Pastoral Letter 109
Dear Members of St. Andrew’s Uniting Church, Friends and Adherents,
Grace and peace to you all.
We are at the middle of the Lent Season, preparing to celebrate Palm Sunday, followed by the Passion/Holy Week and then the glorious Easter Sunday. We are glad and grateful to God that since February we have been able to come together to worship safely and have fellowship at Morning Tea. Also, we have resumed our midweek programs since the beginning of March. Time4U on Wednesdays and Movie/Pizza Night once a month on the first Tuesday of each month. If you wish, you can come and join the groups.
Weather permitting, we will have a Working Bee in the garden this Wednesday 30March from 12:30 pm. If you have some spare time, please come and join us. Don’t forget to bring your garden gloves.
If you will not be able to join us on Sundays, you can worship with us at home.
Be safe and well, continue to pray, remembering those who need care, support and love and let us know if any member of the congregation that you know of needs our help and prayers.
Here are some more prayer points for this week:
- Pray for all those who are still suffering in the aftermath of the devastating floods.
- Pray for those who have lost loved ones, homes and property.
- Pray for the poor, the sick, the vulnerable, the struggling and the stressed.
- Pray for world peace and ask for God’s blessings.
- Pray for the conflict between Ukraine and Russia and those who are suffering, hoping that the situation will deescalate soon.
Please let me know if you or anyone else has prayer points.
Best Regards,
Krikor
| Remember Daylight Saving ends on the 3rd of April, please make sure to change your clocks backwards. |
My Place – My Home
Luke 15:1-2, 11b-32
Parables are stories. Stories about life, stories recognised in their contexts, but which invite imagination and surprise with unexpected meanings especially as they help in our understanding of how and in whom God is at work. These middle chapters of Luke contain stories that are very well-known and much loved. According to Rev. Dr Kenneth Bailey, well known scholar and theologian, Luke 15 is the “Gospel within the Gospel”, as it summarises the whole message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The key theme in Luke is ‘salvation’, which is most effective to those who feel their need of it. Most strongly, it comes to those on the margins who have no other resource except God, like the hungry, homeless, money wasting and thankless son living with the pigs.
On the other hand, for those not marginalised, a shattering of treasured assumptions about how God acts or will act, is inevitable. A reliable, older brother with his own set of assumptions, for example, where there is a deep opening between what was previously hoped for or anticipated and the reality that has occurred.
As we have said earlier these days of Lent are known as the days of penitence, attornment, repentance, reflection, self-examination, and prayer and fasting. Today we look at the parable of the Prodigal Son or the Lost Son, where we see penitence and repentance of the Lost.
Penitence requires repentance and repentance means turning back from the evil ways to God. For Jesus this ‘turning back’ and ‘repentance’ is ‘being born again’.
God with His love and grace forgives all our sins and accepts us as we are. We see this God’s act very clearly in this parable.
In this story we see four important points:
1. Prodigal
From the moment when the younger son asked for his share of his father’s inheritance, he confirmed his being prodigal. In reality by his request or demand he confirmed that he was wishing for his father’s death. With his request he broke his father’s heart. Most probably he even refused to listen to his father’s advice of not leaving the house. His prodigal life continued by the life he lived away from his father’s house wasting all his wealth. He lived a life of a sinner and lost everything he had; his friends left him when he lost all he had. He became poor, homeless and hungry to the point of starving. His act of being prodigal buried him in sin.
2. Repentance
In his lost state, he stopped for a moment and realised that he was going the wrong way. He realised that he was excluded from all human values and Godly blessings. Realising the need for repentance, he decided to turn home and accept his sinful state. Based on this, he became ready to be a hired worker in his father’s house. He resigned from his evil ways and thoughts, as well as all the world’s vain pleasures; he turned to his father’s love, righteousness and mercy, as the people of Nineveh did turn back from their evil ways, when Jonah brough the message from God.
This is real repentance and regret.
3. Salvation
Accepting his sin and wrongdoing, the son returned to the father with a repentant heart. And his father accepted him with open arms. Even that honourable father decided to take a step further and ran towards him; he hugged and kissed him warmly. This was a ‘costly demonstration of an unexpected love’. This prodigal and lost son had once again the grace to become his father’s son and enjoy his blessings. According to Jesus, the son was given a new robe (the best robe), sandals and a ring. The father gave a big feast celebrating the return of his son. There was joy in the atmosphere, because the son was lost and now is found; he was dead and now he was alive, and he was condemned but now he was saved. He was back where he was supposed to be, home. His place – His Home. What a wonderful and marvellous thing.
Similarly, our heavenly father saves us if we accept and confess our sins. Remember the people of Nineveh were saved too.
4. Joy and happiness
By the return of the son there was joy and happiness. By the Lost’s repentance God restores the joy of His salvation. For everyone who repents there will be joy in heaven. After repentance and salvation, the joy is inevitable. God gives the joy of salvation for all who repent.
If we really turn to God, there will be joy for us too.
During this Lent season let us turn to God with a repentant heart; and God in His turn seeing our repentance will show grace and fill our lives with many more blessings.
Therefore, the experience of salvation is often accompanied by joy, wonder, praise and celebration – in personal lives and in communities. The longing, hope-filled, anticipation and love of the father, for example.
As with many ‘mealtime’ or ‘party’ stories in the gospels, in this celebration, we’re reminded of the hospitality of God – here and now through the banquet of life, the Eucharist.
All of these characteristics are present in this parable, which some consider should more appropriately be named the Parable of the Loving Father, who waits for the lost son with open arms.
Let’s take a few moments to reflect in silence.
What are our responses from our personal faith journey to this story of salvation, and how do we feel about sharing those stories with others?
Let’s spend some time with each of the characters in this parable/story in turn:
1. How are we like them? Why?
2. How are we different from them? Why?
Amen!