March 13, 2016

The Parable of the Prodigal and His Brother
11 Then Jesus[a] said, “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’ (Luke 15:11ff)

We know that Jesus liked to tell stories. Jesus was a gifted story teller. The stories he told were about the things people knew and lived each and every day. So when he began this story, he used the structure of the family unit. In fact, even today, looking at this story, Jesus could be talking about my family or your family — my father has two sons – I have two sons. You have to wonder: “Did the father from this story in Luke (Luke 15:11-32b) also have two daughters?” After all, the bible likes to do things in pairs, so in essence, this story could again be about my family — or your family. Maybe you are the oldest child in your family – maybe you are the youngest. Perhaps as the oldest child you lived your life as the “do it by the book never stray from the straight and narrow path of being a good child”. Or perhaps as the youngest, you were just a bit of a rebel, didn’t always listen to your parents and didn’t always do things the conventional way.

The important point I want to make today is this: when you find a story in the bible that speaks to you, a story that you can personally relate to, you need to hold on to those stories, because so many of the stories Jesus tells are stories that capture our imagination, and speak to our reality. And, as such, Jesus not only uses situations that we are familiar with, but his stories usually speak about forgiveness, not condemnation; speak about mercy, not judgment; speak about love, not hate; and about many situations that resonate with our own lives. And, here is another point to remember, when we find a story that explains “Amazing Grace” — that tells the story of G-d’s unconditional love, mercy and Grace, then we better remember and repeat that story every day….every day.

Pastor Dave