Year C
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
The Rev. Denise Vaughn
Truth That Brings Celebration
The apostle Paul, in his second letter to the Christians in the city of Corinth, calls the church to be ambassadors for Christ; to be ambassadors for God’s “ministry of reconciliation.” This “ministry of reconciliation” sets the theme for today’s readings. Paul writes that in Christ, in the cross, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their sins against them and entrusting them with the ministry of reconciling themselves and others to Christ. We are reconciled to God because we know ourselves to be forgiven. Reconciliation means to make good again or repair and it goes hand in hand with forgiveness. Lent invites us to think with heart and mind the lengths to which God will go to restore us to a right relationship with himself and each other. God forgives, restores, reconciles, and in all these ways creates something new.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu once wrote, “Without forgiveness there can be no future for a relationship between individuals or within and between nations.” The call to reconciliation and forgiveness is not just about getting a second chance. It is about becoming a whole new person with a new life, and having received this new life in Christ, we are commissioned, invited and entrusted to share it with others. But, to really understand forgiveness and reconciliation we must first admit to our own sinfulness and our need for repentance. The very familiar Gospel story of the prodigal son and his brother, reminds us that there is nothing more important to God than restoring that broken relationship, as it also highlights the destructive power of sin.
Sin and forgiveness are such familiar words to us in the church that we have a tendency to forget how misunderstood they have become in the culture and language of our day. Sin, is not about shame. Rather, it names a brokenness in our very being and world that we know we cannot fix on our own. It is a ache deep in our hearts that comes from recognizing the hurts we inflict not only on others but on ourselves. Forgiveness, isn’t simply saying, “It’s okay.” Rather, forgiveness is a deliberate releasing of the claim we have on another that not only gives a second chance but a whole new relationship. It is truly a favor you do for yourself and the other person. We all know what it feels like when someone truly forgives an offense. It refuses to allow the present hurt to dominate but looks instead to a new future.
The Gospel, and the other readings today, invite us to think about both the cost and the hope of God’s forgiveness not just on a large scale but in the everyday terms of a father who loves his children enough to forgive one son his foolish waywardness and the other his hardness of heart. If we can imagine forgiveness in these everyday terms, we may be able to practice it and in this way bring a soothing new life to the deep ache sin creates in our own hearts and in others. If we want to know how God receives our repentance, forgives and reconciles us to his self and each other, we just look at the parable of the Prodigal Son.
This parable is the last in a series of three parables which focuses on reconciliation, forgiveness and the joy of finding what is lost. Jesus tells these stories in response to a complaint raised by the Pharisees and scribes concerning his eating with and associating with people known to be sinners. That Jesus welcomes sinners, and is even willing to eat with them, shows this parable to be a parable of grace which helps us to see God’s deepest desire, greatest yearning and passionate dream for all of God’s children and the whole of God’s creation. We were made by God to be in a loving, harmonious relationship with God and with each other. And story after story in the scriptures, we read of God’s desire to repair and restore creation. This is the power working in the parable today. Jesus wants us to see and to know God’s reconciliation and forgiveness.
In the 17 century, Rembrandt painted a beautiful painting just before he died titled ‘The Return of the Prodigal Son.’ This painting is Rembrandt’s depiction of the gospel story today. And when the late Henri Nouwen, priest and author, first saw this painting, he began a journey of meditation of this painting that eventually leads him to write about this journey in a book titled “The Return of the Prodigal Son – A story of Homecoming.” It’s a very good book and it will lead you on your own journey of meditation. If you have not seen a picture of this painting, I invite you to go on line where you can see a copy of it and even if you don’t read the book, I invite you to meditate on what you see and feel as you look at it.
Nowen says, “When I first saw Rembrandt’s painting, I was not as familiar with the home of God within me as I am now. Nevertheless, my intense response to the father’s embrace of his son told me that I was desperately searching for that inner place where I too could be held as safely as the young man in the painting. For indeed, I am the younger son; I am the elder son; and I am on my way to becoming like the father. And more than any other story in the Gospels, this parable expresses the boundlessness of God’s compassionate love.” “I am the prodigal son he says every time I search for unconditional love where it cannot be found. Why do I look for it elsewhere and keep leaving home looking for it”?
Here the mystery of life is unveiled, he says. We are loved so much that we are free to leave home. But God the Father is always looking for us with outstretched arms to receive us back. Telling us, “You are my Beloved, and all that is mine is yours.” But, it seems it was only when the son was truly lost did he come to his senses. He then has the long trip home to where he finds forgiveness. The elder son leaves the father also and is lost in resentment and he must choose for or against the love offered him. The reconciliation between father and both son’s does not occur because of what they do, but because of what the father does.
Behind Jesus’ parable lies the profound and overwhelming truth about God and God’s kingdom. We humans are lost in sins of all sorts. Yet, God continues to reach out in the people of Israel and then in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Like the sons, we are lost but we have the choice to return to God. When we do return, we are told God rejoices. For we are lost and have been found. This is truly a cause for celebration and all this lead us to a new way of life-a “new creation”-as Paul proclaims. Just as the father’s love reconciled him with his estranged son in the parable, so are we forgiven and reconciled to God through Christ, who never stops loving us and calls us to reconcile the world to God. This is the overwhelming scandal of grace, which is cause for great rejoicing. In the theme of Lent “Return to the Lord our God.”