“The community does NOT need another younger or elder son, but a father…” Henri Nouwen, Return of the Prodigal
Our church has seasons of bumps. Members storm off — in search of a place to wash off “heresy”. Generally with me still babbling about unity and family… it is laughable to watch me from the outside. Me the little pastor that could. Still believing the kingdom might unite these divisions. Confident in gentleness, even as I know what the other person holds is not truth but religion.
Our Wednesday book study just finished Henri Nouwen’s Return of the Prodigal. A wonderful book of embrace, with a challenging closing to become the father: “there is a call beyond the call to return. It is the call to become the father who welcomes home and calls for a celebration.”
The Prodigal Parable follows the Lost Sheep and Lost Coin. All three stories are in response to religious leaders grumbling that Jesus is surrounded by sinners. And in the Prodigal Parable, we find both groups. The younger son, lost in the distant country, is the sinners. The elder son, always at home, is the religious leaders.
The story becomes a description of our churches. The father runs to forgive, while the elder son names sins. The father celebrates his younger son, while the elder refuses to believe they are family. For the elder son the younger is the other – “this son of yours”. (the father gently corrects, “this brother of yours”).
Reading Nouwen, I realize our churches are full of children. Specifically elder sons. They pour judgment, separate themselves, exclude, when the church needs these children to grow up. To become parents like their father. People who act out compassion and celebration as Jesus.
When the elder son storms off in his rant, it would be understandable for the father to leave him behind. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out! But that is not the way of the father. As he ran to the younger, he seeks the older. The father bears a sorrow for ALL his children who have gone away.
At the end Nouwen writes, “True fatherhood is sharing the poverty of God’s non-demanding love.” I had to read this multiple times. And then I reflected on my own heartbreak, watching people leave Chandler. In the aftermath I tell myself to wise-up (maybe even man up 🙂 ), but reflecting on the father I realize God is heartbroken with me. For a moment I am becoming like Him.
Of course – before you think too highly of me – it is only a moment. Catch my conversation with Megan a few days later… I sound a lot like the older brother! And in this I revert to childhood. Now I need to submit and be embraced by our God of love. The father’s compassion is my hope — our only hope. His love is the reason for all of us to join the celebration!
