Saturday of the Second Week of Lent Years 1 and 2 2024

Peter H. Davids

Lent • Sermon • Submitted 2 months ago • Presented 2 months ago

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Micah shows the results of disobedience and the wealth of God’s forgiveness to the repentant whom he gathers into community under his shepherding. The younger prodigal son lives this out in his deep fall and loss and his restoration to sonship in the love of his father. The older prodigal is the Pharisee who does not know he is a prodigal but, while living in the house and enjoying its benefits, feels he is a slave and victim. Because of that he judges both the younger prodigal, whom he does not consider his brother, and his father, of whose love he knows nothing. He is left outside. We can apply this to our nation, to the role of Christian community, and to our own focus on the love of the Father and gaining his heart of mercy.

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Transcript

Title

There is hope for the lost if they know they are lost and repent

Outline

There is hope for the lost

Israel often behaved individualistically, going its own way, each doing what was right in their own eyes. There were community norms in various communities but there was no national consensus or unity, except about opposing Assyria or allying with Egypt, and that only for brief periods. Does that not sound like the USA today?

In the face of the disaster this caused - the fall of both Israel and Judah and their exile - God promises a time when he will again shepherd Israel in their land (trans-Jordan in particular) according to his standards as in the Exodus.

But this is not because of their inherent value or goodness, but because God removes objective guilt, grants pardon, delights in mercy, has compassion, shows covenant faithfulness, remains true to his covenant.

That means that in his timing they have repented from doing it my way and returned to him, accept his forgiveness, and are content to live under his rule.

What does this have to do with the Prodigal Sons?

The parable is set in the context of Jesus welcoming tax collectors and sinners who want to return to the people of God. The Pharisees complained that he did this without requiring the proper acts of purification first. He forgave sins as if he were God.

The story has a younger son who goes openly astray, leaves the protection of the father, and insults and impoverishes him. But the son crashes, as Israel had, finds himself hungry and unclean among despised animals, and, hoping against all hope, repents with his only hope being that of becoming a non-family hired worker who were at least decently paid and could eat.

The father acts like God in Micah, recognizing his repentance when he sees him at a distance, forgiving him, restores him to the place of a beloved son, and makes it public with a feast. So far we are in Micah.

But the older brother, the one who had obeyed all the rules, in incensed. In his mind he had been slaving for his father and had received nothing special. He had been in the family outwardly, but was outside the house inwardly. He did not want anyone’s reconciliation, for in his mind he was not estranged, had not sinned, but was a victim. The restoration of his brother (whom he does not recognize but says “your son”) is not strict justice and reveals a father whom this older brother does not know.

He, like the Pharisees, is outside the house and we never know if he realized his sin, repented, and came in.

We could meditate on this for ages, but let me make some brief points.

Doing our own thing, creating ourselves, living independent from God will destroy us. Many in our society are discovering this and our society as a whole will eventually discover this.

That underlines the importance of Christian community, whether parish-diocesan community (which needs strengthening) or various vocational communities. The more society collapses the more we need to all be metaphorical Benedictines, disciplined by an “abbot” under God and living relatively self-sufficient communities as lights to the world of what God wishes to do to for all who repent.

And, yes, this is simple to say, but difficult to actualize, first because our communities always need reforming in one way or another, and second, because the ideal is opposed by both the devil and our culture. I might add that the diocesan priesthood has a particular problem in living this.

Finally, the key to the divine community is loving the Father and sharing in his love. The father will not receive back the repentant prodigal as a hired servant, but as a son, for the repentant prodigal recognizes the grace of the father in part and wants to - but does not dare to hope for - living in love with and obedience to him. The older brother prodigal is unrepentant for he does not recognize his sin in judging others, including his father, but instead sees himself as victim even while living enjoying the benefits of a son (“all I have is yours”). So it will be with us if we judge others and even God’s reception of those others and fail to seek a heart like his and the joyful obedience of living in his love. One is inside the structure but really outside the community, estranged from the father and his party. (I have seen such in the diocesan priesthood and in churches.)