Monday 18 September 2017

Contacts, information, events to 27 Sept




Due to annual leave, the minister will be unavailable from: 
Mon 18 Sept to 1pm Wed 27 Sept  

Rev. George Shand
Funeral cover:
will be provided by the Rev George Shand 
who can be contacted on 01899 309400.

For any ongoing parish queries, please contact our Session Clerk: 
Ms Heather Watt on 01899 850211
--------------------------------------------------

News, events, and general notices:


SUN 24 Sept
10:30am: Morning worship
will be conducted by the Rev. Sandy Strachan

who makes a welcome return visit while the minister is away on leave.
and, at 6:30pm: Evening worship will be a Songs of Praise service
with music provided by some of our friends from Leadhills Silver Band. 
This will be held in Leadhills Village Hall. All welcome

Wed 27 Sept, 7pm: Local Church Review Task Group meets in the Church Hall.
*about every five years, each parish in Scotland undergoes a process called the Local Church Review –
back in the old days, this used to be known as the Quinquennial.
Our turn has come up and over the next couple of months, 
a team from presbytery will be meeting with a team from Upper Clyde,
helping us look at where we are and what we’re currently doing;
and then, helping us as we look ahead, and see where we might go,
and what we might do over the next several years.
Think of it as the equivalent of an MOT for the parish.
Our team, I think, covers a good cross-range of views here and
I just want to thank them publicly for giving up time to be involved in the process, so, thanks to:
Keith Black
Lynn Cochrane 
Judith Gilbert
Jenny Worthington
and Dee Yates.
These are your ‘go-to’ people.  If you have any thoughts on things you’d like to see
happen here at Upper Clyde do feel free to catch up with any of the team -
they’ll feed your comments back into our team meetings.
It should be a good learning curve, I suspect we may even surprise ourselves,
so, let's enjoy the ride together. I look forward to seeing where our collective
thoughts and prayers will lead us.

SESSION PLEASE NOTE: Change of date for Kirk Session meeting
due to a recent scheduling of a Presbytery event, Session will now meet in the Church Hall on Thurs 5 October, and not 28 Sept, as previously announced. 

Sun 1 Oct, 9am - 9.45: TIME FOR PRAYER: 
Our new prayer group meets on the first Sunday of the month. 
The church will be open from 9am, with time for prayer/quiet meditation 
between 9-9.45. This is open to anyone to come along. 
Should you have any particular people or situations that you would like prayer for, there will be a small box with notelets in the vestibule: 
please make use of this, and note down who/ what you would like prayer for. 
All prayer requests in the box will be prayed for during this time. 
To preserve people’s privacy, unless you’ve checked first, please just use an initial, 
and keep the request relatively general: 
in faith, we trust that as we pray for the person and situation, 
that God knows all the details…so an example might look like: ‘please pray for S, who will be having an operation later this month’. 
See you there.

Sun 8 Oct, 10:30am: Annual Harvest Service, followed by simple soup lunch in the Church Hall. Come and join us, as we give thanks for the Harvest, and support the work of Farm Africa. You'll also have the opportunity to enjoy the great artwork created by our five primary schools - each school is currently involved in creating a Harvest banner.

BY Sun 22 Oct - 
Advent/Christmas Newsletter - deadline for articles, poems, etc.: 
it's that time of year again, and our newsletter editor, Dee, is on the lookout for articles, poems, or other items of interest for inclusion in our upcoming Advent/Christmas newsletter. If you have something to submit, please get it to Dee by Sunday 22 October - and thanks!

Sunday 17 September 2017

Sermon, Sun 17 Sept: people of the Bible series - Ruth, pt 2

READINGS/ Ruth, chapter 3 and 4

SERMON
Let’s pray: may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen...

Last week, we met the family of Naomi,
heard the story of what drew them to the land of Moab;
heard the story of what happened there.
And, in that story, we met another woman, named Ruth...

Ruth had been born in the land of Moab.
Grew up there.
Knew the stories of her people’s gods...
knew the story of her people;
knew from her earliest days that her destiny was to marry a man of her people.
But that... didn’t happen.
Instead of taking the expected path, she headed down the road less travelled –
married a man who followed a different God,
who came from a different nation:
a man whose family had escaped famine –
and who’d travelled the many miles from Bethlehem, in Judah,
and who’d embarked upon a new life in Moab.

Breaking with tradition and culture,
she married a stranger, a foreigner,
and lived with him for about ten years, until he died.
But it wasn’t only her husband who’d died:
her brother-in-law was also dead.
She, and her sister-in-law, Orpah, were now widows,
just as their mother-in-law, Naomi, was a widow.
The mother-in-law decides to return to her homeland,
and the young women travel with her for a little way until she tells them to turn back:
to take the safer option of staying with their own families.
One weeps, hugs her in farewell, and travels along the more secure road...
It’s not a bad choice:
she’s not a bad person...
and the person telling the story doesn’t condemn her for making it.
Presumably, Orpah settles back into her family, her country, ...
it is the safe, sensible choice,
and in making it, she settles into a life of obscurity –
and is never heard of again in this story, or elsewhere.
The other young woman weeps, and begs to go with her mother-in-law:
will not take ‘no’ as an answer.
Having already broken with making a safe choice to marry a man from her own country,
once again, Ruth chooses a different path –
a less secure path...
takes the road less travelled into the unknown.

The two women arrive back to Naomi’s homeland
and begin the task of settling in,
making a new life.
For Naomi, it’s mere survival –
she has no real hope,
has only the feeling of bitterness and a sense of God’s abandonment.
She would rather be known as ‘Mara’ now:
meaning ‘bitter’, as opposed to ‘Naomi’, meaning ‘sweet’.
Names are interesting in this story –
‘Ruth’ means ‘friendship’, ‘comfort’, and can even mean ‘to refresh’.
And we see, as the story continues,
Ruth’s gift of friendship and comfort to Naomi...and, of bringing refreshment to her.
While Naomi lives with her grief and her sense of hopelessness,
Ruth is someone who does hold hope:
she hopes for new opportunities
in this new land,
among new people –
even while she tends to the needs of her despairing mother-in-law.
But being practical, first things first:
they’ll need to eat.
As is the privilege of widows, she heads out to glean the fields –
it’s harvest time.
She’s a hard worker.
She wins the admiration of the local foreman,
who passes on a good report of her to the land-owner, Boaz...
who happens to be a relative of Naomi.
He offers her kindness, and protection.
When she returns home, she tells Naomi of this benefactor.
And, that’s where we pick up this morning:
Naomi is hatching a wee plan,
all of which is based upon the cultural expectations of her people.

Ruth has been an excellent and faithful,
kindly and companionable daughter-in-law.
She has given much to care for Naomi,
and now it’s Naomi’s turn to see what is in her gift to give to Ruth.
Of all the kinds of people in society,
women, and particularly widows, were vulnerable –
who would protect them in what was a time of chaos and turmoil?
The people had no real leader, apart from occasional champions - also known as 'judges'.
Naomi wants to find a way to provide a safety net for Ruth...
to give Ruth some kind of security,
and Naomi’s kinsman, Boaz, might just be the way.
It’s quite a dodgy-sounding plan, to be honest.
‘Go and make yourself pretty’ says Naomi...
‘Go and hang out at night in the threshing room’...
‘Go find Boaz’.
Now, we know from hearing the story, especially in the cold light of the next morning,
that it’s not quite the done thing for a woman to be spending time at night in such a place as this.
So, what’s happening here?
By placing herself where she does, Ruth is putting herself under the protection of Boaz –
asking him to act on his responsibility as a member of Naomi’s family.
He is surprised at her boldness,
he is pleased that she has come to him, when she could have chased after younger men...
she has made the right choice:
the legally appropriate choice, and he praises her,
and, decides he’ll honour her action by agreeing to act in the role of kinsman-redeemer,
that is, if he can...
for, unbeknown to Naomi and Ruth, there’s one other relative who is in the line ahead of Boaz –
he might want the land that would have belonged to Naomi’s husband, Elimelech...
and, if he does, Ruth would then go to him.
He would take back the land – redeem it –
and, take Ruth, and, by marrying her,
and by having a child with her,
redeem the family name...
rescue it from the possibility of disappearing.*
[*plus, some off the cuff comments on women as property/ cultural customs]

We know that Boaz goes out that very morning to find the other relative.
When he does, he asks about the land:
‘do you want it’ says Boaz...
‘Oh, yes,’ says the relative.
‘you do realise that you’ll also be responsible for Ruth, don’t you,’ says Boaz...
‘Ah. You know, it’s fine, you take the land,’ says the relative,
who then pretty much melts away into the distance.
If he takes on Ruth, he will have to split his inheritance... it’s not a great option for him.
And so, we go back to Plan A:
the Boaz option.
In front of witnesses, Boaz declares that he is happy to redeem the land, and to take Ruth as his wife.
Naomi’s hopes are coming to fruition:
Ruth will have her security, her safety-net after all.
And the next plan involves Ruth and Boaz getting married,
which in turn, leads to a child:
and there’s something about a child that is a living breathing hope for the future.

So we have a story that, in the beginning, had hopes dashed – had created bitterness.
But, through the steady, loving-kindess of Ruth,
and, through the faithfulness of Boaz,
God was able to show his own steady,
faithful loving-kindness to Naomi.
Hatching a plan,
she dared to find hope in a most unexpected place,
and in the end,
discovered her God,
her joy,
her hope,
and her future once more.

It’s an interesting story, this story of Ruth.
And it doesn’t end with the birth of her son, Obed.
We’ve got a wee P.S. at the end in the shape of a family tree...
in which we discover someone further down the line who is rather well-known.
And, there’s another P.S. to the story which we can find in the Gospel of Matthew,
in the genealogy in chapter one.
Remember last week, I said the town of Bethlehem might just be important? Hmmmm.

Naomi’s desire to give back to Ruth,
as Ruth had give to her resulted in a rather interesting security plan taking shape,
that went way beyond what Naomi might have foreseen.
It was a security plan:
for Ruth, beloved daughter-in-law,
and for the future of the family... for the family name not to disappear,
but to be refreshed through Ruth...
and to continue along a slightly different path to the one that may have been expected.
But it ended up going further than just one small family –
affecting the future of the nation,
a nation that will later move from the time of the judges, to the time of kings –
for the child Ruth and Boaz have, Obed,
will be the father of Jesse, the father of...
the future King David,
the king chosen and beloved of God.
But it goes beyond even the future of the nation:
for this will affect all people, for 28 generations later,
the outcome of the story will be heard in the cry of a child in a stable,
the child who will be named ‘Jesus’ –
the one who will redeem the whole of creation,
the one who will redeem ...us...
and bring us back to God.

'In the Book of Ruth the whole world is new again.  
Relationships have been righted. 
The outcastes have been taken in.  
The lowly have been raised up.  
A new generation of men—represented by a boy-child—
comes to inherit a cosmos where women are its co-creators.  
In Ruth, we get a glimpse into God’s world and find that it runs just the opposite of ours.
Overall, the sense of mutual commitment between Naomi and Ruth is ultimately 
the source and mark of divine blessing. 
Only once in the entire story is the word “love” used and it is used to describe the relationship between these two strong and determined women. 
This is the kind of love that molds and drives the universe.' 
*Shelli Williams

In Ruth, we are shown a mirror of God’s loving-kindness,
a loving-kindness that is about both relationship and redemption:
God’s love for us,
and, in that love,
God redeeming us, and claiming us as his own,
offering us hope in the most unexpected places,
and the possibility of a future that is richer, better than we can imagine...Amen

Thursday 14 September 2017

Sermon, Sun 10 Sept: People of the Bible series, Ruth pt1

From Sun 10 September, until the beginning of Advent, we'll be taking a look at the lives of some well-known and lesser-known people in the Bible. What do their stories tell us of God at work, of God who is present in human lives and human history, and of the God who accompanies us even now? In this short series we begin with Ruth, and later, we'll meet Hagar, Rahab, Jonah, Philemon, Andrew.


READINGS/ Ruth ch 1, and ch 2

Let’s pray: may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

‘In the days when judges ruled…’
So begins the Book of Ruth.
Those days were long after the time
when Joshua, after the death of Moses, had led the Israelites from their wilderness wanderings and into the Promised Land.
A couple of generations had passed.
Those Israelites who now lived in the land, were people ‘who neither knew the Lord, or what he had done for Israel’ – this, according to the Book of Judges.
They’d forgotten their God,
they’d forgotten their story.
There was chaos, as other nations around them swept in and seemed near-impossible to resist.
The people of Israel cried out for rescue, and so, God raised up judges – champions –
to save them in their times of peril.
Often, after having saved the day, the judges were then largely ignored by the people,
who then went back to worshipping other gods and doing their own thing.

‘In the days, when judges ruled’, 
there was chaos:
political instability.
Short times of peace were followed all to swiftly by raids and warfare.
They were dangerous times.
And, even in the event of a strong and good judge, who was able to keep the peace,
there was no real safety net when other events intervened:
what to do, for example, in the case of natural disaster?
And it’s this situation that we find at the outset of the Book of Ruth:
famine has hit the land,
and in the midst of this,
we suddenly find our attention drawn to one small family,
as they try to navigate their way out of potential, life-threatening disaster.

In the first five breathtakingly swift verses of this book, we watch as the family make the decision
to leave their homeland to try and make a new life for themselves in a strange land.
Essentially, we see a settled family, who, when faced with starvation,
decide that they have no other real choice other than to become refugees.
They head off to the land of Moab.

The risk, initially, seems to have been worth it:
they settle down and begin to make a life for themselves.
It’s a new start, with hope-filled hearts for a better future.
Those hopes are quickly dashed, however.
Disaster strikes once more:
Elimelech, the husband and father of the family, dies.
Naomi, his wife, finds herself widowed.
But, her two sons, Mahlon and Kilion, are of marriageable age:
they both marry, settle down, and presumably as dutiful sons, take care of their widowed mother.
Again, the family fortunes seem to be on the up and up as they look once more to the future.

Ten years pass and at some point, there’s a reversal of fortune with another disaster:
both sons die at around the same time.
We don’t know how –
raiders? war? Some kind of contagious disease?
And, this misfortune is compounded:
they leave no children to carry on the family name.
Within five verses, we've travelled with this family over the course of roughly ten years,
a family whose situation has changed dramatically:
from Naomi and the three men of the family,
we now have Naomi and her 2 daughters-in-law,
Orpah and Ruth – all three of them, widows.
And, to be a widow in such times, was to be utterly vulnerable.
In verse 6, we see that, at this time of crisis, another decision is made:
another journey is planned, as Naomi determines to return to her homeland, to Bethlehem, in Judah.
Keep a wee note of where she’s headed and tuck it away somewhere safe for next week…
it may be a small detail, but… I suspect, it’s probably important.

With all her hopes blighted, Naomi no longer looks to the future –
she hasn’t got one.
It’s the end of the genealogical line.
For Naomi, everything is now all about the pragmatic business of surviving in the present.
But her current reality doesn’t have to be shared by Orpah and Ruth –
they are still relatively young.
Perhaps if they stayed behind in Moab,
they might find a new future with a new husband:
perhaps, even start a family.
So, while Naomi is intent on going back to live once more among her own people,
her wish is that Orpah and Ruth live among their own people –
that is where their future lies.

When we get to the farewell, there’s a tearful scene,
but eventually, Orpah remains with her own people,
while Naomi returns to her people, accompanied by Ruth.
Loyal, steadfast, Ruth –
who loves and cares for her mother-in-law,
and who is determined to not only spend the rest of her life caring for her,
but, at the end of her life, to accompany Naomi even through the final barrier of death:
to be buried with her.
Ruth, faithful companion in both life and death.
She’s fascinating:
her devotion and selflessness is astonishing.
In her care of and for Naomi, she is prepared to forsake her national identity –
her heritage, her people;
she’s prepared to forsake her religious identity –
the gods she grew up with and who she served.
‘Your people will be my people; your God, will be my God,’ vows Ruth.
And so, out of love for her mother-in-law,
she strikes off into the great unknown,
to a land she’s never seen;
she leaves everyone, and everything that she’s ever known…
and, through her decision to be a part of Naomi’s future,
she creates the possibility of a new future for herself.

When the two women arrive, it’s initially the past, not the future, that Naomi is confronted with:
although she’s been away for such a lengthy period of time, she is still remembered.
‘Can this be Naomi?’ folk ask.
But the past is difficult place to inhabit:
Naomi, whose name means ‘sweet’, chooses a new name: ‘Mara.’
No longer ‘sweet’, but ‘bitter’.
She is all hollowed out with grief –
empty.
She feels that God has brought only misfortune her way.
That’s how it seems…

And then, as we read further, as Ruth and Naomi begin to settle into their
new lives in Bethlehem, at the time of the harvest, the wind of change is once again in the air:
this now-tiny family unit of two widows is about to see a turn-around.
Far from having no future, there’s the possibility of promise…
and it’s in large part down to Ruth’s character.
Heading out to the fields to gather the left-overs of the harvest –
the right and privilege of the most vulnerable in society, widows,
Ruth happens to find herself in the field of a kinsman – Boaz.
He’s been away on business.
When he returns, he notices her, however.
He decides to check out who she is, asking questions of his foreman.
Ruth’s made a very good impression:
she’s seen to be a hard worker.
Boaz decides to take her under his wing –
because, for a woman, it’s dangerous work out in the fields…
there’s always the danger of sexual attack by the field hands.
Boaz offers her protection.
He offers her advice on where to find the best place to collect the most grain.
He offers her easy access to water.
He offers her extra portions at meal time.
He offers her…kindness.
He does this to recognize her own kindness to his family – to Naomi, his kinswoman.
And central to the whole story of Ruth is one word ‘hesed’
the Hebrew word meaning:
‘loving-kindness’
We see in Ruth’s story a classic case of ‘what goes around, comes around.’
But we see more than that:
we see, in Ruth herself, a mirror, showing God.

And when Ruth returns, and tells Naomi just how unexpectedly good her day was,
Naomi sees God in a completely different way:
this is not the God who disappoints, who makes life difficult…the God who disappears.
She’s allowed bitterness to cloud her judgement.
Now, in the loving-kindness shown by Boaz to Ruth,
loving-kindness offered as reward for Ruth’s own loving-kindness to Naomi…
Naomi’s taking another journey:
an interior journey as she moves from bitterness to sweetness once more.
As she makes that journey, she sees that far from being absent, God has always been with her;
she sees, in Ruth, a mirror of the loving-kindness of God –
who is faithful, steadfast, loyal…
a companion in the good, the bad, and the ugly that form part of the journey of life.
She sees the God who is with her in the bleak, and in the beautiful, and in the in-between…
the God whose loving-kindness is broader than previously imagined,
for this is the God who takes in Ruth:
a foreigner,
a stranger,
and shows his people – certainly Naomi, and Boaz, and the villagers of Bethlehem –
that he will ‘not stop showing his kindness to the living and the dead.’
And this…
is the God who even now, calls us, gathers us together here,
the God who we worship,
and who continues to offer to us his loving-kindness…
who, in Jesus, offers us hope,
and the promise of new life,
a new future,
as we walk with him…
as he always does, with us. Amen

We'll pick up part two of Ruth's story next week.

Monday 11 September 2017

UCPC Harvest Festival: 8 October - supporting 'Farm Africa'

Our annual Harvest Festival will be held on Sunday 8 October. 
This year's chosen charity for our Harvest Festival is Farm Africa.
There's a little information about them provided below, and, you can also visit their website here
With a month to go, it might be an excellent time to pull out an empty jar, and begin to fill it with any loose change you have lurking about...and then bring your filled jars to our service to give to Farm Africa.

Who is Farm Africa?
Farm Africa is an international organisation working to build a prosperous rural Africa.
We help farmers to increase their harvests, build their incomes and sustain natural resources, partnering with governments and the private sector to find effective ways to fight poverty.
closely with local communities, who actively participate in all the decisions about our work. Typically, our staff are from the local area, can speak the local language and have a deep understanding of the local context.
Farm Africa works in four countries: Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, and Tanzania

What Farm Africa does:
Farming doesn’t just provide food, but income and prosperity. Good agriculture can change lives. Farm Africa focuses on transforming agriculture. We help farmers to increase their harvests, protect the environment and sell their produce in thriving markets.
By providing support, training in effective farming methods and links to markets, we help to build more profitable farming businesses so that whole communities can lift themselves out of poverty.

Crops
Eight out of ten rural Africans scrape their living from small plots.
Soils are often poor, drought ever near. Farm Africa brings in the smart crops, drought-busting techniques and marketing skills that make such tough farming viable, profitable and sustainable.

Livestock
Where land is arid and crop cultivation hard, many farmers make their living by keeping animals. Animals are generally the family’s most valuable possession and Farm Africa helps with basic animal health services.

Fisheries
Pollution and overfishing have put wild fish stocks under pressure. The price of fish has rocketed, hitting people hard. Farm Africa is pioneering fish farming in Kenya, which ensures sustainable protein supplies and a major new source of income.

Forests
Deforestation destroys wildlife and dehydrates soil. We help forest communities replace traditional tree-cutting and wood and charcoal selling with new eco-friendly enterprises that protect biodiversity and provide a sustainable income for future generations.

Climate resilience
If the current consumption of fossil fuels continues, global temperatures could rise by
as much as 4⁰, which would have a devastating impact on farmers' livelihoods.
Farm Africa helps smallholders to farm in ways which don't damage the environment,
and to build resilience to future climate shocks.

Wednesday 6 September 2017

COMING SOON: UCPC Annual Coffee Morning

UCPC ANNUAL COFFEE MORNING - food, fun, and fund-raising
It's back! Our annual coffee morning will be held once again in Roberton Village Hall.
Choose your morning tea from a selection of mouth-watering home baking, 
check out what's on offer to buy from our making and baking stalls, 
see what fabulous item/s you might just take home from our tombola...
Let your friends and neighbours know, 
and come along to join us on Sat 9 September, from 10.30

Monday 4 September 2017

Guild news - this year's programme


The new Guild programme for 2017-2018 is now out -    
why not go to our Guild page [click on the link] and see what's happening this year?

Sunday 3 September 2017

Sermon, Sun 3 Sept: 'Come home to the feast'... wk52 WMRBW

This morning, we gathered together around the bread and wine of communion, and also concluded our year-long journey with 'We Make the Road by Walking'

READINGS/ Romans 8:28-39; 1 Corinthians 15:50-58; Luke 15:11-32

SERMON
Let’s pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

Over the course of this last year, we’ve been on a story journey. This Sunday last year, we began to ‘Make the Road by Walking’ – following a year’s worth of bible readings designed to help us get a better sense of the greatest story ever told:
that of God’s relationship to the world and, to human beings…
and, of the relationship of human beings to God, to one another,
and, to the world.
We began with Genesis: the book of beginnings –
exploring the beginning of everything, the great story of Creation.
We wandered through the Garden –
and heard the story of two trees:
the tree of life,
and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil…
and of a choice taken to ignore God in favour of eating of the forbidden fruit,
a choice that marked a new beginning:
the beginning of a separation of human beings from God;
of a ruptured relationship.

Over the year, we heard many other stories:
stories of God’s continued love for humanity,
stories of God rescuing people and leading them from slavery,
through the wilderness, and into a Promised Land;
stories of God doing everything in his power to build bridges, to call people back
into a healthy and happy relationship with him once more:
stories of God’s attempts at restoration and reconciliation.
And in these stories, there were some who did come back to God
and others who didn’t – some doing almost everything they could to run the other way.
Overall, down through the ages and, through this year, as we've listened to
and reflected on the many bible stories we've heard God’s continued call for people
to come, to follow –
to receive life,
to receive love, and mercy, and forgiveness.

Having begun the great story with Genesis,
last week saw us delve into the Book of Revelation:
the final book of the Bible, the book telling us how the story ends…
and, begins:
for at the end of all things, we saw a new beginning –
a new heaven and a new earth,
a new Jerusalem in which there’d be no more suffering, pain, tears, death…
in which the old, not fit for purpose, human attempts at power and position
without God would be swept away:
and where God would give light - where God would be the light,
and where the river of the water of life would flow;
echoes of Eden,
echoes of Creation.
From Genesis, through to Revelation we have a story which
'came from God in the beginning, and which all comes back to God in the end.' [McLaren, WMRBW]

And today, we come to one last story:
a story of a man with two sons.
Many of us know this story –
have heard of the shocking request made by the younger son to his father
that would effectively harm the family, and the family business;
a request that would cause considerable difficulties.
A request made by the younger son as a way of filling whatever emptiness
there was within him that he couldn’t seem to fill by staying at home.
We know what happens:
at what would have been great cost to the father, the farm is essentially split up
and the younger son is given his share, which is then cashed in:
the land, probably held for generations, is now in the hands of others.
And once it’s gone, and he’s got the money in hand, so is the younger son:
he’s made his choice, and he’s away, much to the father’s great sadness.

The older son stays, and looks after what’s left of the land.
Meanwhile, the father yearns for his youngest child to come home…
which, after things have gone horribly wrong, he eventually does.
The boy comes home.
And his father is overjoyed:
he’s back, time for celebration!

But not all are celebrating.
The older son, who has stayed at home, is clearly unhappy.
He’s worked hard, he’s always done what he’s been told…
and he feels that he’s never been given the chance to have even
a wee barbecue with his mates.
The story ends without full resolution:
in the early part of the story, the younger son had placed himself outside of his family,
while the older son stayed inside.
Toward the end, however, it is the younger son who is inside,
and the older son standing, hesitating outside:
will he unclench his fists,
will he let go of his resentment,
will he share in the joy of a younger brother now back once again in the fold?
…Will he go inside and join the celebration,
or will he hold the grudge and allow it to fester and wound
the relationship he has with his father – who loves him no less than his other son?

This last story from our series, is a story that shows, in a smaller scale,
the larger story we’ve been hearing and telling this year.
A great, sweeping story which has at its centre a loving Father:
a great, sweeping story about relationship;
a story which contains poor choices, mistakes made, and the messiness of wrong paths taken.
But, like the story of the man with two sons,
it’s also a story that eventually follows a path back to the Father –
the Father who has never stopped loving his people,
for nothing in all creation can separate us from God’s love.
A story of God…
always at work,
always about the work of reconciliation and renewal.
A story of God who does a new thing:
who sends his own Son to us, showing us
‘a gracious and spacious heart that welcomes all to the table.' [McLaren, WMRBW]
For in Christ, and at his table, we are reconciled once more to God our Father….

In the telling of the story of the night when Jesus created a new meal
to share with all who believed in him,
we look back to all that God has done for his people…
we look back to the stories that Jesus told about what God was like,
about what God’s kingdom was like.
We look back to the story of Jesus:
his birth, his life, his death, his resurrection…
we look back and remember the reconciling God who has called us his own.
And we look around, to one another:
each one of us, in Christ, a spiritual family – brothers and sisters –
with our own stories of what God has done and is doing in our lives.
And we look forward:
as we eat and drink together
we celebrate the One who restores and renews and reconciles
and who wants us to come, and to live, and to rejoice:
to join the great celebration feast –
a feast that never ends, a feast where all are welcome in. Amen.