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<DIV><FONT size=4>In my Webster’s Dictionary, the words "prodigal, prodigious,
and prodigy" follow one after the other. They all begin the same way, with a
"prod," a drive, a push, a poke. However, where one is stirred in an
extraordinary, exceptional direction, another is driven away from what’s good,
toward wasting potential. A prodigal is someone who has squandered an
inheritance, who has allowed wealth (be it money or talent) to just slip through
the fingers. While the difference between a prodigy and a prodigal is like day
and night, the distance between the two is minimal.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><A
href="http://rockhay.tripod.com/sermons/2001/01-03-25.htm">http://rockhay.tripod.com/sermons/2001/01-03-25.htm</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Peter L Haynes, 2001</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>When we claim our reconciliation in God, aren't we responsible
to live our lives in response to God's grace by seeking reconciliation in one
another? To sit at the table in God's presence, having been invited by Christ to
come and sort out our differences, to work on existing--even thriving--in one
community?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><A
href="http://day1.org/637-whos_that_in_the_distance">http://day1.org/637-whos_that_in_the_distance</A></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Francis Miller, 2001</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000a0><FONT color=#000000><FONT size=4>Have you seen the sign
that says, </FONT><FONT size=4>"Teenagers - Quick, Leave Home Today While You
Still Know Everything!"</FONT></FONT> </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><></FONT></DIV><FONT size=4>
<DIV align=left><FONT size=3>In Alcoholics Anonymous, there is an understanding
that people never get on the road to recovery until they "hit bottom" -- that
is, hit the wall. Some people are unfortunate enough to never hit bottom. They
never recover or even begin to recover. Bottom for them is death. This is
<STRONG>the father's risk</STRONG>. He might have wanted to beg, plead or even
lock the boy up, but he had to let the son go in order to have even have the
possibility of having him back. The older brother meanwhile is enjoying the
peace and quiet.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT size=3></FONT> </DIV></FONT>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><A
href="http://www.lectionarysermons.com/zun4l.html">http://www.lectionarysermons.com/zun4l.html</A></FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT
size=4><EM></EM></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>John Jewell, 1998</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT
size=4><EM>- - - - -</EM></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><EM></EM> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>The flow of the narrative can cause us to misread "far
country." Actually, it has little to do with physical distance. Its not by our
feet but with our affections we leave or return to God. The "far country" can be
just one step away, so close, its hard to realize you are there. It's never far
to the far country and it's reached not by accident but by choice, willfully
crossing spiritual boundaries and ignoring moral check points.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><EM><FONT size=4></FONT></EM> </DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://www.csec.org/csec/sermon/reaves_4314.htm"><FONT
size=4>http://www.csec.org/csec/sermon/reaves_4314.htm</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Benjamin Reaves, 2000 <BR>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>"How appropriate or effective is it to rely on the image of a
Waiting Father to communicate the reality of God's grace? To many of my
generation, such a metaphor calls up horrible images.... There are too many
connotations of regression, of going back to a time when we had no
responsibility and could make no decisions, even if we wanted to. Adults who
long to return to the irresponsibility of childhood are adults with problems,
and that's not what our presentation of Christian faith and life should cater
to." </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>THOMAS WOLFE told us long ago that we are incapable of going
home again, but undaunted we keep trying.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><A
href="http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu/oct1988/v45-3-article4.htm">http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu/oct1988/v45-3-article4.htm</A></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Laura Smit, 1988</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><EM><FONT size=4>- - - -
-</FONT></EM></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><EM><FONT size=4></FONT></EM></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>"By means of a whorish woman," warns Proverbs (6:26), "a man
is brought to a piece of bread." In Jesus' parable of the Prodigal Son, a young
man is brought to less than that: his father's servants have "bread enough"
while he's starving to death, in a far-off land where he has whored away the
inheritance that he requested and received from his father, and where there now
is a famine. He is reduced to a job feeding swine--unclean animals under Jewish
law (Lev. 11:7, Deut. 14:8)--and is hungry enough to eat the pigs' slop
himself.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><A
href="http://www.ronaldecker.com/andp.htm#PRODIGAL">http://www.ronaldecker.com/andp.htm#PRODIGAL</A></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Ronald L. Ecker</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Sensitive preachers will be careful not to romanticize the
notion of home. This parable only hints at how messy a place home always is,
perhaps never quite what we want it to be. Our own ideas of home usually
simultaneously attract and repulse us.</FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT
size=4></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><A
href="http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?lect_date=3/14/2010#">http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?lect_date=3/14/2010#</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Matt Skinner, 2010</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></FONT></DIV>
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