Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Christ the King-Epiphany Church/ Wilbraham, MA

Deacon Michael Hamilton

March 30, 2025

Please pray that the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts may be pleasing and acceptable to God. Amen. (pbs)

Today we are that much closer on the Lenten journey that we began on Ash Wednesday. How ever we decided to observe this time part of the plan was to evaluate where we are in our relationship with God. We probably even hoped to look at what prevents us from going deeper in that relationship through fasting, prayer, or almsgiving. Finding ourselves at week four, if we have not lived into the Lenten experience that we expected this year, we still have time. We still have ‘grace’ (period), to begin again today if we want to. It really is the grace of our God that is ever willing to receive us over and over again. When we decide to turn, and re-turn back towards God, we always find a Father that is peering into the distance and waiting for us. Without regard of any immature decisions that we might have made in our youth, the singlemindedness of getting ahead during our young adult years, the errors and poor choices we might make along the way or even the hardheartedness that we develop in being unable to forgive someone, all of these offenses are released when we turn and say anything similar to “Father, against heaven and before you I have sinned. I am no longer worthy to be called your child..” The funny thing is, it does not even need to be that formal, a simple, “I’m sorry”, “help”, or even just “please” are enough for the love and grace of God to wash over us in abundance. It is interesting that the word “prodigal” as a noun can mean, a person who spends money in a recklessly extravagant way and it fits the young son in our parable. But as an adjective, “prodigal”, is to spend money or resources freely in wasteful extravagance. Synonyms would be generous, lavish, liberal, unstinting and unsparing, bountiful and copious, which makes me wonder if the prodigal component in this story is about the returning son, or the love of the father, and ultimately of God, in how they celebrate the return of someone they love and long for. We have the generous God that sits patiently and waits even through the last moments of Lent for someone to turn and when they do, by the grace of God, the robe is brought, the music is started, and the feast begins.

Much of the parable this morning is about relationships, and I would like to speak to that for a moment. We have the tax collectors and sinners listening to Jesus and the Pharisees and scribes complaining that they are these ‘low life’s’ are there, and that Jesus would eat with them. The marginalized vs the establishment, “the have’s and the have nots”, the wretched and the self-righteous pitted against one another in a never-ending story that we still see today. The very human condition and false steps that any one group can claim the higher ground with God since we all fall short of the ideal, and yet, every one of us, is celebrated whenever we ask for forgiveness, when we turn, when we re-turn each time to God and yet, we sometimes have great difficulty in extending even a portion of that type of grace to others in our own life.

How many of us have fractured relationships with family or friends because we have come to an impasse that we believe is so real, so important, or so unmovable that we cannot speak or entertain any willingness to be in the same room with “so-n-so”? Pharisees and tax collectors, the marginalized and the privileged, democrat and republican, libertarian, socialist, woke and ‘real Christian’… we have numerous camps that we can use to divide us in order to avoid being in proper relationship with someone. The difficulty in any of this division is that any one aspect of ourselves does not define the entirety of who we are and yet, with all of my broken pieces I can still turn to God and be received; I do not need to be perfectly intact, I can pray, “please God”, even 

though I haven’t feed a hungry person recently, or ever. I can still say, “I am sorry God” for an act of unkindness that I hurt someone even though I haven’t been honest in other areas of my life. Whatever shortcomings I have, I do not have to wait until I am picture perfect before God will celebrate, welcome, and bless me each time I turn towards God. That is the prodigal love of God- generous, abundant, unstintingly bountiful, flagrantly dispersed, given away freely and it is how we are called to emulate, or to strive to the same type of generosity in our own relationships.

Today it is painfully obvious that societal topics of race, religion, ethnicity, identity, politics, citizenship, refugee, straight, trans, housed, homeless, working, unemployed, climate change believer or denier, or even vaccinations are hard boundaries that do not allow for discussion or compromise. We have all seen relationships fractured or shattered beyond what we believe could ever be repaired even within our own families and we usually have the tendency to believe that, “we have done what we can”, “it is what it is”, and “there is nothing I can do”, as if we are not called to something different. The point that I am making is as simple as our commitment to our baptismal covenant; to respect the human dignity of all people. I say that with tongue in

cheek because we all realize how difficult it can be to even acknowledge the humanity of some people at times when we are in the heat of the moment. But right here and right now, in our calm and safe place of our worship space, can we agree, or be willing to entertain the fact, that God is just as quick to celebrate the turning in the lives that we are at odds with as God is in ours? Can we stop praying for their demise? Can we stop praying for retribution, destruction, or annihilation of group x, y, or z? I believe these prayers are dangerous and hurtful to us and are unworthy prayers that separate us more from the forgiveness of God than it does to the changing of the despised groups. One small thing that we can do that will help mitigate some of the hateful and toxic discourse in our lives is to stop liking, sharing, and redistributing the Face Book tropes that depict those we disagree with as stupid, deplorable, un-Christian, evil, or whatever flavor of disrepute that is being offered that day. Weighing in on a fight on social media is a cheap way of fanning the flames that do not need stoking. Are any of the cheap shots/jokes really benefitting a change in behavior for the better?

We can disagree with someone, but disagreeing is not the same as demeaning or stripping someone of their God-given dignity as if they too are not the

beloved child as much as we are. We have all benefitted from the prodigal generosity of God where we are abundantly blessed, repeatedly forgiven, and joyously celebrated every time that we have turned to God. As Christians, we know that we are not perfect; we can’t be. We also realize that we can’t match the generosity and patience of God, but every now and then, we can refrain from taking the low road or demeaning someone for the sake of Gospel of loving our neighbor and living into the promises of respecting the human dignity of all people. I don’t believe that small acts of civility are going to change the political divide, but it can change us where we can loosen the grip of hatred, fear, and anger that keeps us hostage. I also believe this simple action can open a small widget of space where we can invite the Holy Spirit into our troubled times to show all of us a way forward. Let us be instruments of change for the better. Let us pray for wisdom and changes of heart that allow us and everyone we disagree with or we are at odds with, to turn and say, “Father against You, against heaven, and against my sibling have I sinned, help, please, and thank you”.  Amen