THIS AGE OF DISCOVERY

THIS AGE OF DISCOVERY

I forget the details but some days ago I heard a radio programme on a new medical discovery by a group of researchers. They were thrilled; they had pulled pack the veil on the mysteries of life a little more. When the people of Israel tasted the produce of the promised land for the first time they too had an ecstatic moment. When the people of South Africa looked each other in the eye in 1994 after years, centuries, of hostility, it was one such moment.

One of the most beautiful human experiences is to discover. I can think of examples in my own life; one was the day I met people living with disabilities for the first time. Up till then I saw them as “problems” for society to deal with – which normally meant locking them away somewhere out of sight. Then that day I met them as people and realised they were just like me in desires and needs – most of all the need for love, for relationship.

One of the best known of Jesus’ stories in the gospel is of the son who was a wastrel. He wanted a good time and he wanted it now. He had no thought for the future. His father respected his choice, his freedom, and the son spends all his money and then everything falls apart. But he has one great saving quality: he listens to that inner voice we call conscience.

He “came to his senses” and decided to go back to his father and confess he had messed up everything and would now forego his position as a son and settle for being a worker on the farm. Well, we know the father’s reaction. He was an incredible father. Far from berating his son and saying, “I told so, but you wouldn’t listen”, he welcomes him with joy and has a feast, a celebration.

We have to pinch ourselves to recognise how astonishing this reaction of the father was. But we have to also recognise the effect on the son. He literally became a new person – and a much better person than he was before. He had discovered something; the power of forgiveness. Forgiveness opened his eyes, freed him from his selfishness and set him on a new path. That day he danced more than any one at the party.

Forgiveness is such an unconditional thing that it is hard to accept it. Surely there should be judgement and punishment. The son’s elder brother thought so. He was scandalised by his father’s attitude but he could not dent his father’s joy: “he was lost and is found; he was dead and now he is alive!” This “discovery” is something to rejoice over. For those who experience it there is a whole new world.

At the beginning of Mark, chapter 2, Jesus astonishes people by curing a paralytic. But it is as clear as daylight that this is not his main purpose. His first words were, “your sins are forgiven.” The result of these words were hidden; those of the cure were manifest. But for Jesus the cure was only a sign. What really mattered was the new life brought by forgiveness.

As we approach the climax of Lent we realise this is the key to all Jesus said and did.

6 March 2016                         Lent Sunday 4 C

Joshua 5:9-12                         2 Cor. 5:17-21                        Luke 15:1-3, 11-32