Prayer:
God of all mercy, by your power to heal and to forgive, graciously cleanse us from all sin and make us strong; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Bible Reading:
Luke 15:1-3,11b-32
Silence:
One to two minutes
Reflection:
Life is not fair. Damned if you do, and damned if you don’t, and a corollary, “anything in between is just plain boring.” It’s the boring one in which most of our lives end up – a little of this a little of that, a glimmer of fun, a glut of ordinariness, middle of the road, drab. I think this is becoming more and more a cultural characteristic. Why do you think there is such a high volume of sitcoms on the tube, such high interest in day time soaps, such a rash of action oriented movies, so much hype on sports (XFL, WWF, NFL, etc)? One theory – we really crave the extremes, but are too self-conscious to act them out, and so we end up watching other’s excitement, voyeurism (I think it’s called). The fundamental flaw here is “self orientation”, a world that revolves around self. Younger prodigal, elder “good son”, and boredom in between all suffer a terminal disease called “self”, the cure to which lies only in the gracious “other” love of God, revealed to us through Jesus Christ, and translated to your neighbor.
Action – Repentance and Creation:
Today, bake a cake for a friend, write a note of appreciation for a blessing you have received, give a call or visit someone who is lonely – in one way or another, get outside yourself today, and make “the other” the object of your attention.