Finders keepers, losers weepers. Do you remember that old playground chant? Finders keepers, losers weepers: the finders did the chanting and were always happier than the losers.
Last month the Boston Globe ran an article on finding and loosing with a modern twist. It seems that the internet is now in the lost and found business. Websites are devoted to posting lost and found animals, jewelry, musical instruments, electronics, tools, baggage, and the list goes on and on. Finders and losers post items and sometimes there are happy matches. Weepers can become keepers at last. My favorite lost and found site is the one that posts lost grocery lists. You know those scraps of paper that you find in the bottom of your shopping cart and your coat pockets? Now, if you are so inclined, you can go online and read hundreds of them.
But lost and found becomes serious when people are involved. Getting lost can be scary and dangerous. Currently there is a popular TV series entitled “Lost” which tracks the fate of plane crash survivors. Week after week, sinister new things are revealed about their environment. The show attracts millions of viewers and has struck such a deep chord in this country that there is now a large sub-culture of “Lost” fans.
Getting lost can be frightening, and loosing others can be even worse. On Tuesday night I sat with over 500 people here at Trinity and listened to the stories of three people who were arrested in last week’s immigration raid in New Bedford. These were very young women who are mothers of infants and pre-school children. Their stories were chilling. I was struck both by what they said and what they did not say. They did not speak about the physical discomfort of being handcuffed and shackled. They did not complain about being held in crowded jails or their fear for their personal safety. They did not mention their abandonment by their employers. You can read all those details in the news. No, these women only spoke about loosing their children.
They wept as they described a sick child stranded with a baby sitter, or a nursing infant left without food; a toddler falling through childcare cracks. The women spoke through a translator, but after a while it seemed unnecessary as they described such a universal fear. We knew exactly what they were saying despite the language barrier. Losers become weepers, indeed.
Jesus touched such a fear in his audience when he told the story of the lost son. It is only recorded in the Gospel of Luke and it follows 2 other lost and found stories, all of which make up the distinctive 15th chapter of this gospel. First a lost sheep is found and there is rejoicing. Next a coin is lost in someone’s home and the neighborhood throws a block party when it is found. And now Luke comes to the climax of this chapter with the story of the prodigal son. As the father says repeatedly of his boy, he was dead and is alive again, he was lost and is found. In this story, being lost is like being dead.
The Prodigal Son is one of the best known stories of the Bible. Scholars debate about who is the star of this parable. Is it the rebellious son who dishonors his father by asking for his inheritance early and then blows it all in a distant country? Does he come home only out of desperation or is he truly repentant? This does not seem to matter to his father.
Or is the main character the dutiful older brother, the responsible one who follows the rules and stands to inherit everything. What really bothers him is not his brother’s return but the party. Not only is his sorry brother being spared public disgrace, but a feast is being held in his honor. In fact, the elder son is so angry that he refuses to use the word brother. When he complains to his father he refers to his sibling as this son of yours.
If you spend enough time studying this parable, you will find yourself identifying with one or both of these characters. Perhaps you have made some bad choices in your life. You traveled to a distant country of the spirit and lost the people and the things that were important to you. But then you came to yourself and turned around to begin again. Were you truly repentant or just desperate? Sometimes all that blurs together and what really matters is that you came home. You can see your story in this lost young man who found the courage to return.
Perhaps you gravitate to the older brother. You have been faithful and responsible all your life. You have worked hard and done what was expected of you, and it has not always been easy. You do not ask for more than you offer in return. Your world has clear rules that make you and your loved ones feel safe. But then people come into your life with a different story. They live by other rules and may have paid a different set of dues. Do they deserve to be honored? Does it diminish your efforts?
These two brothers touch our imagination and experience on many levels. But I believe that Jesus intended the father to be the star of this story of the lost son. Look at all of the extraordinary ways that Jesus describes this man. The father agrees to his son’s request for an early inheritance even though it costs him his own honor in the culture. He yearns for his son’s return and when he sees him on the distant horizon, he is filled with joy. And what is really remarkable, the father runs all that distance to greet his son, bringing more dishonor on his own name. A Palestinian man would never run in public and reveal his bare legs. It was considered a taboo. But here comes this father loping across the fields to embrace and kiss his lost son. The young man begins his rehearsed apology, but the father cuts him off and calls for tokens of honor for this ragged son: a robe, a ring, and sandals for his feet to show that he is a free man.
And there is more. In a society where meat was considered a luxury, the father orders his largest animal to be slaughtered for a feast to feed the entire community. There will be no sackcloth and ashes, there will be no shameful hiding, there is to be a celebration. This son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!
Has this man no pride? Apparently not; this father is really over the top. His love is excessive. It is blind to social codes. Even when the older son complains and insults him, the father reaches out to him, too. This man lavishes hospitality on the son who left him and squandered everything. He also pours love on the son who was lost inside his own household. There seems to be no limit to his compassion.
Jesus told this parable to a spellbound audience and Luke has recorded it in such a way that we can never grow tired of it. You see, Jesus was teaching about the boundless compassion and love of God. God is over the top. God yearns for us when we turn our backs and go to the distant country, and rejoices when we return. God loves us for our efforts and our hard work, even when we get picky about all the other children. God just wants us to join the feast that has been prepared for everybody. There is more than enough divine love to go around. We do not have to worry about hanging on to our share. God’s love never runs out. So all the petty distinctions we make between peoples and races and social codes are irrelevant to God. There is no either/or, there is only both/and. Our Creator’s love for us is excessive, in spite of us. That is what Jesus teaches about God in the story of the lost son.
And that is the God who led you here today. The father in the parable is Christ’s metaphor for the God who created you and who calls each of us by name. Never mind that our imaginations are too small to fully grasp it. Never mind that we don’t always live up to it. God always searches the horizon for us, and rejoices every time we turn our face toward home. The lost will always be found in the heart of God.
AMEN |
