SUNDAY MORNING SERVICE 3rd May.

-- Well, you’re late back tonight? -- Yes, I’ve been to a party. -- A party? I didn’t know there was a party tonight. Where was it? -- At our neighbour’s, the one whose younger son left home in disgrace -- Yes, I remember, the one who wanted his inheritance and wouldn’t wait; it was like telling his father ‘’I wish you were dead.’’ It was the talk of the village for years. Who was the party for? His older brother, I suppose, such a hard working man, especially since his brother left, he never takes a break, never seems to enjoy himself. -- No, not him, it’s the young brother, he’s come back. -- Come back! and they give a party for him. That one doesn’t deserve a party, he deserves the opposite, we should have got hold of him and told him after what he did to his family he was not wanted ever in these parts. -- It would have been hard to do that, the way his father got to him first. It was almost as if he had been waiting for him, looking down the road, peering at every distant figure to see if this was the one he was waiting for. Suddenly, he gathers up his long robe and charges down the road, such an undignified sight, and when the lad starts to make his prepared speech about having sinned and not being worthy to be his son and just asking for a job, he doesn’t tell him to clear off, as he might well have done. he gives him a huge hug, brings him straight to the house calls for a robe and the best clothes, a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. and for a fatted calf to be killed for a celebration feast, back into the bosom of his family as if he had done something wonderful!

-- I bet the older brother was not at all happy about it? -- Happy? He was furious. He wouldn’t go near the party. And do you know what the father did? He went out to plead with him and the older brother shouts at him. I would never have talked to my father like that; mind you, he had a point, all those years he has slaved to make up the money the young fellow lost. He wouldn’t even call him his brother, he said ‘this son of yours’ -- What did the father say to him? -- He dropped his voice, he spoke tenderly to him, something about him always being with him and all that he had being his He said they simply had to rejoice that his brother was home; it was like thinking somebody was dead but was alive again was lost but now is found. -- Did the elder brother go in to the feast? -- That’s another story ...

It is another story, Jesus leaves the ending hanging there because that is the story of our lives. We identify either with the older or the younger brother. Probably not many of us here know what it’s like to be a younger brother kicking over the traces, abandoning the family. Maybe we identify more with the stay at home, who does the right thing and never gets even a kid goat to celebrate and we are full of resentment against those younger brothers whom the father welcomes back and makes a big fuss over.

The all important point is to see that whichever category you identify with you cannot earn acceptance with the heavenly father, not even by making a big deal about going to your father and using the grand set piece speech about having sinned and make me a hired servant. One commentator points out that this is all too like Pharaoh’s repentance in Exodus 10.16 where the very same words are used and Pharaoh is totally insincere. It is reasonable to see the younger son as still dead and lost right up to the moment that the father sees him far away and runs to him and embraces him and his repentance begins in accepting the embrace and living thereafter as a son, not a tear-away and not a hired man. And the same goes for the other lost son who has lived for years as a slave not a son grimly, joylessly getting on with his daily duties. He needs to / we need to repent by going in to the feast by accepting the Father’s welcome by accepting those whom the Father welcomes however undesirable their behaviour.

What does that mean in practice? It means what it meant when Jesus first told the story because the Pharisees, church going kind of people were criticising him for the time spent with the riffraff. If a stranger comes to our church service, will (s)he feel welcome? Will we give a genuine welcome or brush past them to talk to the folk we feel comfortable with? If the stranger is shabby, or of a different colour, or known to have a disreputable ‘past’ does that affect our welcome?

When will we stop trying to earn favour and deal with God as if we can ever please him as a slave or a hired servant? When will we learn that our Father God is always with us and that we are to enjoy all that he has rather than slaving away in bitter resentment against the wasters

Isn’t that a common theme in the three linked stories Jesus told about the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost sons there’s a party held when they’re found. Where’s the joy, in knowing that God welcomes us? Where’s the joyful welcome of others, because God also welcomes them?

There’s a lovely up to date version of this story from Thailand about a young man who leaves home and kicks over the traces in the big city. he would like to come home but he is not sure of his welcome. He writes home to say: I know I don’t deserve to be welcomed back but I’m going to travel on such and such a train and if you want me back, just hang something white on the tree near our house beside the track. If I don’t see anything hanging there, I will stay on the train and not bother you again, and I’ll understand. When the train came near his home he looked out for the tree. Was there a white scarf hanging there? No, the whole tree was festooned with white sheets, pillowcases, anything to make the message clear, welcome home, son!

And we have a tree covered in white from God. It’s the cross ‘while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.’

Will we accept his welcome on his terms, not ours? Will we go in to the feast? Will we share in the celebrations? Will we welcome others?

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ