Prodigal Christians surface in many forms

It was in January 1997 that I lobbied on this page for what I still think is an awesome name for a church, any church: Church of the Prodigal.

I still believe that Jesus’ parable of the prodigal (Luke 15:11-32) is the most profound description of God’s hope for humankind we can find in the Bible.

So why shouldn’t we consider naming our churches after that profound hope? Church of the Prodigal reflects both the hope of God and the reality of human nature – in that order.

I was reminded of my bias as I read Timothy Keller’s challenging book “The Prodigal God.” I discovered his commentary just a week after leading a spiritual formation workshop at an area church that focused on my favorite subject, God’s radical hospitality.

Jesus’ famous parable is the primary biblical reminder of that hospitality. In that workshop, I renamed his story “Parable of the Two Wasteful Brothers and the Radically Hospitable Father.”

We typically think of the younger brother as the prodigal because he was ungrateful and skipped out with his inheritance, then blew the money and came crawling back in shame. That common perception usually feeds our bias about irresponsible children or siblings.

What we usually miss in reading the parable is just how wasteful the elder brother was. And it’s here that I found Keller’s “The Prodigal God” so articulate and spot-on.

He makes the surprising statement that “the hearts of the two brothers were the same.” They both sought to get out from under their father’s authority but tried totally different ways to achieve that freedom.

The younger brother demanded his inheritance early. He effectively told his father, “You are dead to me. I want my share now.”

His irresponsibility is blatantly familiar to some of us. Hitting rock-bottom may be the only time we come to our senses.

The older brother was better at hiding his resentments, because he decided on another strategy. He would wait the old man out as the dutiful elder son and then be rewarded with great wealth.

Both sons were lost from the central relationship their father wanted with them from the beginning. One rebelled by being very bad. The other rebelled by being extremely good.

I grew up as a compliant, dutiful only son and pretty much stayed that way as an adult. But the rebel in me was delighted when I read: “Careful obedience to God’s law may serve as a strategy for rebelling against God.”

Then Keller speaks of a Flannery O’Connor novel, “Wise Blood.” Of the character Hazel Motes, O’Connor says, “There was a deep, black wordless conviction in her that the way to avoid Jesus was to avoid sin.”

Keller’s take on this should disturb and challenge compliant adults everywhere: “You can avoid Jesus as Savior by keeping all the moral laws. If you do that, then you have ‘rights’. God owes you answered prayers, and a good life, and a ticket to heaven when you die. You don’t need a Savior who pardons you by free grace, for you are your own Savior.”

Ouch!

If you try to be faithful in order to get some reward, whatever that is in your mind and heart, then don’t read the Parable of the Wasteful Brothers and the Radically Hospitable Father. It could keep you churning inside.

On the other hand, churning inside just might be what you need to see better how God radically invites you to live a fuller life.