Readings:
Micah 7:14-20; Psalm 103; Luke 15:1-32

Once more have pity on us, tread down our faults, to the bottom of the sea throw all our sins.
Micah 7:19

‘Here am I dying of hunger! I will leave this place and go to my father and say: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son… While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with pity. He ran to the boy, clasped him in his arms and kissed him tenderly… ‘Quick, bring out the best robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the calf we have been fattening and kill it; we are going to have a feast, a celebration, because this son of mine was dead and is come back to life; he was lost and is found’
The elder son was angry and refused to go in… ‘all these years I have slaved for you and never once disobeyed your orders, yet you never offered me so much as a kid for me to celebrate with my friends. But, for this son of yours, when he comes back after swallowing up your property he and his women-you kill the calf we had been fattening. The father said, ‘My son, you are with me always and all I have is yours. But it was only right we should celebrate and rejoice, because your brother here was dead and has come to life; he was lost and is found.
Luke 15:17-24, 28-32

When the Pharisees and scribes complain that Jesus ‘welcomes sinners and eats with them’, he replies with three parables: the lost drachma, the lost sheep, and what is usually called the parable of the prodigal son-but it is the story of two sons, both lost, but in very different ways.

Because it is so familiar the parable can bounce off the surface of our minds, so it is important to contemplate it imaginatively, seeing the Pharisees complaining to Jesus and then, as he tells the story, imagining that it is now happening. Prayed in this way, the story can unearth layers in our consciousness of which we were unaware.

With our lips and our heads we can say that God is a God of mercy and compassion, but at a deeper level of consciousness we may think of him as God the judge, whose primary interest is in our sins and their appropriate punishment. If such is our image, then we shall measure closeness to God as being in direct proportion to sinlessness, and estrangement from God in proportion to offences committed. Any contrary teaching will seem heretical, and our sympathy in the story will be for the elder son.

Jesus presents a totally different picture of God, which scandalized the Pharisees, who felt justified in getting rid of Jesus, the blasphemer. The parable questions our image of God: is it Jesus’ image or that of the Pharisees?

God welcomes the prodigal, you and me, not because of our virtue, merits, or achievements, but simply because we are his. God is represented as waiting for the child, as though he had no other interest, recognizing him even when still a long way off, rushing out to meet him, apparently not hearing his confession of guilt. In prayer, meet and feel this welcome to you. What response do you want to make?

The elder brother represents the Pharisee in us, the God-the-judge part ,which resents God’s generosity to any who do not reach our standards ofus, of respectability and correctness. The Pharisee relishes his moral super-iority. It is this attitude which has turned so many people away from the Church: single parents, divorced people, alcoholics, AIDS sufferers-the very people whom God, the shepherd, pursues, who rejoices in them when they are found.

Prayer
Lord, lover of all your creation, cleanse our minds and hearts of all false images of you. Show us your love of us, so that we may mirror your welcome to everyone we encounter. We ask you this through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Amen.