The Parable of the Co-Dependent Father Fourth Sunday of Lent March 10, 2013 Luke 15.1-3/11-14

            N. T. Wright crafts an intriguing analogy to explain his understanding of how to read the Bible: Scholars unearth eighty percent of a previously unknown Shakespearean play. The crucial fifth act – the last act – does not appear. Wright suggests that the only way to perform the work would be to draft skilled Shakespearean actors who would immerse themselves in Acts I-IV so deeply that Act V would flow naturally from them. The players could not make up whatever they liked but neither could anyone demand that subsequent performances be exactly the same. Disciplined interpretation would create living application. Innovation (to use Wright’s terms) would kiss consistency. Wright explains that the last act of the Bible – the one we live out – waits for us to write it by extending the part we already have into our own lives.

            Jesus’ famous parable of the dysfunctional family offers an example.  Jesus structures it in five carefully balanced acts set up in reverse-order. Act I: the father with the younger son, relationship broken. Act II: the younger son with no father. Act III: the father with the younger son, relationship restored. Act IV: the older son without the father. Act V: the father with the older son, relationship broken.

            It’s easy to see what Jesus leaves out – Act VI: the father with the older son, relationship restored (and by implication, perhaps an Act VII where we finally get the whole family in the same place.)

            When the Pharisees griped that Jesus hung out with the wrong crowd, he told a tale that took the action up to the present moment then left the story hanging. He leaves them like so many “Downton Abby” junkies desperate for the next season to begin. Does the older son relent? Does the family simply remain in tact in the uneasy détente that doubtless existed before hand, or break through to true community?

            Then Jesus strolls offstage and invites his listeners to write the final act.

            Of course, the Bible isn’t really unfinished: We have some mysterious hints about how it ends – images of street people partying at a rich man’s wedding and a multitude of mudbloods around the Father’s throne and glory’s gated community left open for all comers.

            How does the story end? You decide: Pick up a Bible, pick up a pen, then pick up a cross – and follow.

Action!

Doug