Many years ago, at the annual clergy conference of the
Diocese of Oklahoma, I was introduced to a teacher of the New Testament named
Brandon Scott. Dr. Scott is a Roman
Catholic layman who at the time taught at a Disciples of Christ seminary at
Phillip’s University in Enid, Oklahoma.
His topic for us clergy that year was the parables of Jesus, and he used
as a basis for his lectures his book Hear
Then the Parable. Throughout the two
days of teaching on parables, Dr. Scott opened to me a new world of understanding
of the life and times of Jesus and a means to begin what has become a lifetime
exploration of the richness of these brief but intensely deep and moving
stories by which our Lord invites his hearers, then and now, to come closer to
the heart of God.
Perhaps
the most widely recognized parable of Jesus is known almost universally as the
Prodigal Son. Prodigal can mean
wasteful, but it also means extravagant, as in “prodigious.” The problem with titling this parable the
Prodigal Son is that it points to the younger son only, and ignores the
complete cast of characters. Dr. Scott
in his lectures and in his book reminds us that Jesus introduces the parable
with these words, “There was a man who had two sons.” We do well to remember that the story does
not conclude with the return of the younger son.
The
two books we are using for this year’s Advent exploration and meditation are: The Return of the Prodigal Son, A Story of
Homecoming by Henri J. M. Nouwen and The
Prodigal God, Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith by Timothy
Keller. Each author approaches the
parable using his unique lens, and both challenge us to open our hearts to
God’s welcome and prodigious love for absolutely all of us. Each also calls us to repent of our
close-mindedness toward both the Father’s generosity and the other brother’s
refusal to be in relationship.
As we
of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth work toward becoming a more reconciling
community, and especially as we live in the “in-between time” of separation and
reunion, let us use both the parable of the man with two sons and these two
books as meditation on our life in God’s grace and the possibility of
reconciliation.
