As a story-telling device the parable has an awful lot going for it.

Parables are short, sweet, succinct. They contain relatable settings, relatable characters. They include both metaphor and analogy. By tying relatable settings, characters and metaphor together we can –

See ourselves, and others, in the story.
Apply what we’ve learned to real life.

Parables often draw from our assumptions about how the world should be.

For example –

Good guys should always win.
Bad guys should always lose.

Rules should always be followed.
Rule breaking should always be punished.

Parables challenge those default views.

They ask us to –
take a closer look,
reevaluate assumptions,

They ask us to reconsider –
How we view others.
How we view ourselves.

Parables suggest the world is infinitely more complex than any basic binary can contain. Ultimately parables ask us to live into this world in broader, God-honoring ways.

Last but not least parables contain the element of surprise.

For when you –

recognize yourself,
recognize others,
recognize the plot line –

And then, boom, something happens you didn’t see coming, it can’t help but surprise.

Of the 39 parables in the New Testament, today’s text, of the prodigal son, is perhaps the best-known of all. The context where the story is told is familiar. Jesus has been accused, again, by the Pharisees of welcoming sinners and eating with them.

There were rules for this sort of thing, the Pharisees reminded Jesus.

Rules for –
who is clean,
who is unclean.

Rules for –
People you should associate with,
People you should not.

Eating with others is one of the most intimate acts we do in community. You best be choosy when you pick those people, the Pharisees told Jesus.

You sir, they scolded him, were not picking people well.

Jesus responds to the critique, as he often does, with a story. It is a tale that brings into question so much we thought we knew.

The parable is filled with more twists and turns than a snake with an itch. Almost every sentence of the short story serves up surprise.

The tale has three central characters: one father, two sons.

Mine
Upon realizing he wasn’t overly inclined to be a farmer, the younger son asks for his inheritance from Dad. But he didn’t want it later. He wanted it now. Now. While dear old Dad was still very much alive.

I can’t help but be reminded of two recent conversations with my two children. Over the course of a couple of days, they both separately asked me this: Dad, when you die, who gets the video games? I started to get a little paranoid. And wondered if they were planning my demise.

You can split up the games later, and figure that out between yourselves, I told them. And really kids, it’s all yours anyways. You can play the video games pretty much any time you want. Just make sure school and chore to-do’s are done first 😊.

Instead of taking a wait your turn approach, like I did, this father responds directly. And he actually agrees to give the inheritance while alive! Who would do such a thing? The father’s actions are downright shocking. You can imagine Dad selling off some land, divvying up family heirlooms, counting coins. All those inheritance particulars now complete he then hands it over to the younger son and sends him on his way.

Imagine, too, the disruption this must have caused. There was now less family wealth, less land. The parents had lost a son earlier than they had planned. There was one less person to run the family business, one less seat at the table. The older brother had lost the only brother he ever had. The story is, at its core, a tale of a family broken in two.

Lost
If there is one plot line here that *isn’t* a surprise it is what happens next. The younger son, now footloose, fancy free, fully funded, and out on his own, decides to have some fun.

Scripture doesn’t provide many details here, tho it’s easy enough to imagine the friends, the parties, the high-risk investments that never panned out. When you are young, and wealthy, away from home for the first time, disconnected from the only friends, family and community you ever knew, odds are good some peril is a coming. We are told the younger son squandered it all in dissolute living, i.e. living without moral restraint. Perhaps it’s good the text here is somewhat vague.

And before you know it the young man is penniless, lost, in need of food. He finds employment feeding pigs, and soon realizes they were eating better than he. The young son reminisces of life back home. He remembers that even the hired help has all bread they can eat –

Kind of like Olive Garden.
Because when you’re here, you’re family.
Ames still needs one 😊 –

The younger son could go home, he thought, and work for Dad. To do that he would need to –

Swallow his pride,
confess he’d done wrong,
ask for forgiveness. And –

claim he’s not worthy,
to be called son,
begging instead to become
just a hired hand.

We might find ourselves surprised here too. For to do that would not be easy.

Found
In terms of fairness perhaps this would be a good end to the tale.

Son does wrong,
Dad forgives,
Natural consequences ensue.

At least, we may conclude, the young son will now have enough to eat.

But wait, there’s more. Upon approaching the homestead the father sees the younger son from a distance and is filled with compassion. He runs to greet the son, put his arms around him, kissed him. That’s about as good a welcome home greeting as a child can get.

The son begins his apology as planned. But the father will have none of it. Quickly, he calls out, bring him the best robe, put a ring on his finger, sandals on his feet. Even more let’s fire up the barbeque.

It’s time to eat!
It’s time to celebrate!

There was no scolding,
No I told you so,
No natural consequences.

Instead: a huge party.

For what was –
lost has been found,
dead is alive again.

All now was as it should be.

Jealousy
Perhaps too, this would have been a fitting ending, big happy party and all. But wait, this is still more. One of the main characters hasn’t yet chimed in.

The elder son had been working in the field when all this went down. When he neared the house he heard music, saw dancing, smelled dinner. Upon learning what was going on he was furious. He refused to join the party.

The elder son instead recited his resume to dad –

I have worked for you, as a slave does,
he began, sounding rather bitter.
And done so, dutifully, for years.

I followed your every command, dad.
And you’ve never done anything like this, for me.

Can you hear the jealousy, the accusations of unfairness?

Good guys should always win, the elder inferred.
And rules should always be followed, he assumed.

The elder son, to be sure, was all of that.

It may go unsaid, but let’s just name this. With the younger son now back, the elder likely worried about the financial impact this change would bring.

For now there was –
One more seat at the table,
One more mouth to be fed.

Perhaps dad would want to give even more to the younger son, once again.

Grace
The father, hearing these complaints, couldn’t help but feel sad for the elder son.

You are always with me, the father reminded him. All that is mine is also yours.

But your brother who was –
once dead, is now alive.
Once lost, is now found.

Bringing the family together, as one, is great cause to rejoice.

The father tried to help the elder son grasp what radical grace is all about. Countless generations of elder sons ever since are still trying to truly understand.

Now
Parables, as a style of storytelling, are a beautiful art.

We can see ourselves, and others, in story form.
And we can apply what we’ve learned to real life.

Reflecting on this text this week I can only conclude this: A good and loving God prioritizes the mending of broken relationship between God’s beloved more than all else.

More than family finances, more than fairness.
More than who follows the rules, who does not.

Reflecting on our current news cycle I can’t help but be reminded of people in Central America, Afghanistan, now the Ukraine, facing impossible circumstances.

Circumstances brought on by –

Wars over drugs,
Gang violence,
American wars,
Now wars incited by a madman.

Because of these wars countless people now find themselves lost. Countless people need hope. And, unlike the prodigal son, the nature of the circumstances they find themselves in are no fault of their own.

Which leads to this question: if God can welcome home someone as flawed and broken as the younger son, how much more can we show God’s grace to those in tough spots not of their making?

Why can’t we welcome these war-torn people home? Isn’t that what bringing God’s family back together is all about? You know, that thing God values more than anything else?

Perhaps we find ourselves playing the part of the eldest son.

We’ve been working the fields.
We’ve followed the rules every day.

And now we’re being asked to expand the family?

What if gas prices go up?
What if there aren’t enough jobs?
What about us, the eldest son asks?

The Father chimes in.

But your brother, and my child –
Who was once dead, is now alive.
Who was once lost, is now found.

We are to welcome them, the Father reminds.
We are to celebrate when they arrive.

They are the refugee, the immigrant, the asylum seeker. They are those who have no home of their own but ours. Dear Lord, show us the way.  Amen.

A message about misguided politicians, the religious leaders who follow them, and Jesus.

Who do you follow? When journeying through life it’s a good question to ask.

Today’s brief text from Luke 13 finds Christ talking about just that. And he does so in a novel way. The scene begins with a familiar setting, Jesus in dialogue with the Pharisees. They’re the religious elite group more concerned with laws than love.

But this particular conversation has a twist. Instead of challenging, questioning or threatening Christ as they most often do, the Pharisees seem to offer helpful advice.

Get away from here, they warn Jesus.  For Herod wants nothing more than to see you dead.

Herod. Aka a tainted politician who married his brother’s wife. John the Baptist had criticized Herod for it. It went against Jewish law. And Herod had killed the prophet because of it.

And here Herod was, threatening to kill another prophet, once again.

Instead of following that warning, Christ instead offers a reply.

Fox
You go and tell that fox something for me, he replies. Tell him I’m –

Busy casting out demons,
Busy curing the people.
I’ll be casting and curing,
Today and tomorrow.
On the third day I finish my work.

That fox.

Jesus wasn’t exactly giving Herod a compliment.

That fox.

Aka an animal known for being wily, sly, a trickster. Foxes are smart, and often seemingly up to no good. They like to hide in underground dens until they run out and attack their prey. Foxes aren’t pack animals, there is no group they protect. They only look out for #1.

When my daughter was a toddler she loved watching Dora the Explorer. Every time Swiper the Fox came on the screen she’d get a little scared and hop right into my lap for safety. Because after watching for a while she knew the plot line: Swiper the fox was always trying to steal something. Swiper, no swiping!

Calling Herod a fox suggests Christ knew of some working alliance between the tainted politician and who the politician had sent. Like Swiper the Fox, the Pharisees had a reputation. After studying scripture for a while we realize they too, were often up to no good.

Not leaving the scene, even amid threat of death, suggests even more. For Christ was too busy healing and freeing people from that which held them down to be worried over local leaders that wanted him to stop.

The text also makes clear something else.

Jesus takes his orders not from sneaky, sly fox politicians.
And not from the religious elites they are sometimes in cahoots with.

Jesus knew Herod was a political authority.
But Herod was not, his ultimate authority.
For Christ was on a mission from God.

And there was no one on earth that would slow that mission down.

Hen
Standing there defiantly, continuing to heal, Christ began to lament the nature of the world he had come to save.

How often I have desired to gather you together, Jesus begins.  Just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, he continues. The analogy is unique in scripture.

A hen.

Jesus self-described in a way that just might surprise.

A hen.

A feminine noun. Said differently Jesus had qualities of the divine feminine baked right in to him.

A hen.

Aka an animal known for how they –

Nurture,
Care for,
Protect.

A hen puts her brood under her wing, ensuring no harm comes to them. And when predators are near, including sneaky foxes, everyone under the hen’s care is safe.

And that’s what Christ wants for us.

To nurture,
Care for,
Protect.

If only we would stop wandering off to follow sneaky foxes who only look out for #1.

Now
Today’s text shows Christ chose not to follow local laws when they were in conflict with the will of God. Which raises a question, what happens when our laws ask one thing of us, and our faith another?

Said differently, how do we nurture, care for and protect others, when local lawmakers tell us not to? Here’s one example.

In 1991 Arnold Abbott began feeding the homeless on the beaches of Ft. Lauderdale. Doing so was illegal, there were laws and ordinances against it. The city demanded he stop. Abbott continued. He and his volunteers had the right to feed the homeless, he replied. They only wanted to eat on the beach like anyone else.

After years of tussles with authorities in 2000 Abbott successfully sued the city. Feeding the homeless was his religious right, he reasoned. The local religious studies professor that testified in the trial argued all major world religions require charity to the poor. The court agreed.

Abbott, who is Jewish, said he was simply following the teachings of Jesus.

Indeed.

While that ruling settled things for a while in 2014 the tides turned again. Ft. Lauderdale passed another ordinance, putting even more requirements on feeding the homeless. Now portable toilets had to be available. And if they weren’t? Then you could face significant fines. Or up to 60 days in jail.

Coverage of this showdown, between local politicians and a man feeding the homeless, went viral. News crews came from across the globe to tell the story.

Abbott found himself, once again, surrounded by political foxes. But this mother hen would not stop gathering God’s beloved, caring for and feeding hundreds of people each and every day.

“I am my brother’s keeper,” Abbot said. “I’ve been fighting injustice all my life.”

Worried about the negative publicity Ft. Lauderdale was getting, the city stopped enforcing the law.

The latest chapter of in this City vs. serving saga happened last Fall. After another group sued for their right to serve meals to the Ft. Lauderdale homeless a federal appeals court found the ordinance violates the groups First Amendment rights. With that ruling, feeding the homeless, outdoors, was on the right side of the law once again.

Sadly, Abbott died two years before this last ruling. When he died, at the age of 94, he was still breaking city ordinances each and every day. Over the course of his lifetime he had served hundreds of thousands of meals, illegally, to those without enough to eat.

For now, God’s justice has been served, in the form of meals for many of God’s beloved that too often go without. And it took the breaking of local laws for that to happen.

This story is far from over. An attorney for the City says they plan to appeal.

Close
Who do you follow? When journeying through life it’s a good question to ask.

Ideally the politics of our land align with the will of a good and loving God.

But that isn’t always the case, is it.

If you ever find yourself having to choose between caring for God’s beloved and following the law –

Remember this tale of foxes and hens.

For like Christ we too, are on a mission from God.
May we journey well.  Amen.

Sometimes, when you need fresh perspective, new insights, the chance to dream of what may one day be, it might make sense to head to the mountains.

The benefits of spending time higher up are many.

Mountains provide a broader view of the world around. The furthest sightline in the world is between the Spanish Pyrenees and the French Alps. From the Pic de Finestrelles you can see a whopping 275 miles away. That is almost 100 times further than what is visible driving in the prairies staring at the horizon.

Mountains also make for healthy living. With lower oxygen levels in higher altitudes your body has to work harder to do everyday things. People visiting Denver, aka the mile high city, tire 20 percent faster than when living life at sea level. This extra effort leads to more exercise, better fitness levels, higher quality sleep. When our family vacationed in the Rocky Mountains this past summer I don’t think I’ve ever slept better.

Mountains even make for higher quality air to breathe. Getting higher up creates distance between you and the pollution and toxic gases that often dwell in lower elevations. Better air improves lung health and helps prevent asthma and a host of other respiratory diseases too.

And sometimes mountain experiences make for mountaintop moments that make a mark in ways that can last a lifetime.

I asked Facebook friends to share their mountaintop moments and what they learned from them. Here are a few of their tales.

Stories
Friend Kelly lived in central Mexico for a spell. While there she loved hiking in the mountains. Her favorite trek was to see where Monarch butterflies hibernate for the winter. The hike was a challenging one. And a humbling one; Kelly was 30 at the time and remembers little old Mexican ladies hiking right past her. But then she arrived at her destination, seeing millions of Monarchs as far as the eye could see. It was a beautiful, memorable sight. While scientists don’t understand why the butterflies migrate there, the locals know. They are convinced God brings them there, each and every year.

Friend Lise Marie shared a story from when she was 25. She was living, in her words, a predictable life; had dropped out of college, gotten married, was working full-time, making just enough to get by. She then had the opportunity to co-lead a 4H group to Costa Rica.

The 4H kids had raised money to buy rainforest acreage to help preserve the mountains. Their stay was powered by a lone generator with enough electricity to keep one refrigerator cold. Besides them there we no other people, no homes, no phones.

As the group departed down the mountain one day, Lise remembers looking up and seeing only green nature, blue sky. The view could have been pulled from the pages of a National Geographic.

It occurred to Lise, in that moment, that experiences like this could be for anyone. How much more of the world could she see? How much more in the world could she do? She began to dream.

After returning stateside Lise went back to college to receive her Bachelors degree, then a Masters, then a PhD. All of which led to a career she is passionate about that provides opportunities for her to explore and better the world around. Arguably none of that would have been possible without that mountaintop moment so far from home.

And then there’s our church organist Mary Nelson. Once she went up a mountain in Vail Colorado to ski with friends. While there a cute boy smiled at her. She came down that mountain in love. Mary and Jerry have been married 51 years now and counting 😊.

Scripture
Today’s text also features a mountaintop moment that left quite an impression. At this point in Luke’s gospel the disciples had been called, sermons had been preached, thousands miraculously fed.

Peter even had an initial epiphany: that Jesus was the Messiah.

But then some troubling news. Jesus shared with the twelve that he would suffer, be killed, and on the third day rise once more. And that they too would need to pick up their cross. Following him, Jesus explained, at times could be a difficult road.

The disciples couldn’t help but be concerned. Is this really what they’d signed up for? How could they know this person they followed was the one?

Knowing of their fear, uncertainty and doubt, Jesus took Peter and John and James aside. Let us go up the mountain, he said, to pray.

Up the mountain they hiked.

Up the mountain.

Where they could –
see more clearly,
breathe more freely,
away from the troubles below.

Up the mountain.

Where they could –
consider, more deeply,
the nature of this path they were on.

While Jesus prayed, amid all the disciples fear and uncertainty and doubt Christ’s appearance changed. His clothes became dazzlingly white. Two others joined him, Moses and Elijah.

Moses, the lawgiver.
Elijah, the preeminent prophet.

They marked Jesus as the one to whom both the law and the prophets point.

Tired from the hike – perhaps it was those low oxygen levels – the disciples sleepily watched. They wondered at the spectacle of it all.

As Moses and Elijah departed Peter had an idea. Let us make three dwellings, he suggested.

One for you, Jesus.
One for Moses.
One for Elijah too.

For Peter wanted to make this new location home.

A new home, up on the mountain.

Where they could –
see more clearly,
breathe more freely,
away from the troubles below.

This mountaintop moment was not to be forever. For a cloud then overshadowed them, terrifying the disciples. A voice then came from that cloud, offering clarity.

“This is my Son, my Chosen, listen to him!”

The disciples knew,
in this mountaintop moment,
they were following the One.

Filled with hope the next day they went down the mountain, and rejoined the world around them. They gathered, once again, among the people. It was there that –

Parables were shared,
Miracles were performed,
The movement grew and grew and grew.

Close
When we are ill at ease with what is happening around us, sometimes getting away from our normal day-to-day can help. A novel environment offers fresh perspective, new insights, the chance to dream of what may one day be. And going up to the mountains, and all the benefits that come with it, is certainly one way to do that.

But mountaintop moments need not be limited to high elevations. We can get away from it all, and connect with our creator through –

Prayer,
Song,
Scripture,
Meditation,
Fasting,
Hikes,
And so much more.

And in the process we can reconnect with –
Ourselves,
Our surroundings,
Our Lord.

In times of uncertainty, like we have right now with news of war on a global stage, this might be a good time to find small, meaningful ways to reconnect with our Savior. These mini mountaintop moments offer a respite from the challenges that we face. For the road we travel can be a challenging one, Lord knows.

Yet with rest, renewal, reflection we can –
Return to our surroundings,
Reengage with the people God loves, and
Reignite our call to help heal a broken world.  Amen.