When we are young the future is bright. When we are young we know what we want and are optimistic about achieving it. When we are young the difference between right and wrong is clear-cut. When we are young we are confident that there are people who love us and hold us in high esteem. Then life begins to throw spanners in the works …. very large ones! Suddenly we’re not quite so sure what we want after all, and trying to achieve anything worthwhile is like running at an immovable brick wall. Life begins to test our principles. Lapses of courage tempt us to tell lies; poverty encourages us to take what doesn’t belong to us; fear of failure encourages us to cheat; depression encourages us to drink or eat too much; desperation encourages us to take drugs or gamble. The path that leads away from God is an out of control downwards spiral. Worse, once we lose our self-esteem, it is very difficult to turn back to God. Once we have spiralled to an all time low, it is difficult to think of ourselves as worthwhile. Once we have hit rock bottom, it is hard to imagine that anybody might care enough to help us, or that anyone could still love us.
Jesus tells three parables that demonstrate God’s mercy and compassion. ‘The Lost Sheep’, ‘The Lost Coin’ and the ‘Lost Son’. As we soldier on through life feeling worthless and insignificant, these three parables tell us that we do not have to accept our sorry lot in life. Jesus reminds us that no one is worthless or insignificant in God’s eyes … not one single person. It doesn’t matter how far we have travelled away from God, God is looking to bring us back. Today’s parables are about wholeness and inclusion in a society seemingly intent on division and exclusion. In all of us there is a need to be found and carried, and in all of us there is the ability to seek out and help others. Most of all, today’s parables are about forgetting the human instinct to judge others and to feel the joy of God the Father’s reconciling love.
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