The Fifth Week in Lent
Devotion Guide for the Week of Thursday, April 3, 2025
Imagine Worship Theme: "Feasting on Grace" (Taste)
Gospel—Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
All the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them." So Jesus told them this parable: "There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.' So he divided his property between them. A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. 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! I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands."' So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. Then the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the father said to his slaves, 'Quickly, bring out a robe--the best one--and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!' And they began to celebrate. "Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. He replied, 'Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.' Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. But he answered his father, 'Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!' Then the father said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 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.'"
Meditation by Kate DiTullio
What makes us worthy? For the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, it sure didn’t look like welcoming known sinners and eating with them. They might have nodded in solidarity with the older son in Jesus’ parable who exploded at his father: “‘...when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’” What the older son said about his brother was true. But his impression of his own worth in his father’s eyes? That was not true. Both sons in this parable told themselves stories about their father based on the sons’ fears about their worth. The younger Prodigal son—the one who demanded his inheritance early, blew through it all in the first century Palestinian equivalent of Vegas, and came to the point of starvation before deciding to try crawling back to his father’s household as a servant—he told himself the story that he was “no longer worthy to be called [his father’s] son”. The older son—the one who worked day and night for his father and “never disobeyed [his] command”—he told himself the story that his father valued him only for what he did. Neither son could conceive the reality that his father simply loved him.
We probably can see ourselves in one or both of these sons. Accepting that God loves us simply and purely, right now, can be a difficult story to believe when we’ve heard so many other stories telling us otherwise. And yet it’s true. God runs to embrace us the minute we decide to try our luck with God because we have nowhere else to go. God listens to our rage and tells us that we are God’s beloved child, always. No untrue story can erase our beloved, priceless state in God’s eyes.
Questions for Reflection
- There are three stories here: the younger brother’s, the older brother’s, and the father’s. Does one or more of these stories resonate with you? Why?
- What stories have you been told (by yourself or others) that keep you from accepting your beloved, priceless status in God’s eyes?
- What emotions do you feel when you imagine a God who loves you, entirely and completely?
Practice
It can be difficult to rest in God’s love. This week, try to dedicate some time for activities that typically put your heart and mind at ease. The goal is not to try to force a “mountaintop” spiritual experience, but rather to practice resting, maybe even to practice contemplation. If you have a busy schedule, try listening to music that calms you on your commute or when you’re getting ready for bed in the evening. You might be able to go for a walk in a peaceful area, or have a leisurely conversation with a trusted friend. Rest might look like engaging in a creative practice such as writing, making music, working with clay, creating visual art, or dancing. Rest might involve playing with any pets or children in your circles. In short, try to find ways to delight in God’s good creation (which certainly encompasses you!) this week.
Prayer
Lover of souls,
You have wrapped us in Your infinite affection.
From our unremembered infancy to the moments that weigh us down now,
You have always loved us,
completely.
When we feel like love is a scarcity to be measured,
doled out in small sums, to keep the lock on our hearts securely fastened,
unfurl our fingers in the way only You can
and remind us that Your love is not counted in cups or days,
but in the infinite, borderless expanse
of all the rooms, in all the universe,
and more.
And when we feel like we have no love left to spare,
draw us to collapse in Your arms,
kiss our foreheads,
and remind us:
Your love can bear all things, even when we cannot.
Author of Love, who believes and hopes and endures,
Hold us now, and evermore.
Amen.
By The Rev. Lizzie McManus-Dail, God Didn’t Make Us to Hate Us, pp. 14-15
Visio Divina Week 5
“The Return of the Prodigal Son” by George Kordis (installed at Yale Divinity School Library in February 2025)
