GREETINGS BELOVED
FAMILY OF GOD,
We get to be the ambassadors, the ones that get to tell God’s good news made known to us in Jesus Christ. We have the great challenge of translating this good news into language that makes sense in our culture today. As any translator knows, there are always decisions to be made when translating and we turn to the Holy Spirit to help us to discern the way forward. And Jesus gives us these great stories, parables that communicate throughout time to help us with translating the good news now. We’ve just experienced both Iowa’s men and women’s basketball teams get beaten even though they were better seated than the teams that won. What are the odds of that?
This week Jesus tells us the 3rd parable in a 3-part series where the odds keep getting worse and yet there is celebration to be had in each story. Welcome to the party and the story telling! None of us would throw a party over one found sheep amidst a hundred sheep in the fold or one found coin in ten. But these stories help us to tell the story of God’s crazy attempts to reach us and call us back. Because even when we think there is no hope for redemption or reconciliation and the odds are against us, God has a different ending that includes celebrations and life where there has been dead ends and death.
Jesus teaches these stories to a group of grumbling Pharisees, Scribes, tax collectors and sinners. What a great group of people. Ever encounter a mixed group like this or a bunch of grumblers in general? Do the odds that Jesus present in these stories give you any hope? Don’t worry, it gets worse.
Dealing with grumblers? Welcome to the family. And this is a messy family. A father had two sons. How many biblical stories can you think of with a father that has two sons and how well that worked out?
Adam has two sons, Cain and Able.
Abraham has two sons, Ishmael and Isaac.
Isaac has two sons, Esau and Jacob
Joseph has two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim
Tamar and Judah have two sons, Zerah and Perez
David and Bathsheba have two sons, the infant dies and Solomon.
How many families do you know that are living in messy and complicated circumstances? How might this story, incorporated in your life, guide you as you walk in difficult situations? Families are messy business and the father and sons in this story are no different and there is still a party and celebration for the lost has been found, the one who was dead is alive. And yet there are hard questions. Why didn’t the father invite the older son, who learns of the party from a servant? Will the other son, the older son, join the party? Will the father’s pleading for sympathy and comfort be enough of a welcoming invitation for the oldest son? Will the father still be at 50% with welcoming his sons? Repentance, looking again, reconciliation are difficult and complicated.
We are given this beautiful and complicated story that invites us in. How do you want the story to end? What would you like to see happen? Who is the hardest to welcome to the party or throw a party for? Take each of these characters and invite them to the relationships you encounter where the odds are working against you and consider what it would take to throw a party for the lost who have been found and what it would mean for the rest of the household, especially the neglected, the overlooked and the responsible ones.
Our relationships are complex and complicated, and the odds are against us and yet we are called to be translators and ambassadors of God's good news in Jesus Christ. A Father had two sons, Adam and Jesus. Trust the Holy Spirit in this journey and get ready, there will be a party!
Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,
Pastor Connie Spitzack
