Celebration

                  This week’s text is one of the more well-known parables in the Gospels. The Parable of the Prodigal Son. It’s the one where the son gets his inheritance early, leaves and spends all his money on the wrong things, and upon realizing his mistake comes home with a (supposedly) penitent heart and is welcomed back with surprisingly open arms by his father and unsurprising suspicion from his older brother. The lectionary this year skips over two of the associated parables Jesus tells alongside the Prodigal Son though. One about a shepherd who leaves the 99 to find the 1 wondering sheep, and one of a little old lady who loses a coin and cleans her whole house to find one lost coin. All three parables share similar themes something is lost or wanders away, it is found or returns, and upon its return a party is thrown both with community and in Heaven. It’s the final piece of celebration that I want to focus on today.

                  I don’t think it’s an outlandish or shocking claim to say we are all sinners. It’s part of the reason we do confession and forgiveness during our Sunday service for a majority of the Sundays during the year. We can all identify ways we’ve fallen short, missed the mark, or not loved our neighbors as ourselves at some point during our lives. In this way it is easy to identify ourselves with the lost sheep, coin, or son. We know that we often find ourselves separated from where we want to be. I do wonder though if we don’t celebrate ours and others returns enough though. In part because I’m not sure we are comfortable with celebration and especially not comfortable with the idea that we might be celebrated by God. I know that is true for me at least. I hate being the center of attention. Whether it’s a birthday, award, or even compliments on a job well done I would much rather be a wallflower than in the spotlight. As an aside to those of you questioning how I feel that way but am also a pastor who stands in the spotlight every Sunday my response is that God must have had a good chuckle when calling me to this vocation. Anyway, I don’t think I’m the only one who feels that way, and I don’t think that’s shocking. So much of what we are taught involves being humble. We constantly lift up a warped version of humility that tells us to keep our head bowed while also striving for the top. In almost every professional sport there is at least one player who is one of the best at what they do in the whole world and when they act like it people boo them. They talk about how their “ego” is too big or how they need to quiet down and so many other things. Which is ridiculous if you think about it. It teaches us that we can be great as long as we are quiet about it and that we should have a suspicious relationship with being celebrated and in the limelight. But in this week’s Gospel Jesus tells us that each and every time someone returns to the fold a party is and should be thrown. That God celebrates in and with the creation God made instead belittling it and keeping it away. So my prayer for you this week is that you find a little way to celebrate with God as a sheep returning to the fold and a child returning to a parent.

Amen

Pastor Corey