Loving God, you welcome all who are your children, rejoicing whenever those who have been lost come home to you.  Help us also to rejoice in your love, thankful for the forgiveness that is ours through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

    For those of you who are parents, I’m wondering what your children could do that would be unforgivable.  Is there anything that would make you say, “you are no longer my son,” or “you are no longer my daughter”?  Can you think of anything? [responses] My suspicion is that, for most parents, there is very little, if anything at all, that would cause you to never, ever forgive your child.  From a parent’s perspective, you always want your children to come back to you.  And so perhaps, at least in part, you can understand the father in the parable that we heard today.

    Yet, many of us can also identify in some way with the two sons in the parable.  The younger son, by all accounts, had behaved very badly – especially for a Jewish boy in that time and place.  When he asked his father for his inheritance, he was basically saying to his father, “I wish you were dead.”  Yet, his father agrees and gives him what he asks for.

    Then, the son leaves home and goes to live among foreigners (Gentiles!), wasting his entire inheritance in extravagant living.  The Greek phrase that is used is difficult to translate, but the elder brother decides that it involved prostitutes.  The son could have been morally lax, or he could have simply spent his money recklessly until he had nothing left.  Either way, he ends up living among the pigs – an absolute disgrace for a Jew which would have rendered him unclean.

    In the end, it is hunger that prompts the younger son to return to his father.  He knows that he has sinned, and he knows that he must return to his father in absolute humility and repentance.  In fact, he doesn’t really expect his father to forgive him.  He’s just hoping that he will take him on as a hired hand so that he will have food to eat and a roof over his head.

    I have to wonder how many of us, and how many people in general, believe that we can’t be forgiven either.  How many believe that they have done something so terrible that God could never, ever forgive them?  And yet, when we come to God in humility and in repentance – ready to turn away from the things of the past and to turn towards God – when we come and confess our sin, it is like a child coming to their parent and asking to be forgiven.

    Part of the reason that Jesus tells this parable is to show how ready God is to forgive.  There are all kinds of possibilities for how the father in the parable could have responded.  He could have stood there, arms crossed, an angry look on his face, ready to show his son how badly he had been hurt.  He could have disciplined his son in some way, perhaps banning him from coming anywhere near the house, or sending him to the barn to sleep for a while.

    However, instead, the father in the parable actually runs to meet his son – which would have been considered very undignified for a grown man – and puts his arms around him and kisses him before his son can even say one word.  Then, not even waiting to hear his son’s proposal that he be treated like a hired hand, he proceeds to throw a party, with his son as the honoured guest.  It doesn’t seem to matter what his son has done.  The important thing is that he has come to his senses and returned.

    How many of us would be that ready to forgive?  How many parents would forgive their children eventually, but would make them suffer a while first?  Humanly speaking, that is often our approach, especially when we have been badly hurt.  However, in God’s case, God’s love is far greater than God’s anger.  And so, when we come seeking God’s forgiveness, God is more than ready to give it – for God welcomes us home as God’s own dear children who were lost but now are found.  When this truth sinks in for us, it is an incredibly freeing thing, enabling us to live in God’s light and God’s love. 

At the same time, there is still the elder brother to consider, in whom we might also see some of ourselves.  Does any of this sound familiar?  “Why do I bother?  Why do I live a good life when those who do evil seem to get so much more?  Why do I bother when others can just repent at the last minute and be forgiven?  Why did I bother working since early morning when these others can come in at the end of the day and get paid exactly the same thing?  It’s not fair!”

    When we think that we are pretty good and not in need of forgiveness, it is easy to be indignant.  After all, why should God forgive those others who have done such terrible things?  However, when we return to thinking like a parent, we grasp that those “others” are God’s children, too, just as we are.

    The problem always comes when we insist on comparing ourselves to others.  If the elder brother had simply focussed on his relationship with his father and given thanks for all of the good things that he shared because of that relationship, he would have had no trouble sharing his father’s joy and going in and celebrating.  However, instead, he compares himself to his brother and ends up feeling as though he has been slighted.

    In the same way, when we compare ourselves to others instead of focussing on our relationship with God, it leaves room for all kinds of unhealthy attitudes.  We might end up feeling smug because we’re so much better than those “others.”  We might end up feeling slighted and jealous because others seem to have so much more than we do.  We might end up feeling worthless and useless because others seem to be so much more gifted or competent than we are.  On the other hand, a life-giving relationship with God helps us to see that we are loved and forgiven and cherished, just as God loves all those who are God’s children.

    When you think about it, God’s forgiveness of all of us is pretty amazing and a sign of how great God’s love for us really is.  Our second reading today reminds us that God has reconciled the world to himself in Christ, “not counting their trespasses against them” (2 Cor. 5:16-21).  Can you even imagine doing that?  Can you imagine saying to somebody who has hurt you – who has sinned against you – “I’m not going to count that against you.  My son will take care of it instead.”  Yet, that’s what God does for each and every one of us.

    Today, may we be able to give thanks and rejoice in the relationship that we have with God through faith in Jesus Christ.  For, no matter what we have done, God’s forgiveness is for all of us – for every one who repents, confesses their sin and receives forgiveness through Jesus Christ.  Let us then give thanks today as we gather at the feast of God’s love, for God continues to bring the dead to life and to seek and to save the lost.  Amen.

Lent 4(C)                                Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
March 10, 2013                            2 Corinthians 5:16-21
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor Lynne Hutchison

© 2013 Lynne Hutchison  All Rights Reserved