Grace and Peace to you from the Holy Trinity; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit 

On Tuesday morning I was up before the sun, waiting expectantly while looking at God’s beautiful creation. 

After our wonderful snowfall the trees were once again embraced with a brilliant blanket of snow and the ground appeared new, untouched. 

Taking a sip of hot coffee, I sat looking east. 

I could see the glow on the horizon, with Silver Hill and the trees waiting with me. 

The luxuriant coating of snow on the trees began to reflect the sunlight and soon the horizon was a flame in glory. 

The rays of energy, extending like welcoming arms, stretching down the back road and the snow amplified the light. 

One more awesome day as the sun embraced our part of creation. 

The words of Psalm 32 were alive in my heart, “Be glad, you righteous, and rejoice in the Lord; shout for joy, all who are true of heart.” 

I hope that you were witness to that morning with awe and reverence for the gift that we have been given by God. 

Imagine the joy of God as we receive and share the gift of life and love. A gift of steadfast promise that always delivers and embraces us. Perhaps you didn’t have the experience I described, and that’s okay. 

Maybe you slept in, or got out of bed on the wrong side, but God is always there for you. 

What does it look like to live into the world we have been given?

Sometimes it may feel like we are constantly searching or carrying the thought that, “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.” 

Looking back fondly on my teaching experience brought back one of my daily duties as a playground supervisor. 

Picking up lost hats, mittens, coats, and any variety of things that make it out to the playground and are left there. 

I would collect those items and bring them to the lost and found. During the summer the area was usually well organized with only a few items. 

When winter rolled around the organized items soon became like a giant overhang of snow ready for an avalanche. 

If something was lost it usually required some digging to find it. 

Over the course of a few years I began to notice a pattern with the lost and found. 

The area began to look more lost than found. 

I don’t know why, but many items simply were not claimed. 

Was it embarrassment, recklessness, or maybe they could afford to get new things, instead of looking? 

Fortunately at the end of the year the items were donated so those who needed them could get them and find a new person to keep warm. 

Our gospel for today is the parable we know as the Prodigal Son. This is all about being lost and found. 

Unlike the joy of finding some lost keys, a coat, or a smartphone, the value in this parable is finding a lost son, and embracing a family member.

I will begin at the end, which signals a new beginning. 

Verse 32, “But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.” 

What appears to be a joyful reunion is met with resistance by the older brother. 

I have been fortunate to experience two of the parts in this drama; the father, and the young brother, yet I can identify with the older brother. 

Where do you see yourself in this story, who do you identify with, maybe all three? 

Where is God in the story, maybe in all three? 

Psalm 32 verse 8 points us in the right direction, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way that you should go; I will guide you with my eye.” 

Jesus who lived a life of love for everyone. 

Jesus was teaching and once again the Pharisees and scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” 

A parable of compassion is offered to everyone. 

The ancient household code was operative in this parable as the oldest son was in fact the heir to the father, what is unique is the younger son's request and granting of his share before his father died. 

This should grab our attention as it certainly would have to the cultural norms of the Pharisees and scribes; something like this simply wouldn’t happen. 

God is at work and the compassionate father knows their children. 

We know that the younger son is given his share and off he goes into the world, appearing to squander his inheritance.

We can judge and conclude this was reckless and immature or we can respond with compassion and listen for the lesson. 

What the younger son lost was much more than his inheritance. He lost personhood and knowing that he mattered. 

No one was there to help him, he felt alone, abandoned. 

How do we treat the foreigner in our midst, like those that ignore the young son? Weare all foreigners when our citizenship is in heaven. 

Perhaps at his lowest point, realizing that he would be glad to eat the food of pigs he had a revelation, a sense of repentance that would lead to reconciliation. 

Verse 17, “But when he came to himself he said, “How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger!” 

Willing to give up his personhood, “having sinned against heaven”, he returns home, with hope. 

Compassion, with love the father sees his son and runs to him, embracing him and kissing him. 

Isn’t that the way it should be? 

The steadfast love of the father looks with compassion, not jugement. That is our God. 

Our Lord, God, who sent his only son to take on the sin of the world, suffered and died, looking like a complete failure in the world’s eye, yet turning life into an eternal promise of love. 

“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2Cor.5:21)

We are reconciled to God through Christ. 

Now we have become the righteousness of God. 

But the older brother wouldn’t have it, practically disowning his brother and declining the invitation from his father to join the celebration. 

Many of us have worked hard, followed the rules, only to feel like others can run around; do whatever they want, without being held accountable, yet still expect to be treated like they did nothing wrong. 

The older son appears to be filled with jealousy, didn’t he matter? Producing a long list of, “Look at what I have done, what have you done for me!” 

There is bitterness in his words, calling himself a slave and disowning his younger brother by referring to him as, “this son of yours.” 

With compassion the father says, “you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.” 

That’s the promise the father has for all of us. 

All that is mine is yours, what is lost is found. 

Love is not lost on anyone, but found in the love we have for one another. 

I quote author/theologian Richard Rohr, “If we have never loved deeply, we are unable to understand spiritual things at any depth.” 

Digging through the lost and found of life is the gift of love. 

For this we can say, Thanks Be To God. Amen