Father Philip Writes...

March 2021

During Lent we are studying St Luke’s Gospel, Chapter 15 – the parable of the Prodigal Son. The Pharisees avoided all contacts with sinners, but Jesus shows them a very different kind of God. ​​
This parable, together with that of the lost sheep and the lost coin, which feature in the same chapter, all stress God’s concern for those who are lost and his joy when each person who is lost is found. 
​I am sure we can all identify with the younger, ‘prodigal’ son, for every time we lose faith in God we all tend to give way either to anger, revenge, lust or greed etc. We see in that prodigal son a man who went deep into a foreign land and lost everything he took with him. 
He lost his money, health, honour and self-respect, but the important point was that he was able to return to his father…. “Father, I have sinned!....."
​One of the greatest challenges to our spiritual life is to receive God’s forgiveness, because it requires a total willingness to allow God to do all the healing, restoring and renewing.
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The elder brother in the story is lost in resentment, characterised by judgment of his younger brother, coupled with anger and resentment – all damaging to the human heart. In his jealousy and bitterness the elder son can only see his irresponsible brother is receiving more attention than he is.

The big question for us is: “How am I to let myself be loved by God?”  and not “how am I going to love God?” 
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God is looking for me like the shepherd who looks for his sheep and the woman who lights the lamp to look for the lost coin.
The father in the parable represents God. So many Christians sadly stress the fear of God’s revenge and punishment, but as long as the Father invokes that kind of fear, he remains an outsider and cannot fully live within us. There are times we are all like the younger son and we are all like the elder son, but are we like the Father? Jesus said, “Be compassionate as your Father in Heaven is compassionate.”  (Luke 6 v 36) We must be like the Father and show compassion to others as He shows it to us. He is a God of compassion who joyfully welcomes sinners into his home.
​ On Good Friday, Jesus shows us exactly how God is full of compassion, able to say of his executioners when they were nailing him to the cross, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they are doing.” It is only through constant forgiveness we become like God our Father - and forgiveness from the heart is unconditional and does not demand anything for itself. 
The ‘Prodigal Son’ parable is the portrayal of God whose love, goodness, forgiveness, care, joy and compassion have no limits and we must all open to God’s Spirit to show this in our lives.
God sends his rain on the just and the unjust and is equally kind to the person who grieves his heart. It is a love we must copy if we, too, want to seek nothing except our enemy’s highest good.
To read more, and also about 'Buy a Bishop for an hour' click here 
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