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The Word -- God's Message To Humanity

Sermon
Second Sunday after Christmas - C
John 1:10-18
Janice B. Scott
The twelve days of Christmas are nearly up. In a couple of days time it'll all be over. The decorations will be down, the turkey finished at last, the presents almost forgotten. And so today we take a last look back at Christmas, and a good look forward to this whole new year. It feels like we have a huge, clean sheet stretching out ahead of us. A bit like a blanket of snow with no footprints in it. But in a way, 1998 is already marked - by what went on in 1997 - just as a blanket of snow may look fresh and untouched, but is actually dependant for its contours on what lies beneath it.
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I suppose we are all a little bit nervous about the prospect of a sermon on a Bible story as familiar and sometimes as overworked as the Parable of the Prodigal Son. "What can I possibly say that hasn't been said before?" And I know what's going through your minds: "Are we going to be subjected to the same old sermon yet another time?" Confronting a familiar Bible passage like this mid-Lent really serves to address the discipline of reading Scripture as part of our devotional life, particularly passages that are very familiar.
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A. A. Milne, the creator of Winnie the Pooh, wrote a simple, yet telling poem in his work, Now We Are Six:

When I was One, I had just begun.
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The Village Shepherd

Janice B. Scott
Call to worship:

 While the Prodigal Son was still far off, his father saw him, ran to him, put his arms around him and kissed him. In our worship today, let us turn to God so that he may run to us, put his arms around and kiss us.

Invitation to confession:

 Jesus, for the times when we run away from you,

Lord, have mercy.

 Jesus, for the times when we have wasted our inheritance on dissolute living,

Christ, have mercy.

 Jesus, when we return to you,

Lord, have mercy.

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