This week I intend to ‘fly a kite’ (maybe two or three)! Remember, there is, on a Sunday, supposed to be a clear connection between the Old Testament reading and the Gospel.

Our GOSPEL [LUKE 15: 1 - 32] contains the famous parable of the Prodigal Son (the greatest short story every written?) but beforehand records other important images. The OLD TESTAMENT reading [EXODUS 32: 7 - 11. 13 - 14] tells of God’s anger blazing against his people, and his sending of Moses into the ‘hot spot’. {Are we able to presume that God was not going to destroy Moses along with the rest, or that he anticipated Moses’ intercession, and that he would relent?}

As the drama of the Prodigal Son unfolds it is easy for us to recognise God-in-Christ as portrayed by the father of the two sons: his understanding, forgiveness, mercy, and compassion. On the other side of the coin most of us (unless we are sinfully anti-Semitic?!) find the Lord’s blazing anger of Exodus somewhat distasteful! However, God SENDS Moses to the people. Is this a sort of last resort?

In New Testament terms recall the powerful words "God loved the world so much that he sent his only Son ... that everyone ... may not die but have eternal life ... that through him the world might be saved." {John 3: 16 & 17}

How real, for you, is Moses as an image of Christ? The Patriarch pleads for the people - and our Exodus extract tells us that "the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened." It is interesting to recall that Saint Paul tells us that "Christ died for us while we were yet sinners." {Romans 5:8} Moses interceded immediately - before he went down to do the job. The Letter to the Hebrews has a valuable comment in this regard: we are told that Christ "in the days of his earthly life offered up prayers and petitions, with loud crises and tears, to God who was able to deliver him from the grave." {5:7} Now, Moses was going down into a veritable hornet’s nest. I imagine he sought from the Lord some indication of real purpose. Why go down if God was going to destroy the people? So Moses, like Christ, intercedes for the people. As with Christ, God relents.

God’s purpose was to form a people for himself. His plan was to bring the whole of creation back into intimate union with himself. Not even the pride and disobedience of Adam and Eve could thwart that desire. Moses reminds him of this fact, recalls the divine promises made to " Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob .... by your own self you swore." These are telling words, and should be a constant reminder to each one of us that God’s purpose for all is that we should be formed, become, a people of God, a people FOR God!

In all of this, anchor yourselves on the clear proclamation contained in our NEW TESTAMENT scripture [1 TIMOTHY 1: 12 - 17]: "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." This is reason enough for Saint Paul. right at the start of this extract, to write: "I thank Christ Jesus our Lord." In addition, the ultimate focus for all of us should be to accept and strive to achieve, with the Apostle, that "Jesus Christ meant to make me the greatest evidence of his inexhaustible patience."

God-in-Christ’s PATIENCE! Has he been patient with me?!! WOW! What about you? Do I, do you, do we really want to be made and formed into the greatest evidence of his inexhaustible patience?

So, Moses having asked the Lord to be (again!) patient with the people - and given him the reason, the reminder of his own divine purpose and promise - goes down to face the mob! Now it is the Patriarch who has to (again!) be patient - and we know that in the past months that patience had been sorely tried by this a stubborn and stiff-necked people. Moses goes down!

Here, this Sunday’s GOSPEL [LUKE 15: 1 - 32] contains the relevant words that "while he was still a long way off, his father saw him .... (and) he ran to the boy." The father goes down. {Do not overlook the fact that the father came out (went down!) to plead with the elder son. But to what avail?}

Here we should make a profitable return to the images presented the start of our Gospel reading - the man with the wayward sheep, and the woman with the missing drachma. There is much more to the story than the rejoicing in heaven over the ‘lost’ sinner returning to God.

Have you ever thought about the fact that both the shepherd and the housewife became aware of the fact that they were ‘missing’ something, that something of value had gone astray, and that they were responsible for the loss - AND FOR THE RETRIEVAL?

The elder son, a few verses later, was unaware of what was missing from his life, no idea of what HE HIMSELF had lost, and that he himself was being given the opportunity to retrieve it.

Each one of us needs, in our relationship with the Lord, to develop the ability to know when we have lost something of value, when something of great importance is missing. Like the shepherd and the housewife we must be prepared to find out what it is, search, sweep out - and retrieve! Perhaps WE must go down to God?!