A WORD FOR TODAY, March 26, 2025
Peggy Hoppes
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Blessings. Peg
A WORD FOR TODAY, March 26, 2025
Lectionary Scriptures for March 30, 2025, Fourth Sunday in Lent: Isaiah 12:1-6; Psalm 32; 2 Corinthians 5:16-21; Luke 15:1-3, 11-32
“He arose and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and ran, fell on his neck, and kissed him.” Luke 15:20, WEB
Lent this year has a much different character than Lent last year. In 2024, I was dealing with health issues that required food for my medicine. I was losing weight at an astonishing rate, but I was also getting healthy numbers. I overcame the issues and stopped taking the medicine. I began to return to “normal” but not the normal I had been living. I had learned how to eat better and I was exercising. My numbers were good and I felt better than ever. I still eat better and my exercise program has expanded, but I confess that I have gained a few of the pounds back. I’m certainly stronger, so some of it is muscle mass, but I also realized how much the medicine had helped with the weight loss by suppressing my appetite. All my new clothes still fit and I feel great, but I am still not completely happy with the look of my body.
One of the books I’m reading for Lent is a forty-day spiritual fitness program. The author works in the health care field, and teaches how to live your best life physically, mentally, and physically. I’m not following her program perfectly, but it has helped me better focus certain aspects of my life. It has made me confront a certain aspect of my personality. I am very observant; this is good as an artist and writer. However, I’m also quick to make judgments. Several other people in my life have also had extreme changes in their health and appearance, and I confess that I’m a little jealous. On the other hand, I’ve been far more aware of friends who have gained weight. I don’t let it affect the way I treat them; it is all in my mind. I know it is wrong, and I’m working on it. That’s what Lent is about, isn’t it?
One of the things that struck me the other day as I was reading this forty-day spiritual fitness book, is that despite chapters filled with ways to do better for my health, we also have to think about our mental health. Judging others, good or bad, and comparing ourselves to them, is never healthy. Now, as part of my devotional time, I pray for God to help me love the Temple that He gave me so that I can do the work He has called me to with what I have today. This does not mean giving up the new healthy habits, but it means that I need to stop comparing myself to others, to stop envying those who seem to have done better, and to stop judging those who don’t seem to be doing as well as me. The reality is that I have no idea what’s happening deep in their lives. I need to find my happiness, even while I seek to grow my relationship with God through acceptance of my sin, repentance, and experiencing God’s grace as He continues to transform my body, mind, and spirit.
Audrey Hepburn is one of my favorite actresses. Her simple beauty and soft-spoken nature lent for wonderfully deep and paradoxical characters. Though she seemed weak and fragile, her characters had amazing strength and power. She used cosmetics, but her classic beauty seemed so natural. When asked if she had any personal beauty tips she answered, “If I had them, I’d make a fortune. But I know what helps - health, lots of sleep, lots of fresh air, and a lot of help from Estee Lauder.”
Audrey Hepburn had a favorite poem which was written by Sam Levenson which she read to her children on her last Christmas Eve. It is called “Time-Tested Beauty Tips” and the fact that this was her favorite poem shows her character and her beautiful heart.
“For attractive lips, speak words of kindness. For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people. For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry. For beautiful hair, let a child run his fingers through it once a day. For poise, walk with the knowledge you'll never walk alone ... People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed and redeemed and redeemed and redeemed. Never throw out anybody. Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm. As you grow older you will discover that you have two hands: one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.”
Those simple tips are often forgotten in our world where there are so many options for creating a beautiful image. All too many people are turning to plastic surgery to reshape their face or body. It is possible have make-up permanently tattooed to your face. Too many people are following diets and exercise programs, as well as using drugs for weight loss, to create a perfect body rather than be their best self. In our world where appearances seem to matter so much, the timeless tips found in the poem does not see like valuable advice. As a matter of fact, some of the most beautiful people are those who have the least beautiful characters.
Just as we confuse beauty with our physical image, so too we confuse happiness with what is visible on the surface. We assume that the people with the big, pretty houses in the best neighborhoods are happy. We assume that people with fancy cars, the best technology, and everything they could possibly want are blessed. Yet, the kind of happiness that the world promotes does not always mean blessedness. True happiness is not found in the accumulation of things, or even in having the perfect body, but in the realization for God’s grace.
Instead of working so hard to conform our flesh to some cultural expectation or hiding ourselves under a physical façade, true beauty and happiness is found deep in the heart of God’s love and is visible in the character of one through whom God’s grace flows. This is the person whose heart is for all their neighbors, being kind, seeking the good in others, sharing with neighbors. As Sam suggested in his poem, it is time for us to turn our hearts and minds to the well-being of others, not ignoring our needs, but finding joy in the work of restoration, renewal, reclamation, and redemption, so that others will know the peace and blessedness of better relationships both with God and other people.
You’ve heard it said, “She looks at the world through rose colored glasses.” Some people see the glass as half full. There’s a silver lining in every cloud. We can make lemonade out of the lemons. We go through phases in our world when positive thinking becomes popular. Negative thoughts can affect our lives negatively, so we should try to keep those words out of our heads and out of our mouths. Unfortunately, we don’t live in a time of excessively positivity. As a matter of fact, five minutes of scanning comments on social media, and you’ll see how negative we have become.
We do not see others in the best possible light. When we think about people negatively, they will appear to fulfill our expectation. It doesn’t help that we are bombarded by negative reports about every public figure. It doesn’t matter what “side” you are on, the person who disagrees with your point of view and all their followers are wrong, mean, or even evil. The worst of their lives are repeated over and over again until that’s all you know about them. The good that person has done is ignored and their tiniest mistake is exaggerated. We begin to see people not as they are, but as someone wants us to see them. Kind actions are viewed skeptically. We blame the neighbor that has been described as “loud” even if the noise is coming from somewhere else. If we think someone is a liar, everything they say will be a lie. If we think someone is greedy, we will think everything they do is motivated by greed, even if what they are doing is for our best interests.
When we see people only through these negative eyes, we can’t see anything good about them. Then we accuse those who find something positive as being as bad as the one with whom you disagree. We look at those people as Pollyannaish, which means they see only the good things in every situation. To us, seeing those we think are wrong, mean, or evil through rose colored glasses is naïve, and perhaps even dangerous. We want to show what we believe is the truth, to convince others of the negative. If there is mercy and grace, then there might be forgiveness and a chance for a new point of view, but we get so caught up in our opinion of others that we would rather not allow others to see them differently.
The problem from a Christian point of view is that we use our opinion of others as an excuse for not sharing the Gospel of Jesus. Like Jonah, we don’t want to give our “enemy” a chance to repent. We think they are beyond redemption, so we don’t bother to speak the Gospel into their lives. Even worse: if we can’t find a place for forgiveness, then we will not want them to be saved. We purposely keep them in the dark because we don’t want them to share our light.
In Christ, however, we are called to look at people through a different point of view. Instead of seeing them in their failures and sin, we are called to see them through the eyes of Christ. We are called to see them through the power of the cross, with hope and grace. If we think someone is beyond redemption, we’ll never bother to share the Redeemer. We might even make up excuses for doing so; we don’t think they will listen, we don’t want to force our religion, we can’t change the spots on a leopard.
Jesus wants us to see others through His eyes - Jesus-colored glasses - to have hope for them even when they seem to be beyond hope. When we do, we’ll willingly share God’s grace, to love them as they have been created to be loved. It might seem naïve to the world, but a kind word might just help someone begin to change. At the very least, we will look at them from a new point of view and maybe we’ll discover that they aren’t so bad after all. We might also see our own sinfulness as we realize that our judgment is a mirror to our own faults.
Our Gospel text for this week is very, very familiar. It is the parable of the Prodigal Son (or as some call it, the parable of the Prodigal Father.) We live in a world which focuses on “fairness,” but what does that mean, really? I envy those who have lost more weight and think it isn’t fair that it was so easy. We don’t think it is fair that our neighbor’s grass is greener than ours. We covet and lust because we think we deserve what others have. With this attitude, it is easy for us to look at this story from the older brother’s point of view, if not directly, but as a compassionate observer.
We feel sorry for the older brother who has worked hard to keep the family and the estate together after the younger took off for parts unknown. We see the younger brother’s greed and are offended by his boldness. No matter how great the wealth of the landowner, taking that much of its value away would make it difficult to continue running the farm. His self-centeredness leaves the family not only with one less body to help, but also without the resources necessary, especially if they run into hard times.
When we read this story, we also assume that since there are two brothers, his share would have been half. However, the reality is that the younger son would have received one third of the estate; according to ancient hereditary rules, the older son received a double share. The amount taken was still substantial, too much to give to a selfish, immature boy. It does not seem very sensible for the father to give in to such a demand. It was obvious that the son did not want to use his wealth in a beneficial way. He quickly ran off with his money and wasted it on parties and rich living. We might think that he was happy because he was living the life he wanted to live. He had it all! Until he didn’t.
I stopped playing the lottery years ago, but when I did I only bought tickets when the prize was extremely high. Once, when the prize was expected to be the highest ever, I saw reports of how people who won the lottery used their wealth. There was one success story about a man who put his money into investments, creating a company that would not only help him build his money, but it would also help other people invest well. Most of the stories, however, were about people who thought a million dollars would last forever. They quicky discovered that isn’t very much money at all, especially if you spend, spend, spend. Most lottery winners have little left after just eighteen months. They quit their jobs, buy new houses and cars, and throw huge parties, dwindling their windfall into nothing much quicker than anyone expects.
I think that’s what offends us most about the younger son. We have no sympathy for him because he took the wealth his father worked hard to earn, and he wasted it. He did not even try to use it wisely. He threw it away. That’s probably what the older brother was thinking. He grumbles that at least he stayed, used his future wealth to the benefit of the whole family, continuing to build the estate of his father. And that’s why he is so offended by the outcome. He thinks he’s wasted his time, and his younger brother is given more after wasting his share. Worst of all, the younger brother received the fruit of his brother’s work.
There are two other points of view in this story: the younger brother and the father. We often hear the father’s point of view in comparison to the point of view of the older brother. We can certainly receive the grace that is seen in the father’s actions, and we can understand how hurt that older son must have felt to see his father have so much mercy on the one who took advantage. But can we identify with the younger brother, the one who offends us? During Lent it is the young son in whose feet we should stand, as the one who has turned away from the Father. As we are called to repentance, we can walk humbly before the throne like that prodigal son, unworthy of grace but willing to serve.
What is interesting is that we often misunderstand the meaning of the title of this parable. The word “prodigal” does not mean one who has returned, which is how I always interpreted. A “prodigal” is “characterized by profuse or wasteful expenditure.” The son was “prodigal” when he wasted all the good things he had been given. This is why, however, we can also think of this story as the parable of the Prodigal Father. We, like the older brother, see the father’s compassion, acceptance, and abundant generosity as profuse and wasteful expenditure.
The son decided to return home, not to become a part of the family again, but to do menial labor with this father’s servants. He was barely able to get his confession out of his mouth when the father embraced him with joy. The son expected nothing more than a job so that he could feed himself and stay alive. He received far more. The son did not demand anything from the father. He faced reality repentant and humble, bowing before his father with confession and apology. But his father would have none of it.The father even ran to his son when he realized that he was walking toward the estate.
the father received his son as if he had died and come back to life. He heaped upon the son the best robes and gold rings. He slaughtered the best lamb and opened the finest wine. He threw a party when the son only wanted a job. Not everyone was happy, however. The son left behind realized that his father was heaping his inheritance onto his prodigal brother. To him, the prodigal was the father, too. He was offended by the waste of money and excitement. Why should his future be risked for the sake of the son that ran away to play while he was stuck at home doing all the work?
Isn’t it interesting that the younger son was willing to be a slave but was received as a son, but the older son thought of himself as a slave even though he’d been loved? The young son sought out the father, asking for mercy and got far more. The elder son expected everything and missed out on the joy of being in his father’s house. In the father’s eyes, however, both are loved. I suppose it is easy for the one left behind to think that the actions of the father seem as if the young son was the favorite. After all, the father gave in to his demands for his inheritance before it was due and then received him with mercy and grace when he came home penniless.
But the father has no favorite, or if He does, it is the son that stays. He answered his son’s anger, “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But it was appropriate to celebrate and be glad, for this, your brother, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.” What matters is not the days that were lost by foolishness, but the hope of the future, living in God’s grace because the disgrace is gone, the sin is forgiven, and opportunity is bright. God looks beyond our faults and frailties toward the reality of His promises. He has mercy even when it is not deserved. He keeps His covenants even when we fail to do so. He rolls away our disgrace and takes away our sin. Happy are we who are forgiven.
The father waited anxiously for his prodigal son to return and then ran to welcome him home even when he was still far away. God is waiting anxiously for us to repent, ready to run and welcome us home even while we are far away. He is looking for us to turn around, not so that He can judge our sinfulness or punish our disobedience. He is not waiting for the day He can say, “I told you so.” God is waiting to embrace us and restore our whole being.
What is interesting about our text from Isaiah is that it begins with a song of thanksgiving because God has repented. That might sound odd, since we generally think of repentance as the act of the contrite heart that turns to God. In this case, God turned His wrath from the sinner. God’s heavy hand was removed, and His saving grace was applied so that we can sing for joy and experience life in His grace. Without God we are helpless; with God we are happy, blessed and thankful.
Our Father loves each of us. Our sin, and we are all sinners, does not keep Him from giving us what we need. It does not make us lose the inheritance He has promised us through the Gospel. Reconciliation comes from God through Jesus Christ. Lent is a time to be confronted by our own sinfulness, which causes us to humbly repent and return home with the hope that our Father will receive us.
The prodigal story is about restoring that which had been broken and making it whole. Our bond with God has been broken. We are all selfish, whether we are like the younger son who took the blessings of the father's love and ran away to be free or like the older son who wanted to celebrate his own goodness. We are all sinners in need of a Savior. We are all separated from God and need to be restored to Him.
Easter is about reconciliation and Lent is the time when we discover our brokenness. As we seek God in prayer and worship, we see ourselves as we really are: sinners in need of a Savior. Then, as Holy Week approaches, we realize that the work of the cross is meant for us, that He was given for our sake. We gather around Christ to hear His Word, to receive His grace, just as the tax collectors and sinners were doing in His day.
Paul wrote, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.” We are changed by our relationship with God so that we no longer look at the world in quite the same way. This is what the author of my spiritual fitness book is trying to help me see. It isn’t just about restoring my body but about building my relationship with God so that I will live the best life possible. I may become discouraged some days, but there is always hope. God reconciled the world to Himself through Christ and freely forgives those who turn toward Him. This is why we need to stop seeing the negative about others but rather see them through Jesus-colored glasses.
God is like the father. Despite the sense that it is improper for the Almighty God to come to us, He did. He took on flesh and became man. Jesus Christ lived and died for our sake, sacrificing Himself so that we would be reconciled to God and each other. As Paul wrote, “For him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Through Him we have the most incredible homecoming. We are welcomed to more than an earthly estate. We are welcomed home to the kingdom of God. This is a reason to rejoice. Yet, we are to rejoice not only for ourselves, but also for those who were lost but have been found. Let us rejoice with the heavenly host for every sinner that is saved. There are no limits to God’s grace, He has more than enough for all to be blessed today and forever more.
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