Dear Friends,
      We are now in the middle of the season of Lent—the period of 40 days before Easter, not counting the Sundays.  Traditionally, Lent is a time for reflection.  It’s a fitting time to focus on the lengths to which our Lord Jesus was willing to go to demonstrate his love for us.  It’s also a fitting time for us to reflect on our own values, behaviors, and attitudes, and to consider whether changes may be warranted.  Connecting these two emphases is the concept of “repentance,” which includes the willingness to see things in a new way and, with God’s help, to turn in the way that we should go.
      At worship this coming Sunday, March 14th, we will focus on one of the most beloved stories that Jesus told: the Parable of the Prodigal Son.  In preparation, I encourage you to read the entire 15th chapter of Luke’s Gospel, which contains three parables, all of them dealing with the issue of being lost.  Interestingly, “lostness” is illustrated in an increasingly personal way in this series: first by a coin, then by a sheep, and finally by a son.  Obviously, the coin was incapable of doing anything to get itself lost.  The actions (or inactions) of others caused it to be somewhere other than where it was supposed to be.  The sheep presumably wandered off, simply doing what sheep do, following tasty grass until it was separated from the rest of the flock.  The son, however, became lost as a result of a conscious choice to leave home and a series of bad decisions that followed.  In the end, however, all were equally lost and in need of being found.
      The Parable of the Prodigal Son doesn’t end with the son’s return home, however.  The lengthy portion about the resentment of his older brother seems, in fact, to be the main point of the story, since Jesus told all three parables to the religious leaders of his day who were offended by the special attention that he paid to those that everyone knew to be great sinners.  One might well say that the resentful older son was the fourth example of lostness, after the coin, the sheep, and his younger brother.  As the last in the series, he might even represent the most lost, since he should have had the most awareness of his situation.
      Because the Parable of the Prodigal Son is so well known, the word “Prodigal” is often understood to mean “wandering” or “sinful.”  In fact, it means “recklessly extravagant,” “lavish,” or “profuse.”  Though those terms do indeed describe the behavior of the younger son when he was far from home, they also describe the behavior of the father when the “Prodigal” returned!  The purpose of engaging in self-reflection during Lent is not to make us morbid, but to put us in a position of experiencing the overwhelming grace of God as we turn—and continually re-turn—to Him.
      May God bless you throughout this Lenten season and always.
Yours sincerely,                   Paul D. Aita