husband and said, “Father, I’d like you to divide the inheritance between my brother and me, right now.”  Do you know that’s like?  That’s like a son saying, “Father, I wish you were dead right now!”  That’s a slap in the face.  He always was a proud boy; he always acted as if he was entitled.  But it was outrageous to ask his father for his inheritance ahead of time.

 

And what did my husband do?  Did he set the boy straight about what sons owe their fathers? Did he give him a dope slap and send him back out to the fields to work?  No!  My husband has a very soft heart.  He actually said, “OK.”

 

You know, our family is like other families around here.  We don’t have a lot of silver and gold.  Our wealth is in our land.  My stepsons’ inheritance is the land.  So to grant his younger son’s request, my husband had to divide the land.  He broke up the estate that’s been in the family for generations.  He divided the land in half!

 

What does the boy do then?  He turns around and sells the land!  Land that has supported his father, and grandfather, going back generations!  Land where our food has grown and our animals have grazed!  He doesn’t think twice!  Just like that – he sells the land and off he goes, to a faraway country.

 

Now I don’t know exactly what he did while he was away, but I can guess.  I would guess he spent a lot of money on rich food and fancy drinks.  I would guess he enjoyed himself gambling and carousing till all hours.  I’ve heard about what they do in those foreign countries: the partying, the liquor, the women.  He spent and he spent and he spent.  He squandered all that money on his own pleasure.  And guess what?  The money finally ran out.  No surprise there.  It was a lot of money, but when you spend it like that it doesn’t last forever.  The money ran out.

 

So he had to go to work.  If the boy had never left home, we would have given him a good life, a respectable life.  He wouldn’t have wanted for anything.  But now he has to go to work.  Things are tough in that foreign land and the only kind of job he can find is work that our people consider demeaning, unclean.  He’s taking care of pigs!  Filthy animals!  No self-respecting man from our country would ever earn his income by taking care of pigs.

 

And he’s really hungry: so hungry that he wishes he could eat what the pigs are eating.  So disgusting.  He wants to put his face in the trough and chow down with the hogs!  But then, after a while, he comes to himself.  He says to himself, “Hey, my father’s servants have bread enough to spare and here I am perishing with hunger.  I know what I’ll do.  I’ll tell Dad that I’ve sinned against heaven and against him, that I’m no longer worthy to be a son.  I’ll say, ‘Dad, make me a hired hand.’”

 

Well, that might sound like an apology, but you know what?  That boy hasn’t changed his ways at all.  He’s trying to make a deal with his father.  He’s not really sorry for everything.  He’s as proud as ever.  He’s trying to figure out how he can save face.  It’s as if he’s saying to his father, “just let me salvage my false pride and go live in the bunkhouse with the hired hands and pay you back.”  That’s like saying, yesterday I insult you and tell you to drop dead, and today I’ll pay you a lot of money to make it OK.  That’s another slap in the face.

 

The boy was away for a long time.  My husband missed him a lot.  Every day my husband would go outside and just stand there, looking down the road.  Especially in the evening, I’d see him looking down the road, watching for his wayward son.  I used to tease him about it. “What are you watching for?”  I’d say.  “Do you really think he’s coming back?”

And when that boy did come, you could have knocked me over with a feather.  I was so surprised.  My husband took off like a shot!  He went running, his robe flapping behind him, his arms open wide.  He looked like a fool, but he didn’t care!  He didn’t even wait for an explanation!  He didn’t even wait for an apology!  He threw his arms around the boy.

 

He called to the servants, “Get him a robe, the best robe we have!  Get him a ring, the special ring that’s been in my family for generations, so I can put it on his finger!”  That’s what really got me: the ring.  The boy squanders his inheritance and has the nerve to come home again, and his father gives him a ring.  A ring says, welcome back!  A ring says, you’re part of the family!

 

Of course I wasn’t surprised by the way his older brother reacted.  I always thought the older brother was a goody-goody.  Yes he is a faithful member of this family.  He never gives us any trouble.  He is a dutiful son.  While his younger brother was out carousing, he was tending the crops.  While his younger brother was out womanizing, he was at home, taking care of the animals.  I’m sure he got a lot of questions from his friends about what his younger brother did.  It brought shame on the whole family.

 

So I wasn’t surprised that he didn’t want to go into the house and join the party.  I wasn’t surprised that he said to my husband, “Here I have slaved for you year after year, and never even got a young goat for a party, but you give this son of yours a fatted calf!”  It wasn’t fair.

 

I wasn’t surprised that he stayed out in the field.  It’s too bad he did, though, because our family throws a great party.  And it was a terrible thing to do to his father.  His father had invited all our friends to this welcome-back party.  People came from all over.  His father spared no expense, but his older son didn’t show his face.  It was hurtful, and it was humiliating for a father.

 

You know, in a way, I feel worse for my older stepson than I do for his father.  I feel worse for him than I do for his younger brother.  He’s refusing to be part of the party.  That’s like cutting off his nose to spite his face.  He’s missing out on a good time, and missing out on a chance to celebrate that the family is together again.  The boy who ran away knew he was loved and accepted when he came back.  How is his older brother going to know he’s loved and accepted just as much?

 

I still don’t understand my husband.  But I know he is very forgiving.  My husband has a big heart.  He doesn’t mind making a fool of himself to show his sons how much he loves them.

 

I’ve heard about a man named Jesus, who’s traveling around our country talking to people about God, a God who loves us all.  He calls this God Father.  He says this Father God forgives us when we sin.  He says that when we run away from God, when we do what we want instead of what God wants, God doesn’t cut us off.  God just wants us to come home.  God still loves us.

 

Sometimes I wonder, what would life be like if we followed Jesus?  What would life be like if we took Jesus at his word and believed what he said about God?  What would life be like if we were sure of a God who loved us, a God who wanted the best for us?  What would life be like if we knew that if we lost our way, God would come looking for us?  Can you imagine a God who is watching, looking down the road, all the time, hoping to see us come home? Can you imagine that God putting loving arms around us when we come home, welcoming us to the party?  Can you imagine a God who loves us that much?  Can you?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rev. Elva Merry Pawle

March 31, 2019

Lent 4