Trinity IX: The God Who Runs

There is a phrase in this Sunday's Collect that ought to give us great pause: "we who cannot do any thing that is good without thee."

Not "we who sometimes struggle." Not "we who find it difficult." We who cannot do any thing that is good without God. That is a bracing, humbling confession, and it is precisely the truth that unlocks the Parable of the Prodigal Son Jesus tells us in the Gospel reading.

The younger son's request is, at its heart, a prayer, but a terrible one. "Father, give me my share." He wants his money but not his responsibility nor his family. He journeys into what the text simply calls "a far country," and there he squanders everything in reckless living.

For us the far country is nearer than we think. It is any place where we take God's good gifts such as our health, our relationships, our talents, our time and use them as though they originated with us, as though we owe no gratitude and no allegiance to the One who gave them. The far country is the quiet interior space where we say, "My life is my own."

And what does the younger son find there? Emptiness. A famine of the soul. The pods that even the pigs would eat become his desperate desire. He who was a cherished son now feeds swine; an image of how far we fall when we wander from the Father's house.
 
But then "he came to himself," the text says. This is a pivotal moment. Sin is a kind of madness, a stupor in which we forget who we are. Repentance is simply coming to ourselves and remembering that we were made for the Father's table, not for the pigsty.
Yet even his repentance is imperfect. He rehearses a speech, "Make me as one of your hired servants," still thinking in terms of transactions rather than in terms of grace. Then comes his return home. "While he was still far off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him."

In the ancient world, a dignified patriarch did not run. It was considered beneath his station. Yet this father runs lifting his robes and sprinting down the road toward a son who has squandered his inheritance and shamed his name. Before the boy can finish his rehearsed speech, the father is already calling for the robe, the ring, the sandals, the fattened calf. Already there is music and dancing. Already the celebration has begun.

This is the heart of God. This is what the Collect means when it says we "cannot do any thing" good without Him, because even our best repentance does not earn the welcome. The welcome was there all along, waiting, watching the road.

We must not forget the parable's elder brother. He is the figure many of us in the Church are most likely to identify with. He has stayed home. He has been faithful. He has done his duty. And he is furious that grace is given so freely to one who squandered so much.

"These many years I have served you," he says.  Note that he says “served” rather than “loved.” Like his brother He has also turned his relationship with his father into a transaction. And when the father spends grace on the undeserving, the elder brother's hidden resentment boils over.

The father's response is tender: "Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours." The elder brother has been living in the treasure house all along and did not know it. His bitterness has blinded him to the riches that were already his.

This is an echo of the Collect: we cannot do any thing good without God, not even our obedience, if it becomes a currency we use to bargain with Him. True obedience flows from a heart that knows it has been found, not from a heart that is keeping score.

We must ask ourselves this: Where am I in this story?

Am I in the far country, feeding on what cannot satisfy, needing to come to myself?

Am I on the road home, rehearsing my little speech, still thinking I can earn my way back?

Am I the elder brother, dutiful but resentful, blind to the riches I already possess?

Or am I, by grace, beginning to see the Father running toward me, arms open, celebration already prepared?

The Collect teaches us to pray for "the spirit to think and do always such things as are right," and then immediately confesses that we cannot do this without God. That is not defeat but rather the doorway to joy. Because it means the Christian life is not a performance we give for a distant God. It is a response to a Father who runs.

He is running toward you today. Will you let yourself be found?
--Fr. Chris Fish+

All things come of thee, O Lord, and of thine own have we given thee

Please click here to help St. Andrew & St. Margaret of Scotland

Services & Events

Sunday, 9:00 AM and 11:15 AM services, for online participation go to
https://www.facebook.com/saintsofscotland or to 
https://www.youtube.com/@StAndrewandStMargaret/streams

Nursery during both services

Sunday School, on recess for the summer, returns in September

Wednesday at Noon – Holy Communion and anointing for healing, for online participation go to https://www.facebook.com/saintsofscotland or to 
https://www.youtube.com/@StAndrewandStMargaret/streams

Wednesday, 7:30 to 9:00 PM in the church undercroft,  Fr. Bragg will offer a relaxed, informal course of Wednesday evening classes on the Hymnal that will run through August 26.  Each meeting will be a stand-alone session on specific hymns, focusing on the circumstances of their writing as well as their theological and devotional content.  Every hymn has a story behind it, and many of them are fascinating. (Online participation possible by using links above.)
 
Thursday, August 6, The Transfiguration of Christ,  12 noon service

Monday, August 24, Saint Bartholomew, 12 noon & 7:00 PM Services

Saturday, August 29, 12:00 - 2:00 p.m. in the undercroft. Women's brunch honoring the MaRiH Crisis Pregnancy Center: Enjoy some end-of-summer fun and fellowship while helping local women and their babies. Please bring an item from MaRiH Center's critical needs list. Brunch is potluck; please consider bringing a dish to share. RSVP to margot.anderson@proton.me. 
 
Save the date, Sunday, Sept 20, Annual Parish Picnic, following combined 10:00 AM service. More information to follow as the date draws near and plan to invite family and friends.
 
MaRiH Crisis Pregnancy Center: Critical Needs
& More

Below are 2 updated lists: the critical needs list and the needs list. The all volunteer staff of the MaRiH Center are very thankful for the support that our parish provides.

Critical Needs:
Diapers, sizes 5 and 6
Spring/Summer clothing (Boys & Girls), size 0-3 months, size 2T 
Baby Wipes
Baby Blankets
Baby formula: Similac Advance Formula
Bibs: toddler
Car seat: infant
Other needs:
Diapers, newborn, 1, 2, 3, 4
Spring/Summer Clothing, 3-6 month, 9-12 month, 18-24 month, 
Bibs, infant
Maternity clothes (Spring/Summer)
Wash cloths
Hooded towels
Diaper rash ointment, Baby Shampoo
Baby bottles
Baby formula: All other Similac & Enfamil types. Also accept Alimentum & Nutramigen. No other brands are accepted. Please make sure dates have not expired.
There are two options for helping the Center with these needs:
Option 1 
Amazon has all the specific items needed. You can order the specific item(s) and have them delivered directly to the Center.  

The MaRiH Center
3230B Duke Street
Alexandria, VA 22314-4521
703-370-4774

Option 2 
Go to your local store, purchase the items requested and drop them off at church on Sunday. We will deliver them to the MaRIH Center.
 
 
Food Bank Needs

The food bank continues to need our assistance to feed the hungry. Summer means less food donations are available to the Food Bank often with more requests for help...

Please help this month with a food donation if you are able. Those we help feed are very thankful for the food we provide to them each month. Please also buy low sugar cereals (and not the kid's types that have lots of sugar). Also lower sodium products are better and more healthy.

Current needs include the following:
canned meats (chicken, corned beef, spam)
tuna (cans or foil packages)
peanut butter. jelly
canned vegetables (corn, green beans - (regular and low sodium)
individual fruit cups (low sugar)
canned fruit (low sugar)
canola or vegetable oil (48 oz)
boxed cereal (low sugar) and instant or old fashioned oatmeal (18 oz or 42 oz)
pasta (regular and gluten-free):
instant potatoes
single serving fruit juice
macaroni & cheese
soups: Chunky or Progresso, chicken noodle soup; chicken broth, cream of mushroom. tomato
coffee, cooking oil, flour, sugar
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St. Andrew & St. Margaret of Scotland
1607 Dewitt Avenue
Alexandria, VA 22301-1625