We are a small Episcopal Church on the banks of the Rappahannock in Port Royal, Virginia. We acknowledge that we gather on the traditional land of the first people of Port Royal, the Nandtaughtacund, and we respect and honor with gratitude the land itself, the legacy of the ancestors, and the life of the Rappahannock Tribe. Our mission statement is to do God’s Will in all that we do.
“As we grow up in Christ we will grow in empathy. Empathy is the capacity to imagine what someone else might be thinking or feeling; what they want, what they believe, what they fear. Empathy is also how we recycle our own heart-hurts turning them into opportunities for connection with others. There is no godly reality that permits our indifference to our neighbors’ well-being.
“As we grow in Christ we will grow in empathy my favorite story from Jesus is a story of a family rupture and the road to repair one son takes his inheritance and heads to the big city. Another son stays dutifully on the farm. You can feel the heat of his resentment. The father’s gaze is focused on his front gate longing for his son’s return. Just imagine his whispered prayers. There are dozens of words that come to mind.
“When you hear this story today I hear empathy. Empathy is the capacity to imagine what someone else might be thinking or feeling, what they want what they believe and what they fear and even why they make the mistakes they make.
“Empathy is also how we recycle our own heart hurts turning them into opportunities for connection with others. The initation to empathy is central to our life with God. Remember the great commandment is to love God with all your heart mind soul and strength and your neighbor as yourself. There is no God Godly reality that permits our indifference to our neighbors well-being.
“Empathy brought the Run Away Home – he comes to himself. The Bible says empathy is deepened and perfected in reflection. Now he’s clear his actions have injured his family. He rehearses his apology all the way home. It is empathy that prompts the father to run to his returning son. If empathy is understanding, compassion are its legs. Empathy is not the sole property of the intellect. To grow up in Christ is to put Flesh on Christian ideals empathy and compassion are always bundled then. There’s the other son the one who stayed and see the one struggling during this homecoming celebration. The story closes with him forehead to forehead with his father. The father hears that he could have been better and more balanced day to day at empathy rather than reserving it for dramatic occasions. Te sun hears an invitation to think about this family rupture in terms of Lost and Found because only empathy can launch the healing he needs.
“It’s easy to pick sides when you hear this story but I wonder if stretching your empathy wide enough for
all the members of this family simultaneously is actually Jesus’s main point.
The fourth Sunday in Lent is traditionally known as “Mothering Sunday” or Refreshment Sunday. In some parts of Great Britain, the custom was to return to the “mother church” or the cathedral for a special service on this day, and it also became customary to celebrate or pay special respect to one’s own mother on this day, a sort of Anglican “Mother’s Day.”
Another custom is the relaxation of austere Lenten observances on this day, the baking of simnel cakes (light fruit cakes covered in marzipan), and in some places the replacement of purple robes and liturgical hangings with rose-colored ones. Simnel cakes are called such because of the fine flour (Latin "simila") they were made of.
Children of all ages were expected to pay a formal visit to their mothers and to bring a Simnel cake as a gift. In return, the mothers gave their children a special blessing. This custom was so well-established that masters were required to give servants enough time off to visit out-of-town mothers – provided the trip did not exceed 5 days! This holiday became Mother’s Day in America.
We are halfway through Lent with Lent 4, 5 and Palm Sunday to go before getting to Holy Week.
So what are you doing for Lent and how it is going? What should you be doing? Lent is a journey – part of it is looking inside, removing things and taking on new things – building up. The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby suggested the following – “At the individual level it draws us to see what we have been saved from, and what we are being saved for.”
“A good Lent makes space for hope by leading us afresh into encounter with the holiness of God.” A good Lent starts with us.
“A good Lent begins with paying attention, with beginning to make straight the way of the Lord by listening… We cannot listen while we fill our ears with our own self-confidence and our own self-worth.
“So, how do we listen? Read Luke’s gospel, taking a small chunk each day, and ask yourself as you read it three simple questions: What does it say? What does it mean? What am I going to do about it? Very simple.
“And what do I do about it? Ask yourself: “How do I make my life more open to Christ because of what this is saying to me?”
“For myself, such reading is part of my own daily discipline of prayer, which includes a lot of other things as well. Time is spent and at the end of jotting down whatever banal or very occasionally less banal thoughts I have, I always put in a couple of lines of what I can do about it.
“Sometimes it is very practical writing to someone or speaking to someone who I may have offended. It may be very simple, merely saying a prayer of sorry, or thank you, or petition for something of which I need reminding.
“A good Lent must overflow in generosity. How do we live a good Lent with those whom we live with? The bumps in the road we need to smooth out for the Lord to come? Relationships that have been neglected and therefore are full of clutter that needs removing?
“They can be very difficult: broken relationships may be easily mendable, little irritations – or it may be that we need, in a good Lent, to take the first step to clearing away a major landslide.
“How do you do it in practice? Openness, transparency, and also go back and use the same approach to scripture as I suggested a few moments ago. One has to treat each person and situation different
“Let me suggest one other. As individuals, even short periods of complete silence during Lent, fasting from noise and conversation and distraction, will be of great value. How little we do of it.
“I’ve had to learn, and I’m still very much learning, that I do not need to do anything in that time. I need only to be willing to listen. It is a time of meditation and reflection, of discovering the God who – all the time – is saying: “Here I am.”
“The discipline of a good Lent is to find again how we welcome the stranger, how we practice hospitality, how we listen.
“A good Lent starts within us. It moves through those most closely around us. It comes into the church and it must be so generously experienced that it overflows into society. We will not really have a Good Lent until that chain is complete, and for that, we pray, may your Kingdom come.”
One of the most famous depictions of the Prodigal son was by Rembrandt toward the end of his life.
Rembrandt’s painting was done in 1669 and features his characteristic dark with light shining on the main characters of the father and prodical son. It is a striking painting that brings the emotional return of the son’s return to life
"Particularly vivid are the ragged garment of the son, and the old man’s sleeves, which are ochre tinged with golden olive; the ochre colour combined with an intense scarlet red in the father’s cloak forms an unforgettable colouristic harmony." The observer is roused to a feeling of some extraordinary event. The son, ruined and repellent, with his bald head and the appearance of an outcast, returns to his father’s house after long wanderings and many vicissitudes. He has wasted his heritage in foreign lands and has sunk to the condition of a swineherd. His old father, dressed in rich garments, as are the assistant figures, has hurried to meet him before the door and receives the long-lost son with the utmost fatherly love."
"The occurrence is devoid of any momentary violent emotion, but is raised to a solemn calm that lends to the figures some of the qualities of statues and gives the emotions of a lasting character, no longer subject to the changes of time. Unforgettable is the image of the repentant sinner leaning against his father’s breast and the old father bending over his son. The father’s features tell of a goodness sublime and august; so do his outstretched hands, not free from the stiffness of old age. The whole represents a symbol of all homecoming, of the darkness of human existence illuminated by tenderness, of weary and sinful mankind taking refuge in the shelter of God’s mercy. "
The eyes of the father are striking from one who has struggled wondering about his son finally now being able to welcome him. It is a wonderful resolution of someone who has endured heartache.
Dutch priest Henri Nouwen (1932–1996) was so taken by the painting that he eventually wrote a short book, The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming (1992), using the parable and Rembrandt’s painting as frameworks. He begins by describing his visit to the State Hermitage Museum in 1986, where he was able to contemplate the painting alone for hours. Considering the role of the father and sons in the parable in relation to Rembrandt’s biography, he wrote:
"Rembrandt is as much the elder son of the parable as he is the younger. When, during the last years of his life, he painted both sons in Return of the Prodigal Son, he had lived a life in which neither the lostness of the younger son nor the lostness of the elder son was alien to him. Both needed healing and forgiveness. Both needed to come home. Both needed the embrace of a forgiving father. But from the story itself, as well as from Rembrandt’s painting, it is clear that the hardest conversion to go through is the conversion of the one who stayed home."
Luke 15 , the Gospel reading for March 27, starts out with 3 parables, the Prodigal son the third.
First, he imagines a shepherd who leaves his flock in order to find one errant sheep (“Lost Sheep”). Second, he describes a woman who loses a coin (“Lost Coin”). These parables are about being lost and now found. The first two have three common threads running through each. 1) Something or someone is lost. 2) The lost is sought for. 3) Great joy is shared at the recovery of the thing (person) found. The third parable, the Prodigal son, is slightly different. In it, the one who is lost returns to where he came from.
The prodigal son is Luke’s best known parable and also the longest. It is one with an ending that seems not fair. The word “prodigal” basic meaning is “wasteful”–particularly with regard to money.
There are many levels of the story. It is a story of the consequences of sin both in terms of what happens to us but also the promise of the return from separation from God. It is a story of welcome and reconciliation. This story is found only in the Gospel of Luke
We see a progression through the three parables from the relationship of one in a hundred (Luke 15:1-7), to one in ten (Luke 15:8-10), to one in one (Luke 15:11-32), demonstrating God’s love for each individual and his personal attentiveness towards all humanity.
The parable is Jesus response to the Pharisees and Scribes since they believe his behavior is an affront to the community. Jesus is associating with the’ wrong people.” He is welcoming those who have been cast out; and honoring those who have been shamed by sharing a meal . To invite a person to a meal was an honor that implied acceptance, trust and peace. Jesus response is not to rebuke the Pharisees and scribes but to teach through parables.
The parable has 3 scenes with the first part focusing on the younger son and the last two parts on the father
(1) the negotiations of the younger son with his father and his subsequent departure to a foreign country where he is wasteful and becomes impoverished (15:11-19);
(2) the homecoming of that son and the welcome by his father (15:20-24); and
(3) the interchange between the father and his older son (15:25-32).
We can associate the father with Jesus, the older son the Pharisees and scribes, the younger son the lost (the tax collectors and sinners of that day)
The Pharisees and scribes would focus on the behavior of the family. Not only is Jesus hanging around with the wrong set but the characters actions violate community norms. Honor and shame were big parts of the culture. Honor was connected to how one was perceived in the community.
Here are the issues that would have irritated the Pharisees and scribes about this parable:
– Father and old son should have refused the request of the younger son to divide the father’s estate. In a sense the younger son is wishing his father’s death! The granting of the request soils the honor of the family and they can’t be trusted. If anything, the youngest son should have been disinherited immediately.
– The younger son not only endangers the family in the distant country but also the community. He goes to a distant country, squanders his property so foreigners have possession. Community survival requires trust and carefully guarded balancing of all obligations and debts
– Without knowing why the younger son is returning, when the father sees him in the distance, he runs to greet him. Family is shamed again by the father welcoming him back and honoring the son who has been shamed. The younger son is no longer worthy to be a member of the community. At best, he can be treated like one the daily wage laborers who survive on the edge of the community. Furthermore, fathers did not run to their children – that’s more of the mother’s behavior.
There are symbols of the reconciliation which would have increased the blood pressure of the pharisees and scribes. The robe is a sign of dignity and honor, the ring a sign of authority. The shoes are the sign of not being a servant. Servants did not wear shoes.
Everyone in the story is foolish. The younger son’s foolishness is evident.
No doubt, the father’s actions can also be seen as foolish through the story. Jesus emphasis is that God’s love is beyond our current mores and practices as currently practiced. It surpasses everything we know. The sin is not only forgiven but the son restored. Jesus recognized that the father exposes himself to humiliation to prevent his son from being humiliated.
The older son does not rejoice in the son being welcomed and is also foolish and does not properly respresent his responsibility as the eldest son. He now is the lost one. Like the Pharisees, the older has lived a good life but inwardly their attitudes are questionable. One of the duties of the eldest son would have included reconciliation between the father and his son. He would have been the host at the feast to celebrate his brother’s return. Yet he remains in the field instead of in the house where he should have been. He focuses only on himself and provides no joy on his brother’s return. He is mad at both his brother and father.
However, the community accepts the father’s actions. They accept the offer of reconciliation and attend the feast.
The Kingdom is not complete when one is missing, in the case of the youn ger son. God will never stop reaching for the one because God’s love is too wide, God’s grace too rich to cease looking for the lost, for those whom we deem unredeemable.
As David Lose writes “Jesus is introducing people to the relational logic of the kingdom of God that runs contrary to and way beyond the legal logic of the world”
There are several things we do not know. Was the younger son’s repentance sincere or was he just motivated by hunger? Dr. George Hermanson makes the following conclusion of the parable – "The story ends without telling us how the eldest brother responds. And without Luke telling us how Jesus’ listeners respond. In other words, the story ends with only our responses to it. We are the end of the story."
“Lent, for me, is the season where God works through me, alongside me, and for me to help me shed the accreted layers of pride…a practice of humility…“Lent demands a rigorous assessment of my life in relationship with God.” – Rev. Michael Byrd, Vicar, Trinity Episcopal, New York
EIGHT LENTEN PRACTICES “I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word.” (Book of Common Prayer, page 265)
STATIONS OF THE CROSS The Stations of the Cross began as the practice of pious pilgrims to Jerusalem who would retrace the final journey of Jesus Christ to Calvary.
Later, for the many who wanted to pass along the same route, but could not make the trip to Jerusalem, a practice developed that eventually took the form of the fourteen stations currently found in almost every church. Many explore the stations on Good Friday.
“Parable of the Barren Fig Tree” -Alexander Master (1430)
“Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.'”
Today’s readings call us to faithful obedience. One way to do this is to clear a space for God.
This week, try clearing space in your life for being in solitude with God. Like clearings in a forest, where suddenly the stars and moon above come into view, such solitude can rejuvenate and strengthen us for full-hearted life.
Be ambitious: remove every obstacle in your path. Turn off the TV, unplug the radio, shut down the computer, put away your phone (especially at mealtime!), light candles, revisit your favorite music, read aloud your favorite poem, or take a walk in the woods under the night sky.
Whatever clearings you choose, let your goal be to deepen your awareness of God’s companionship and serene presence all around.
In the first reading, God’s promise to rescue the faithful summons us to a new relationship. In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul looks at the experiences of God’s people in the past to show his readers how to live in obedience now. In the gospel, Jesus advises us to respond to calamities with a spirit of personal repentance.
Much of the text deals with the challenges of the wilderness, the hot desert in the Old Testament and Psalm and the need for new relationships . We who are given much squander our resources.
In any season, the garden is an organic model for a spirituality that is alive and growing. Each garden comes to maturity in its own time, producing its unique crop: figs or artichokes, pansies or sunflowers. Within each person lies this secret, sacred space. One person’s inner terrain cannot be compared to another’s; most people know intuitively which ground is barren, which is fruitful. Ultimately, like the fig tree, we are spared for our potential, not for anything we have done.
And if we are fortunate, kind gardeners sometimes intervene on our behalf. Friends “hear us into speech.” Coworkers make allowances. Someone takes us seriously; someone laughs with us; someone squeezes our hand in a tight spot. Family members forgive our all-too-obvious warts. Each gesture of respect and camaraderie stays the hatchet another degree, hoes the ground and manures it. With God’s grace fragrant as rain, we can come gradually to fruition. Sometimes, we can even become the compassionate gardener for another person.
The other bit of good news contained in this reading is Jesus’ interpretation of swift, violent death. While his hearers might be quick to read it as punishment for sin, Jesus knows that death will apply to himself as well. He who is sinless will also die a brutish death at the hands of Pilate.
We who hear about a disasters the moment after they happen can learn from Jesus that these events are not punishment for sin, but impetus for reform.
Jesus is teaching a crowd about the importance of repentance, and he uses two events as examples to drive home the message.
The Galileans:
Jesus asks, “Did you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because Pilate killed them?”.
The Tower in Gilead
He then asks, “Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Gilead fell and killed them, did you think that they were worse sinners than all the others who lived in Gilead?”
The Lesson:
Jesus’s point is that these events were not punishments for greater sins, but rather a reminder that everyone is in danger of destruction if they do not repent.
The Urgency:
He concludes by saying, “I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish”.
Here’s a more detailed breakdown of what true repentance involves. Main points are the 3 C’s -1. Conviction (what you feel) 2. Confession (what you say) 3. Conversion (what you do)
Conviction of Sin:
Acknowledging and understanding that one’s actions or thoughts are wrong and offensive to God.
Sorrow and Contrition:
Feeling genuine remorse and sadness for the sin committed, not just for the consequences, but for the offense to God.
Turning Away from Sin:
A deliberate and conscious decision to abandon the sinful behavior or way of life.
Turning Towards God:
Seeking a relationship with God and aligning one’s life with His will and teachings.
Confession:
Openly and honestly acknowledging the sin to God, and potentially to others who have been wronged.
Commitment to Change:
A determination to avoid repeating the sin and to live a life that pleases God.
Making Amends:
Taking steps to repair any harm caused by the sin, such as apologizing, making restitution, or seeking forgiveness.
Accepting Consequences:
Acknowledging and accepting the consequences of one’s actions, both natural and spiritual.
The March equinox, like all equinoxes, is characterized by having an almost exactly equal amount of daylight and night across most latitudes on Earth. It is the end of winter when the sun crosses the celestial equator and our days are lengthening.
Third Sunday in Lent
