Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Josh. 5:9-12; Ps. 32; 2 Cor. 5:16-21; Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Psalm 32:12  “Be glad, you righteous and rejoice in the Lord.”

            Prodigal means wasteful, extravagant.  But interestingly, the word prodigal does not occur anywhere in the parable in Luke 15 – in fact, nowhere does the word prodigal appear in present English translations of the entire New Testament.  It is first found in margin notes in 16^th century English Bibles, possibly based on a gloss in Jerome’s Latin Vulgate translation of 432.  The story in Luke 15 follows after the parable of the lost sheep and the story of the lost coin, so perhaps this parable is best called “The Lost Son”.  But the common thread in all of these stories is the shepherd, the woman, the father  - who waits, who searches, who will not rest until the lost has been returned.  The shepherd says “Rejoice with me!” The woman calls to her friends “Rejoice with me!”  The father says to the older son, “We had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours . . . was lost and has been found!”

 

O loving God, you always search us out with a heart of relentless forgiveness. May we reach out with the same forgiveness to ourselves and others and rejoice each day in the gift of newness.  Amen

 

• Call or write a relative you haven’t spoken to in ages. If they have died, write them a letter and place it at your place of prayer.