Leave-taking
The younger of two sons said to his father, “give me the share of the property that will belong to me.” So he divided his property between them. A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and travelled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living […] But when he 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.” So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. Luke 15:12-20 (abridged)
Familial, cultural, and religious boundaries were transgressed. Geopolitical borders were crossed. The decision to leave home - perhaps necessary in some inescapable and mysterious way - was made, and freedom given to leave for a distant and unfamiliar country.
The journey is one we will all make; deeply and searingly personal whilst, at the same time universally recognisable. It’s first iteration occurs in Genesis chapter three, where it appears inextricably woven into the fabric of the Creation story. Shaped in God’s own likeness, at home and having stewardship of all that God loves, we find the man and his wife hiding from God’s presence among the trees of the garden. And the consequences are devastating:
Self-interest, and fearful guardedness/ The hardness of the heart, its barricades/ And at the core, the dreadful emptiness/ Of a perverted temple. Malcolm Guite: Palm Sunday
Trespassing and re-orientation
It is to this far off, interior landscape that the trespassing Son of Man comes; exploring edges and reach, climbing over boundaries, and crossing into “the borderlands of ourselves where we may least want to be seen and most need to be touched. Jesus, who is not afraid of borderlands, does not mind meeting us in those places.” Meda Stamper: Working Preacher blog, October 13, 2013.
He comes to re-orient us personally (as well as societally and culturally) and like his Father, he is filled with compassion as he runs and puts his arms around us and kisses us.
Lynn Darke