This afternoon I have been doing my background reading for the last of my three re-visits to well-loved tales from the gospels. This Sunday we will be looking at the series of three 'lost and found' parables in Luke 15. Reading them through I was struck very clearly that they are not 'of a piece', the first two, lost sheep and lost coins, operate very differently from the third, often termed 'the prodigal son'. I had a few ideas of what I might play with arising from it and decided to check the commentaries I have both on Luke and on parables. Alas or hurray, not sure which, all my ideas had already been had by other people, along with several others. A key one is that actually this is a story of two sons... 'a man had two sons...' which is pretty obvious when you actually spot it. I had thought of trying to retell the story from the viewpoint of the elder son because he represents the religious orthodoxy which is, whether we like it or not, what we are as part of the church. I was going to try to allow him to speak, to justify his anger and then to invite the congrgeation to decide 'what happened next.' But now I'm not so sure whether that would work.
Instead I am wondering about writing the mother's version - watching her family tear itself apart, sharing her husband's pain and loss, longing for reconciliation between her loyal, obedient but rather bitter and legalistic elder son and his wayward, impetuous but ultimately repentant younger brother. The tricky bit is of course that the allegorical aspect doesn't then work - if the father is God, the younger son the 'sinners' and the elder son the religious establishment there is no role for the mother to take. But then part of the beauty of parables is their inherent ambiguity and the impermanence of any interpretation.
If this doesn't work then maybe I'll resort to a normal sermon!
Comments
I once used this parable with a home group and after we had talked it through I divided them into two groups _ the younger and older son and asked then to have a conversation after the party, when everyone else had gone to bed - it was fascinating to hear them converse and at one point one elderly lady in the youngest son group suddenly cried: I didn't want him to forgive me, I'm not good enough to be forgiven' and years of pain poured out! Very powerful.
The title of J V Taylor's magnificent Go Between God might be a clue. The mother as go-between, as the constant conciliatory non side-taking presence who facilitates encounter........
Excuse me. The validating code reads jERk! My sensitivities are bashed :))
It's Pattois not Patter Jim...
jerk - hot and spicy
A kind of compliment I'm sure... ;-)
PS I like your suggestion although I've already taken it in a different direction playing with the image of embrace in the Rambrandt painting... mother embracing father when the son leaves home, father embracing elder son after he explodes into anger...