Prodigal God – starts 10/25
The Return of the prodigal Son by Rembrandt
You may know the so-called story of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32), one of Jesus’ parables. But you may not know as much about it as you think. The word prodigal doesn’t mean one who runs away and returns, as I always thought it did. Rather it means, “Rashly or wastefully extravagant” or “Giving or given in abundance; lavish or profuse” (Source: TheFreeDictionary.com). Maybe you are a crossword puzzle afficiando and you already knew that, but that is a revelation to me.
Timothy Keller, in his book The Prodigal God, takes a look with fresh eyes at this parable we think we know so well. He puts the parable in context noting that it is told to a crowd of predominately Pharisees and “religion scholars” (Luke 15:1-3) – religious guys who were a whole lot more like the older brother in the story than the younger. So maybe this story is less about the brother who runs away and more about the brother who stays home and at the end of the story resents his younger brother and thinks that somehow his father owes him. Is this how we see our relationship with God?
The prodigal in this story is not the son who wastes all that money. Rather, that adjective best describes the generous father, God, who continues to give extravagantly of himself for his sons. What a great story of the love of God for all of us, whether we wander or stay with him. What a great story of failing and forgiveness. And what a warning that we never want our attitude to be that of the older brother.
Join us in worship beginning October 25th for a sermon series called Prodigal God. Explore with us our God who loves this extravagantly. May we heed the warning of this parable to avoid becoming older brothers whose pride causes us to miss out on the party in the end!