Lenten Devotions in Hard Economic Times

NINETEENTH DAY OF LENT 
                  MARCH 10
  
 Psalm 32: 1,3
 Luke 15: 11-14, 18-20, 23-24
 
 
This is an old story
Of folly and forgiveness.
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 the father 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.
 
It’s so hard to come back from degradation.
When you’ve pled and maneuvered
And gotten your own shortsighted way
And then everything crumbles
And you’re left in want,
And there’s no place, no one,
Who could possibly
Want
You
Around any more.
 
While I kept silent and did not face the truth
My body wasted away
Through my groaning all day long
Then I acknowledged my offense to You
And did not cover up my culpability.
 
When the son came to himself he said…
"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.’"
 
And the father ran to greet him, saying
"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!"
 
Joyful are those whose arrogance is forgiven,
Whose error is erased
And in whose spirit there is no denial of the truth.
 
This is a timeless testimony
To the soul-force of honesty
Roiling beneath the pain of despondency
To generate
The wave of generosity
That sweeps away
All timorousness
In the rush
Of reconciling
Love.
 
 
 
 
Luke cited from New Revised Standard Version
Psalm from Redemption Songs-A 21st Century Descant on the Psalms
commentary in italics