Fourth Sunday in Lent, rcl yr b, 2022
2 CORINTHIANS 5:16-21; PSALM 32; LUKE 15:1-3, 11B-32
and all that is mine is yours
Karen and I have been watching a lot of RuPaul’s Drag Race. There are endless episodes, and I have to admit, it is very entertaining. I’m not sure I can recommend RuPaul’s Drag Race from the pulpit … there’s a lot of sexual innuendo, it can be very crass, and if you’re at all uncomfortable with certain aspects of queer culture, it might not be for you. Alternately, for all these same reasons, maybe it is for you! No judgment here.
There is one part of the show that came to mind for me this week. It’s a reality competition show, and the people who compete often tell stories about growing up, and having been queer kids, these stories are often about not finding a sense of community, or a sense of belonging, until they find that sense of welcome and love in the queer community. For many, it’s their first opportunity to experience love and welcome and belonging.
But then, sometimes, on the show, one competitor will bully, or exclude in some way, another competitor; and then RuPaul, “Mama Ru,” will enter the fray of the conflict, and say “hey, you know what it’s like to be rejected, and shamed, and excluded. And you know what it’s like now to be accepted and welcomed into this community. So don’t shame and reject and exclude here, in this community. No, welcome and love one another, just as you yourself are welcomed and loved in this community. As you are welcomed and loved, so should you know to love and welcome others.
This came to mind this week because it’s a part of the story that we call the Parable of the Prodigal Son. And we know the Prodigal Son parable is about Jesus’s ministry, because that’s where we start: “Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, ‘This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.’ So he told them this parable.” And then Jesus actually tells three parables, but each are connected to one another, all three about something or someone being lost, and then being found or returned.
But the parables themselves are prompted by what Jesus is doing. “All the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus,” and Jesus was welcoming and eating with them. And it’s the welcoming and eating with sinners that led to the grumbling. Why those people, say the grumblers.
And I think we can see this part of Jesus’s ministry, as God’s ministry—the ministry of the God who chose Abraham, the God who says to Abraham, “not only do I choose you, but through you I will choose and bless all the families of the earth.” It’s the ministry of God described by the prophets, who will speak of the restoration of Israel from its exile, of God’s welcome of his people back in Jerusalem, and the prophets who will speak of all the nations being blessed in Israel. That is, Jesus’s ministry is the ministry of the God who restores his people to himself; it’s the ministry of the God with ever-wider arms; the ministry of the God who intends that more and more people and nations would be included in his care.
This is what Jesus is doing here, in miniature, in welcoming and eating with tax collectors and sinners come: it’s the restoration of God’s people to himself, God’s restoration of his household; it’s the widening of the arms of God, including others who had yet to be included in the household of God.
And it’s the grumblers, the ones asking, “why those people, why are you spending time with those people,” to whom Jesus speaks in the form of parables here—“you’re grumbling about the people I eat with? Well let me tell you some stories about the God who celebrates the restoration of lost and the welcoming home of the estranged. Lost sheep returned to the fold, lost coins back in the purse, and lost sons restored to the household.”
And it seems clear that Jesus wants the grumblers to find themselves in the story of the Prodigal Son. And I know that we are accustomed to imagine that Jesus wants the grumblers to find themselves in the older brother, and I think that’s true—both the brother, and the scribes and pharisees, are saying, you’re eating with that guy? Those people? But we’re the faithful ones.
But I think the first place Jesus wants the grumblers to find themselves in the story is actually in the prodigal son. Because in the prodigal son, we hear the resonance of Israel’s exile. Both The prodigal son and Israel in exile have squandered their birthright in dissolute living and unfaithfulness, they both find themselves in a far-off country, in the land of the Gentiles, estranged from his home, both desire to be restored to their household. And I think the scribes and pharisees, the grumblers here, are meant to say to themselves, “yeah, all of Israel was in exile, a lot like this son. And we were restored to God, in God’s faithfulness to us, just like the prodigal son is restored to his father. And in the Israel that was in exile, but was restored to Jerusalem, we too were once far off, and are now already restored to the household of God.”
Which would have made the discovery that they were acting more like the older brother, resenting the restoration of others, aggrieved at the lavish welcome of the estranged, that much more bitter a pill to swallow. The pharisees and the scribes, like the older brother, had already been welcomed into the household in their birthright. This is what the father means when he says, “[A]ll that is mine is [already] yours.” You don’t lose anything at all in the restoration of your brother. You were welcomed at birth, and though your brother has taken a longer road—be glad that you are both now here once again.
This sort of dynamic sometimes happens as new people are added to a community. I used to work at a camp, and I went up the rungs—first a camper, then a Leader-in-Training, then a Junior Cabin Leader and Cabin Leader on Two Month Staff. There was a certain amount of joy in being welcomed deeper and deeper into this community of hospitality towards children.
But the pinnacle was always Four Month Staff. And when I reached that pinnacle? Well, I looked down on all those Junior Cabin Leaders, those Two Month Staff. It was so much better when we, the Four Month Staff, had the island to ourselves! We had built a loving and intimate community amongst ourselves. And then come along the interloping two-monthers? I wasn’t going to spend time with them. We had our own thing going on. We thought the island wasn’t big enough for us all. Which was silliness, right? There was one winter, one off-season, between being a two-monther and being a four-monther.
And I remember our camp director saying to us, roughly, “this is all already and is still yours! Now welcome those two-monthers just as you were welcomed onto four month staff.”
It is God’s work, it’s the work of Jesus, to restore and welcome the estranged into the household of God. And whether it’s RuPaul, or my old Camp Director, the message is very similar. It might feel like forever ago, you might not even remember; or it might be yesterday. But each of us were once welcomed; and so too would we be wise to welcome others into a community that has nurtured us. And when it feels like there isn’t enough, or that some get special treatment, it is good to remember the words of the Father: all of this is already yours, and it still is.
And if this is true of RuPaul’s Drag Race, or of Manitoba Pioneer Camp, how much more would it be true of the household of God, the household that Jesus welcomes each of us into: all of the once-far-off, and all of the once-estranged; each one of us.
The Revd Dr Preston DS Parsons
Angus Sinclair was appointed Director of Music of St. John the Evangelist on February 1, 2023. Having graduated in 1981 (Honours B.Mus.) in organ performance from Wilfrid Laurier University, he went on to distinguish himself as a church musician, recitalist and accompanist touring in both Canada and the UK. For over 40 years Angus has served parishes and congregations throughout Southwestern Ontario as director of music. He experiences his present appointment to St. John’s as a welcome homecoming, both spiritually and musically.
As our parish musician, he provides both support and leadership so that a variety of parish programs can find musical expression and attract participation. When our handbell choir is in season, he is one of our ringers. At parish dinners, he provides popular piano music for the guests to dine by. For both worship services and concerts, he will rehearse and accompany vocal and instrumental soloists from our congregation on piano, organ, or even accordion.
Angus Sinclair was appointed Director of Music of St. John the Evangelist on February 1, 2023. Having graduated in 1981 (Honours B.Mus.) in organ performance from Wilfrid Laurier University, he went on to distinguish himself as a church musician, recitalist and accompanist touring in both Canada and the UK. For over 40 years Angus has served parishes and congregations throughout Southwestern Ontario as director of music. He experiences his present appointment to St. John’s as a welcome homecoming, both spiritually and musically.