True forgiveness

Associate Chaplain, Andy Fleming
Associate Chaplain, Andy Fleming

By Andy Fleming, Associate Chaplain

As we began the fourth week of Lent, the parable of the Prodigal Son was shared as the church’s gospel reading for Sunday. I heard a sermon that asked which character one might identify with the most: the seemingly spoilt younger son who squanders his share of the estate; the older brother, frustrated by ‘doing the right thing;’ or the father. We were even asked if we identified with the slave, as a passive bystander watching the apparent dysfunction of this family, whose only role in the story is to relay the news of the celebration of the homecoming to the older brother.

As I sat reflecting, I found that I can identify with each character depending on my current situation. For instance, there have been times when I feel I have been overlooked in favour of someone else’s efforts, in spite of my own accomplishments, and so I identify with the older brother. Likewise, when I am supporting my own children, I can identify as the father. When reflecting about my sons I feel the unconditional love that allows me to forgive them for things that I might otherwise judge others for, perhaps like the times I feel like the older brother.

Indeed, one of the motifs of the parable of the Prodigal Son is of grace: that most beautiful of loving acts, in which one is forgiven without condition or recompense. The father shows this grace to his youngest son, not caring about what the son has done, only that his son has returned to him. Even the father himself, who for many represents God, experiences grace in conversing with his sons.

This most famous of parables has always been encouraging to me. When we fail, we are assured, knowing God’s forgiveness and grace will provide us with yet another chance to get things right. Not only that, but we can also share this grace with the people in our lives, and experience the freedom that true forgiveness and grace can bring. During this Lenten and Easter season, may you experience grace in your interactions with others.

What doesn’t play by the rules

Written by Rev. Sarah Speed

I come into the room
calculating
what I’ve done,
as if hurt could be measured,
as if there was a score system,
as if we could say what I owe in return.

I come into the room
ready to apologize,
ready to make amends,
ready to tell you all the things I’ll do to make it better,

but you put your arms around me.

Grace is the ocean
that softens the edges.
Grace is rain in the desert—

you’re not sure whether to

laugh, cry, or dance.
Grace is a miracle,
all by itself.
In a scorekeeping world,
grace doesn’t play by the rules.

I come into the room

calculating what I’ve done.

You say there’s grace here.

It feels like a miracle.
I don’t know whether to

laugh, cry, or dance.


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May you know God’s peace in the week ahead.

Chaplain Andy

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