My friends, being that I needed to prepare for two services this week, with Wayne Purtzer’s Celebration of Life yesterday, I opted to use parts of a homily for this Sunday from three years ago.  With the gospel for today then, I used the longer version to include the story of the Prodigals – a son and a father, and what the Spirit and I put together then seems still, most appropriate, and worth a second “listen,” unless you weren’t here three years ago, and then it will be brand new! 

   All the readings today address the virtue of mercy – responding to what life brings us through people and experiences, giving folks a break when bad things happen and trusting and expecting better going forward. 

   The first reading from Exodus today is a curious one in that we see Moses acting more like God than God!  Moses has to plead with God to spare the Israelite people who seem to forget the goodness they have been shown by God who brought them out of Egypt and then, so easily “run after” other gods. 

   In order to understand the actions of this seemingly merciless God, we must remember that the people in the Old Testament saw God as a reflection of themselves – therefore in  their lack of faith, trust, mercy and so on, God must be the same way, was their thinking. 

   This reminds me of a conversation I had this past week with someone who thought she couldn’t ask God to help with a problem that was causing her a lot of stress, “because God probably had too much already to take care of.”  I encouraged her to ask anyway because, as I lifted up, we may be too busy, but God never is, and wants to help us in every way possible.  This was depicted well in today’s gospel of the prodigal parent. 

   This notion of living “mercifully,” is carried through in our 2^nd reading where Paul is writing to Timothy who is his disciple, that he, Paul was shown mercy for his many sins and is instructing his student that when mercy is shown, mercy, going forward must be shown as well. 

   Then we move into the beautiful gospel from Luke who shows us three wonderful images of our merciful God: First we hear about the Good Shepherd who will always search out the lost one, the woman who turned her house upside down looking for a lost coin—which by the way, is the same story as the Good Shepherd, only giving a feminine face to our loving God. (show picture)  The final face of God given us to consider from Luke is probably, in my mind, the most beautiful depiction Jesus gave us of who our God truly is—the story of the “Prodigal Son,” but more so, the “Prodigal Parent.”  The son shows us, “over-the-top” selfishness, and disregard for the mores of his family and community, and the parent shows, “over-the-top” love, and acceptance, regardless of mores, for the errant child, and thus, we, today, get a clear view of how God will look upon us as well. 

   In order for us to truly get a view of what Jesus is saying here about God in using the story of the Prodigal, it is important for us to look at how the people in Jesus’ time and culture would have heard and understood it. An inheritance was given to an offspring at the death of the parent.  In this story, the son asks for it early —  the first custom broken, which shows disrespect for the parent, which the parent dismisses, and gives the inheritance anyway. 

   Now it would have been one thing had the son gone out and used the inheritance wisely, but as the story reveals, this was not the case.  When the son, who eventually becomes penniless and is basically starving, having squandered his father’s gift, comes to his senses and returns, expecting to no longer be treated as a “son,” but as a “servant,” he discovers instead, the over-the-top love of his father. 

   It is good to look further into the cultural mores of this time, to get a better, complete view of the parent’s action.  The story tells us that the father “runs” to meet his son.  This is important because the custom would have been for the “errant one” to be met at the city gates by a representative of the community, who would have broken a clay pot at the person’s feet, signifying that the relationship with the community had been broken, and going forward, “the sin” would always be remembered.  The Prodigal Dad, wanting to spare his son that humiliation, runs ahead, meets him, and lovingly takes him home.  In our time, we would say, this dad “had his son’s back!” 

   So, my friends, because “mercy” is so dominant the theme today, I used some literary license in changing the psalm response to the prayer of the 23^rd psalm, “Shepherd Me O’ God,” and we will use it likewise for the Prayers of the Faithful, because it is the on-going prayer of one who wants God to always show them the way.

   In conclusion then, the heartfelt words of Paul to Timothy, “that he did not know what he was doing in his unbelief,” seem perhaps, a response to much that is wrong in our Church and world today.  We must all pray that the God who loves us so much will show us—shepherd us, into the best ways of being for ourselves and for others.  Amen? Amen!