<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type>
<META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.18876">
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT size=4>When the younger son asks for his share of the family
property, he deals his father a double blow. He not only means to break up the
estate; he also means to leave his father, who counts on both of his sons to
care for him in his old age. If there is a mother upstairs listening from behind
her bedroom door, then she gets clobbered too. When her husband dies, everything
she has goes straight to her sons. Losing one of them is like losing a
kidney.</FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><A
href="http://www.barbarabrowntaylor.com/newsletter374062.htm">http://www.barbarabrowntaylor.com/newsletter374062.htm</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Barbara Brown Taylor, 2006</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>[but that observation does beg the question of whether the
happiness in the son's return is partially the result of having another
future home health care worker back to take of him in his old age. Yet I
digress.]</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>
<TABLE class=entries border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=2 width="95%">
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD vAlign=top width="25%">
<DIV><FONT size=4><B>PH in OH</B><BR></FONT><FONT class=smaller><FONT
size=4>March 9, 2010<BR></FONT></DIV></FONT></TD>
<TD vAlign=top width="75%">
<DIV><FONT size=4>Here is a personal story as an example of the<BR>older
son. We moved shortly before I began high<BR>school. Not knowing me at
all, the band director<BR>placed me in the last chair of the third
clarinet<BR>section. Over my four years in high school I<BR>managed to
progress up 7 chairs to first chair of<BR>the third clarinet section. My
senior year I took<BR>a solo usually done by people in the
first<BR>clarinet section and received a II rating, which<BR>was quite an
accomplishment. For three years I<BR>served as the band historian, keeping
scrapbooks. <BR>It came the end of the year and time for the<BR>banquet
and awards evening. The most improved<BR>band member ended up being a
person in the first<BR>clarinet section who moved up only 2 chairs in
4<BR>years. He was a nice guy.<BR>At the awards he was given the most
improved<BR>award. I was steaming. I had worked hard. I had<BR>sacrificed.
I had improved. And I deserved the<BR>award. No one had worked harder or
been more<BR>faithful than me. It came time for me to present<BR>the
scrapbooks, as historian to the band director.<BR>I stomped up on stage,
my feelings on my shirt<BR>sleeves. I said only a few words, handed
the<BR>scrapbooks to the director and began to leave the<BR>stage. The
band director called me back over and<BR>said a few words about my work. I
again began to<BR>leave. Again I was called back and was presented<BR>a
scrapbook with my name on it and an inscription.<BR>How many times, we
feel we deserve the fatted</FONT><FONT size=4><BR>calf. </FONT><FONT
size=4></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></FONT></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><A
href="http://www.desperatepreacher.com/bodyii.htm">http://www.desperatepreacher.com/bodyii.htm</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>(Page 2)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - - </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>
<TABLE class=entries border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=2 width="95%">
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD vAlign=top width="25%">
<DIV><FONT size=4><B>Joe of the Eastern Shore of MD</B><BR></FONT><FONT
class=smaller><FONT size=4>March 10, 2010<BR></FONT></DIV></FONT></TD>
<TD vAlign=top width="75%">
<DIV><FONT size=4>Tom in Ontario made an interesting observation<BR>that
most people miss: Jesus rarely (if ever)<BR>gives an "ending" to his
parables -- as<BR>the endings are really our decision to follow
him.<BR><BR>I would commend to anyone Henri Nouwen's "The<BR>Return of the
Prodigal Son: A Story of<BR>Homecoming" [Image Book (Doubleday),
New<BR>York, New York, 1992] which looks at the parable<BR>through the
eyes of Rembrandt and his artistic<BR>rendering in his painting "Return of
the<BR>Prodigal Son." It opened my eyes to so<BR>many things I had missed
in both the painting and<BR>the story... especially the purpose of
the<BR>story... which is not so much identifying which<BR>son we are, but
the fact that Jesus is calling us<BR>to become like the father.</FONT>
</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>
<DIV><FONT size=4><A
href="http://www.desperatepreacher.com/bodyii.htm">http://www.desperatepreacher.com/bodyii.htm</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>(Page 2)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - - </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV></BODY></HTML>