A week or two ago I was attending a virtual conference. One of the sessions that I went to was title 'Preaching 101.' As a part of this session, we were asked to reflect on the parable of the Prodigal Son as if we were going to preach on it. The instructions were somewhat simple, read/listen to the parable then think about a personal connection, the scripture reading itself, and a practical message/takeaway.
What follows is what I would have shared if the session had only had about 10 more minutes. At this point, I think I should also share that I've been thinking about this parable for a couple of years now and plan to continue to think about it for many years to come.
If you're not already familiar with the parable of the Prodigal Son you're welcome to quick read it now before reading further. CLICK HERE or turn to Luke 15:11-32.
A few months ago I was reading former President Barak Obama's book A Promised Land. Ok, you're right, I wasn't reading it I was listening to it. Specifically, I had driven home to Grand Rapids for my mom's birthday. Yes, yes I am an amazing son... But truthfully part of my willingness to make the five-hour drive there and then five hours back was specifically to listen to this audiobook. In clear Barak fashion (Michelle Obama's audiobook Becoming, also excellent, was only 19 hours) the audiobook is 29 hours and I was under a library deadline to have the book returned.
All this to say I was driving back from Michigan to Ohio listening to the audiobook when a particular line struck me. It hit me so hard that as soon as I got home to my apartment I took the hardcopy off my shelf and set to finding it. The quote came toward the end of the sixth chapter (page 126 for those interested) and said, "But it was hard...to distinguish what was true from what was felt."
Ever since hearing that line and then subsequently reading it, I have had the lingering questions rolling around in the back of my head... What is true..? What is felt..?
From my own daily life to the memories of previous feelings and experiences I wrestle with trying to distinguish between these two things.
Similarly in the parable of the Prodigal Son, there are any number of instances where we can ask the question what is true? And the question was it felt.
There are two specific instances I want to look at, one with the younger son and one with the older.
First, we see the younger son laying among the swine feeling as if he had squandered everything and was unworthy, "I no longer deserve to be called your son." This younger son seems to feel so deeply that he is not deserving of his father's love.
Second, we see the older son returning to a feast he was not invited to celebrating a brother he did not think was deserving, "He said to his father...'Look, all these years I served you and not once did I disobey your orders; yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends." It seems clear to me that this older son is left feeling neglected, overlooked, unloved.
Now in having looked at what was felt I am left to wonder what is true? To me what is true is the unconditional love of the father. Whether his sons felt worthy of the love, or couldn't seem to feel the love at all, the father never stopped loving. With this in mind, I have two additional questions I'm now left trying to wrestle with...
In what ways do I feel and know I am loved?
And in what ways do I show my love for others so that it is not only felt, but understood as true?
