{"id":1149,"date":"2019-03-31T21:15:40","date_gmt":"2019-04-01T02:15:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=1149"},"modified":"2019-06-30T21:33:21","modified_gmt":"2019-07-01T02:33:21","slug":"1149","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=1149","title":{"rendered":"We Are a Little of Both Sons in the Prodigal Son Story"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

4th<\/sup>\nSunday of Lent<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Josh 5:9a, 10-12; 2\nCor 5: 17-21; Lk 15: 1-3, 11-32<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Deacon Larry\nBrockman<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Today Paul tells\nus \u201cThe old things have passed away; behold, new things have come.\u201d    Yes, Christ brought with him a new way; a new\napproach.  Gone are the days of a strict\naccounting according to the letter of the Law; gone are the days of atonement\nfor sin with animal sacrifices and cereal offerings; gone are the days when we\nbelieved that we were right with God by virtue of our own works, as if these\nearthly offerings, symbolic of the work of our hands, could atone to almighty\nGod for our misuse of his gifts to us.   \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This old way has\nbeen replaced by the ministry of reconciliation that Christ lived on our\nbehalf.  What matters now is not\natonement with external sacrifices.  What\nmatters is our belief that God sent his only son to suffer and die for our\noffenses; and that this is the only acceptable sacrifice in God\u2019s eyes.  What matters is acceptance of God\u2019s message of\nrepentance in our hearts, and a spirit of humble contrition for our past\noffenses.  What matters to God is that we\nhave turned away from all of our previous selfishness and independence.  What matters most to God is that we live in\nhis Love and obedience from this moment on and stick to that.  And that is what the parable of the prodigal\nson is all about.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we are honest,\nthere is a some of both of the sons in this story in each of us.  Which of us can say that we have never walked\naway from God\u2019s law, and in the process, walked away from his protection as\nwell?  Which of us can deny that we have tried\nto have it our way, tried to call all the shots in our lives?  It happens to almost all of us in the prime\nof life when everything seems to be going our way.  Prosperity and independence of means foster\nthat kind of self-centeredness.  When we\nfeel we are on the top of the world, comfortable, making lots of money,\nenjoying success, and in control; well, it is then that we mostly just pay lip\nservice to God.  It\u2019s as if we don\u2019t need\nHim.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The younger son\nwanted to be in control; he wanted to do things his way; he didn\u2019t think he\nneeded the Father.  And so, he had it his\nway.  But it didn\u2019t last long, did it?  His assets and resources were limited; and he\nsquandered them because he lacked wisdom. \nSo, then came the reality of life; the consequences for living according\nto his own will.  For the younger son,\nthis meant utter poverty and hunger.  Fortunately,\nhe came to his senses and went back to the Father with humility and contrition.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Something always\ngoes wrong for us too- the loss of our job, some great financial loss, a\npersonal betrayal, an illness.  And all\nof a sudden, we are reminded that we really are out of control.  And in fact, we recognize that we never ever\nwere in control.    Just like the\nprodigal son, the sensible ones amongst us come crawling back to God, recognizing\nthat all that we are and all that we have were gifts from God.  And in all humility, we ask Him for\nforgiveness and another chance just as the prodigal son did with his Father.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

God loves all of\nus so much, that he is constantly waiting for our return to him.  He is waiting there with an offer of sonship-\nsignified by the ring the Father places on the son\u2019s finger; with a robe that\nsignifies his willingness to offer us protection against future temptation; and\nwith a special food, the Eucharist, which is the best God can give us- a bit of\nhimself, just like the fatted calf was the best the Father had to offer his son\nin a feast.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there is also\na little bit of the older son in each of us too.  Through it all, we often view that we have\nbeen faithful compared to others.  We\nneither have compassion for the failings of others; nor do we feel joy when\nthey repent.  Rather, we are comparing\nour righteousness to their sinfulness, and we can be upset over the prospect\nthat someone else with their great sin might be rewarded by God more than us.  How quickly do we forget how perilous our own\nrelationship with God is.  Rather, we\nshould recognize that the only thing that should matter to us is whether we are\nin a right relationship with God.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lent is our\nopportunity to change ourselves for the better. \nIt is a time to recognize that the old ways must pass away, and the new\nways must be embraced.  Lent is a time\nfor us to focus on ourselves and our relationship with God.  Lent is a time for us to be the best of who\nwe can be no matter what our neighbor is doing. \n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

4th Sunday of Lent Josh 5:9a, 10-12; 2 Cor 5: 17-21; Lk 15: 1-3, 11-32 Deacon Larry Brockman Today Paul tells us \u201cThe old things have passed away; behold, new things have come.\u201d    Yes, Christ brought with him a new way; a new approach.  Gone are the days of a strict accounting according to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[588,587],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1149"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1149"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1156,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1149\/revisions\/1156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}