The Gift to the Elder Son
© 2000 Ginger Henry Geyer
glazed porcelain with gold
10 ¼" x 5 5/8” x 9 1/8"
Adaptation of Rembrandt's The Return of the Prodigal Son
The gospel of Luke contains the "Lost and Found Department" of the Bible. In it, we are given a glimpse of human nature and the nature of God in three parables of reconciliation -- the lost coin, the lost sheep, and the lost son. The last, commonly called the "prodigal son" is probably the most quoted story in the New Testament. Its effect is numbed from familiarity. Like many of the parables, its ambiguity is frequently explained away, simplifying it into a story of sin and repentance. But there is another gift in this story...
A spoiled rotten kid takes out his inheritance early and blows it. He wallows with a bad crowd, and would be all but homeless if he didn't still have Dad to take him back in. So,  groveling, he returns home, barely repentant. The kid probably expected to get chewed out, shamed, or turned away with some "tough love" trend. But Dad dashes out to greet him and even throws a welcome home party. His forgiveness is absolutely lavish... There is a pretty clear analogy to God, the father who passionately re-establishes community with his lost ones. But the story continues with the older brother, who's been dutiful all this time…. He glowers in the background. He has well managed his own trust fund. He is righteously indignant and demands to know why this hooligan deserves such royal treatment. The elder son exemplifies the opposite of the father. He's the cold master of zero tolerance. So we are faced with a dilemma: is either of these positions reasonable in real life where boundaries must be drawn? Both responses reside in each of us. This is a story that is not neatly wrapped up.
The father's reply to the elder son is the subject of this sculpture: “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours..." (Luke 15:31) This porcelain present is gift-wrapped in Rembrandt's marvelous rendition of the homecoming. Rembrandt emphasized the intimate embrace of father and prodigal, with the elder son stiffly standing aside (he’s on the side of this sculpture, in profile).
Note the condition of the gift. Has it been fully unwrapped? What's inside the box? Has it been received? What blocks receptivity and gratitude? It is not righteousness but an inability to perceive life as a gift. This is what Jesus is getting at—morality must be balanced by compassion and acknowledgment that all of us are helped by grace. Otherwise we turn into goody-two-shoes who lord our virtue over others.
Paul had a lot to say about gifts. His discourses on spiritual gifts in the letters to the Romans and Corinthians link these gifts to the analogy of the body as a Christian community:
"The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you,' nor again the head to the feet, 'I have no need of you.' On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor... if one member suffers, all suffer together with it..."
"Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them. They are not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned."
“…. What do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as if it were not a gift? Already you have all you want! …”
We often call gifts “presents”…which has an interesting relationship to its homonym “presence”. God is presence…gift…but that is another piece. A true gift isn’t earned. It implies a giver. When we sense the giving presence, we are compelled to “exercise our gifts and learn that there is a mysterious law of reciprocity at work in the universe.” (Elizabeth O’Connor, Eighth Day of Creation: Gifts and Creativity.)
Gift to the Elder Son
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Is the gift too hot
to touch, smoldering
like the grill for the fatted calf? |
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Its paper too precious
for Scotch tape
its ribbons too fine for scissors? |
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Why squander the wrappings— |
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He's got the whole wide |
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World---all that I have--in his hands
—is yours— |
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Hear the gleeful rip
of gift received |
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In the lost
are found presents
at my party, and |
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presence, yes, |
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Presence is fire. |
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Chlora's Present
(an appropriation of Gift to the Elder Son)
They told Chlora when she was little
she would go to birthday parties and unwrap
all the presents. Since she was not the Birthday Girl,
this presented a problem. She got in bad trouble.
She resented that. It wasn't like she was the Prodigal Son
or something. She just really liked gift wrap and ribbons.
And she was curious about what other people had and
what they did.
So she played it safe like a goody two-shoes
and diverted attention elsewhere by tattle-telling.
Her naughty little brother gave her plenty to talk about.
He was always acting weird, eating gross things like
dried crickets, or sneaking snakes into the house,
or running away and blowing his entire allowance on candy at the
off-limits drugstore. Or blowing his nose on his shirt sleeves.
He didn't like the new Chevy they got, so he bit the vinyl
upholstery till there were teeth marks
all over the back seat. Chlora used to keep a list of his
evildoings to convince her Mom to cancel his birthday party.
But no! He got the biggest party ever. Mom spent half a day
making him a huge cake with red candles. Dad fired up
the grill. Both parents donned silly hats that matched
the party plates and napkins.
They tooted horns and put their favorite records on the stereo.
Chlora's ears were screaming.
Before Chlora could sneak in and shake down her brother's presents,
she was handed one just for her.
She popped off the fancy bow and ripped
into the package. Peeking out was a globe of the world.
Chlora bit her bottom lip, and stood there.
She smiled with her mouth but not with her eyes.
It was like the time her Mom received an iron for Christmas.
A deep rumble sounded from the stereo.
It was Tennessee Ernie Ford again,
"He's Got the Whole Wor--uld In His Hands".
Chlora took the boring globe out of its box
and looked it over. There were a lot of oceans
and rivers and mountains and countries on there.
The globe fit in her hands pretty well.
It was whole and it was wide.
And it was hers.
Luke 15:31 "Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours."
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