Luke 15

My Wayward Son

Good morning, faithful few.

In preparing for this blog, the most pressing thing that came to mind was a one-off joke I made while out to brunch with a dear friend when we were in graduate school. It was a play on her name, Carrie, and a popular song by rock-and-roll legends Kansas.

But what is closer to the narrative given to us by Jesus in the text this week (Luke 15) is a story of three men. The first is a father who divides his land into two sections, one of each of his sons. The other two are the sons, one of whom sells the land and “squanders” the profit in the traditional sense: rich food, alcohol, drugs, partying, etc; the second of whom (the older one) dutifully works the land.

Traditionally, the parable story focuses on the father’s love, graciously accepting the younger son back when famine strikes the land, and he returns in shame to the welcoming love of the father. This is a wonderful story, and one that needs to be preached and embodied in the lives of Christians today.

I would like to focus on the stubbornness of the older son, and the nature of the father’s response to him. The older son lambasts the younger, reminding the father of all of the ways that the younger has wronged the family. This is a tale all too common among families today. Siblings unnecessarily compete for the affection of their parents, without realizing that parents can actually love each child equally.

If only the older son, as well as those of us who are still plugged in to organized religion, could see the way that the father loves both sons equally. If only we could register that to love one is to not discredit the other. This is the tension in #blacklivesmatter. Too often do white, conservative, heterosexual Christians experience that phrase as “I, therefore, do not matter.” What they fail to realize is that society treats them as the father treats the older son, “You have been with me from the beginning.”

The invitation, therefore, is to celebrate those who have been systemically lost for no other reason than historic racism and a broken, sinful society.

Dan Arivd (Miglets) Nelson