Father Riley's homily from March 31, 2019

CEC News alerts !

… We will have Morning Prayer this Sunday, April 7 (no Sunday School)

…   Father Riley will lead us in the following services in April:

 ---   April 14, Palm Sunday.  Church at 10am.  Please show up early to process into church  with palms from Parish house.  Also, so up early for our final Lenten Sunday School at 9am.

 ---  April 19, Good Friday and Stations of the Cross.  "Stations" will begin about 11:30am with Good Friday service following at noon.

---   April 21, Easter Service.  10am.

---   April 28 , Holy Eucharist at 10am

LENT IV - C- 19                                       LUKE 15. 1-3, 11B - 32

Today’s gospel story is a most familiar one. Yet it only occurs in Luke. We have all heard it and read it many times. It follows the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin. It is the story of the lost son. Moreover, it lends itself to a couple of catchwords that even the un-churched toss about at will, the “fatted calf” and “the prodigal.”

Jesus’ aim in telling it was to portray the difference between God’s loving forgiveness and the self-centered complacency that not only denies love, but cannot understand it or worse yet, in some cases even resents it.

Jesus was teaching and a crowd had gathered around him. He had already told the parable of the lost sheep and the lost coin prior to the Pharisees and scribes drawing near. As they did so they did not hesitate to make public their distain of the company he was keeping.

In response to their grumbling, Jesus tells the story of the lost son. Notice there is two sons in the story. I will come back to the other one in a moment. For now, the emphasis is on the younger one who cannot wait until his father dies to receive his portion of the inheritance. Like many young people today, he wants it right now!

Though disappointed, the father gives in to his young son’s request much to the chagrin of the elder brother. So off the younger goes to the big city where he quickly squanders all that he has in riotous living. Times are tough. A famine strikes the country where he is. He has no job. No income. He is on the verge of starving. He is homeless and without family or friend.

He hires himself out to one of the landowners who raise hogs. His job is to feed the hogs. He is so hungry that he eats what the hogs eat. There was no lower estate for a Jew than to do what he was doing. He had hit rock bottom.

Then one day as he was going out to feed the hogs it dawned on him that if only he were back home where even his father’s servants had plenty to eat, he would not be starving. Therefore, he walked off his menial job and started home.

On the way, he practiced what he would say once he came face to face with his father. “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.”

Like many of us as parents, his father prayed and hoped that one day he would come to his senses and see the mistake he had made and would be willing to return and admit it. He kept an eye out everyday for his lost son’s return.

Then, one day, there he was. The father recognized his gate at a distance. He did not wait for him to turn into the lane that led to the house. He leaped off the porch, ran to meet him, threw his arms around him, and kissed him. At first, the lost son was stunned at the reception he was receiving.

Then, he remembered his lines, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son…” However, before he could finish his request to be treated like one of the hired hands, his father called one of the servants to bring his best robe, a ring for his finger, and sandals for his feet.

The father’s motive was compassion. When the son repeats his confession, the father makes him not a servant, but an honored son, not work clothes, but the best robe is put upon him; not the yoke of slavery, but the ring of son ship; not the barefoot service of slaves, but the sandals of a son. If all that were not enough, a great feast is held with the young man as the honored guest.

His place as a son is freely restored. From the moment the father gives the younger son what he wanted, through to the wonderful homecoming welcome, we have a vivid picture as anywhere in Jesus’ teaching of what God’s love is like, and of what Jesus himself took as the model of his own ministry of welcome to the outcasts and sinners that flocked to him.

The older son, however, provides the real punch line of the parable. He is out working in the field when a servant runs up to him and gives him the good news that his brother has returned.

He hears the music and as he approached the house, he sees people dancing and laughing. There is a party going on but he has decided not to participate.

He remains outside. He is angry that his father would receive his younger brother back as if nothing had happened. The father pleads with him to come in and welcome his brother who was lost and is now found, was dead and is now alive. He will not. It is not that easy for him to forgive what his brother has done.

He has been the dutiful one. He has been the go to guy his father could always depend on. However, not once has a party been thrown for him. He is resentful of his brother’s welcome and cannot find it in his heart to forgive him. The story ends with the father assuring the elder son that his place has always been with him and always will.

Forgiveness is both one of the more consoling and one of the more challenging themes in the gospel. The consoling aspect consists in God’s mercy and compassion. The challenge lies in our capacity to forgive others.

The two brothers in the story represent us in the way we sometimes think of ourselves in the eyes of God and man. The younger brother confessed his sins. He admitted he was a sinner and because he had sinned, he considered himself unworthy to be called a son.

Being a sinner alone does not make one unworthy. We have all sinned and fallen short in the eyes of God. God loves the sinner and forgives him on the basis of repentance. That is at the heart of the gospel. Acknowledging our sinfulness opens our eyes to see how undeserving we are of God’s infinite, compassionate, generous, faithful love.

To know we are undeserving of God’s love and yet we continually receive it deepens our appreciation of God’s greatest gifts: His forgiveness and love. However, it is not something to be taken for granted. The proper response to God’s love and forgiveness is gratitude and our accepting the challenge to forgive as we have been forgiven.

As St. Paul says, “all this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. God even entrusted us with the message of reconciliation and in that makes his appeal through us.” The elder brother, the resentful one, the angry one, who refused to go into the party and welcome his brother home, also represents us in the challenge of forgiveness.

Forgiveness does not mean liking someone who has hurt us, or agreeing with them when in our heart we do not, or acting as if nothing happened when it did happen. The elder son was right in remaining outside and refusing to go into the party if his heart was not open to welcoming his brother back with open arms, as did his father.

There can be no reconciliation if it is offered with resentment. Forgiveness means being open to reconciliation and the healing of relationships. It means a willingness to let go of offenses as God does, not storing them up, not letting them harden like cement, not letting them become resentments and bitterness.

Jesus tells this story to a group of Pharisees and scribes who see themselves as more deserving of God’s love than those Jesus is keeping company with. They see themselves as the dutiful son and the tax collectors and sinners that surround Jesus as not worthy of God’s forgiveness.

When we see ourselves as better than someone else, we alienate our selves from God. It leads us to imagine there is nothing so very wrong with us. This in turn leads to a false sense of self-righteousness and the taking for granted God’s love and mercy.

I have often wondered what the Pharisees and scribes who listened to Jesus tell this story must have thought afterwards. Did they change their opinion of those Jesus was with? Did they change their opinion of themselves? What about us?

Today’s parable raises two questions for us. How can we accept God as the one who forgives? Moreover, how can we begin to be as forgiving and as compassionate as God knowing that God’s love, mercy, and saving grace goes out to all, even those we do not expect to receive it. AMEN+