Sunday, March 30, 2025
First Congregational Church of Cheshire
© the Rev. Dr. James Campbell
Luke 15:11b-32
Then Jesus said, “There was a man who had two sons. The 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. A 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. When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. But 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! I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.”’ So 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. Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But 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. And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate. “Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.’ Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. But 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. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’ Then the father said to him, ‘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.’”
+++
A preaching professor once told me to never, ever tell a personal story in my sermons. Apparently, I didn’t listen. Because I regularly sprinkle my sermons with stories about the colorful characters who have inhabited my life, some of whom I’m related to. But how much is too much? When do sermons stop being sermons and become stand up routines? Do you really want to know all the messy details about my extended family?
Somehow I doubt it. Because I have stories that are too dark for sermons and too embarrassing for public revelation. And I have those kinds of stories precisely because I have a family.
A wise person once said that you can trust the veracity of the Bible precisely because its characters are just as dysfunctional as we are. And that means that God redeems human messiness and uses it for good. As if to underscore that point, Jesus features the one of the world’s most dysfunctional families in one of his greatest hits. We call it the Parable of the Prodigal Son but I call it the Parable of the Dysfunctional Family.
Once upon a time there was a man who had two sons. One day, the baby of the family came to his father and had the audacity to demand a reading of the will before the old man was even dead. Inexplicably, the father acquiesced, selling off part of the farm to give the proceeds to his son. Now, this was never done, because land was seen as a covenant gift from God to that specific family.
Sonny Boy took the money got on the first bus out of Dodge. And he went to an exotic distant country where he could reinvent himself. He gave lavish parties and made lots of trendy friends. And everything was just as he dreamed it could be. Until one fateful day, when the crops failed and the stock market crashed and the bottom fell out of everyone’s world. The young man, who had been raised with great privilege, was suddenly homeless and hungry. And then, worst of all, he had to look for a job. And the only work he could find was slopping the hogs - about as low as a good Jewish boy could go.
But necessity is the mother of invention. And so, he thought: “Wait a minute. The servants at dad’s house are living much better than I am! Maybe if I eat a little humble pie the old fool will forgive me.” And so, he started home, rehearsing his apology along the way. Some scholars suggest that there is no indication in this story that is he really sorry about anything. He’s just hungry and desperate.
Now because his dad was a hopeful man, he used to sit in the tower all day long scanning the horizon, looking for his son. One day, while the son was still a long way off, his father saw him. And he jumped up and ran out to meet Sonny Boy, hugging and kissing him, while he wept with relief. This annoyed the son, who had a speech all prepared that he couldn’t give because of his father carrying on. Finally, he held the old man at arm’s length and said: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” It was a fine speech, but dad didn’t hear a word of it. He was too busy telling the servants to go fetch a new robe and a diamond ring and some shiny Italian loafers. “And butcher the fattest calf we have,” he said, “because my son was lost and now he is found.”
Well, it was the biggest party the village had ever seen. It had to be because the son had publically humiliated the family so there needed to be a public celebration to even the score.
The older brother had been out in the fields working all day. And he was dirty and tired and hungry. But when he got close to home, he heard the music and the laughter and smelled the barbeque. “What’s up?” he asked a servant. “Your brother is home,” came the reply. But instead of relief or joy, he only felt rage. He knew how much pain his younger brother had caused their father. And he wasn’t going to pretend as if that were not so. So, he refused to step one foot inside that house, which was another public insult to his father.
When his father came out to see him, the older brother let loose: “You’ve never done anything like this for me. And I have worked hard and been honest and respectful my whole life. But my no-good brother, who spent our family fortune on prostitutes, I might add, decides to come home and what do you do? You give him a party.”
And that’s how the story ends - with the family dispute unresolved. We have no idea if the younger son was ever truly sorry. We don’t know if the older son ever reconciled with his brother. All we know for sure is that they were a family!
The traditional way to interpret this parable is that the younger son is anyone who has ever really screwed up and selfishly hurt the ones you love. And the older son is anyone who has ever seethed with resentment at the unfairness of grace. And the father, well, the long-suffering father is God.
Perhaps. But the father in this story is dysfunctional too. And let me tell you why. First of all, he gave in to what the youngest son demanded. He turned his back on generations of tradition when he should have just said, “No!” Second, the father pined away for his wayward son, something a grand patriarch in that culture would not have done. He was far more likely to have this son declared dead. There was even a ceremony for just such an occasion. Third, the patriarch, upon seeing his returning son, hoisted up his robes and ran out to meet him. Aristotle once said, “Great men never run in public.” And they didn’t. It was below their station. Fourth, when the older son refused to come into the party, the father got up from his place at the head of the banquet table and left his guests alone – another big breech of the social contract. And then he pleaded with the older son to come in – something the head of the family would never do. They never pleaded with anybody. That was the mother’s job.
So, while the father is a sympathetic character for us, for the people in Jesus’s day, the father was just as dysfunctional as his sons. He broke just as many rules as they did… but with one significant difference. The younger son broke the rules out of selfishness. The older son broke the rules out of pride. But the old man broke the rules out of love.
We think of God as the rule-keeper. But read the Bible carefully, and you will find, again and again, that God is the One who will break any rule and violate any social contract and upset any norm that stands in the way of compassion.
Some scholars suggest that another way to read this parable is that the father figure is the church. And that means that we’re not primarily the rule-keepers either. Law and order is not the ultimate name of the game. And that upsets those who would co-opt the church in the name of Christian nationalism; who want the church to be another arm of the state. But the church is here to remind the state that mercy is a sacrament, and justice for the oppressed is a commandment, and that the only thing that can ever truly bring us back home… is LOVE.
First Congregational Church of Cheshire
© the Rev. Dr. James Campbell
Luke 15:11b-32
Then Jesus said, “There was a man who had two sons. The 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. A 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. When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. But 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! I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.”’ So 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. Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But 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. And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate. “Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.’ Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. But 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. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’ Then the father said to him, ‘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.’”
+++
A preaching professor once told me to never, ever tell a personal story in my sermons. Apparently, I didn’t listen. Because I regularly sprinkle my sermons with stories about the colorful characters who have inhabited my life, some of whom I’m related to. But how much is too much? When do sermons stop being sermons and become stand up routines? Do you really want to know all the messy details about my extended family?
Somehow I doubt it. Because I have stories that are too dark for sermons and too embarrassing for public revelation. And I have those kinds of stories precisely because I have a family.
A wise person once said that you can trust the veracity of the Bible precisely because its characters are just as dysfunctional as we are. And that means that God redeems human messiness and uses it for good. As if to underscore that point, Jesus features the one of the world’s most dysfunctional families in one of his greatest hits. We call it the Parable of the Prodigal Son but I call it the Parable of the Dysfunctional Family.
Once upon a time there was a man who had two sons. One day, the baby of the family came to his father and had the audacity to demand a reading of the will before the old man was even dead. Inexplicably, the father acquiesced, selling off part of the farm to give the proceeds to his son. Now, this was never done, because land was seen as a covenant gift from God to that specific family.
Sonny Boy took the money got on the first bus out of Dodge. And he went to an exotic distant country where he could reinvent himself. He gave lavish parties and made lots of trendy friends. And everything was just as he dreamed it could be. Until one fateful day, when the crops failed and the stock market crashed and the bottom fell out of everyone’s world. The young man, who had been raised with great privilege, was suddenly homeless and hungry. And then, worst of all, he had to look for a job. And the only work he could find was slopping the hogs - about as low as a good Jewish boy could go.
But necessity is the mother of invention. And so, he thought: “Wait a minute. The servants at dad’s house are living much better than I am! Maybe if I eat a little humble pie the old fool will forgive me.” And so, he started home, rehearsing his apology along the way. Some scholars suggest that there is no indication in this story that is he really sorry about anything. He’s just hungry and desperate.
Now because his dad was a hopeful man, he used to sit in the tower all day long scanning the horizon, looking for his son. One day, while the son was still a long way off, his father saw him. And he jumped up and ran out to meet Sonny Boy, hugging and kissing him, while he wept with relief. This annoyed the son, who had a speech all prepared that he couldn’t give because of his father carrying on. Finally, he held the old man at arm’s length and said: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” It was a fine speech, but dad didn’t hear a word of it. He was too busy telling the servants to go fetch a new robe and a diamond ring and some shiny Italian loafers. “And butcher the fattest calf we have,” he said, “because my son was lost and now he is found.”
Well, it was the biggest party the village had ever seen. It had to be because the son had publically humiliated the family so there needed to be a public celebration to even the score.
The older brother had been out in the fields working all day. And he was dirty and tired and hungry. But when he got close to home, he heard the music and the laughter and smelled the barbeque. “What’s up?” he asked a servant. “Your brother is home,” came the reply. But instead of relief or joy, he only felt rage. He knew how much pain his younger brother had caused their father. And he wasn’t going to pretend as if that were not so. So, he refused to step one foot inside that house, which was another public insult to his father.
When his father came out to see him, the older brother let loose: “You’ve never done anything like this for me. And I have worked hard and been honest and respectful my whole life. But my no-good brother, who spent our family fortune on prostitutes, I might add, decides to come home and what do you do? You give him a party.”
And that’s how the story ends - with the family dispute unresolved. We have no idea if the younger son was ever truly sorry. We don’t know if the older son ever reconciled with his brother. All we know for sure is that they were a family!
The traditional way to interpret this parable is that the younger son is anyone who has ever really screwed up and selfishly hurt the ones you love. And the older son is anyone who has ever seethed with resentment at the unfairness of grace. And the father, well, the long-suffering father is God.
Perhaps. But the father in this story is dysfunctional too. And let me tell you why. First of all, he gave in to what the youngest son demanded. He turned his back on generations of tradition when he should have just said, “No!” Second, the father pined away for his wayward son, something a grand patriarch in that culture would not have done. He was far more likely to have this son declared dead. There was even a ceremony for just such an occasion. Third, the patriarch, upon seeing his returning son, hoisted up his robes and ran out to meet him. Aristotle once said, “Great men never run in public.” And they didn’t. It was below their station. Fourth, when the older son refused to come into the party, the father got up from his place at the head of the banquet table and left his guests alone – another big breech of the social contract. And then he pleaded with the older son to come in – something the head of the family would never do. They never pleaded with anybody. That was the mother’s job.
So, while the father is a sympathetic character for us, for the people in Jesus’s day, the father was just as dysfunctional as his sons. He broke just as many rules as they did… but with one significant difference. The younger son broke the rules out of selfishness. The older son broke the rules out of pride. But the old man broke the rules out of love.
We think of God as the rule-keeper. But read the Bible carefully, and you will find, again and again, that God is the One who will break any rule and violate any social contract and upset any norm that stands in the way of compassion.
Some scholars suggest that another way to read this parable is that the father figure is the church. And that means that we’re not primarily the rule-keepers either. Law and order is not the ultimate name of the game. And that upsets those who would co-opt the church in the name of Christian nationalism; who want the church to be another arm of the state. But the church is here to remind the state that mercy is a sacrament, and justice for the oppressed is a commandment, and that the only thing that can ever truly bring us back home… is LOVE.
RSS Feed