Weekly Seeds: Squandered
Sunday, March 30, 2025
Fourth Sunday in Lent | Year C
Focus Theme:
“Squandered”
Focus Prayer:
Abundant God, help us to be fruitful and good steward of your gifts. Amen.
Focus Scripture:
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
15 Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
3 So he told them this parable:
“There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the wealth that will belong to me.’ So he divided his assets between them. 13 A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant region, and there he squandered his wealth in dissolute living. 14 When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that region, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that region, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. 16 He would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, and no one gave him anything. 17 But when he came to his senses he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! 18 I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.” ’ 20 So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. 21 Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’, 22 But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate, 24 for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.
25 “Now his elder son was in the field, and as he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. 27 He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf because he has got him back safe and sound.’ 28 Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command, yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your assets with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’ 31 Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’”
All readings for this Sunday:
Joshua 5:9-12 • Psalm 32 • 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 • Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
Focus Questions:
How and why do we squander resources or opportunities?
What have you squandered?
What can be redeemed?
How does scarcity relate to squandering?
How can we reclaim what has been lost?
Reflection
By Cheryl A. Lindsay
As I have been researching gardening online, my social media feeds have become full of advertisements promoting various products that would either facilitate gardening or containers and storage for the bounty they assume I will produce. One such product that has been showing up lately is an electronic food recycler or composter. Some of them sit on the countertop while others resemble a typical kitchen trash can. The idea behind them is that one places food waste in the container, which processes it over a few hours or overnight and gives you almost instantaneous compost material that may be used in vegetable gardens or flower beds to add nutrients to the seeds and plants growing there. In normal composting setups, the process can take weeks or months for decomposition to be realized. These tools offer convenience and immediacy while also promising to radically eliminate waste.
The gospel reading features a character looking for expediency who finds themselves on a journey that places them in the midst of garbage. The parable of the prodigal or lost son is well known to us. Very few who read it struggle to find someone to identify with in the narrative. The younger son who wants his inheritance seems to be the main character for which the parable receives its name. He is lost, even before he leaves home, and does not find his way until he recognizes his actions have left him with only pigs as companions. The father who loves both his sons and responds to their actions embodies love, compassion, and reconciliation. The older son, who seemingly does everything asked of him, becomes shocked that his motivation and attitude are wanting even when his behavior has been commendable.
This parable is particularly complex as it builds upon the two preceding it:
In Luke 15, some Pharisees and scribes murmur against Jesus’ association with socially marginalized people. Jesus defends himself with three parables. The first puts his detractors in the shoes of a shepherd who rejoices over finding a lost sheep, makes divine rejoicing over one person who repents analogous, and thereby legitimates Jesus. The second makes a woman’s search for a lost coin analogous to Jesus’ mission and concludes, again, with divine joy over one person who repents. The first half of the third parable partially corresponds to the first two without an analogy to Jesus’ mission. A father rejoices extravagantly over finding his son. All three parables subvert expectations. The shepherd irrationally forsakes ninety-nine sheep in dedication to one. In a patriarchal culture, the second makes female characters analogous to Jesus’ mission and God’s joy. The third evokes pathos when the desperate son expects to return, but only as his father’s laborer. His father’s extravagant joy and his restoration to sonship beyond anything he asked or thought are astonishing. This story turns not on the son’s return, which fits a son who has learned his lesson, but on the father’s welcome. Perhaps this echoes Ps. 103:13: God’s love is like a father’s.
Robert L. Brawley
One might imagine that Jesus paints the older son in the likeness of the Pharisees, whose actions may be exemplary but whose motives become questionable. Not all Pharisees became hypocrites, as Jesus describes them in other instances. Yet, for many of them, the spiritual disciplines and practices in which they engaged became performative at best and tools for oppression at worst.
On three occasions since they last found fault with his penchant for sharing meals with “tax collectors and sinners” (5:27–32), Pharisees have been meal partners of Jesus and each time have sparred with him over their differing views of sin and restoration, status and fidelity to Torah (7:36–50; 11:37–54; 14:1–24). Now Pharisees join scribes in once more registering complaint about his intimate association with such persons. He counters with a vigorous defense of his practice in the form of a parable trilogy pressing the claim that a gracious God celebrates the restoration of the lost in Jesus’ ministry.
John T. Carroll
Motives matter, and attitudes that squander opportunity may be as destructive as actions that squander resources. What good is it to be zealous in worship while ignoring the circumstances of your community? What witness does our faith exhibit if our prayers are effusive but our ministry is miniscule?
A more accurate title for this parable would be two lost sons as neither was fully present for their father’s love. Only the one who physically removed himself realized it and had enough humility to do something about it.
Oppressive capitalistic systems thrive on scarcity frameworks. The attempt to erase acknowledgment and celebration of the diversity, equity, and inclusion in arguably the most diverse nation to ever exist rests on scarcity commitments and propaganda. The natural world testifies that diverse ecosystems are the strongest. Why would the strengths and contributions found in all the ways we have been created to be fearfully and wonderfully different lead to anything but strength and flourishing for all? Only through the demoralizing and demeaning attempts to stigmatize and divide, too often endorsed by those who claim to follow Christ, would this erasure be tolerated or encouraged.
If the older son was concerned about his father’s well-being and knew his father’s heart, he would have led the celebration of his sibling’s return. In the same way, Christians concern themselves with their citizenry in the kindom of God and know their Beloved Parent’s heart, they become ambassadors of Christ’s love and ministry in the world: embracing the poor, orphan, immigrant, and imprisoned. They eschew scarcity in recognition of God’s abundance and respond in generosity.
[quote] The last word belongs to the father’s affirmation of renewed life and the necessity of celebration, and therefore the open-endedness of the parable is deceptive. There is really only one possible response: come in and celebrate! (cf. B. Scott, Hear 103). Pharisee critic and Lukan reader alike are left with that claim, that unforgettable picture of divine grace. With this parable, especially its plot-complicating third act and concluding entreaty, Jesus images his own persistent quest to reach the righteous as well. Although he focuses his ministry on the lost, those who need help and healing, not on the well and righteous (cf. 5:31–32), he does not write off the Pharisees but continues trying to reach them too, to persuade them. In his ministry, Jesus shares with his Torah-observant critics a commitment to grace embodied in a reordered life (5:32; 15:7, 10; imaged also in the younger son’s return [15:17–20]), but—and here is the rub—the reordered life (repentance) that Pharisees also applaud may follow the offer of gracious acceptance rather than precede it. The parables of Luke 15 are a vigorous attempt at persuasion (deliberative rhetoric); the third parable leaves the outcome in the hands of the Pharisees: will they be able to move beyond offense at Jesus’ gracious hospitality toward the lost and join the party, symbol of the realm of God?
John T. Carroll
The truth is that the elder son was as lost as the younger and perhaps more dangerously so. In his comfort, he does not recognize the gap between where he is and where ought to be. As his father tells him, “You are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.” The elder son squandered the gift he was given. He would have been better off if he had lost all his money, his status, and his position so that he would have known he was lost and needed to be found. Yet, the story does not end until his parent found him and invited him back to himself and to the communal feast.
In a bit of a cliffhanger, the story ends without his response. We don’t know what he will do. The real question is what we will do. Will we accept the lie of scarcity or enjoy the fruit of abundance? It’s time to choose our story.
Squandered.
Reflection from Voices of People of African Descent
The 33rd General Synod adopted a Resolution to Recognize the United Nations International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024). As part of its implementation, Sermon and Weekly Seeds offers Reflection from Voices of People of African Descent related to the season or overall theme for additional consideration in sermon preparation and for individual and congregational study.
Caged Bird
By Maya Angelou
A free bird leaps
on the back of the wind
and floats downstream
till the current ends
and dips his wing
in the orange sun rays
and dares to claim the sky.
But a bird that stalks
down his narrow cage
can seldom see through
his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and
his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.
The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.
The free bird thinks of another breeze
and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn bright lawn
and he names the sky his own.
But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.
The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.
For Further Reflection
“We all have a grain of god in us. We do get opportunities to realize it, when moments in life demand selfless deeds of compassion from us. But we often squander them.” ― Ashok Kallarakkal
“Your life is not a countdown to your death, but a stepping stone for the lives that will live after you. Squander today, and you will find yourself useless tomorrow.” ― A.J. Darkholme
““Busy with the ugliness of the expensive success
We forget the easiness of free beauty
Lying sad right around the corner,
Only an instant removed,
Unnoticed and squandered.” ― Dejan Stojanovic”
A preaching commentary on this text (with works cited) is at //ucc.org/SermonSeeds.
The Rev. Dr. Cheryl A. Lindsay, Minister for Worship and Theology (lindsayc@ucc.org), also serves a local church pastor, public theologian, and worship scholar-practitioner with a particular interest in the proclamation of the word in gathered communities. You’re invited to share your reflections on this text in the comments below this post on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SermonSeeds.
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