July 6, 2008 (Brian Burtchett)

Brian Burtchett, a Regent grad and wired-world-worker at UBC opened the summer series on parables with the Parables of Compassion, which Brian pointed out had more to do with “lost-ness” than anything else. The celebratory nature of the parables of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin were contrasted with the very difficult news of the return of the Lost Son. It is easy to rejoice over the return of items or animals, but when the lost one plays a great part in their own “lost-ness” as does the Prodigal and his brother, it becomes much more difficult to celebrate the return. Brian updated the parable to modern times with some heart-wrenching examples of prodigals and their families, and without pointing fingers, allowed people to see how current attitudes to those on the Downtown Eastside are the antithesis of what Jesus calls us to. [AP] Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday July 6th, 2008 using your browser's preferred media player.