Fourth Sunday of Lent 2025

Translated from German Original

Dear sisters and brothers,

We all know the parable of the prodigal son. But today, let us not focus solely on the individuals who have lost their way. Today, let us see the Church itself in this parable.

Yes, we as a Church are the prodigal son.

We have received the inheritance—the good news of Jesus Christ, the liberating power of the Gospel, the light of truth. And yet we have often squandered it:
We have placed structures above people. We have systematically excluded women from serving at the altar—not because God wants it that way, but because we were afraid of the new.
We have excluded families that did not fit into our traditional scheme – as if God's love were bound to forms of marriage.
We preferred to be right rather than really listen.
We allowed faith to become frozen in old images instead of courageously interpreting it for today.

And here we are struck by what Rudolf Bultmann wrote – sharply, but with necessary clarity:

"The worldview of Scripture is mythological and therefore unacceptable to modern man, whose thinking is shaped by science and is therefore no longer mythological. Modern man always uses technical means that are the result of science.
When he is ill, he goes to doctors; he resorts to medicine. When it comes to economic or political matters, he applies the findings of psychology, economics, and political science, and so it goes on. No one expects direct intervention by transcendent powers.
Of course, there are also some things today that have survived and been revived from primitive thinking and superstition. But the Church's preaching would be making a disastrous mistake if it paid attention to such revivals and followed them.”

Dear congregation, this is not an invitation to unbelief—but to true faith.
God does not need our myths. He is greater than that. The father in the parable does not ask for a perfect way back. He runs toward his son precisely because he was lost. God also runs toward us—if we have the courage to return.

Back—not to the past. But home—to the living present of God.
Back—not to old certainties. But home—to a new openness to the Spirit who blows where he wills.
Back—not to myth. But home—to the truth that sets us free.

If we have the courage to set out anew as a church, then the Father will embrace us too. Not despite our guilt, but because we have found the courage to repent.

Amen.