THE COURAGE TO GO HOME

 

Sometimes we make such a mess of our lives that we have to admit it. The parable of the Prodigal Son is the best example of this (see Luke 15). I see in this parable an analogy that could apply to all of us.

To recap, a man had two sons. Imagine you are the younger and you wanted to leave home and make your own way in the world and perhaps sow some wild oats.  You plan to part ways with your family so you ask your father for your inheritance. The plan was to have some fun and even gamble and maybe make some speculative investments to double your money. You are sure there is an easier way to make it than your father tilling his fields.

The father obliges and sends you out into the world. No doubt he can see that you could learn a few lessons. Much like our Father in Heaven who had sent us down to earth not just to learn a few lessons but to eventually become like Him and enjoy the riches of eternity.

The older brother in the Parable, the heir of all his father had, was pretty much of the opinion that his brother deserved all the misfortune he got. This brother never sought him who was lost, despite the kinship, despite the brotherhood, despite the father's sorrow over his loss.

Our older brother, on the other hand, knowing from the beginning that He alone would inherit all the Father has, had a very different approach to the situation. Knowing that none of us could come back home by our own efforts, in essence said: ‘I will pave the way, I will seek them and I will bring them back.

So you the prodigal, with your inheritance spent are now reduced to the lowest form of poverty and misery that the world can offer. You find yourself sleeping and eating the husks with the pigs in your service. Imagine such degradation and suffering as eating and sleeping with pigs, especially for one of an honorable parentage who was raised in wealth and was attended to by servants.

Your suffering is extreme, you can sink no lower. You reflect on the home of your youth and the security and safety you had there and how well you were provided for. If only you could go home to the Father who loved you!  But you have no means to make your way back. And you are in agony of remorse for what you have done. The guilt and shame is consuming you.

And then, the unthinkable happens. Your older brother finds you and tells you he will pay for your way home and he will redeem you from all your debts and he will even share his inheritance with you. There are some conditions that will have to be met to ensure your return but you will be saved from the failure your life has become. It is almost too good to be true and you hesitate in your weakness.

And then the hope and courage is born to follow your brother home! You would go home to the father who loved you and would surely forgive you and allow you to serve him. You would go home to the father who would lift you out of the misery and hopelessness you had fallen into. You would go home because there was a path of return, with a price paid to cover all your debts.

What exquisite hope his father was to the prodigal! How that hope would have lifted him out of the mire he was in and propelled him to return home! And what courage was given him by his brother who sought him to bring him home! He was not forgotten and he was wanted!

So here some of us are, like the prodigal, eating husks with the swine for this is not much more that this world has to offer. What hope our Father must have had when He sent us out into the world that we would remember the splendour we came from, that we would want to run home.

 

And so a great sacrifice was made for our return. The Son who came to guide and to seek us to bring us home climbed the hill of Calvary so that we could in our lowest earthly moments say:

For me Your body was broken,

For me Your blood was spilt,

For me Your death was offered

That I might live with You still.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Modern Prodigal Son by Liz Lemon Swindle)

The Official Website of Liz Lemon Swindle – Lizlemonswindle

THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH

 

In Nephi’s vision of us in our day, he spoke of ‘carnal security’ that leads the members of the Church to the dangerous mentality of ‘all is well in Zion’ (2 Nephi 28: 20-24). It makes some of us think that we have plenty of time to repent and to get our lives into order. This mentality can be seen in the parable of the Ten Virgins.

As a symbol of our covenant relationship with Christ, Jesus used the metaphor of marriage in this parable between Himself and His Church. Therefore, when He comes, He will come as a bridegroom to wed the righteous of His Church. These, He states are the members who have received the truth, have taken the Holy Spirit for their guide and have not been deceived (D&C 45:56,57).

There is something interesting worthy of note in the marriage metaphor. The parable says that the Bridegroom 'tarried', meaning he delayed His appearance to the last hour of the day. In fact, he has 'tarried' now for over 2000 years. It has been so long since He spoke of His return that many Church members are sleeping and not watching on the 'towers of Zion' finding it too long to wait for the midnight hour and the call to gather for the wedding feast (McConkie, Mortal Messiah Book 3, p 467). Could it be that He ‘tarries’ so that as many as possible can be saved? This is a merciful act.

The call to gather has already come. It came on November 3rd, 1831 through the prophet of this dispensation: "Yea, let the cry go forth among all people: Awake and arise and go forth to meet the Bridegroom; behold and lo, the Bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. Prepare yourselves for the great day of the Lord. Watch, therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour" (D&C 133:10,10).

The oil of preparedness cannot be purchased but needs to be earned over time because this oil is the oil of righteousness: "In our lives the oil of preparedness is accumulated drop by drop in righteous living. Attendance at sacrament meetings adds oil to our lamps, drop by drop over the years. Fasting, family prayer, home teaching, control of bodily appetites, preaching the gospel, studying the scriptures—each act of dedication and obedience is a drop added to our store. Deeds of kindness, payment of offerings and tithes, chaste thoughts and actions, marriage in the covenant for eternity—these, too, contribute importantly to the oil with which we can at midnight refuel our exhausted lamps. (Spencer W. Kimball, Faith Precedes the Miracle, p.256 )"

When the time of His appearing is here, there will be no reservoir of good works, spiritually building moments, or a sinless slate that we can draw from and we will no longer be able to exist on the testimony of others, as the five negligent virgins presumed. Imagine the frantic situation some of us will be in and imagine the sorrow of those of us who will be bereft of the ability to fill their lamps…..

ODE TO THE TEN VIRGINS

I would gladly give you some oil

Your empty lamp to fill,

If you could glean the sweat

From my furrowed brow

As I worked on the oil press

So diligently until now.

 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Five Were Wise by Michael Malm)

THE VOICE AT THE GATE

 

“Each evening at sundown, the shepherds bring their small flocks of sheep to a common enclosure where they are secured against the wolves that roam the deserts of Morocco. A single shepherd then is employed to guard the gate until morning. Then the shepherds come to the enclosure one by one, enter therein, and call forth their sheep – by name. The sheep will not hearken unto the voice of a stranger but will leave the enclosure only in the care of their true shepherd, confident and secure because the shepherd knows their names and they know his voice.”

-        Elder John R. Lasater, “Shepherds of Israel”, Ensign, May 1988, p 74)

 

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.

“But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.

“To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.

“And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.

“And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.”

-        John 10:2-5

 

“Take heed that no man deceive you; For many shall come in my name, saying – I am Christ – and shall deceive many…” (JS Matthew 1:6)

 

How grateful to know Your voice

In this world of utter despair

And hear it echo 

in Your loving tender care.

 

How fiercely You watch,

How tenderly You care,

How safe You make me feel

Knowing You are ever there.

 

How grateful I am to be in Your flock,

How grateful to be in Your keep;

You are my shepherd

And I am Your sheep.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: The Gate by Jenedy Paige)

TO RETURN

 

I visited my favourite parable yesterday, the Parable of the Prodigal Son, and I noticed something that took my breath away…..(Luke 15:11-32)

As you know, this was a story of an unsatisfied son who grew weary of his family’s duties and his father’s wholesome discipline and influence. He yearned for freedom from home ties and demanded his inheritance be given him to make his own way in life. He went into a far country where he spent that inheritance in riotous living and unrestrained indulgence. When the inheritance was spent, he was reduced to the lowest and most degrading form of service to a Jew, that of herding swine. He sank even lower to eat husks with the pigs. Imagine such degradation and suffering as eating and sleeping with pigs, especially with one of an honorable parentage who was raised with servants and ate the best of food and never had to worry about his sustenance. His suffering was extreme as he could see no favourable end to his situation. He could sink no lower. He reflected on the home of his youth and the security and safety he had there and how well provided even the servants were in his home. And then the hope! He would go home to his father!!! The father who loved him and was so reluctant to see him go. He would go home to the father who would surely forgive him and allow him to serve him. He would go home to the father who would lift him out of the misery he had fallen into. What exquisite hope his father was to him! How that hope would have lifted him out of the mire he was in and propelled him to return home!

We were somewhat like the prodigals when we left our heavenly home. We knew of the risk that some of us may never return. What hope our Father was to us by sacrificing His Beloved Son to ensure our return! We were sure the Plan would work and the Saviour would implement that Plan without hesitance and restraint. He would save us so that we could in our lowest earthly moments say, I’ll go home to the Father! I can rise above the mire of this telestial world and return to the splendor of my home. I can have better than what I have sunk to. I don’t have to wallow in the mire and eat husks…..I can have so much better. My Father will see my contrition and forgive me. My Father will welcome me home…..

I wish to gift you my heart

Eternal Father of mine;

I wish to glorify Thy name

Through endless moments of time.

I wish to worship you each day that I greet,

I wish to honour you with each breath that I breathe.

Then one day soon when I kneel at your throne

And bring you my deeds from my earthly home;

Accept them with mercy,

Consider them bliss,

And greet me joyfully

With an holy kiss.

 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: He Lifts Me Up by Danny Hahlbohm)

VINEYARD OF LOVE

 

“Now I will sing a song to my wellbeloved….touching his vineyard….” (Isaiah 5:1). Is there a more poetic way for a writer to begin? And could there be a more beautiful metaphor for the House of Israel than that of a vineyard (v7) housing vines that yield sun-drenched mouth-watering grapes? I grew up in Croatia and I have picked such grapes in vineyards. If you have ever been in a vineyard you would appreciate the beauty of it.

 

I am knee deep in Isaiah and his lamentations over the House of Israel. In chapter 5, Isaiah speaks that only wild grapes grew in the vineyard of Judah which produced spiritual drunkenness (v 11) and the Lord of the vineyard was forced to leave it desolate vulnerable to captivity (v 6,7,9,13). Isaiah, however, ends the chapter with the hope of gathering in the latter days. This is what breaks my heart though…..the Saviour’s lament of ‘what could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it?’ (v 4). This lament of the Saviour is repeated in Zenos’ allegory of the olive tree in the Book of Mormon where the Saviour does the plucking, pruning, digging and grafting. He also grieves, preserves, laboures, watches and tends to the vineyard constantly. His frantic efforts to ensure the divine destiny of the House of Israel, as represented by the olive trees in His vineyard, can be seen through repetitious declarations of His love and long-suffering. His desire to preserve the vineyard is mentioned in the parable 11 times; at least 15 times the Lord expresses His desire to bring the vineyard and its' harvest 'unto my own self'; eight times He says 'it grieveth me to lose the trees of my vineyard'; and 3 times He asks with anguish, weeping, 'what could I have done more for my vineyard?' 

 

The parable of the vineyard in Matthew chapter 21 is the one that renders one’s soul. It speaks of the Father sending His Son to the House of Israel after all the servants the prophets have been ignored, stoned and killed with a hope that they will ‘reverence His Son’ (v 37) but instead of reverence the Son receives death. What more could possibly be given than this????

 

I wait for you to come

Into the shadow of my wings;

I have paid the price: come unto Me,

Your God and Your King. 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: Jesus Wept by Liz Lemon Swindle)