Prodigal Son 2021

Glory to Jesus Christ. In the name of the Father,

and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. My goodness.

What an amazing parable and story. And how it

gives me anxiety to have to say anything about

this at all. Well, let's say this. In chapter

15 of the Gospel of St. Luke, Jesus tells three

parables. Each one is a story about the joy and

the celebration of finding something lost. The

shepherd goes out in search of his lost sheep.

The housewife with her collection of coins. Imagine,

you had $100, $1 ,000 in $100 bills. You came

back from the bank, $100 bill was missing. You'd

be looking, and when you found it, it would be

as if this amazing thing. Both had happiness.

Both called their friends to come and rejoice

and have a celebration with them for the finding

of the coin and the lost sheep. And the climax...

of chapter 15, our parable today, the father

and the lost son. And what celebration then follows?

St. Luke tells us why it is Jesus is telling

these parables about the lost sheep and the lost

coin and the lost son. Yes, we call it the prodigal

son, but really it's about the lost son and the

father. St. Luke tells us why Jesus is telling

us these parables and why there was such rejoicing.

Listen to what St. Luke says. Then drew near

unto Jesus all the publicans and the sinners

to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes

murmured, grumbled, saying, This man, Jesus,

receives sinners and eats with them. What's their

problem? Why are they complaining about this?

Is it just that they see them as unclean? No,

no, there's something much more there. Try to

grasp this, because this is outside our understanding

completely. The Pharisees and the religious leaders

of the day believed that the Messiah would only

come and God's kingdom would only be established

and the Romans destroyed only when the law of

Moses was... perfectly kept by every one of those

Jews. And the sinners, they're the problem. Sinners

of all types were stopping good things from coming.

The Messiah would not come until perfection was

there. And they felt that Jesus didn't take sin

very seriously. He didn't understand this principle,

they felt. And he ate with them, and he received

them, and he spoke with them, and he ministered

unto them, and he healed them. Ironic, is that

the right word? That the Messiah himself was

with them. St. Paul puts it this way, for when

we were still without strength. In due time,

Christ died for the ungodly. Scarcely for a righteous

man will one die. Yet perhaps for a good man,

someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates

his own love toward us in that while we were

still sinners, Christ died for us. So Jesus tells

this enduring and hopeful and joyful parable

about the lost, the found, and the rejoicing

and the love of God. This is important as we

come towards Lent, to remember what repentance

is about. The parable starts with the Father's

house. And the house means what? The life of

God. It means God's love. It means blessings

beyond counting. It means the Lord is merciful

and compassionate along suffering and forgets

our sins. The Father's house is his... unending

grace. The father's house is the knowledge, an

intimate knowledge of God. Joy, goodness, truth,

mercy from him. The younger son didn't notice

these things at all. And he demands his inheritance.

You don't get your inheritance until you die.

So what he's really saying is, listen old man.

Give me my inheritance. I'm tired of waiting

for you to die so I can get the money that's

coming to me. Give it to me and I'll be out of

here. And off he goes. And when the good times

have ended, as they always do, and the money

is gone and the friends go away too, the son

realized not just that he was desperately lonely.

The gospel says a far country. Far, in every

way possible. He would even eat the pig slop.

He was so hungry. Living with pigs, which for

a Jew, this indicates for us that he really hit

rock bottom. He was mostly spiritually starving.

It was then that the miracle happened. He came

to himself. He came to himself. He circled back,

which is the first step in repentance, realizing

how far we are from God. His conscience was alive.

God gave him that. He knew he was living in a

strange land where the inhabitants, the pig herders,

think that pig life is normal life. Pigs are

a nasty, unclean animal for the Jews. And the

father is waiting for him when the son says,

after he remembers the father's house, he then

says, I will arise and go to my father's house.

The father is waiting for him. No questions asked.

Nothing. No recriminations. No anger. There's

a hymn from the Canon of St. Andrew. It's a particularly

hymn I love so much. It says this, Though I have

sinned, O Savior, I know that Thou art full of

lovingkindness. Thou dost chastise with mercy,

and art fervent in compassion. Thou dost see

me weeping, and dost run to meet me, like the

Father calling back the prodigal son. So here's

the question I pose to myself in this story,

and I have to face the painful truth of this

son's attitude in leaving home what it means

for me. If the Father's house, God himself, is

truth, goodness, comfort in the Holy Spirit,

Joy and kindness and intimacy with Jesus Christ.

If God loves me 100%, no strings attached. If

that's what the Church of Christ is, this place

of transfiguration and God's presence and communion

with God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,

then I have to ask myself this painful question.

Why? Why am I so far from any of that glory and

holiness and intimacy? Why do I sin? Why do I

turn away from Christ? This story is not just

about the decadent living of a crazy young man

who wastes it all with prostitutes. If that was

the case, why would we hear it today? Because

I trust none of you are living that way. This

is a message for us to understand the meaning

of repentance. Realization. Self -knowledge.

How could I have done that, we say. How could

I have fallen into that sin? Why could I not

see that? Why leave the house, the garden of

paradise? This is the story of the fall of Adam

and Eve. This is just the whole story. How could

I squander my spiritual inheritance and some

perhaps even leave the church entirely? Why?

Maybe we just don't need God. We're fine as we

are. We learn to live without him. We learn to

live that perhaps Sunday is here. The rest of

my time, I do okay without him. Maybe it's because

I don't venture very deeply into that struggle

which is ahead, which is what Lent is about,

that struggle to learn to be with him, to find

myself ready to say, it is not I who live, but

Christ who lives in me. O my Creator and my Lord,

how I have devalued you. to be something that

I can call upon now and then. Father Alexander

Schmemann shifts our focus now. He tells us what

this parable is about and how we need personally

to approach it if we are going to gain anything

from it besides just a sentimental story. He

says, often we overlook something essential in

repentance, a relationship with Christ. This

something... is precisely the feeling of alienation

from God, from the joy of communion with him,

from the real life as created and given by God.

It's easy to confess, I have not fasted on prescribed

days, I miss my prayers, or I got angry. It's

quite a different thing, however, he says, to

realize suddenly that I've defiled and lost my

spiritual beauty and that I am far away from

my real home, my real life, that something precious

and pure and beautiful has been hopelessly broken.

Any soul, says Elder Emilinos, can go to confession,

can read spiritual books, can pray much, shed

copious tears. What does it mean to be close

to God? asked the elder. Can you be close to

an icon and not be moved to venerate it? Any

child knows that truth. Can you be close to a

fire and not be warmed? Can you be close to the

light and not be illumined? Of course not. Then

how can you be close to God, he says, and not

become God -like? How rich we are in Christ,

brothers and sisters. Last week, humility and

prayer. This week, the steps of transformation

of repentance, beginning with honest assessment

of our alienation and our exile from God, and

then the coming to self -knowledge, and then

saying, I will arise and return to my Father.

Let us meditate on this parable, rereading it

every day this week, to understand our place

in it and the glory that God has given.