Image: The Story of the Prodigal Son by Bartolome Esteban Murillo, 1667-1670, Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain
Fourth Sunday in Lent, Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
by Rev. Lee
Sometimes there is an apparent misfortune that eventually brings a good result.
Perhaps many of you have watched a CBC sitcom Kim’s Convenience, which was originally a theatre play in Toronto. The creator of this play, Ins Choi, a Korean Canadian artist started writing it in 2006 so that he would hire himself as an actor because no one else was writing a vehicle for him.
It was a long journey to debut on stage as the play was rejected by every major theatre company in Toronto, but finally, in 2011, Choi took the story to the Fringe Festival, securing a slot by winning the contest, and tickets were all sold out, after which the show went on to run the race on CBC for five seasons, concluding last year.
All success has a silver lining. As it was put poetically by Oscar Wilde, dreamers are the ones who can only find their ways by moonlight, and they see the dawn before the rest of the world.
Kim’s Convenience is a story about a Korean immigrant family who runs a mom-and-pop store. It sketches everyday problems, joys and struggles of an ordinary family that anyone can relate to.
Mr. Kim, the store owner, might be seen as the family patriarch, proud, stubborn, opinionated, and blunt, but that’s not all. Actually, he is one who struggles to keep up with the changing cultural landscapes, and he is in a learning journey, trying to find a way to better understand others with kindness and empathy, just like us.
The descendants of the immigrant families, both recent and many generations past, and also the descendants of all who had lived on this land have their own stories to tell, like the Kim’s. In fact, those stories have nothing more to do with their being of any origins of their ancestry than stories of being a Canadian in our mosaic society.
Deep down, the Kim’s is a story of a loving yet fractured family, living with the messy consequences of broken trust and struggling with forgiveness. A major plot is around a father Appa and a son Jung who seek reconciliation over a long period of time. It is common that adolescents do not get along well with their parents or teachers.
Appa and Jung had a fight long time ago. Jung ventured into petty street crime, was briefly in juvie, and has since cleaned up his act. Jung does not speak to Appa, though he remains in touch with his devout mother Umma. Jung sang a hymn, My Jesus As Thou Wilt, with Umma and his sister at the church contest. Appa, being stubborn, did not join, but from the back stage through the door, he peaked in and looked at his estranged son, hiding his emotions.
This story has more to do with a generational clash than a cultural adjustment of an immigrant family. The final episode engaged the main cast sitting down to eat together for the first time as a family. Jung was invited, and at the end of the night, they happily went their separate ways.
It was like a message reassuring that whatever lies ahead, we’ve got each other. It is not until the prodigal son returns and reconciles with his Appa that the future of Kim's Convenience is assured. And, to the Kim’s family, the convenience store is not a place to sell goods but a life itself.
How was your relationship with your parents, living through a post-war period, the hippy culture in the 60’s, and a disco in the 80’s? For those who have children, how is your own relationship with them today?
Many families, if not all, have a skeleton in the closet. Understanding generational conflict is as important as understanding many other conflicts that occur in work places because the family system is a basis of society. In large part, conflict is a result of miscommunication and misunderstanding, fueled by common insecurities and the desire for control, power and authority.
Jesus talks about a family – the father and two sons. The younger son demanded his father’s inheritance and then threw it away on wild living. The older son watched events unfold, and when his brother returned home after many years, he cried to his father who welcomed his sibling: I stayed with you all these years and you never threw a party for me!
It may be easy to condemn the younger son and empathize with the older one.
A tension between siblings can be also found in another situation in the Bible. In the moment where Martha complains about how much serving she has to do, Jesus informs Martha that her sister Mary has chosen the better part. One might wonder how Mary who did not do anything to help Martha could be praised.
The point Jesus addresses is not that Martha’s work is unimportant but that Mary is close to Jesus, listening to Him, trying to absorb His teaching. What is more important than that?
The older son in the Parable of the Prodigal Son stayed close to the father, getting up early in the morning to start a hard work, dining with the father every day, accompanying the father, but he was close only in a physical sense, undermining the privilege that was given to him from the father.
Sadly, the older son was not able to join his father to share the joy of his sibling who was lost and found. Sometimes it can be more difficult to love your own family member, especially the sibling, than your neighbour or a stranger. One common reason is because there is the initial struggle of vying for the parents’ affection, while there can be many different circumstances experienced in different family systems.
Siblings are no different than neighbours except that they just happened to share the parents. Following Jesus, we are called in to a new family, not based in biology or marriage or adoption but based on another new commandment: “I gave you a new commandment, that you love each other. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another” (Jn 13:34).
Those who grew up in a family with a prodigal understand that cry of the older son. Anyone who has ever been the good child will find empathy to unload the emotional baggage of growing up with a prodigal in the family. But, whether you are the good one or the neglected one, you will find fresh insight in this eye-opening parable, a story with intent that invites us to examine our personal life.
Jesus told of many stories in response to those who are unwilling to celebrate lost people being found. His parables present a reversal of values, challenging us to change in our views. In His parables, we can see two focal points – God’s radical and amazing grace and human responses to His grace.
We are not simply to listen to Jesus’ stories but to remember them and live them out.
In Luke 15, Jesus talks about the lost being found, using three parables. First, the shepherd celebrates finding one lost sheep out of a hundred. Second, a woman rejoices over finding one lost coin from her dowry. And the father in the third parable, filled with compassion, ran out to embrace and kiss his prodigal son, while this son was still far off (Lk 15:20). Not only that, the father throws a party for the lost son who has finally returned. In his youth, this younger son dishonored his father by asking for his inheritance while the father was still alive. But, the father is generous in giving and merciful in forgiving.
Now the younger son was found, but the older son was lost without having left home because he was reluctant to share his father’s heart for the lost, as if he was one of the religious folks who were grumbling about Jesus who was eating with the sinners. Sharing joy with others can be difficult when we judge them: I’m right, and you’re not; I’m better than you; you don’t deserve a good treatment.
This parable does not give us a clue about whether or not the first son joined in the party for his brother, but we can ask ourselves these questions:
As recipients of the father’s love and grace, do we repent? Do we turn around to enter the narrow gate and respond to the father’s open arms? Do we join God’s banquet with a heartfelt joy for the lost being found? Do we love and forgive as the father does?
Life is about healing and reconciliation. Where there is the lost being found, there is healing. Where there is healing, there is reconciliation. And, where there is reconciliation, there will be a celebration. The father offers a radical grace out of pure joy, an invitation to the undeserving, a restoration of the lost. And, the prodigal son responds humbly to the grace of the father who says: Welcome home, my child! I’m so happy you are alive! Come on in. The table is ready!
What have you lost? Have you searched for it? Have you found it yet?