Luke 15: 11-32<\/p>\n
This is a story of a dissatisfied son who took his inheritance early, spent his money had a wild time and then regretted it and decided to go home and beg forgiveness, his father forgave him and accepted him back into the family.<\/p>\n
\u201c There once was a man with two sons..\u201d<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t just a story about a person who led a wild life, had a conversion experience, and found his way home. This is a story about a family navigating its way though the messiness, hurts, and betrayals that happen whenever human beings live in relationship with each other. It is about the community that is being shaped by the reign of God that Jesus declares is \u201cat hand\u201d.<\/p>\n
Throughout the parable, the father keeps pulling the two sons back into community with each other. The father refuses to let either son stay lost or dead in their separation from each other. That is the work God is doing\u00a0 when God places us in community with other disciples of Jesus, some of whom we may have a hard time getting along with.<\/p>\n
Together by the grace and forgiveness we receive in Jesus Christ, we are healed, forgiven and reconciled. Our life together thus becomes a gift to a culture where people\u2019s capacity to be in relationship with other people has greatly diminished. We get to be \u201cambassadors\u201d for Christ, inviting people to enter into God\u2019s work of making things right between them.<\/p>\n
This story, is also about \u201cUnconditional Love\u201d of a father for his son. There is also a mother that is not mentioned, who also went through the loss and return of a son. The joy they had welcoming him back into the family.\u00a0 Today we have similar happenings in many families. We all need to try and give \u201c Unconditional Love\u2019 to all those who are experiencing difficulties in their lives.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Creation Connection:<\/strong><\/p>\n Creation is a gift from a gracious and generous God; however, we live in a culture that is actively forming us to use creation to serve our greed and selfishness. Worship services can enable us to resist those forces by renewing our covenant with God and our promise to steward the gifts God gives with generosity and grace.<\/p>\n (Used with permission the Gathering\u00a0 Lent\/Easter\u00a0 2025)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Announcements:<\/strong><\/p>\n April 6 \u2013 Lent 5\u00a0 Scripture Readings<\/p>\n Isaiah 43: 16-21\u00a0\u00a0 Look, I am doing something new<\/em><\/p>\n Philippians 3:4-14\u00a0 I count everything as loss but knowing Christ<\/em><\/p>\n John 12: 1-8\u00a0 Mary anoints Jesus with costly ointment.<\/em><\/p>\n Lay Leader: Maria\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Reader: Brenda<\/p>\n Prayer Shawl group <\/strong>will meet Sat. April 12,\u00a0 3 pm. in the Family Room at First United. All those interested in knitting or crocheting are most welcome. Material can be provided if needed. It is a time of companionship with other craft people.<\/p>\n United Church Women<\/strong> will meet on April 7th<\/sup> at 7 pm in the Family Room at the Church.<\/p>\n Cross of Lights <\/strong>will again be placed on the front of the church beginning on Palm Sunday. If you would like a bulb in remembrance of some one. Please contact Maria Reid (705-856-2861) Cost is $5 a bulb.<\/p>\n April 2 \u2013 World Autism Awareness Day<\/p>\n April 6 \u2013 International Day of Sport for Development and Peace<\/p>\n April 12-20 \u2013 Passover\u00a0 ( Jewish )<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Luke 15: 11-32 This is a story of a dissatisfied son who took his inheritance early, spent his money had a wild time and then regretted it and decided to go home and beg forgiveness, his father forgave him and accepted him back into the family. \u201c There once was a man with two sons..\u201d …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":33732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-18 04:47:12","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73038"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73060,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73038\/revisions\/73060"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}