Father Christopher Zugger

Today might be better called Sunday of the Merciful Father. He is really the central character in the story. He is the one who is insulted by the younger son, who basically demands the money he would get when the father would die. He is the one abandoned by the younger son. He is the one who watches for the younger son, who runs to him when he returns.

He is the one who gives the orders to restore the son – he gives him the ring, showing that even though he wasted all the money, this wastrel of a son is still an heir to the family. He gives  him not the robe left behind, but the best robe in the house. He puts shoes on the son’s feet, the ultimate sign of a free man. He gives the order for a feast, a feast that would normally be given at a wedding.

And he is the one who, after being  yelled at by the angry older son, is the one who gives the message of love. As the father, he is happy that the lost child has returned, and not only returned, but he is so happy that he restores this child to the full stature as a member of the household.

This is what happens in every confession. People line up, acknowledging that they have gone into exile, drifted away, done things that interfere with God’s grace and mercy and love and energy, and instead have put their energy into wrong behaviors. Everybody in this church who is old enough and mature enough to decide between right and wrong, good and bad, has gone into exile at some point. Hopefully everybody who has done that has chosen to make a real act of repentance and come forward to be restored as a member of God’s household.

The point Jesus was making in this story is that the father in heaven is incredibly merciful, incredibly loving, incredibly gracious. It’s part of a series of parables listed by Luke – the lost sheep, the lost coin, the dishonest steward, the rich man and Lazarus. They are all stories of dramatic reversals. Would the shepherd leave the 99 to look for one sheep? No. Would the woman spend all day looking for a dime and then call in the neighbors to rejoice? No. The people listening to him would expect the rich man to go to heaven, not into the fires of hell. They would also expect the younger son to be yelled at, reduced to the level of a slave as punishment for the terrible insult he gave to his father and the sins he committed with the family’s money. None of those things happen in Jesus’ parables.

It is all about great, enormous, abundant, unending mercy, and a mercy that is rooted in generous, incredible, stupendous love. In the office of Matins today and through Cheesefare Sunday, Psalm 137 is added. This is from the time of Israel’s exile in modern Iraq under the Assyrians, when they would gather by the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and sing of their exile from the temple on Mount Zion and Jerusalem – By the rivers of Babylon—  there we sat down and there we wept  when we remembered Zion. ² On the willows there we hung up our harps.

We have the American Byzantine Catholic hymn based on this, We Sat and Wept. What are we weeping for? Not Mount Zion, not the vanished temple. No, this psalm is used in the weeks before Lent because we are supposed to recognize that like the younger son, we deliberately go into exile away from the loving Father, from that Father whose love is generous, incredible, stupendous.

What do I choose for my exile? Anger? Disobedience? Cheating? Alcohol? Driving too fast? Swearing? Indecent behavior? We cannot be like the pharisee of last week and say well I haven’t murdered anyone or committed a great sin, and after all I give generously to the church so I’m in good shape.

The point is that each person, each one of us who is capable of choosing between good and bad, chooses some kind of exile. It can be a small step away, it can be many small steps, but whatever the sin, it is an action away from God and His commandments, from God and His mercy, from God and the standards He set for the human race.

We are invited to do what the younger son does – wake up! Wake up and realize what is the habit, the behavior, the choice that I make that I know God does not approve of, and ask the Lord’s grace to come forward and repent of that, and replace it with its opposite? Drive too fast? – slow down! Curse? – clean up my mouth! Eat too much? – it’s the season to eat less and realize that I will still live. Cheat in school or at work? Do my own work. Give television 5 hours and God 5 minutes? Change my orientation. Wake up and move away from Satan’s temptations and closer to God’s mercy.

There are 3 priests ministering in this parish, a parish of less than 200 people. There really is no excuse for not making a good confession with one of us, and receiving God’s great love and forgiveness. In receiving the Body and Blood of the Lord, let us ask Jesus for the courage to go forward, to have a blessed Lent, a Lent of repentance and return, a season in which I realize He wants to restore me to the fullness of love and His kindness, and not to be afraid. Christ is among us.