Family Ties
RCL Year C • Sermon • Submitted
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Just the other day Aubreigh wanted to read together and so I told her to go and get a book out of her bookshelf. When she came back instead of the usual Berenstain Bears books, or some kind of Disney related book she brought out a children’s Bible that she recently got from friends of ours. I asked her where she wanted to start and after a moment of thinking she wanted to begin with the story of Noah and the flood. So we read that story and then she decided we should just continue from there to the following stories until it was time for us to quit so that I could cook dinner for everyone.
After the story of Noah came the story of Abram and Sarai which eventually led to the stories of Jacob and Esau and of Joseph and his brothers. As I was reading these stories to Aubreigh each particular story had a sort of introduction of sorts (though it never labeled it that way). What was also fascinating was it also had an entire page dedicated to talking about the stories following Abraham and Sarah story as stories of rivalries. It talked about how these following stories were stories about siblings that did not get along much like we might not get along with our own brothers and sisters. It was fascinating to put that sort of commentary before those stories about Jacob and Esau and Joseph and his brothers because it really set the tone for what we were reading next.
In the story of Jacob and Esau we have a story about two brothers, twin brothers, who are constantly at odds with one another and it comes to a head when Jacob steals the birthright and inheritance from his older brother Esau. Jacob is so terrified that he runs away from his brother and his land and starts a new life for himself.
In the story of Joseph and his brothers we see a naive Joseph who spends his time sharing his dreams with his family which indicate that he will be over all of them at some point in his life. To make matters worse his father has made him his favorite son and gives him that beautiful coat. This story comes to a head when he comes out to the fields in his beautiful coat, not to work, but to relay a message for their father. The brothers get so fed up that they sell him to some traders on their way to Egypt and pretend that he died.
It seems that sibling rivalries are as old as time and that same sort of rivalry and story appear again today in Jesus’ parable of the lost son. We don’t hear of any prior animosity between the obedient son and the disobedient son, but I feel like we can infer that the two brothers were very different and that this may have just been the final event that caused the two brothers to this moment in today’s parable from Jesus.
Now the one son doesn’t try to steal his inheritance or trick it out of the older brother like in the story of Jacob and Esau, but he does one of the boldest and possibly dumbest moves a child could ever do. He asks for his inheritance even before his father has died. The older brother is entitled to double the portion of the inheritance and since there were only two sons, the older son gets 2/3 of the inheritance and the younger gets 1/3 of it. I say this is a bold and dumb move because the sons should only receive their inheritance if their father were to pass away. I guess you could say that even though Jacob stole the inheritance at least he waited until his father passed before he took it from him.
This disobedient son, by asking for his inheritance from his father, basically tells his father and his whole family that his father is as good as dead to him and he would rather take his money now rather than later. As we hear in the story he squanders it away and is eventually led back home to beg to his family for practically nothing compared to what he had before.
In the story of Jacob, God tells Jacob to go back and be with his family and that God will be with him. It is a long journey and Jacob has his hesitations, but when Jacob and Esau finally meet once again both brothers embrace and weep after not having seen each other in years. All the animosity and hatred that had occurred in years past, all the fear of seeing the other brother completely vanished when they finally met. In one embrace everything had disappeared and nothing but love for one another won the day.
In the story of Joseph and his brothers, we see that Joseph thrives in Egypt, even though there were a few hiccups on that road as well. Joseph toys with his brothers for a time, but at the same time it seems he does it to discover their genuineness in their remorse for what they had done. We also see that it ate Joseph up to treat them that way for as long as he did. Once everything had been revealed Joseph invites his family to live in Egypt where they are all reunited and once again are able to thrive in this land despite the famine that is happening.
It is a similar famine that drives this disobedient son back home to try to hire himself out to his family as a slave so that he will have more than nothing which is what he left himself with. When he returns the most joy-filled, and outrageous celebration is held in his honor for his return. The status of not servant, but son is placed back on this lost child through the placing of a ring and sandals and coat on him.
In all of these stories, they are stories of families, families that have been broken in some way, and in some strange and almost miraculous way all these families have been reunited so that they may once again know the importance of what it means to be called, brother, or son, or sister, or mother. These broken and lost relationships are brought together so that joy may once again be felt and understood.
Ultimately, despite what else may be said about this parable of the lost son, isn’t that the underlying point? That a family broken has once again been reunited. And since we are talking about a parable here, then we have to infer that this broken family that rejoices when it is brought back together again is about the family of God. Does not God, and all of us rejoice when someone comes back to church when they have been gone for a long time? Do we not celebrate when we hear a story of faith about someone coming to church when they had no church? Do we not just melt when we hear stories of people who come to our church and say that they felt welcomed? That they felt that they were truly a part of the body of Christ when they came here for the first time? Should we not pull out the steaks and pop the bottle of champagne when we hear that it was Christ who brought them to come and worship with us and to become a brother or sister in the body of Christ?
This is cause for celebration, this is what makes God glad and rejoice. May we all rejoice for the ways that God brings us home again and again knowing that it is this family, this church family and being a part of the family of God that is reason enough for us to celebrate extravagantly for a God who is overly extravagant with us.
Amen.