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.