Reflection: You Can Come Home Again (March 10, 2013)

The Fourth Sunday in Lent
Isaiah 12:1-6; 2 Cor. 5:16-21; Luke 15:1-3, 11-32


The adage “You can't go home again” reflects the reality that once you've left home and experienced other things you can’t come home again and expect things to be the same as they once were. Anyone who has moved away from a childhood home has experienced this to one degree or another. We learn that even when things stay the same at home, we change once we leave. Our successes, failures, education, new relationships, and all of the other things that we experience while we are away become barriers to going back to home the way it once was. Not only do we change, but so does what we've left behind. But what if, after all the things that enticed us away had disappointed us, the home we remembered as loving, accepting, comforting, and nurturing was still there for us? Wouldn't we want to go home again? What would it take to do so?

One of the most compelling applications of the parable in today’s Gospel lesson is how it shows us the way to coming home again. It’s easy for most of us to relate to the son who plays the prodigal in this parable. After all, in our own ways we've rebelled against our Father and have found the ways of our world enticing enough to abandon His ways and His will. And like this son, somewhere along the line we've come to our senses and realized that what we had in our Father’s house that seemed so boring, meaningless, and empty turned out to be so much richer and satisfying than what the deceitful promises of the world actually delivered. In our spiritual hunger we longed to come home enough to swallow our pride and humble ourselves. We never expected things to be as they were, to be received back as beloved children with all the rights and privileges that are reserved for those who belong to the Father. After all, we knew that you can’t go home again. But, just as when we left in the first place, we were wrong.

Today’s parable is often called the “Parable of the Prodigal Son,” but it is far better for us to realize that it is more accurately the “Parable of the Waiting Father.” No prodigal can go home again, but through the Father’s love there is a path to reconciliation and restoration so that we can come home again. And when we do, the Father greets us with loving arms and rejoices in the homecomings of His prodigal children.

Audio file of the sermon "You Can Come Home Again."