Grace and peace to you from God our Creator and Sustainer, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit that abides in each of us.

Well, we are halfway through our Lenten journey.  For the past three weeks, we have heard Jesus’ more serious teachings on repentance and focused on what it means to live a repentant life when it comes to imitating Christ in such disciplines as avoiding temptations, dealing with sacrifice and suffering, and how to live a forgiven and forgiving life.  But today our lesson is a little different.  Today we celebrate what is known in the Church as Laetare Sunday.  The Latin term Laetare means “to rejoice,” so today is a day we are called to rejoice!  What is it that we are to rejoice about in the midst of this Lenten season?  Well, maybe the Church calls us to rejoice this day because we are within sight of the resurrection.  Maybe we should rejoice because today we hear about how God’s promise to His people was fulfilled to the Israelites as he brought Joshua and the people into the Promised Land.  And maybe we should rejoice today because in the midst of all of these tough teachings we have heard from Jesus, today we hear how our God is a God that anxiously awaits our return.  In fact, our God is standing vigil waiting for each one of us to return to Him.  And when we are ready, we are told he will come running to us and offer us His abundant grace.  Maybe it is a good day to rejoice!

              Before we just say, “Okay, let’s rejoice today, let’s celebrate God’s grace,” I think we need to take some time to try and understand this powerful parable that Jesus shares with us today.  I think most of us know this as The Parable of the Prodigal Son.  Don’t you wonder why we call this The Parable of the Prodigal Son?  To answer that, we probably need to understand what the word “prodigal” means.  Literally, prodigal means to “rashly or wastefully be extravagant.”  So this is actually “The Parable of the Wastefully Extravagant Son.”  But I have a couple more questions.  I want to know which son this title is really focused on, and I also wonder if when Jesus told this parable He meant it to be focused on the sons or on the father?

              I get why most of us would immediately focus on the younger son.  I mean, he was an awful kid.  In essence, when he went to his father and said he wanted his inheritance while the father was still alive, he might as well have said, “Father, you are dead to me, so give me what I am owed.”  What is incredible to me is that the father gave him what he asked for.  This younger son brought shame to his father and, by the customs of that culture; the father should have disowned that son and never thought of him again.  The young man leaves and squanders everything his father has given him by living an immoral life.  This would have brought even more shame to the father.  But the young man eventually comes to his senses, not because he didn’t apparently enjoy his “wild ride,” but because now he is stuck in a life of suffering.  The young man finally elects to go back to live as a slave for his father for he knows he would rather live as a slave to his father than a free man in the cruel world.  Now comes the part that makes me think that the main point of this story is not about this son at all. 

              As the young man is heading home, Jesus tells us that the Father has not only been waiting for his young son to return but he apparently had been keeping a vigil watching for him.  “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.” (Luke 15:20)  The young man was still a long ways away, and the father was watching, and when he saw his son returning, he ran to his son and welcomed him home.  The father should have been embarrassed of this son, but instead he threw a party and rejoiced that his wasteful, shameful son returned.  In the customs of that day, this father was being wastefully extravagant over the return of a son he should have disowned.  Wow, what a great ending! 

              But that isn’t the end, is it?  No, now we hear from the elder son, the one who stayed and worked as he was supposed to.  The one who believed he did everything his father asked of him now discovers that the father is giving away what should have been his, and he is angry.  He refuses to enter his father’s house.  Now he is the son who is rejecting his father.  The elder son makes the father come out to him.  This son expected his father to wastefully dole out punishment on the younger son.  This son demanded that he be treated better than his younger brother.  Remember what this son said?  “'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’” (Luke 15:29-30).  In other words, “Hey, why are you welcoming back your son that has brought shame to you?  Why are you giving him what is mine?  I’m the good son, and you have never celebrated like this for me!”  Notice that the elder son calls his younger brother “your son.”  He does not claim him as his brother.  The father responds, “'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.'"  (Luke 15:31-32)  In responding to his son, the father reminds him that this is also his brother. 

              What I find so incredible in this story is the way the father responds to both sons.  Both have shamed him; one left him and the other refused to come to him.  The father is willing to bear the shame that his sons have brought upon him and abundantly give them everything that is his.  The father offers his grace freely, and all that the sons must do is accept it.  The parable is all about the father, the Prodigal Father, the father that wastefully offers compassion and grace regardless of how his sons have treated him.  We know how the younger son responded to this offer because he is at his father’s party.  The question is how did the elder son respond?  Did he accept the abundant grace or did he refuse it?  We don’t know the rest of the story, do we?

              I would say that we are living the rest of this story.  The question is which son are we?  Are we the younger son who brings shame on his father by living as if his father is dead?  Are we that younger son who, when he finally realizes what he has done, seeks out the father again?  Or are we the elder son who wants everything that is the father’s but does not want him to share it with the others that are less deserving?  Either way, our Father in Heaven rejoices over each one of us constantly.  He offers all of us his abundant grace, not because of what we do but because of whose we are, His children.  The Prodigal Father is standing vigil awaiting our return.  He desires to wastefully shower us with His grace.  Will we accept His grace, His compassion, and His love, or will we walk away?  I say let’s join the party and rejoice!  Amen.