The Prodigal Son

Luke 15:  1-3, 11b – 32

15Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. ²And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” ³So he told them this parable: “There was a man who had two sons. ¹²The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’ So he divided his property between them. ¹³A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living.¹⁴When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. ¹⁵So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. ¹⁶He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. ¹⁷But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! ¹⁸I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; ¹⁹I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.”’ ²⁰So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. ²¹Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’²²But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.²³And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; ²⁴for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate. ²⁵“Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing.²⁶He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. ²⁷He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.’ ²⁸Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him.²⁹But he answered his father, ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. ³⁰But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’ ³¹Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. ³²But 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.’”

The Parable of the Prodigal Son is a well known story.  Even those who might not be familiar with church or the Bible might have heard of the parable, or at least know the basic outline of the parable.

I want to share a “modern day” version of the parable that I used at St. Mark’s this morning.  I think what strikes me most is that the story can and is playing out in homes all across America.  The story is by the writer and theologian Philip Yancy. I have adapted the story some, but I think it is very powerful.

Jenny grew up on the west side of Chillicothe, Ohio. In her early teenage years she fell into a pattern of long running battles with her parents.  They didn’t react too well one Saturday evening when she came home with a nose ring.  They were furious when she stayed out all night without so much as a phone call to tell them where she was and her friends weren’t exactly her parent’s first choice.  One night Jenny and her folks have a huge fight. “I hate you!” she screams at her father as she slams the door to her bedroom.

That night she acts on a plan that’s been forming for some time. Once everyone has gone to sleep she gets dressed, packs a bag and goes into the kitchen. Opening the kitchen drawer she rifles through her parent’s wallets. She takes the credit cards, the cash, and their debit cards. She hops on the bus and heads to Columbus.

When she gets there she waits on the doorstep of the Bank One building so she can be the first through the door. She forges her mother’s signature and withdraws $12,500 her parents had in her college account. It’s her money anyway right? She grabs a cab to the airport and uses Dad’s credit card to buy a ticket to Dallas, Texas – she figures the last place her parents will look for her.

She arrives in Dallas and pretty soon she’s enjoying the high life – a new group of friends, plenty of parties, late nights, sleep all day, no school, no parent’s hassling her about a nose ring, let alone her experiments with sex and drugs. It doesn’t take long till the $12,500′s gone and the credit cards have been canceled.

Back home her parent’s are frantic. Her mother started working two jobs just to pay off the credit card bills! They follow her paper trail and they know that she is in Dallas and they call the police, the streets are searched, but find nothing. Her parents don’t know what’s happened. They fear the worst.

Meanwhile down on the streets things aren’t going too well. Jenny’s soon addicted to heroin and the money she stole doesn’t go too far. She moves in with a group of other women, and at the suggestion of another girl, Jenny becomes a prostitute.

One day she’s walking down the street and sees a poster on the telephone pole. It says: “Have you seen this girl?” Below the heading is a photo of her – at least as she used to look. The poster’s got her parent’s phone number on it, and asks for anyone with information to call. Jenny rips the poster down, folds it up and puts it into her pocket.

The months pass, then the years. Jenny’s been careless one time too many. At first she writes off her sickness as just another bout of flu. But the illness persists. She goes to the clinic to discover she’s contracted AIDS. The life she was living is now gone. No one wants to be with her.

As she sits lonely, tired and hungry, and homeless, she looks at the poster she’d rescued from that telephone pole so long ago. She thinks back to her previous life – as a typical schoolgirl in a rural Ohio family. “Why did I leave?” she says to herself. “Even the family cat lives a better life than I do.” She’s sobbing now, and knows that more than anything she wants to go home.

She gathers up the courage to call her parents. But three straight phone calls, leads to three connections with the answering machine. She hangs up without leaving a message the first two times, but the third time she says with a trembling voice, “Mom, dad, it’s me. I was wondering about maybe coming home. I’ll pay you rent. It’s just until I can’t get back on my feet. I’m taking the train to Columbus. I’ll downtown at the station about midnight tomorrow. If you’re not there, well I guess I’ll just get another train to New York.”

The next day on the train Jenny thinks about the call, it’s been 8 years and they haven’t heard a word from her in all that time. How are they going to react when they discover I’m a junkie with AIDS? If they do show up what on earth am I going to say? The train pulls into the greyhound station at ten minutes past midnight. She hears the hiss of the brakes as the train comes to a stop. Her heart starts pounding. “This is it. Oh well, get ready for nothing.”

Jenny steps out of the train not knowing what to expect. She looks to her right and sees an empty platform, but before she can look back she hears someone call her name. Her head whips around and there’s her mom and dad and her aunts and uncles and cousins and grandmother. They’re holding a banner that reads “Welcome home,” and everyone’s wearing party hats and throwing streamers and popping party poppers, and there’s her mom and dad running towards her, tears streaming down their face, arms held wide. Jenny can’t move. Her parent’s grab her with such force it almost knocks her over.

“Dad, I’m sorry. I know…”

“Hush child. Forget the apologies. All we care about is that you’re home. I just want to hold you. Come on, everyone’s waiting – we’ve got a big party for you at home.”

This is what God tells us.  No matter who you are, or what you have done in your life, you are welcome in the loving arms of God.  We all struggle at one point or another in our lives, and we can be rest assured that God loves us.  That God has never abandoned us.

All God knows is love from a precious parent to us God’s children — love that always welcomes us home.  And it is God who sent Jesus running after us with open arms to embrace us in God’s kingdom forever.

Dear God, thank you for sending your son Jesus so that we have a better idea of your awesome love for us in our lives.  Thank you for running towards us even when we run away.

Amen

The photo above is by Rembrandt, Return of the Prodigal Son, 1662, (Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg)