Bible Text: Luke 15: 11-32 | Preacher: Rev. Jenn Geddes
As the truck pulled up to the SP Geddes School in Osiri at Kamin Oningo Beach Community in Kenya we were greeted by 200 students singing an adorable welcome song to us. Children ages 3-10 were singing over and over again, “Welcome, Welcome, Our Visitors. Happy to see you. Happy to see you. Welcome, Welcome, our visitors!” Knowing the connection that my Uncle John had had over the years with this community and knowing that this school was named after my Grandpa Stewart Porterfield Geddes I couldn’t help but well up and feel like I was being welcomed home. It seemed to me that just as I was excited to meet these students so the students were excited to meet us. Across a set of eaves- on a building that CanAssist Africa had built- the school had written, “Thanks to SP Geddes. In our hearts he lives!” It was a great privilege to also share a meal with these students. It was a simple mixture of smoked beans, rice and chipati. It is a meal that the students receive every day and while the school wanted to serve their visitors a large meal we insisted that we’d rather eat what the students have on a regular basis than have them break their minimal budget just to feed us. It was delicious and I’m so glad that we had the opportunity to come together with these students over a meal. An interesting addition is that at all the schools any kind of ceremony began with a prayer and sometimes one of the minister’s in our group, my father or I was asked to give the blessing. It was like coming together as a family and I know my Grandfather was certainly in all of our hearts that day and I know that God was also present and honoured. I don’t have to tell this church how important it is to eat together.
In Jesus’ day, what you ate and whom you ate it with were critical matters. For the Jewish community, eating together was literally a religious experience. To eat together was to celebrate one’s faith, worship God, and follow a certain ritual. Along with being careful about what foods you ate and when, cleanliness was paramount. One had to have clean food, clean dishes, clean hands and a clean heart. Barbara Brown Taylor describes a Jewish meal as “a worship service in which believers honoured God by sanctifying the most ordinary details of their lives.” In a world where grabbing a quick bite to eat at the fastest food restaurant is normal, thinking about eating as a way to honour God is difficult. But it really explains what was going on in our passage this morning.
Chapter 15 actually begins, “Men and women of doubtful reputation were hanging around Jesus. The Pharisees and religious scholars were not pleased, “can you believe he eats with them?! Disgusting!” It is this comment that inspires the following parables about the lost being found, particularly the best known parable of the prodigal son. Jesus offended a lot of people because he shared a meal with some pretty sketchy people. He thought nothing of sitting down with filthy people, people who didn’t follow the same rules, people who probably ate things that were unthinkable, people who probably didn’t have dishes to clean, people whose hearts and practices were less than respectable. When the Pharisees and others saw him doing this they could only assume one thing. He had lost his sense of what it meant to worship God.
As a result the parable of the prodigal son is framed by this comment. While it is this criticism that sparks all of the “lost” parables, it is the parable of the lost son that deals with the issue of eating with sinners. It may seem as though who one eats with is irrelevant to the story but by telling this parable Jesus challenges the norm, making the claim that God, welcomes sinners-in fact sets a table, a banquet table, for sinners. The prodigal son did a lot of things wrong, insulted a lot of people with his request, by his behaviour, and where he ended up. This wasn’t just a runaway story but a story that involves offence after offence and yet it is the celebratory meal upon his return that lends this parable to an important teaching moment.
When the son demands his inheritance he is basically saying, “Dad-I wish you were dead. You know what, better yet, I’m going to pretend you’re dead and move on with my life.” The son insults the family further when he creates a great distance between them. But it is when the son gets into some difficulty that we realize the serious nature of his experience.
We know that the person the son ends up working for is a gentile. How do we know that? Because he owns a pig farm. To raise pigs, live with pigs and eat pigs is to completely reject the Jewish kosher laws and for the Jewish community to reject the kosher laws is to reject God. This son has turned his back on his family, his culture and his God. To add insult to injury, the son is not only required to feed the pigs but live with them-live side by side- eating from their trough. Feeding pigs would be in itself bad enough, but to consider joining the pigs at the trough is to add degradation upon shame, far worse than eating with unclean people is eating with unclean animals.
Despite the desire to wish his father dead, despite the distance he created between him and his family, despite the most disgusting behaviour in the pig sty, the son realizes that he needs to go home. It would be better to be disowned by his father and treated as a hired hand then working where he is now. The parable chances pace. Instead of the focus being on the son’s disgrace it turns to the father’s warm embrace. Before the son can say anything, before the son can show any sign of remorse or repentance, the father approaches him with elation. The father has no idea why the son is coming down the road; he doesn’t even speculate about his son’s motives. He simply sees his son and runs to meet him with hugs and kisses. Three things a father in that day and age would not have done. A dignified man did not run, did not embrace and certainly did not kiss his son. But that is an important feature to this parable as well. The father does not act like a normal father- nor does God, our father.
Then father throws a party. Not just any party but a feast! We’re back to this discussion about food. Just as the party is getting underway the elder son approaches. We all must have sympathy for this elder son, the one who follows the rules, respects his elders and eats what he’s supposed to. Not only that, he is a hard worker. While the younger son was off gallivanting around the country side the elder son was working in the field. The elder son is even in the field when he comes toward the house and hears the music and dancing. It would appear that someone forgot to invite the elder son! No wonder his nose is out of joint , no wonder he gets frustrated and says “Dad, I’ve been working hard all these years and have never received such a celebration!”Many of us are that older son. We are the ones who are here Sunday after Sunday, we’re the ones who participate regularly in the life of the church, we’re the ones who work hard for little recognition. But the father never ignores the needs of the older son. The father says, “Son, you misunderstand what’s going on. You’ve been with me all the time and everything that is mine is yours-but this is a wonderful time, and we had to celebrate.” The father tries to bring harmony in the household and says, forget about the rules, forget about what has happened in the past, what matters most is that we are here together, sharing a meal together. Again I find Barbara Brown Taylor’s words helpful. This story is “about hanging out with the wrong people. It is about throwing parties for losers and asking winners to foot the bill. It is about giving up the idea that we can love God and despise each other. We simply cannot, no matter how wrong any of us has been. The only way to work out our relationship with God is to work out our relationship with each other.”
God has prepared a table for us. Jesus invites us to his table. We’re all on the guest list- those of us who have been here week after week, those of us who are here for the first time, those of us who have hit rock bottom and those of us who haven’t been for a very, very long time. Who will you invite to sit beside you?