Parables: Prodigal?
Luke 15:11-32
Pastor Richard Dahlstrom, Sr. Teaching Pastor
www.youtube.com/c/spiritsoulbodywholeness
In this well known parable, it’s vital to see that there are many people involved in institutional religion who are unwilling to “come to the party” because they’ve never moved from “performing” to “receiving” as the basis of relationship. The invitation to “come home to love” is discovered by considering the three main characters of the parable:
I. The Father . . .
He dignifies his children __________________.
He’s willing ____________.
He wants ___________________ more than anything.
II. The Younger Son
He wants the ________________________________________.
God has made the world _______________________________________.
He knows he’d be better off ___________________________________.
III. The Older Son
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Discussion Questions
Before questions, attempt to give the group a bit of a summary of the main points of the sermon and then choose a few questions that fit your group’s needs and style. We don’t intend for you to use all of these. Three to five questions may be a good number.
Begin by reading Luke 15:11-32 aloud, taking turns reading the passages.
Pray over the group before beginning discussion.
- Just for Fun Opening Question - Have you ever lost something important to you? Was it found? How did you feel?
- Read Luke 15 aloud, switching readers for each of the 3 parables.
- What do these parables have in common?
- Who was Jesus addressing?
- Richard referred to “performance based religion”, what do you think this means and in what ways have you experienced this?
- Richard refined prodigal as having, giving or wasting something in an abundant or extravagant way and described each of the 3 main characters in this parable as the Prodigal. What makes each of them a prodigal - The Father, the Younger Son, the Older Son?
- Richard described that we are prone to wander, like the younger brother, we can be deceived in seeking the “flow state” in ways that cannot really deliver. We want the gifts, but not the giver. We seek unconditional love in a place where it cannot be found (Henri Nouwen). We want the benefits that God gives without a relationship with God.
- In what ways do you think this is true for you?
- What causes the younger brother to come home?
- Richard said: Home isn’t foundationally a geography of place, it's a geography of heart. The older brother left home through his legalism, he has left home in his heart. In what ways do you identify with the older brother? What keeps you from “coming to the party” of a love relationship with God that is freely given (by grace)?
- How would complete each of the following sentences:
- I am the younger son, in that I . . .
- I am the older son, in that I . . .
- How are you like the Father, waiting for someone to come home from a “far off country”, or running out to meet them, or by showing unconditional love to someone in particular?
The Father…
He dignifies his children with freedom–
He knows that love can’t be mandated or bought- it must be freely chosen. APP (application) I wish the church would learn this too… IOW (In other words): “here I am– your creator– love me (which, by the way you’re incapable of doing due to what Calvin and Augustine call “total depravity” or “original sin”). But I command you to love me– and want to warn you that I will destroy you if you don’t love me. NB (Nota Bene): THIS IS NOT GOOD NEWS… BECAUSE IT IS FEAR BASED. Imagine a spouse or parent saying– I want genuine love from you, want you to long for me, delight in me, want to be with me– AND IF YOU DO NOT… I’LL MAKE YOUR LIFE MISERABLE. OBS (obviously): this is how some families exist… how some children exist- they’re obedient, maybe– but it’s fear based. 1John 4:18 = no fear in love.
The son doesn’t feal fear– he’s essentially saying to his father– I want the benefits of you being dead– it’s a way of saying, “I wish you were dead”-- and he does so without any fear at all
He’s willing to wait
He wants love relationship more than anything
- This is why he’s waiting, looking
- Runs toward the returning son
- This is why he exhorts the older brother
The younger son…
He wants the riches without the relationship
- This is a bit of the thesis of ‘stealing fire’
- This is the critique of Romans 1– and an accurate picture of humanity: we’ll take the gifts, thank you very much, the water, the air, the soil, the animal kingdom, the rare earth minerals– we’ll use them to feed our appetites, even if it means resorting to enslaving or demeaning other humans to do so
- This is the choice of individuals as well– we become addicted to our appetites– and it doesn’t matter whether it’s the experience economy of travel and recreation, or withdrawing into virtual worlds, or just surrounding ourselves with good stuff: good food, good books, good gardens– there’s a hymn that says “prone to wander Lord I feel it”-- indeed we are!! ILLUS (Illustration)
- The irony is that we’re trying to fill a void that only God can fill… everybody loves the guy with money… as long as he has money. But when the cash runs out… he’s alone again.
The world says: “Yes, I love you if you are good-looking, intelligent, and wealthy. I love you if you have a good education, a good job, and good connections. I love you if you produce much, sell much, and buy much.”... I am the prodigal son every time I search for unconditional love in a place where it cannot be found -Henri Nouwen
God has made the world in a beautiful way: we reap what we sow
- Therefore, if we’ll just pay attention, we’ll eventually look around and find that we’re living in Ecclesiastes 1 —NB: it might be easier for some people to see that they’re missing something than others… ILLUS:
This is why in Romans 1 it doesn’t say that God responds to our rejection by throwing stuff at us, and beating us— it just says: GOD GAVE THEM UP!!
IOW: God says, “You want us to live as if I don’t exist… just consuming my gifts without relationship and without the wisdom that comes from relationship with me?” Here’s your judgment: YOU GET TO LIVE AS IF I DON’T EXIST… IOW: you get exactly what you want
Consume how you want… WHEN YOU CONSUME collectively you’ll experience resource wars, and colonialism, and pollution, and child labor, and soil deflation, and lots of ‘diseases of civilization’, and climate change.
When you consume however you want individually, you’ll experience addictions to alcohol, or food… or you’ll have a tortured relationship with food because of cultural standard, and body image issues that come from them.
Indulge your sexual appetites without restriction.. And you’ll experience STD’s, and abuse of women, and abuse of power, and marriages will be destroyed, and reactionary cultures of shame will rise up that degenerate the body and the gifts I’ve given you– and people will judge each other and hate each other over what was intended to be precious…
He knows he’d be better off in his family– ‘he comes back to his senses’
- He doesn’t plan on being accepted back fully… he’s aware of justice, his guilt, his failure to love
- Even so, he believes that being in the household as a slave would be better
- V21– his speaking is a form of confession — and he knows that what he’s done has not only been contrary to the love of his father – but contrary to a natural order — the dad represents perfect love, so the point here isn’t to make this analogous to our family systems necessarily – the point is to see that our creator’s design for us is that we LIVE IN LOVE… that we receive it – and that, as the scriptures then say: WE LOVE BECAUSE HE FIRST LOVED US!! This is the life for which we are created – and it begins with our relationship with the one who loves us perfectly.
- His declaration: I am no longer worthy to be called your son… is met with this:
But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.
ALL THE FATHER WANTED… WAS ALL THE SON NEEDED… WHICH WAS TO COME… has he blown it, squandered resources, made terrible choices, hurt other people beyond his family along the way… yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
BUT WHAT MATTERS MORE THAN ANY OF THAT… is that he wants to come home… LOOK THROUGH THE GOSPELS AT WHO JESUS HEALS… it has nothing to do with doctrine, or obedience even… it has to do with acknowledgement of brokenness, and willingness to receive!! APP: part of my forest faith meditation–
And we discover something about sons… they’re always sons in the eyes of a loving Father!!
THE THEOLOGY BEHIND THIS KIND OF LOVE: is found in several places in I John 3:1 — and then behind the curtain we find this in I John 2 – you can argue about whether the reason Christ’s death works is because it was a substitute for you and I, or it was an antidote for a disease which we were afflicted with… but either way the key is this: GOD’S LOVE IS HERE FOR US… always… unconditionally… infinitely… irrevocably… FOR US.
III. The Older Son
… is out working in the field, so the whole reconciliation has already happened and the party has already started.
LIVE INTO THIS AS THE OLDER SON
You did the right thing… he did the wrong thing
You stayed home… he took his inheritance prematurely and then threw it away on appetites
You believe that obedience has its rewards… that Dad OWES YOU somehow
AND… you believe that the one who fails to love(or at least do your version of love, wooden obedience) isn’t worthy of love…
You’ve been working all day… all week… all month… all year– and you haven’t had a party!!
THIS IS THE TRANSACTIONAL CHRISTIANITY… and unfortunately, it’s this kind of Christianity that many who’ve grown up at the church display…
It’s ironic… because we say: ‘there’s nothing we can do to earn salvation’, and ‘we’re saved by grace’ – but ultimately deep down, there’s a sense of performance attached to our living
His bitterness is on display — and bitterness/complaining/judging is the only inevitable path in a performance-based world!! If we fail, we’re judging ourselves. If we succeed, we’re judging others.
NB: IF the older son is right– if it’s a performance based world– then he has every right to be angry and upset — he’s angry for lack of punishment, and consequences… but here’s the reality:
When we’re operating outside the basis of love, we’ve left home, even if we haven’t left home– we’ve broken relationships and are paying the consequences— for the younger son it became addiction to appetites and the profound rejection of a world that demands you pay your way. For the older son, without ever leaving home, it was the poison of self righteousness, which always leads to pride and judgementalism– both of which make love and joy impossible.
BOTH SONS LEFT HOME… BECAUSE HOME ISN’T FUNDAMENTALLY GEOGRAPHY OF PLACE… IT’S THE GEOGRAPHY OF THE HEART
CONCLUSION:
We love because he first loved us… but only if we’ve received that love freely we have received… freely we’re called to give– but if we feel we ‘earned’, then we didn’t receive. Everything starts with a posture of receiving.
I’m called home to love Ephesians 3
AND BOTH THE OLDER AND YOUNGER SON NEED TO LEARN THAT:
Younger– home is not living by your appetites and indulging in what John calls: the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes– HOME IS THE PLACE WHERE YOU’RE BATHED IN UNCONDITIONAL LOVE…
Older– home is not living with a sense of legalism and all its attendant joylessness, judgmentalism and anxiety– this is what John calls ‘the boastful pride of life’
HOME IS BEING BATHED IN LOVE
The way out of sin is to see through the falsehood, to be convinced that someone else is sustaining you, that you don’t have to sustain yourself, that you are already given more affirmation, nurturance, respect, love, life, joy than you can even imagine desiring. It is at the moment when you perceive this truth and really accept it, believe yourself to be loved– permit, agree, allow, consent to be loved and sustained by another– it is at this moment that salvation takes place. – Beatrice Bruteau
THE NATURAL CONSEQUENCE OF THAT: I become the father– the giver of gifts– and grace– and unconditional love
CLOSING ILLUS…