At our Saturday morning free store conversation we talked about Jesus' parable in Luke 15, "A Man Had Two Sons." The question was asked, "What is a parable?" Cliff said that it was "like a quotation." Someone else said that it was a short story about something known (ordinary life) told in order to teach us about something unknown (the kingdom of God). Regardless of the definition we agreed that the parables were interesting and at times entertaining.
We started the conversation with a recap of the first part of the story (see our prior blog titled, "It Put Him On His Butt and He Woke Up") in which the man's younger son asks for his share of the inheritance up front. Surprisingly the father gives it to him and the boy promptly leaves home and spends it all in wild living. When he is reduced to poverty and on the verge of starvation the boy comes to his senses and returns home. The father is delighted to have his son back and throws a party for the younger boy.
Enter son two. The older son returns from the field in the evening and hears the music and wants to know what the hell is going on. He is told what has happened and immediately gets angry and refuses to go in to the feast. At this the father comes outside and pleads with his older son to join the party. The story ends without resolution and we are left to wonder if the older brother joins in the festivity or not.
At this point we talked a bit about why the older brother might have been angry about the party. While the younger boy had been out living it up the older brother had stayed on the farm and worked to keep things going. We talked about how the older brother was responsible and hard working. George said that he had "picked corn" and done other work on a farm and that it was very hard work. Cliff said that the older brother had "disowned" his younger brother because he was "jealous." Our friend George talked about being a missing person for 17 years before going back to his hometown recently and making contact with his family.
As the conversation progressed we talked about how the two sons were very different. The young son was impetuous and irresponsible and had to learn things the hard way. George said that he learned a lot when he was "on the chain gang" for a few years. The older son was responsible and hardworking but was very judgmental of his younger brother. At this George told us about a preacher in his hometown of Raeford that used to badmouth people for doing drugs rather than visit them and get to know them and try to help them.
As the conversation moved to a conclusion our friend Terrence said, "you as a person may go off and destroy things, but through it all God still loves you." He also said that even though you might be raised in a church your body and mind may want to do other stuff. We liked the idea that God is like a father that wants his kids to join in the party and enjoy the family feast.
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