The Parable of the Prodigal Son teaches us that we are all called to return to God. He is waiting for us every time we walk away from the Church. Every time we walk out of Church we are faced with temptations of the world. The sooner we return to God and His Church, the better our chances to be welcomed home by God. Then, when others return who we have seen in a long while, we must fight the temptation to judge them. God welcomes them back just as He welcomes us back.

Transcript:

My brothers and sisters in the story of the Prodigal Son, I want to start by reminding everyone I find myself having to do this often. The word prodigal does not mean returning. We get confused. The word prodigal means nasty living. The prodigal son was the one who left the father and wasted everything with nasty living. So I just want to get that off the bat. Everyone always thinks the Prodigal Son meant that because he returned. That’s what prodigal means. No, prodigal is not a good word. If anyone says to you, “Oh, the Prodigal Son has returned.” They’re saying something that’s not so nice. I guess it’s good if we return anyway. But I want to go into this morning’s gospel because it is meant to prepare us for the Great Fast.

We have two brothers in this morning’s story, and I suggest to all of us that we consider ourselves both brothers. We are the younger brother who demands everything from our father, and then we go and waste it in the worldly living? Every time we walk out of the church, we are going into the world faced with all the temptations of the world, and each and every one of us falls to temptation. There isn’t one single person alive who is without sin. So let’s start by associating ourselves with the Prodigal Son. And every time we leave the church, God stands like the father in the story waiting for our return. Hopefully that return doesn’t take too long. Hopefully we’re coming to church on a regular basis, if not every Sunday as often as we can. But every single time we leave the church, we risk not coming back. We risk the temptations of the world.

And so I’m going to suggest that if we have that in our mind as we approach the Great Fast, if we approach Great Lent, the church wants us to see that God is waiting for us to return to Him. That might be Him right now. Although I don’t think he uses a cellular phone. The church wants us to know that God is waiting for us to change our life and return to Him. Now, the beauty of the story, if you will, is that this young son did everything under the book. There was nothing he didn’t do. He was truly a prodigal son. And yet when he realized what he left behind, he took it upon himself to say, “I’m going to go back to my father.” But the beautiful part about this is he’s not going to go and demand his position like he had it before.

He says to himself, “How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough to spare and I perish in hunger? I will rise and go to my father and say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against Heaven and before you and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.'” Now here, there’s a difference between us and him. Most of us think we deserve God’s love. Most of us think we are not so bad. And if God wants us to change, “Well, I don’t have to change. God made me the way I am. I’m just fine. I don’t have to change because the world is lying to us.” The world doesn’t want us to repent and to follow God, and so we tend to elevate ourselves. But the younger son had to humble himself.

But what did the father do as soon as he saw him over the horizon? I like to imagine … I grew up in Colorado and there’s prairies and you can see miles and miles across the prairie. I like to imagine just for my imagery that the father is sitting on the front porch of the house and looking over the vast prairies and he sees this little person in the distance and he recognizes it’s his son, and he goes running to him. Not one word of guilt trip from the father, not one opportunity to say, “Where have you been? Why didn’t you come back?” Instead, the total joy that his son had returned. And not returning him as a servant but returning him to his original position in the family.

That’s what God has in store for us. When we choose to return to Him and repent from our sins, don’t get caught up in, “oh, I don’t have any sins.” It’s not true. We all have them. This morning’s gospel is reminding us that God is waiting and He will embrace us and return us to our original glory.

And now there’s the other brother who remember, I suggest we are him as well. How many times do we sit in church judging the other people who are not here? Or when someone comes back who hasn’t been here for a year or 2 years or 15 years, “Where have they been? They’ve left us. We did all the work. Why weren’t they here to help? Why this? Why that?” And we cannot get past the point of negativity. The brother was so angry that the father threw this big party for his son, he wouldn’t even go into the party. And he says to the father, “That son of yours.” Didn’t say, “My brother.”

“That son of yours wasted all of your inheritance on harlots and this and that and you, me, I have been with you. I never left you. I never broke the rules. I have been obedient. I have been your servant. I have been here every day and you haven’t even given me one goat to have a party with my friends. And this nasty son of yours comes back and you kill the fatted calf.” If we’re honest with ourselves, we are also that brother. You see my brothers and sisters, what God wants us to understand more than our own repentance is to have love for others and not judge them for God alone is the judge.

And in this morning’s gospel, we have an image of Heaven and Hell. It was the Prodigal Son, the younger brother who repented, who came back to his father. He was in Heaven. It was the older, we could say perfect son, the one who followed all the rules, the one who was in church we could say every day. He was the one in Hell because he couldn’t stand to see God’s love. If we can embrace that and learn from it and change our lives, that’s what the Great Fast, that’s what Great Lent is all about, changing us. It’s not about, as I said last week, it’s not about following all the rules. Fasting has its benefits. A 1,000 prostrations has its benefits, but only if it’s changing our hearts to repentance and to love and to mercy and grace.

So where do we go from here? When you walk out this church today, remind yourself, “I’m going out into the world and I’m going to come back.” I want you to repeat six simple words. You ready?

If it’s Sunday. Congregation : If it’s Sunday.

I’m in church. Congregation : I’m in church.

Now some of you laughed. I’m not quite sure what’s so funny about that? Huh? If it’s Sunday, I’m in church. That’s six words. A contraction is one word. Oh, come on now. That’s going to be on YouTube now too. Watch. The point is this. If we leave this church not knowing when we’re going to come back, the chances are greater that we will fall to temptation and stay away. If we walk out of this church knowing that we’re coming back as soon as possible, then we have a better chance to fight off the world so we don’t end up eating pig slop like this young man in the morning’s gospel. So that we can hear the sweet words of the Father welcoming us back, that He was dead and now is alive, lost and found. Those are the greatest words we could ever hear, but only if we come back to God every time we leave. Glory to God.