Pastor Michelle preached how titling a parable can domesticate it and parables are not meant to be domesticated but a way for Jesus to open the door for us to see a glimpse (or more) of the kingdom of God. For today instead of The Parable of the Prodigal Son she provisionally called it Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, just for today. She said it was because in both love triumphs. Today's Gospel is another parable containing a never-ending party and no limits on grace. This party is God's grace which, as Pastor Michelle noted, is without decorum, at least from the elder son's viewpoint. Nadia Bolz-Weber gave a sermon noting the father sacrifices his dignityl. The brother keeps his dignity and is troubled because the party is thrown solely because his brother, who was dead, comes to life.
The parable is marvelous and multifaceted. Here are a few interpretations I have heard over the years:
- Mark Allan Powell had twelve students in a seminary class read the story carefully from Luke’s Gospel, close their Bibles and then retell the story as faithfully as possible to a partner. None of the twelve American seminary students mentioned the famine in Luke 15:14, which precipitates the son’s eventual return.
Powell found this omission interesting, so he organized a larger experiment in which he had one hundred people read the story and retell it, as accurately as possible, to a partner. Only six of the one hundred participants mentioned the famine. The group was ethnically, racially, socioeconomically and religiously diverse.
The ‘famine-forgetters,’ as Powell calls them, had only one thing in common: they were from the United States. Later, Powell had the opportunity to try the experiment again, this time outside the United States. In St. Petersburg, Russia, he gathered fifty participants to read and retell the prodigal son story.
This time an overwhelming forty-two of the fifty participants mentioned the famine. Why? Just seventy years before, 670,000 people had died of starvation after a Nazi German siege of the capital city began a three-year famine. Famine was very much a part of the history and imagination of the Russian participants in Powell’s exercise.
Based solely on cultural location, people from America and Russia disagreed about what they considered the crucial details of the story. Americans tend to treat the mention of the famine as an unnecessary plot device. - The younger son tries and fails as a rebel who follows a different understanding of the world than his rich family.
- The father and younger son both die in the parable. The father when he executes his "will" at the request of the younger son and the son when he confesses his sin to his father. Through their deaths they can be reborn, unlike the elder son.
Pastor Michelle did not focus on the famine this morning (although she did talk about when there is self-righteousness there is no room for compassion and that it is easy to slip into elf-righteousness when we always have food on our table). She did observe that we don't necessarily need a rabbi (or commentator) in her sermon to understand a parable's meaning for ourselves.
This reminded me of a story I heard recently. Peter Rollins, a new theology philosopher, describes Christianity as more of a wrestling, and a journey and a transformation, rather than trying to nail down some correct answer. Coincidentally he told a story of a Rabbi. A young man comes to him and says, “I want to learn the logic of the Hebrew people and the logic of God,” The Rabbi thinks he is too young. says, and the man says, “No, no, I know Aristotelian logic, I know Symbolic logic, I want to know the Hebraic logic.”
The Rabbi responds, “I’ll test you, I’ll ask you a question. Two guys come down a chimney, one has soot on their face and one doesn’t. Who washes their face? The young guy answers, “The guy with the soot on his face.” And the Rabbi says, “Of course not the guy without the soot. He looks at his friend, realizes his friend’s got soot on his face so he thinks, “I’ve got soot on my face.”
The guy says, “Okay, okay, test me again.” The Rabbi says I’ll ask you a different question. “Two guys come down a chimney, at the bottom of the chimney, one has soot on their face and one doesn’t. Who washes their face?” The guy says, “Well, the one without soot on his face.” And the Rabbi says, “Look, don’t try to be clever, of course not. The guy with soot on his face feels it in his eyes, tastes it in his mouth, sees it on his hands; don’t be so stupid.”
And finally, the young guy goes, “Sorry, sorry, sorry. Test me one more time.” The Rabbi asks, “One more question. Two guys come down a chimney, at the bottom of the chimney one has soot on their face and one doesn’t. Who washes their face?” The guy answers, “The first person, but for different reasons.” And the Rabbi says, “Go away, they both wash their face. How can you not come down a chimney and not know that you’ve got soot on your face?”
The Judeo-Christian tradition is about wrestling and fighting; not pinning down one "right answer". Pastor Michelle talked about Jesus giving us more than glimpse of the kingdom of heaven through parables. Focusing on whether famine is a major or minor plot device is not as important as how the parable speaks in the time and culture in which it is encountered and invites everyone to experience the kingdom of God. This all tied into and informed our Animate Bible discussion later..
In both the Children's Time and in her sermon, Pastor Michelle emphasized the parable does not tell whether the elder brother accepts the invitation to the party. It is a beautiful way to leave the story, with an ongoing party and an invitation always ready to be accepted.
Musically Luka played bongo drums this morning and there was a new drive that he added to the songs. Let Us Go Now, to the Banquet and Amazing Grace were particularly joyous and deeply moved the congregation.
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