Trinity Episcopal Church

March 14, 2010

The story of the Prodigal Son in Luke chapter 15 has been called the greatest short story in the world. It surely is the gospel condensed (the Readers Digest version). A man had two sons, and the youngest son came to him and basically said, “Give me now the part of the estate I will get when you are dead.” Surprisingly, the father doesn’t argue, but rather gives the son the money; perhaps thinking the boy must learn the hard way. The kid takes the cash and flees to sin city without even waving good-bye.

Did you ever learn anything the hard way? I remember taking a date to a local carnival and some seedy looking guy lured me over to his both. “Throw the dart and break a balloon” he said, “there’s a winner every time!” I won’t go into the details of the imbecilic game, but 20 dollars later there was a winner---and it wasn’t me. In all the hype and the vision of my cute little date with one arm hooked in mine and the other arm carrying a stuffed blue bear, I had lost all my cash on a game I couldn’t win. I felt humiliated and stupid.

In the gospel the prodigal kid ran through his money and when he was feeding the pigs (the lowest job on the Jewish totem pole because pigs were unclean), Luke says the boy came to himself. I’ll bet he felt humiliated and stupid too, only one hundred times worst than I did that day at the carnival.

When a prodigal (a wasteful and reckless person) is away from God, trying to win at life, they learn the hard way: broken balloons, broken dreams, empty arms. Life isn’t about winning; it’s about being found---it’s about being alive.

Fr. Rick

Trinity Episcopal Church

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March 14, 2010