The Parable of the Prodigal Son on this year's Lenten journey focuses my attention on the "righteous" resentment the older brother feels involving his father's reaction to the prodigal son's return.Throughout Lent, during our soup and bread supper on Wednesday nights before the contemplative worship, our discussions have been about building an inclusive community. We are celebrating our 10 year of being an Reconciling in Christ congregation. This means we adopted an Affirmation of Welcome that specifically welcomed the LGBT+ community along with others.
I bring this up now because the shootings, which have been part of my Lenten journey, have involved shooters who have become involved with toxic communities that spurred them to hostile actions. They broke with their usual neighborhood communities because they were aggrieved, They feel a righteous resentment in this time period in America because they feel that an unspoken contract was broken.
Pastor Ray preached that we can identify with different characters in the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Sometime the forgiving father, sometimes the repentant son and sometimes the older, resentful brother.
It is noteworthy that usually when we take in the parable most of us identify with the prodigal, want to identify with the father, and are reluctant to admit when we see it from the viewpoint of the older brother. Yet let's invest ourselves in the older brother's viewpoint. When the property is divided, it is divided between the two brothers, not between the younger son and the father. The parable then follows the younger son until his father sees him on the prodigal's return and his heart is filled with compassion.
The father orders 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." The father doesn't order another slave to tell the older brother the news and to give the him the opportunity to come and join in the celebration.
The older brother complains, "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!' From his perspective his father's heart has never been filled with enough compassion, empathy or love towards him to understand he may have wanted to celebrate with his friends.
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.' " and the parable ends without the older brother's reaction to what his father has just said.
This has similarities to the Parable of the Lost Sheep in many ways and also to the Parable of Laborers in the Vineyard. In the Parable of the Lost Sheep. Most shepherds would not look for one lost sheep if they still had ninety-nine to tend for fear another sheep would get lost. In the Parable of Laborers in the Vineyard, even after the householder explains his generosity to the last laborers, it is doubtful the first laborers said "Yes, he's right. We have no reason to complain."
Like the Parable of the Lost Sheep the father gives an explanation that makes sense from his point of view but it is certainly not "common sense" that a celebration was in order. Neither brother expected this response from the father and I doubt the older brother's response to his father's explanation would have been "You are absolutely right, now let's go in and celebrate with my brother."
I imagine his aggrieved response would be more like " Yes, all that is yours is mine. so why didn't you ask me to agree about killing the fatted calf before you ordered it. Doing that you acted as if everything was all yours. And why didn't you hold off on the celebration, so I could invite my friends as well. You didn't even have a slave let me know my brother was back or invite me from the fields to the celebration. How did you think that would make me feel?"
How will the father and older brother's relationship be restored? Will the father's "Son, you are always with me" be seen by the brother as a first step to acknowledging a better future relationship? Or perhaps he might be impressed that his father cared enough to come out from the celebration to plead with him? Will the father apologize? Or will the son see it as his duty to agree with his father, just like before, because he never disobeys his father?
This is important given we are living in an age of resentment where many people have become experts at exploiting our resentments in order to advance their own ends. We take on responsibility with the understanding that we will be able to earn a respectable living and can raise a family. What happens when we play by the rules, keep our promises and obligations until the unspoken contract is broken through no fault of our own? A job is lost, a future is not realized. Who makes things right again?
All those righteous actions meant nothing when you feel like you have been violated to the core, The indignation is doubly hurtful when your best efforts don't help and your prospects remain poor. In this parable the son still has his father's wealth to fall back on, "All that is mine is yours". Many who are struggling today with job insecurity don't even have that assurance or the dignity of work.
The parable ends without knowing what the older brother does. He must decide what to do with his anger, just like it is up to us to decide how we will deal with our own resentments. It’s unclear whether the ‘good son’ will forgive his father for being so generous toward his reprobate brother. The older brother faces a choice. He can continue to be resentful despite his having every reason to be grateful. He can wallow in self-pity or he can follow his father’s example and join the celebration of new life going on around him.
There will be a choice. This story speaks to us with our painfully broken hearts and all our lingering resentments. In it, we, too can hear the Father’s voice telling us: ‘You matter very much to me; I will give you all that you will ever need; you can afford to be generous. Don’t cling to anger to justify your existence. Be secure in my love. Love the world as generously and you can let yourself be loved, in return.’The decision is ours. We can remain outside with dark resentments, or we can go in and join the celebration of God’s extravagant, forgiving and renewing love for us all.
Will the older brother overcome the bitter sting of insecurity about his father's love and his fear? This is not easy. There is something primal in the emotions rooted in sibling rivalry. Just because someone has all that they will ever need, being generous and celebrate a life, even a younger brother’s life, particularly a young brother's life, can be a big stretch.
Tonight's quiet reflections and music of the worship stood in stark contrast to the dark struggles of this yeat's Lenten journey for me.
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