March 21, 2004
Fourth Sunday in Lent

Joshua 5:9-12
Psalm 32
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
Luke 15:1-3; 11b-32

But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found. Luke 15:32

Women at a retreat were speaking together about the parable of the lost son and how it applied to their lives.

One woman told of a ring her mother had lost. It was a precious ring given in honor of a significant wedding anniversary. It had fallen off her mother?s finger onto thickly rooted carpeting. Her mother and father had combed through the carpet, inch by inch, looking for the ring; it remained hidden. They kept looking, checking vacuum bags after each vacuuming, checking cleaning-ware after each cleaning. The ring remained hidden.

Years passed. Eventually the couple decided to tear out the old thick carpet and replace it with something new and more contemporary. But they did not forget the ring: as the carpet was lifted up, yard by yard, inch by inch, it was taken outside and combed over. And finally, the lost was found, hidden in depth of fabric.

The woman laughed, telling the story. ?My parents called everyone they knew,? she said. ?They couldn?t believe their joy in finding that ring. I think of that ring every time I hear the story of the lost son; Jesus is as persistent in his love for us as my parents were in finding that ring.?

Another woman spoke up. ?About the story of the lost son? sometimes it takes years before you get it. You think you know it, and then there comes a time when you realize that you are the Prodigal, going home after a long while lost. And then,? she said quietly, ?you really know what that joy in heaven is all about.?

When have you lost something significant, to find it again over time? How did you feel when you found what you were searching for?

What does this parable tell us about the extent to which God loves us?

Why is it significant that Jesus told this story while ?all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him? (Luke 15:1)?

Read the story of the lost sheep in Luke 15:3-7 and the lost coin in Luke 15:8-10. How do these parables help to illustrate the point made in the parable of the lost son?

Link to the Gospel Reading

Then Jesus said, ?There was a man who had two sons.? Luke 15:11

The younger son in this story asks for what is due to him at his father?s death before his father has died. He wants his full inheritance before its time, to spend in the time that he deems appropriate. He cares neither about his father nor about his place on the family ?farm.? He knows only that he wants what he wants now.

In an amazingly unselfish act, the father gives the son all that would be due to him. He counts himself as if he were dead, and hands over to the son all of the son?s inheritance?all that hard earned money, amassed over such long period of time. The father utters not a word about how the money should be spent. He says not a thing about how precious the gift is. He simply hands it over.

And the son wastes no time in spending what he had been given wantonly, on ?dissolute living.? (15:13). He doesn?t think about tomorrow or the next day, doesn?t wonder about how he might use the inheritance for further good. He uses it up, all of it up--- and then finds himself hungry and spent when famine comes over the land in general and his own life in particular.

The proud son hires himself out to a citizen of the land, taking on the distasteful job of feeding pigs. He is so hungry, he would eat even the leftover pods the pigs eat, ?but no one gave him anything? (15:17). It?s then that he comes to his senses: At his father?s house, even the hired hands have more than enough to eat. He will return, and cast himself on his father?s mercy. He who had so much now has nothing but that? the hope of mercy from his father?s hands.

The glory of the story is this: the father sees the son at a distance, runs to him, and sets out to spend even more money on him. A calf will be killed, a robe will be fetched, a ring will be given, ?for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!?

The whole scene is too much for the older son, who has dutifully stayed at home all the long while the younger son was out spending all he had been given. He refuses to go into the party the father is pulling together. He is ?angry? (15:28)

Once more the father takes the initiative and comes out to ?plead with him? (15:28). The older son has no reason to begrudge the younger. All that the father has belongs?and has always belonged?to the elder son. There is something far more important than petty jealousies and private grievances to tend to. The son who was as dead has come to life?he who was lost has been found.

Link to the Second Reading

Christ makes all things new. For those in Christ, looking at others from a human perspective becomes a way of the past. We can look to the neighbors who surround us without the self-righteous judgment that overtakes so many of us so much of the time.

?All this is from God? (1 Corinthians 5:18): the ability to see the person beside us as a sinner, redeemed by the same Savior by whose stripes we ourselves are healed. All this is from God: the ability to spend our lives working toward reconciliation rather than alienation; the ability to be ambassadors for Christ; the ability to become, in Christ and only in him, ?the righteousness of God.? Our future is not the future the prodigal first sought for himself?a future of self-driven, self-orientated passion. We have been given something brand new. We reach out to the world, in Christ, with the love the father had for the lost son, seeking to reconcile with him even before the son had chance to mouth his sorrow.

Link to the First Reading

When God closes a door, the old saying goes, God opens a window. The manna the Israelites had been given to live on in the wilderness ceased to be provided the day that the people were able to live off the land. We are called to be a people who live through and through by trust. The means with which God takes care of us today may not be the same means through which God will care for us tomorrow. What we are called to know is only this: that the God who seeks reconciliation with us, in Christ, will provide.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. How does the father in the Story of the Prodigal Son show initiating love to both sons?
2. A parable is a story with one point. Is the story of the Prodigal Son more about the son?s repentance or more about the father?s love? How so?
3. When has the story of the Prodigal Son meant the most to you? Why?
4. How would you tie in the story of the Prodigal Son with the second reading for this Sunday?
5. What does it mean that ?in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us? (2 Corinthians 5:19)?

This WORDLINK prepared by:
Karen Bates-Olson
Pastor
St. Luke Lutheran Church
Spokane, Washington