Pastor’s Corner – March 30, 2025
Jesus’ Invitation to the Kin-dom/Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
Can you really blame him? I mean the elder son for his outrage and anger against dad who embraces a prodigal son? After slaving in labor and taking care of dad’s business all his life, not even asking to take time off to party with his friends, then this second son who recklessly spends all his inheritance comes home like a beggar! Rather than reprimanding him, give him the finest clothing, a ring, and throw him an extravagant welcome home party! Yes, the elder son seems to have every right to be angry!
There are so many ways to go about this wonderful story; a parable we all know well. Growing up as a pastor’s kid, I recall dad telling this story in his sermon with an invitation to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, an invitation to be “saved” as understood by Billy Graham or other evangelists. You know what I mean, from eternal damnation and do the “sinner’s prayer” and return to God by confessing our human condition as reckless, lavish, delusional and destructive as the prodigal son. But is this story really about a crusade to save sinners?
How do you hear the story today? Jesus had a mixed audience, sinners and saints of his day, also known as “tax collectors and Pharisees and the scribes.” How would they hear the story? Who is the protagonist here? The father who had two sons? The elder son? The prodigal son? One thing we do know in this storytelling is that it ends without any resolution. The reconciling words of the father ends with an invitation only, “Son, you are always with me and all that is mine is yours, but we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.”
We do not know the elder son’s decision. For all we know, he could have said, “Give me my inheritance and I’m leaving too and I don’t want anything to do with that son of yours!” So, we don’t know whether the brothers embraced each other and partied together. We don’t know how this all played out as a family. No angels rejoicing or singing as in the parable of the lost coin in the previous parable. The way I see it, the story is simply presented to us as an invitation for you and me to come in and join the party. Yes, there are enough reasons to be outraged and angry. Yes, there before us is, extravagant and lavish love of God. You make your decision, and if you do come, who will you sit down with? Come journey with me to our fourth Lenten Sunday and let us worship God together. Amen.
Pastor Dae