Saturday of the Second Week of Lent - March 2, 2013
Saturday of the Second Week of Lent
Luke 15:25 – 32
“Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’
“The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
“‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”
The older son weighed life, rewards, and the things given. In one hand he held what he had done in his life and what he had received . . . who he was, what he had been given, how he had worked.
In the other hand he held what his brother had done, what he had received, and so on. His brother, in his mind, was a royal screw-up.
“Life is supposed to be fair,” he thought. “You reap what you sow,” we believe.
This is a fairly common way to approach life, but it doesn’t deal with life which is given in grace. In God’s framework, we don’t come to life through competition or comparison with others.
In God’s framework, sometimes you reap where you have not sown.
In God’s framework, you can’t measure the value or worth or impact of your life by weighing it against another person.
In God’s generosity, there is enough to go around, enough for everyone to share . . . no need for envy over someone else receiving generosity.
In the Father’s house, we are invited to celebrate grace, wherever it is found . . . rather than resist it.
Luke 15:25 – 32
“Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’
“The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
“‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”
The older son weighed life, rewards, and the things given. In one hand he held what he had done in his life and what he had received . . . who he was, what he had been given, how he had worked.
In the other hand he held what his brother had done, what he had received, and so on. His brother, in his mind, was a royal screw-up.
“Life is supposed to be fair,” he thought. “You reap what you sow,” we believe.
This is a fairly common way to approach life, but it doesn’t deal with life which is given in grace. In God’s framework, we don’t come to life through competition or comparison with others.
In God’s framework, sometimes you reap where you have not sown.
In God’s framework, you can’t measure the value or worth or impact of your life by weighing it against another person.
In God’s generosity, there is enough to go around, enough for everyone to share . . . no need for envy over someone else receiving generosity.
In the Father’s house, we are invited to celebrate grace, wherever it is found . . . rather than resist it.
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