Grace and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.

What a wonderful parable. As one of the best-known parables, it has been analyzed to the nth degree from a variety of perspectives. We could focus on the context in which the parable was told. How it was controversial in terms of the day perhaps even sensational. We could focus on one of the characters; the father with unbounded love, the son who realizes his errant ways, or the older son who is obedient but his heart is not in the right place.

While I was thinking about this text, I remembered an experience that seems unconnected yet is connected. I don't want this to sound gender biased, but men can relate to this more readily than women. It's an experience that causes sadness, frustration, and in the end happiness and for some folks even great joy. Men you know exactly what I'm talking about the trauma of a lost TV remote.

Let's face it we are saddened and frustrated when the remote is not at our fingertips. Even though we have the power to walk directly to the TV and to turn it on or change the channel, we still search for the remote.

With the trauma of that experience fresh in my mind, I thought God must really be saddened and frustrated when we drop out of sight so to speak. Moreover, he certainly is joyful when we return to him. Even though He has absolute power over us, He allows us free will to make our own choices even bad ones. Being the season of Lent it's appropriate to focus on repentance and forgiveness this morning.

Now there are two churchy words to ponder. We hear those words often but what do they really mean? Do they mean anything at all to someone outside the church?

Of the two, I think repentance is the word that is most misunderstood. What is repentance? If we use the standard definitions, we might find either of these; (a) remorse or contrition for past conduct or sin, and (b) a feeling of regret for one's sins or misdeeds. They are great emotional responses to doing wrong and we should feel bad when we have done wrong. However, that is not true repentance.

Like all emotional responses, people can react in different ways and to extremes. I could constantly beat myself up for my sins in order to try to make myself feel better. That doesn't make sense but there are people that do just that. In effect I would be letting my past completely control the present.

At the other end of the spectrum, I could say I'm sorry, feel bad for a little while, and be about my business again. As long as I'm sorry about what I did everything is better, and if I make that mistake again I'll just say I'm sorry again. No big deal.

Of course if I were on the receiving end of the constant apologies it would get old very fast. The apology would become meaningless.

The truth is repentance is not just an emotion; it is also a decision and an action. Repentance is a decision to make a change in our life and follow through with true change. It's an earnest effort to turn away from sin and the things that lead us down the path to sin.

If we look to calls for repentance in the Old Testament, we find that they were calls to make a change. Frequently the call was to stop the worship of false gods. When the people heeded the call the destruction of Baal altars and the cutting down of Asherah poles followed. No doubt, there was emotion surrounding those events but it required a conscious decision and action to worship the true God, Yahweh and turn away from idols.

A particularly note worthy event is Gideon destroying the Baal altar and Asherah pole on his father's property (Judges 6). The men of the town wanted to kill Gideon for his actions. Josash, Gideon's father, reached a decision point either stand by Gideon and worship the true God Yahweh or join in the assault on Gideon and continue to worship false gods.

Let's look at this from a different perspective, who do you admire more; the person that stumbles, regrets the mistake, and learns from the mistake, or the person that stumbles, shows regret, and repeats the mistake possibly many times. Everybody stumbles the difference is their actions afterward. A person's integrity has as much to do with how they recover from mistakes as it does with making the mistakes in the first place.

The prodigal son's eyes were opened by the results of his foolishness and returned home to a loving father. His hope was to be received as a hired hand, but his father offered much more because he truly repented. The older son also stumbles he obediently stays with his father but not joyfully. The obligation to his family is a burden not a joy. We can't tell this from the story but I'll wager he only did what was required and no more.

How often do we see this today? Every family seems to have their prodigal. Every family seems to have one or more older sons. Too often we see family members with their priorities mixed up. The Marine Corp has a great creed God, Country, Corp. Shouldn't our family creeds be God, Family, Self?

Making the decision to turn away from sin creates a dilemma for us. Because of our fallen nature sin is natural to us; it seduces us to remain in darkness.

In our hearts, we know what is right and wrong, but we are often swayed by what appears easy, pleasurable, or fun. As humans, we are naturally drawn toward sin and resist the grace of our Lord, freely offered to us. Without the help of Jesus, we cannot win against sin. God knew we couldn't break away from sin by ourselves. He loves us too much for us to languish under His wrath so He offered the solution, Jesus Christ.

If we are caught in the emotional loop of sin and regret not only do we misunderstand repentance but also we resist the gift of forgiveness through Jesus.

Another interesting facet of repentance is the way God uses people to help others on the path to repentance. God sent His messengers to call the people to repent. Then at the appropriate time, He chose a leader to bring about the necessary change. He chose people like Gideon to not only lead but also encourage others.

We meet here as brothers and sisters in Christ to worship Him and give Him praise. As we do so, we also are encouraging each other and helping each other on the path of repentance. Encouragement is mentioned many times in the Bible. Strengthening and encouraging each other in the faith is a way of offering a helping hand to those who need assistance in making real life changes.

Notice encouragement does not mean fix it for them. You will not find anywhere in scripture that says we should fix things for others. Constantly fixing and covering for another only builds a dependency that hurts both parties. We are caregivers, God is the cure giver. As care givers we lead people to the one who gives us peace in our lives and can cure the pain of sin in their lives, Jesus Christ.

It's easy for any congregation to be a church of friends and very challenging to be a friendly church. A friendly church continually reaches out into the community offering care to people in need and inviting people into the body of believers.

The Lord commanded us to go and make disciples. Can you think of any better way to help others truly understand repentance and forgiveness than sharing the open invitation into the body of Christ?

In the name of our risen Lord and savior Jesus Christ, Amen.