Pastor’s Corner April 2010
Come Home, You Are Forgiven: Luke 15: 1-3 11b-32
This reading seems to have really struck home with a lot of you. We also could identify with it as well.
There is probably NO PARABLE MORE IMPORTANT than the one we JUST READ, the story of two sons and their father. The story invites us to ACCEPT FORGIVENESS. It also INVITES US to EXTEND FORGIVENESS.
A man with two sons is REJECTED by each of them in turn, and HE FORGIVES each son in turn. The younger son asks his father for HIS SHARE of the INHERITANCE. Now an INHERITANCE normally comes AFTER somebody has DIED. Strangely enough,the father goes ahead and gives the son HIS PROPER SHARE..
The younger son takes his MONEY and FLEES. He puts countless MILES between HIMSELF and his FAMILY. In a DISTANT LAND, he goes through his MONEY QUICKLY, living a DISGRACEFUL LIFE. He runs OUT OF MONEY, then a FAMINE STRIKES the countryside, and this one-time SPOILED RICH KID finds himself WORKING as the LOWEST of FARM HANDS, he is SLOPPING THE HOGS. Carob pods are what these PIGS EAT, and the BOY is HUNGRY but has no food for himself.
Finally a LIGHT goes on in this young man’s MIND. He’s figured a way out of the PIGPEN. He’ll go BACK to the FAMILY FARM. It won’t be HOME any more, but he’ll get a JOB THERE, and he won’t be CLOSE to STARVING as HE IS NOW. The workers EAT WELL THERE.So off the boy goes, crafting a smooth SPEECH as he walks along his way HOME. He MANIPULATED his father ONCE; perhaps he can do so AGAIN.
Meanwhile, back at the farm, the FATHER has been keeping an EYE on the HORIZON. He has been doing SO since the day the BOY LEFT. But now he SEES a tiny FIGURE that looks familiar. It’s his SON! What matters to the old man is THAT THE BOY IS BACK. Why he’s back, what HIS MOTIVES may be simply DOESN’T enter the father’s MIND. And so HE DOES SOMETHING that an old man in HIS SOCIETY––or OURS, for that matter––is UNLIKELY to do. HE RUNS down the driveway in the direction of his son. The old man is CLOSE to TEARS. He grabs the boy in a BEAR HUG and PLANTS a sloppy wet KISS on his CHEEK. The son doesn’t get a chance to COMPLETE his smooth SPEECH.
The father yells to one servant for the best ROBE in the CLOSET, A PAIR of NEW SANDALS and a RING. He tells another servant to SLAUGHTER and PREPARE the CALF they’ve been FATTENING.
Other than HIS CROSS and RESURRECTION, Jesus has no OTHER way than this to tell us we are FORGIVEN when we play the part of the YOUNGER SON. When our BEHAVIOR is scandalous and our REPENTANCE less than perfect, there still is this mighty welcome home. Our sin is never greater than divine love.
But sometimes our POISONESS BEHAVIOR does not resemble what the younger son does.
We look RIGHTEOUS, act RIGHTEOUS, feel RIGHTEOUS. But inside, our heart is a CESSPOOL of RESENTMENT. We HATE anybody who seems to get away with anything. We HATE the FATHER who shows CONCERN and COMPASSION for them.
So this story INVITES US to accept FORGIVENESS when we tend toward INDULGENCE, ARROGANCE, or BOTH. But as I said at the start, this story also INVITES US to extend FORGIVENESS. Not only does the FATHER SET US FREE from our entrapment in sin, but he offers us an example we can follow of WHAT IT MEANS TO FORGIVE, and thus he reveals a deep dimension of how to be CHRISTIAN, how to be HUMAN.
Lent IS a time to ACCEPT FORGIVENESS, but EXTEND IT to others ALSO. DO WE find ourselves in the YOUNGER SON or the OLDER ONE or BOTH of them together. We can also find our role to be that of the FATHER. BROTHERS and SISTERS we are called to the exercise of this ministry. It belongs to US AS CHRISTIANS. May God help you to Forgive and come home.
Happy Easter…He is Risen Indeed…Alleluia….God loves you and so do I.