Friday, March 12, 2010

Lent 4c - Conclusion

Joshua 5:9-12; Psalm 32; 2 Corinthians 5:16-21; Luke 15:11-32

The Flying Fish Restaurant, on the corner of Montgomery & Lovell, has declared itself to be Lent Central. So it has come to this has it? I can understand marketing Christmas because of the gift giving and Easter because of Lisa’s favorite candy, the marshmallow Peep®, but Lent? Lent is a season of sacrifice and fasting and even if fish takes the place of meat for many, the Flying Fish - Catfish, Oysters, Crab, Gumbo, Po’Boys, Grilled Fish and more! - is hardly a Lent like atmosphere. But then the lessons for Lent 4c are a mixture of contrition and celebration. Forty years of wilderness wandering end as the children of the exiles make it to the land of milk and honey where manna is forever taken off the menu. The Lord’s heavy hand keeps the groaning psalmist awake and wasting away until confessing transgressions and not hiding sins makes the psalmist happy are those…” For Paul the old becomes new because Jesus who knew no sin was made to be sin and we who have been reconciled are called to respond in kind. And in the Gospel the Father happens to the son who stayed as much as to the one who returned. “Everything I have is yours” means ring and robe and fatted calf and although we don’t know if the son who stayd ever came to his senses “everything I have is yours” means your brother who came home is yours as well.

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