A Cycle – 33^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time 23

Mt. 25:14-30

Growing up in the Pre-Vatican II church my image of God was not much different than that servant who believed his master to be demanding.  Over the years I have discovered that many people have varying images of God. Some think God is detached from us, sitting on a throne watching us stumble and fumble through life.  You can hear people who hold that image of God crying out “where is God when you need Him.”  Others think God is very demanding, stern, strict and just waiting for an opportunity to punish those who go astray.  For those who think this way God is never pleased with them.  Those who believe in that kind of God do everything they can to avoid His wrath.  The older brother in the in the parable of the prodigal son is an example of people who have that kind of image of God. 

Then there are those who have encountered the God Moses encountered on the mountain. A merciful, kind, loving, forgiving God who seeks out the lost, the broken and those who have lost all hope.  We see that kind of person in the woman caught in adultery, the woman at the well, the paralytic at the pool, Bartimaeus, Peter and so many others in the scriptures.  But those are just stories from the past, aren’t they? Yes, but they are real events revealing the heart of God.  God has never changed who He is, and He still seeks the lost, the broken and those who have lost hope.  So how does todays parable fit in with your image of God?

Because the nature of God, the desire of God for us is at the heart of the parable we heard today. God had given us a great gift in the person of Jesus Christ. However, if that gift is never allowed to transform us, or if our image of God the one I had as a child then we are never going to experience what Jesus died to make available for us. The challenge of this parable is how can our image of God change and allow us to embrace the gift of Jesus.  Notice I say embrace not just receive or acknowledge. 

The story of the prodigal son should motivate us to begin a journey that will change everything for anyone who seeks to feel loved by God.  The prodigal son and his brother believed their father to be a stern, demanding father.  One son followed the rules and the other broke them.  The one that broke them ultimately began a journey back to his father expecting nothing more than to be allowed to serve his father as a slave. 

Did you ever work for a demanding boss or experienced a demanding teacher? Nothing you did ever felt like it was enough, and you always felt like you disappointed them. That was the experience of both brothers. But God surprises us in that parable by restoring that younger brother and by reminding the older brother to seek more from his father.  For us to change our image of God we need to have an encounter with God. To set aside our fears and go to Him as did the prodigal.  He set aside his fear of the Father and was willing to face him because somehow, he knew his father was merciful.  Did he expect to be fully restored?  No but like the two servants in today’s parable he received more than expected.  Compare them to the older brother and the servant, who buried the talent, whose expectations were too low, and you will discover the danger of not trusting in God.    

To change our image of God we must desire an encounter with God. That desire must begin to build up within us and move us away from doing what we believe we are expected to do.  Just as Jesus sat by that well in Samaria for the woman to appear, He waits for us to appear and begin to speak to Him from our hearts.  If we would desire to encounter Jesus that way, we will hear Him say to us exactly what He said to her –
“I have what you are seeking, ask me and I will give it to you.”

Responding to that invitation is a cry from our hearts saying, “lord I have lived my life believing something about you that is false.  I have believed the lie and I want to believe in you.  Give me that living water so that I may finally be satisfied and live the life you want me to live.”  “Lord, I surrender to your embrace and want to live as your disciple.” 

What would happen if you cried out to God in those words?  The answer is found in the scriptures in the stories of everyone who opened themselves to Jesus.  You will feel the love of God being poured into your hearts by the Holy Spirit.  You will feel the embrace of the Father, who is so loving, so forgiving and desiring to free you from all that holds you back.  You will feel overwhelmed, your knees will buckle, and you will cry out with joy.  

Then you will discover those gifts God has given you and you will use them for your own growth and the growth of others.  You will become a disciple and always feel the presence of God.  That is what those first two servants understood about their master. They were not worried about pleasing Him, they understood He was pleased with them and gave them gifts to share.   

We need to stop trying to please God and begin to understand He is pleased with us. He has given us a great gift in Jesus Christ.  What are we doing with that gift to make it grow our faith, to grow our willingness to serve the kingdom of God and to grow our ability to help others discover God’s love and forgiveness.