MARCH 31ST, 2019: FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT Joshua 5:9a, 10-12 II Corinthians 5:17-21 Luke 15:1-3, 11-32 Those - like Jesus of Nazareth - who employ parables when they teach have a deliberate, specific agenda. For such people parables are more than just cute, memorable little stories. By integrating them into their teaching, they’re revealing their unique mentality. Parables only come into play when teachers are trying to go beyond just providing more information or facts to their students. They’re a sign teachers are interested in changing the way their students process all the information and facts entering their brains. A parable is a means to retool one’s frame of mind, telling the recipient, “You can’t get to where I am from where you are. Unless you drastically change the way you look at reality, you’ll never understand what I’m saying.” A parable traps the listener to sign off on something he or she normally would never accept. When, for instance, Jesus is criticized in Mark 4 for wasting his time preaching to the crowds, he quickly comes up with a parable about a farmer sowing seed. If he stopped sowing just because the process wasted most of the seed, we’d have no bread. It all depends on how you look at it. Today’s Lucan parable of the prodigal father accomplishes something similar. Triggered by those in the evangelist’s community who can always be counted on to come up with logical reasons for putting limits on their forgiveness of others, the gospel Jesus reframes the issue into a death and life situation. “Your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.” Looking at the younger son’s behavior from that perspective, what father – and what Christian - wouldn’t throw legalities to the wind? We’re dealing with a whole new ball game. One of the problems we face today is that once Jesus’ parables were lifted from their original contexts and “allegorized,” they lost a lot of their kick. Rarely do they demand a 180-degree turnabout in the way we think. Yet, as Paul mentions in our II Corinthians pericope, Christians always presume they must develop a new frame of mind. Why? Because the person we imitate is himself or herself a “new creation.” The risen Jesus is unlike anyone we’ve encountered. If we approach that unique person with the same mentality we approach everyone else, we’ll never develop into other Christs; never scratch the surface of the “righteousness of God.” Just as things changed when the Israelites celebrated their first Passover in the Promised Land, so if we really want to appreciate the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, we must change our value system. That transformation is what the Galilean carpenter insists upon when he commands his followers, “Repent!” It’s sadly clear that we’ve resisted this change through the centuries. Instead of developing the mindset of the risen Jesus, we’ve successfully squeezed his teachings into our mindset, lopping off an ear there, a leg here, until it fits. How can we possibly carry on his “ministry of reconciliation” unless we first accept the uniqueness of that ministry? As important as today’s gospel pericope is in our imitation of Jesus, do you realize that, before the 1970 lectionary reforms, this passage was never proclaimed during a Sunday liturgy? Unless we heard it during a religion class (as I did) or in a retreat conference, we could have gone a lifetime not knowing it exists. And though I did know about it, for some reason I don’t remember anything ever being said about the prodigal father’s key older son – the person whose mindset triggered the parable’s creation. Even today the vast majority of Scripture is never found in a liturgical setting. Don’t you wonder what else is “out there?”
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