2 March 2013 - partying with parents

2 March 2013 - partying with parents

“A man had two sons, and the younger son said to his father,
‘Father, give me the share of your estate that should come to me.’
So the father divided the property between them.

This is a problem with which we are familiar.  We want the gifts but not the giver.  We see more clearly here than most places how quickly the gifts evaporate without him.

When he had freely spent everything,
a severe famine struck that country,
and he found himself in dire need.
So he hired himself out to one of the local citizens
who sent him to his farm to tend the swine.
And he longed to eat his fill of the pods on which the swine fed,
but nobody gave him any.

This is us on our own resources.  We are impoverished and hungry and we are ashamed of the things we are willing to do to find satisfaction.  No one around us has anything which can help us.  Often they are living in the same kind of denial as we are, looking for satisfaction in the immediate, unable to help anyone but themselves.

The father permits this in the hope that we'll return to him.

Coming to his senses he thought,
‘How many of my father’s hired workers
have more than enough food to eat,

This wasn't ultimately what the father wanted, but he allowed it because he wanted his son at home.  He wanted him to be there because the son wanted to abide there.

While he was still a long way off,
his father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion.

He saw him a long way off because he was waiting and hoping.  He never gave up on his son, but was always ready to extend mercy.

Who is there like you, the God who removes guilt
and pardons sin for the remnant of his inheritance;

The father delighted to receive his son back to him and his son wasoverwhelmed to experience all the blessings of his father's house.

‘Quickly, bring the finest robe and put it on him;
put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.
Take the fattened calf and slaughter it.
Then let us celebrate with a feast,
because this son of mine was dead, and has come to life again;
he was lost, and has been found.’

Is this unfair to the older son?  No, his experience is less profound because he hadn't gone without it, but:

My son, you are here with me always;
everything I have is yours.

Let us learn to place our life in the Father's house above the blessings which that entails.  

Let us learn to be the older son, except content to share in all that belongs to the Father and happy to welcome home the younger son.  

Let us not wander to distant lands like the younger son, choosing transient blessings above our Father's loving care.  Knowing our tendency to stray to the immediate is like the tendency of sheep to wander, let us plead with him:

Shepherd your people with your staff,
the flock of your inheritance,

But even if we do stray, we must not give up.  If the younger son had given up he eventually would have starved to death.  He remembered that what he did made his father angry, but he remembered a still greater truth about him:

For as the heavens are high above the earth,
so surpassing is his kindness toward those who fear him.
As far as the east is from the west,
so far has he put our transgressions from us.

And so, because of his great mercy, let us praise him:

Bless the LORD, O my soul;
and all my being, bless his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits.