Category: God

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Blast From the Past: The Prodigal Son: The Father

The story in Luke 15 is popularly named for the prodigal son, but it could be titled, “The Story of the Prodigal Father.” Prodigal means recklessly extravagant, and I think that describes the actions of the father in the story. Jesus told this story in response to the criticism that he ate and drank with sinners. It is a picture of God’s extravagant love toward repentant sinners.

The father granted the younger son’s request, even though it was a slap in the face. As a father, I can begin to imagine the grief he felt as his son rejected him and everything he stood for. Rather than writing the son off as a lost cause, the story seems to indicate that the father was constantly looking for him to return. In spite of his grief he kept hoping. When the prodigal returned, the father saw him coming in the distance and ran to meet him. Imagine this dignified man running out to greet his son. In those days, one who did what the son had done would be met by the village elders if he returned and officially banished. The father was not only overjoyed to see his son, he was also protecting him.

Before the son could get his speech out, his father told the servants to prepare for a huge blowout party. He covered the son’s rag’s with a luxurious robe, put good sandals on his feet, and a ring on his finger. All of these were things a beloved son would wear, not a servant. There were no words of disapproval or recrimination, only grace and compassion. When the elder brother acted like a jerk and refused to join the party, the father went to him with grace, reminding him that he was also a beloved son. Again, there were no harsh words from the father.

We have the same kind of Father. When we wander away from him, forgetting who we are, he is waiting patiently for us to return. He knows we will return because his Spirit draws us. We are told in Scripture that God’s kindness leads us to repentance. He doesn’t force us back and hold us against our will. It’s grace and love that brings us to him, and it’s grace and love that keeps us home. In the same way, when we think we somehow have to perform to cause the Father to love us more, or think our good deeds mean we are better than our brothers, the Father calls us to remember that he loves us because he loves us. He doesn’t love us any less when we screw up, and he doesn’t love us any more when we do good things.

Sometimes we forget who our Father is, and who we are as his children. God calls us back to him, not as a servant. He calls us back, not as someone who has earned his love. No, the Father calls us to return home, remembering that we are his beloved children. He is ready to welcome us with open arms and celebrate our return.

 

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Blast From the Past: The Prodigal Son: The Younger Son

A few years back, I did a series of posts on the story of the Prodigal Son. I watched a Tim Keller video on that story a few days ago, and it started me thinking about reposting the series. So here it is.

Today, I’m starting a four part series on the story of the Prodigal Son. The story of the prodigal is a story of God’s grace to his wayward children when they come home. It is also a story with a number of layers that speak to us in different ways at different times in our lives. Henri Nouwen wrote a book titled, The Return of the Prodigal Son, based on his reflections on a painting by Rembrandt. My ramblings come largely from reading this book.

The first person we encounter in the story is the younger son. This son comes to his father and asks for his part of the inheritance that would come to him after his father dies. This is more than just a request to get money due him earlier than he would normally receive it. The ones who heard this story would have been outraged at the attitude of the younger son. In effect, he was saying to his father, “I reject you and everything you stand for, your culture, your religion, everything. I wish you were dead!” In a culture where rebellious children could be stoned to death, this was a dangerous and devastating statement for the son to make and for the father to hear. The father however, decided to give his son what he asked for. He handed over the money and said goodbye. As a father, I can imagine the heartbreak he went through as one of his sons turned his back on everything and left.

The younger son went off to a “distant country,” where he squandered his inheritance on parties and whores. He was completely deaf to the voice that would have reminded him of his father’s love and of what he had been taught. In short, he forgot who he was. I would imagine that most of us can see ourselves in the younger son in some way. Some may have wandered into a life of dissipation and come out of it. Others may have experimented with some things but not gone all the way in. In my own life, I was drawn in to things that were not good for me, although I never wandered completely away. Of course, there are some out there who would consider me a prodigal today.

There is another way to be the younger son, a way that many, many more have fallen into. That is the way of forgetting whose child we are and trying to get our identity from other things or other people. That is the way I most identify with the prodigal. Whether it’s from a job, a skill, a style, or a group of people, we try to prove our worth by other things than what our Father says. Our culture says that what is important is how you dress, what job you have, what kind of car you drive, how much money you make, or what group you hang out with. Unfortunately, those things become like the husks the prodigal wished to eat while feeding the pigs. Trying to find our worth and identity in any thing of this world is a futile exercise, leading to emptiness.

Fortunately for the prodigal, he did come to his senses and remember who he was. I can see him slapping himself on the forehead, and saying, “What am I doing here? I’m not a pig farmer! I’m a son of a father who has a lot of money and food! Why am I starving here?” So, after coming to his senses he returned home. He still didn’t completely remember who we was though. Or better, he didn’t understand completely the kind of person his father was. His plan was to go home and convince his father to give him a job. He didn’t believe his father would accept him back as a son. We sometimes also forget who we are dealing with when we go to our Father. We believe the lies that we can’t be his child if we do certain things, or that we have to do something to get ourselves back into his good graces. We feel we have to “get right with God.” We forget that our Father loves us and always accepts us.

The son returns and finds himself in the midst of a homecoming better than he could have imagined. He can’t get his prepared speech out before his father welcomes him back and throws the biggest party the neighborhood has ever seen. So it is when we come to our senses and remember who we are. We are beloved children of the Creator of the universe. He is pleased with us, and there is absolutely nothing we can do to cause his love to decrease, and nothing we can do to increase his love. He holds us in his hands and nothing can pull us out. Period.

Remember who you are. If you’ve forgotten, your Father is looking for your return so he can lavish his grace and love on you.

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Little Shop of Horrors?

Earlier this week, I drove a busload to a local high school to see a performance of “Little Shop of Horrors.”  It was a fun way to spend an afternoon, and it even provoked some thoughts. Disclaimer: my thoughts are not always normal.

The play is set in a failing flower shop on Skid Row. One of the employees, a young man named Seymour, comes into possession of an unusual plant that looks somewhat like a Venus Flytrap. The plant appeared mysteriously after a total eclipse. After the plant is displayed, the shop begins to do a booming business. Seymour soon realizes that keeping the plant alive and growing requires human blood.

As time goes on, the shop begins to prosper more and more, and Seymour himself begins to be famous. He is in high demand, and begins to fall into the “end justifies the means” trap. After a couple people end up dead and eaten, Seymour realizes that things are beginning to get out of control. However, he doesn’t know how to get himself out of this mess that he is in. After losing the woman he loves to the plant, he tries to  kill it and ends up being eaten himself. Because of an earlier deal Seymour had made with a grower, the plants are propagated and end up taking over the world.

As I watched the performance, I began to think about the Church, and its relationship to politics. Those of us who claim to follow the King of Kings are subjects of a Kingdom that transcends earthly kingdoms. The problems come when the Church, like Seymour, latch on to things that we think will bring power and prestige and allow us to influence others. We think, like Seymour, “What’s a little blood? It doesn’t take much, and it’s helping the cause so much!” We don’t realize that, like the plant, the systems of this world will not be satisfied with just a little blood. They continually cry, “Feed me!,” and demand greater and greater allegiance.

Look at the times when the Church has mixed with the state, from Constantine through the religious wars of Europe, through Germany in the 1930s and on into today’s struggles in Europe and the United States. The Church (Seymour) has enjoyed some brief periods of power and influence, but ultimately it’s been the state (the plant) that has come out the winner. The lure of using the power of the state to promote the Church is seductive, and it does make things better for some, for awhile. But the cost is far greater than we realize.

We are called to proclaim that Jesus is the True King, that he calls us to follow and obey him, and that he will return some day to consummate his Kingdom and set everything right. As part of that, we are called to speak the truth, whether that is to our neighbors, or to those in positions of power. We cannot speak truth to those in power if we are tangled up with them. As George Bernard Shaw said, “Never wrestle with a pig because you’ll both get dirty, and the pig likes it.”

Since our allegiance is to be given to the King of Kings, we should stay away from entangling ourselves with the powers of this world. It may be satisfying for awhile, but eventually they will eat us.