Sermons

The use of light in Rembrandt’s famous painting of The Prodigal Son story makes clear Rembrandt’s focus on the relationship between the father and the younger son. There are, however, many points of entry into the story, and since it is one of the most painted, written about and studied stories in the Bible one can find renditions highlighting every possible angle. But as important, or more so, than the many interpretations we can find elsewhere are the ways we interpret it in our own imaginations.

I was tickled at our Mother’s Bible Study when one of the moms said that none of the several pictures of the prodigal son story I downloaded from the computer worked for her. Over the years her mind has developed her own picture. Intentionally developing our own picture is a good exercise. Who would we put in the center? Where would we shine the light? How we would do that will change over time as we change and it can ignite our imagination to see what others have done with the story.

Rembrandt van Rijn, The Return of the Prodigal Son, c1662 (The Hermitage, St Petersburg)

Two widely read commentaries on the Prodigal Son are Helmut Thielicke’s The Waiting Father and Father Henri Nouwen’s The Return of the Prodigal Son. I think Thielicke is onto something when he suggests that if it were anyone but Jesus telling this story we could only laugh. We would wonder how they would know there is a God who seeks us and takes an interest in our lost-ness. That Jesus tell the story makes all the difference.

Henri Nouwen’s long engagement with the story started when a poster of the Rembrandt painting stood out to him. The energy between the father and the son leapt out. Perhaps because he longed to believe that kind of energy was lavished on him. A year or so after first seeing this painting as a poster Nouwen was invited on a tour of Russia where he was able to see the original painting in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg .

Reg and I saw this painting last May when we added an excursion to St. Petersburg to our visit to

Sweden

. The painting is larger than I’d imagined: 8’ high by 6’ wide. But unlike Henri Nouwen, Reg and I didn’t have connections with the museum’s curators to get our own chair in front of it for four hours straight. The Hermitage is a highly visited museum, but we good-humoredly stood our ground for a long gaze.

For Nouwen, the relationship with the father and the younger son was his entry into the story. But as he studied it and wrote his book The Return of the Prodigal Son, he found himself drawn to each of the story’s characters. He wrote his book during the time he had resigned from teaching the brightest minds at Yale Divinity School to become pastor of the L’Arche community in Toronto – a community for severely handicapped people.

In the Epilogue of his book Nouwen tells how the L’Arche community gradually became his home and how he never dreamt that people with a mental handicap would be the ones to put their hands on him in blessing and offer him a home. But he was the outsider coming in and their welcome to him was that kind of homecoming.

That this parable is most commonly titled The Prodigal Son may reflect how universal the need is to be welcomed home. And how warmly unexpected the lavish party is that is thrown for the returning son. But if we sit with the story long enough we see that the elder son emerges as an equally believable character. As Nouwen lived with the story and his poster of Rembrandt’s painting, he became aware of his own identification with the older son.

As the story goes, when the younger son asked for his share in the inheritance the father divided it between his two sons. The younger son used his up. So when the father welcomes him home, he welcomes him into the older son’s inheritance. They will all now be living off of what had been given to the older son. This was just too much to swallow. And it is easy to sympathize with him! It was an unfair situation.

But nothing is said about fairness in the reign of God. We aren’t saved by God’s fairness, but by God’s amazing grace. Grace, however, comes at someone’s cost. Someone has to forego fairness for grace to be offered. That’s the nature of grace. It is undeserved; unmerited; given; free.

At first it was at the father’s cost. He gave up his property before it was due. But now it is at the cost of the older son, and he does not like it. Perhaps he doesn’t like it because it isn’t his choice. He’s not the one hoping against hope his brother will come home. He’s not the one running with undignified abandon when his brother is still at a far distance.

The older son may have grieved at first that his younger brother ran off, but over the years, the older brother had grown accustomed to the way things were. But not the father! Nor was the father focused on who owned what. He didn’t fuss about his hard earned inheritance being squandered.

Nor did he ask the older son how he felt about throwing a big party. If a long lost loved one returns home – a party is thrown – the best garments and rings are put on – the fatted calf is killed – that’s how it is. Though I’ve also heard it said that they’d forgo the garment and ring and just give him a bath. But fairness goes out the window. And that can make us mad when we’re not the beneficiaries of such grace. Nouwen could identify with the irritation, the jealousy and the hurt.

But even more fully, as Nouwen reflected on this story over a six year period, he began to see himself not as the younger son or the older son, but instead called by his Christian faith to become more like the father – the one who blesses in compassion with celebrations of homecoming.

In today’s II Corinthians reading St. Paul writes, “In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us…” What a celebrative calling we have. We are ambassadors of good news.

Our real vocation is to move from seeing ourselves as the younger and the older son, both of which we all are – even we who are daughters and not sons. We all need welcoming home and we all are challenged to celebrate the homecoming of the other – especially if the cost appears to fall on us. But when we’ve seen that we are both the younger and the older we can see also that our calling to growth is reflected in the character of the father.

Set free by God’s extraordinary welcome, we are empowered to be reconcilers in the world. The call of the Christian is to the ministry of reconciliation. It is to leadership in helping our world be a compassionately welcoming place. It is the call to the celebration of homecomings.

I was moved the other day as I watched the film “Amazing Grace.” It is the story of England ’s long hard struggle to end their practice of slavery. The struggle was led by two younger members of Parliament who recognized their call to lead their country in ways that celebrated human dignity. In the middle of this beautifully told true story is an older pastoral advisor, John Newton – the composer of the beloved song: Amazing Grace.

As we remember this song, may we give thanks for the amazing grace that welcomes us home! May we also give thanks that God has found us worthy of the ministry of reconciliation! Let there be reconciliation on earth, and let the celebration begin with us.

+Pastor Peg Schultz-Akerson, to the glory of God
Faith Lutheran Church, Chico, California