Grace Episcopal Church (Sheldon, VT)

2 Corinthians 5:16-21

Luke 15:1-3; 11b-32

And then comes that line. “But when he came to himself.” Sin and selfishness are like that. Sin takes us away from our true self, the person that God calls us to be. “When he came to himself.” Lent is about this. Lent is about coming to ourselves. Lent is about cutting through all our dodges and defenses and rationalizations and seeing our sin, the ways in which we have allowed ourselves to be separated from God, from other people, and from our true self, the ways in which we have failed to respect others and to take God’s promises seriously.

It is not easy to do an honest inventory of the state of our souls. In fact, it is extremely difficult. This is why we have this parable. If we attempt to look at the horror of the brokenness which our sins, individual and corporate, create, without the sure and certain knowledge of God’s unconditional love toward us, we would all go into bottomless depression. This parable assures us that God is waiting for us at the end of the driveway even before we get there. We have not even given our accounting and owned up to all out thoughtless foolishness and uncaring and lack of trust before God wraps us in a hug that says, “I’m so glad you’re back. I missed you so much,” and then throws a party.

We would not be able to confess; we would not be able to come to ourselves and look at what we do if it were not for God’s loving care.

Let’s look at the older son for a moment. He represents the Jews, who have followed the law all these centuries, and now comes this Jesus turning everything upside down and extending salvation to everyone, even tax collectors and sinners and drug addicts. When we read the gospels and the text refers to the Jews, we might insert the term “The Good Church People.” The Good Church People were upset that Jesus was associating with people on the margins of society.

I think that we know that we are the younger brother. We know that we have sinned. But we need to realize that there are parts of us that can be like the older brother—you know, those self-righteous parts of us. Here I am, trying to lead a good life and do the right thing, but what’s the use if God is going to go out and scour the countryside and bring in all these social undesirables to attend the feast? There’s an older brother inside every one of us. And he breaks up the family legacy just as much with his legalism and smug, closed attitude.

God is bringing to birth a new creation. Everyone is welcome. Rich and poor, young and old, black, white, red, yellow, people who can run the four minute mile and people who are in wheelchairs, sanitation workers and CEO’s.