I don’t forgive as easily or as often as I am forgiven.

31May
Then the father said to him, “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.”  
- Luke 15:31,32 

Despite being a lifelong Episcopalian, I am woefully illiterate when it comes to the Bible. Ashamed as I am to confess, and despite years of Sunday School and EYC and more than a half-century of church attendance, I can bring to mind only a handful of stories and passages of Scripture.  

The story of The Prodigal Son, in today’s Gospel reading, is pervasive across cultures, both religious and not, so it is hard to be unfamiliar with that one. And, in a strange coincidence, the theme of the story contained in Luke recurs in one of the passages I am able to call up. 

"For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."  - Romans 38-39 

As a sinning human being, it is a challenge to grasp the enormity of God’s love for His creation as reflected in the readings above. While I am divulging shortcomings, I will say that, sadly, I don’t forgive as easily or as often as I am forgiven; my faith, rather than experience, must necessarily then be the cornerstone of an understanding of the notion of fully unconditional love. But here, I am given the parable, to bring it in line with the human experience, in a way for which I just might have some vocabulary. 

The love I feel for my children is primal and visceral; it is one of the ways in which I feel most connected to the ethereal. What glory it is to get even a partial glimpse of the way in which I am loved by my God.  

Celebrate and rejoice, indeed! 

Musical Reflection - The Prodigal Son - The Rolling Stones

Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Amen.
Family LifeGraceNew TestamentGospelForgiveness
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#bible #forgiveness #prodigalson

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