From the Pastor, Dennis Plourde

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Sunday, August 19, 2007
When Pig Food Looks Good
Psalm 77:1-9; Luke 15:11-24

Have you seen the commercials, "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas"? The younger son in this parable may have wished the distant land he went to was Las Vegas. The news of his "adventures" have made it all the way back home (v.30) or at least the older brother thinks he knows how the money was lost. Our text says, "there he squandered his property in dissolute living" (v. 13b). Whatever happened in the far country did not stay there. The time comes for him to have to face his brother, dad and the community.

We could say as he left town he "burned all his bridges behind him." Kenneth Bailey writes, "He has no more rights to claim." A brief summary of his actions to this point is helpful: He has wished his father dead. Demanded his inheritance and received it. Turned the land into cash. He has become the scorn of the community. Even if he had stayed he has insulted his father in front of the entire community. Communities can be very hard and unforgiving places. They remember all our misdeeds.

Thus he travels to a far country. The word Luke/Jesus uses could literally be translated "He traveled away from his own people." He wants nothing to do with the "hicks" back in this hometown. So he goes, and as long as he has money, he has friends. However, the money is quickly spent. Money never seems to last as long as we think it will or as long as we had planned. I remember reading a study of lottery winners and was amazed at how many lose their money in a relatively short period of time, and how some even end up in a more desperate condition than before they won the lottery. The inheritance does not last long and to add insult to injury there is a famine in the land. He is broke, hungry and in a strange land. Can't you just hear the people in the crowd murmuring in satisfaction? He is finally getting what he deserves. Serves him right treating his father like that. We may even think that way!

He is now destitute. We were in downtown Seattle on Tuesday and I was taken back by the number of homeless people. I began to wonder what got them to this point in their lives. Many were veterans. (An aside—no matter what our feelings are on this war or the Vietnam War these men and women have served their country and they deserve better treatment than what they are getting. These men and women and the ones returning from Iraq and Afghanistan need the best that we can offer in the way of medical and emotional help.) Now back to the Prodigal. He needs a job. He needs food. However, no one wants to give him one. Ken Bailey shares how in the Middle East you don't send a person away—you offer them a job you know they won't take. Thus they go away on their own accord. The younger son, though, is so desperate he takes the job – he is lowered to feeding pigs. The crowd continues to nod in agreement – he is getting what he deserves. A nice Jewish boy in a pig pen, serves him right.

He reaches the point where the food the pigs are eating looks good to him. Now I have seen food given to pigs...enough said! As he languishes in desperation he begins to formulate a plan. He remembers his father's hired hands. The men on the lowest level of the work force. The day laborers who gather in the town square each morning hoping to be chosen for a day's work. They are not assured of work today or tomorrow. They are less than slaves. At least slaves are fed, clothed and housed. And, to be hired for any job is derogatory in the Middle East. Ken Bailey writes of an incident he had a number of years ago.

"In Middle Eastern culture the word 'hired' carries a derogatory connotation. You 'hire' a servant, a street sweeper, or a garbage collector. But a school does not 'hire' a teacher. A Company does not 'hire' an engineer, nor does a store 'hire' a clerk. They 'bring him to work' or 'ask him to serve' or any other circumlocution to avoid the insulting word 'hire.'

"Recently I was talking to a local schoolteacher in Egypt. She reported heatedly an incident that took place 10 years ago. At that time the head of her school was an American. She, the teacher, was leaving school early one afternoon. The headmistress caught her and said to her, 'Don't you know you are hired until four o'clock?' Ten years later the teacher was still burning from the 'insult.' If the headmistress had said, 'Don't you know you are expected to be at work until four o'clock?' the remark would have been accepted and forgotten. I tried quite in vain to explain that no insult was intended, that the word 'hired' in English does not have degrading connotations. No Easterner of dignity and honor is ever 'hired' to do anything."

Yet this is how the son is prepared to survive in the coming years. He will go home and be nothing more than one of his father's hired hands. He is counting on the fact that his father will not turn him away completely. He begins to formulate his speech, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands" (vs.18b-19). Over and over he rehearsed his confession. Can you see him approaching the village? He left with his head held high and proud. His clothes were of the finest one could buy. His walk was confident and firm. Now, his clothes are dirty rags, his hair unkempt and his sandals gone. As he approaches his gait slows, his heart races—it is a long walk through he town to his father's house.

Again the crowd is nodding. This is the how it should be. Yet this is not how the story will play out. For the father is watching. He knows how the villagers will act as his son journeys through the town. He "races" through the village. Men never run in the Middle East – especially those who are over 40. His running will cause the people to follow. The crowd is thinking now the son is going to get the beating he deserves. The father can't wait to set this prodigal straight. Yet it is not a beating but open arms. The father hugs the son. The son tries to give his speech but is not allowed to finish it -- the last section is left off – "treat me like one of your hired hands." (Some older translations add this phrase but it is not found in the older more reliable text.) The son cannot finish his confession. Dad orders best robes and sandals. The robe is his father's best and sons wear sandals, slaves go barefoot. The son is restored to his father's house. By meeting him the father takes all the humiliation of the son on his shoulders. They walk back to the house arm in arm as the fatted calf is killed and party plans are underway. This is not how the story is supposed to end. There should be punishment not a party. The son has accepted the father's gracious gifts and restoration. The father has paid the price. The story is of restoration and hope—an image of the love of our God.

Billy's story (told with his permission although he is no longer with us.): Billy was a Deacon and Police Sergeant when we knew him. This was not always the case. He was once the prodigal in every sense of the word. He had embarrassed his mother and father in front of the entire congregation. He had lived his life on the edge to say the least. He had deserted his wife and his children and seldom gave them any financial support. Giving only when the court forced him to! He was a genuine bad guy.

He met another woman. They married. Katie was a woman of faith though not an active church attendee. She knew they needed to get God back in their lives. And, she wanted Billy to go back to his home church. He told her that he would not subject her to such pigheaded people. She was better than the ridicule they would heap on the both of them. There was no way. But Katie was persistent (Billy used the word nag) and so one Sunday they dressed and headed for Billy's church. He says that he only agreed because he wanted her to see how right he was about the "Christians" in that place. As they parked the car and got out he did not lock the doors – better for a quick escape. As they approached the six granite steps leading into the building he, looking down to the ground, could see the legs of people, standing, waiting. He says he whispered to Katie, "go slowly back to the car and we will get out of here." However she made him look up… there was most of the congregation. They had seen them arrive and they were on the top of the steps with their arms open wide to welcome Billy home. Billy says the story of the Prodigal became more real that morning than any other story of the Bible has ever been to him.

He knew his father's love. Not only did he discover his father's love but the love of the entire community as they welcomed him home, and in welcoming him they embraced Katie too.

How do we respond when our Prodigal sons and daughters come home?

Bailey, Kenneth, The Cross and the Prodigal, Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, 1973 (quotes from pp.40-61)

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