Today is also known as Mothering Sunday or refreshment Sunday, a brief respite from the rigours of
lent are afforded us and so I hope many of you will be spoilt a little today,
and indeed at the end of our service all of us will be given some flowers by
the church as a reminder in the days ahead of the task that lies before us in
our daily Christian living – to receive and give to those around us the love of
Christ.
It may seem strange that on
this day our gospel reading is not about Mothers and Children, but Fathers and
sons! The parable that we have just heard read as our gospel reading is only
found in Luke’s gospel but is one whose faint echo can still be heard, whose picture
language is still cherished by a world that seems to have forgotten so much of
the Christian scriptures.
But what do we call this
parable – the parable of the lost son or the forgiving father?
I wonder which title finds
greater resonance with you this morning?
Which of these two, in fact
its three, characters do you emphasise with most – the Father or the Sons?
The parable of the lost son.
The youngest, foolish and
selfish son who wishes his father dead so as to inherit his share of the family
fortune.
The child, to be inclusive
for a moment, who is given what they ask for, what they dream of, what they
strive for only then to loose it through reckless and self centred living.
Is this the story of a man
who has crashed to lowest point in life, not just their life, but LIFE, without
a single person around them who notices them for anything other than slave, a
pitiful individual doing a pitiful job – a job for which there are sadly too
many others just as qualified.
A son who comes to his senses
and seeks forgiveness, who dares to return, to turn again, to admit that they
got is so terribly wrong, to put aside self pity and recrimination and simply
ask for forgiveness. Except of course it is rarely simple and it is always
costly.
Or is it a story of the
Forgiving Father - of a long suffering
father who demonstrates the cost of that love which welled up in his chest as
his son drew his first breath and yelled to the world that he had arrived. A
forgiving parent, to be inclusive for a moment, who takes on the insults of
their child who out of love makes the mistake of indulging that child, yes
maybe spoiling the youngest to compensate for perceived strictness with the
first born. A Parent, a Father, who nevertheless is prepared to watch, not just
wait, but to actively wait and watch, who is prepared to reject the sound
advice of fellow dads who say good riddance to their offspring when they become
too much to handle, a Father who actively runs out, under the full and mocking
gaze of the world to meet the dirty and disgraced figure who no one but HE can
recognise as his son.
I guess the answer is
probably tied up with what is preoccupying you and me on this particular day –this
Mothering Sunday– what it is we need most in our lives right now so that we can
go forward rather then remain in the rut that has become the familiar and
frustrating in equal measure.
Our decision will probably be
shaped by what it is that we seek most right now in our lives:
Is this a story about
Repentance or Absolution?
Is it a story about the cost
of admitting our need to repent/ change our lives and seek to
restore/heal/reconcile all that is broken?
What ever your answer, and it
can be either or and both! This parable is a story about costly living – the cost
of asking for forgiveness and the cost of forgiving, of reaching out to the one
who has hurt us like no other can and forgiving/loving in spite or and because
of what they have done and who they are.
A son who comes to his senses
and seeks forgiveness, who dares to return, to turn again, to admit that they
got is so terribly wrong, to put aside self pity and recrimination and simply
ask for forgiveness. Except of course it is rarely simple and it is always
costly.
Or is it a story of the
Forgiving Father - of a long suffering
father who demonstrates the cost of that love which welled up in his chest as
his son drew his first breath and yelled to the world that he had arrived. A
forgiving parent, to be inclusive for a moment, who takes on the insults of
their child who out of love makes the mistake of indulging that child, yes
maybe spoiling the youngest to compensate for perceived strictness with the
first born. A Parent, a Father, who nevertheless is prepared to watch, not just
wait, but to actively wait and watch, who is prepared to reject the sound
advice of fellow dads who say good riddance to their offspring when they become
too much to handle, a Father who actively runs out, under the full and mocking
gaze of the world to meet the dirty and disgraced figure who no one but HE can
recognise as his son.
A very big thank you for all the well wishers and members of St John and St Matthias who came to see my installation at St Paul's yesterday. I hope to add more pictures as they arrive. Thanks to my colleagues for my new hat - we shall start to make a collection of coloured pom poms between us all.
