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<P><FONT size=4>Any way you look at it, this is an alarming story. It is about
hanging out with the wrong people. It is about throwing parties for losers and
asking winners to foot the bill. It is about giving up the idea that we can love
God and despise each other. We simply cannot, no matter how wrong any of us has
been. The only way to work out our relationship with God is to work out our
relationship with each other.</FONT></P>
<P><A href="http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=644"><FONT
size=4>http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=644</FONT></A></P></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Barbara Brown Taylor, 1998</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - - </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>We fret about the young man’s sincerity, and our own, but John
Stendahl says, “often we worry about purity of motive and depth of feeling when
the critical thing is simply what we do or where we go or remain” (<EM>New
Proclamation Year C 2001</EM>). That is, the turning home itself was all it
took, the bringing ourselves into range, so to speak, of God’s love, which sets
us free but waits and watches and hopes for our return. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://www.ucc.org/worship/samuel/march-14-2010.html"><FONT
size=4>http://www.ucc.org/worship/samuel/march-14-2010.html</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Kathryn Matthews Huey, 2010</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>...the good brother begrudges his father’s joy over his
brother’s return – so those who are godly should welcome God’s extension of love
to the undeserving. </LS></FONT>
<P><FONT size=4>The parable raises a question: at the end of the era, will godly
people be ready to be joyous in sharing the Kingdom with reformed sinners and a
God who loves them?</FONT></P></DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://montreal.anglican.org/comments/archive/clnt4m.shtml"><FONT
size=4>http://montreal.anglican.org/comments/archive/clnt4m.shtml</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Chris Haslam </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><EM>Verses 29-30</EM>: The elder son omits the polite address,
“Father”, which the younger son uses in v. 21. Further, he cannot bring
himself to acknowledge the younger son as his brother: he calls him “this son of
yours”. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://montreal.anglican.org/comments/archive/clnt4l.shtml"><FONT
size=4>http://montreal.anglican.org/comments/archive/clnt4l.shtml</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Chris Haslam </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Feasts were celebrations of belonging, not only among the rich
entrepreneurs, but also in modest form in religious groups, like the Essenes and
the Pharisees. Like them, Jesus saw such meals as celebrating what was to come
and celebrating that belonging already in the present. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au/~loader/LkLent4.htm"><FONT
size=4>http://wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au/~loader/LkLent4.htm</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>William Loader</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>A man came to our church with this moving testimony. He is a
truck driver. His life had taken a wrong turn as he became addicted to crack
cocaine. His family was destroyed by his addiction. One day, while driving south
on Hampton Boulevard in Dallas near Interstate 20, tears filled his eyes as he
drove and pondered his plight. To make matters worse, he noticed a siren and a
police officer signaling for him to pull over. This is the last thing he needs,
he says to himself, feeling his life is being flushed down a toilet toward a
ruinous end. The police officer notices his tears and asks if he is all right.
The truck driver is proud and says he will be. The police officer tells him,
it’s Sunday morning and he should go to church and hear from heaven. The truck
driver says he would be glad to, but he’s from out of town and doesn’t know
where to go. The officer tells him to go to Friendship-West, the church he
belongs to. The truck driver asks for directions, and the directions began the
change his life needed. The officer said, “Make a U-turn at the next light.
Drive two blocks and turn right. When you turn right, look up and above the
trees you will see a cross. Follow the cross and you’ll be all right.”
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><A
href="http://www.theafricanamericanlectionary.org/PopupLectionaryReading.asp?LRID=91"><FONT
size=4>http://www.theafricanamericanlectionary.org/PopupLectionaryReading.asp?LRID=91</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Frederick Haynes III, 2009</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>But Jesus wanted his audience to identify with that older
brother; we today need to identify with that older brother. The older brother
represents the "in-group," the righteous and good Jews in Jesus’ audience,
faithful believers who led pious lives, the established church membership of the
last 1st century Greek church for whom Luke alone recalled this parable of
Jesus, and the solid, middle-class regular members of our churches today. Yes,
the parable is about the good folk, it is about us. We prefer to view the
parable as all about the prodigal because it takes the heat off of us, and our
real need to identify with that older brother.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT size=4><A
href="http://www.goodpreacher.com/shareit/readreviews.php?cat=28">http://www.goodpreacher.com/shareit/readreviews.php?cat=28</A></FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT size=4>Robert Gnuse</FONT></DIV>
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