PRODIGAL: The Journey (My Journey?) Pt 1

Recently I felt led to revisit one of the best known stories of Jesus in Luke 15…the “prodigal son.”  I am not at all sure what prompted me to put it in the middle of a couple of other sermon series that I had already been working on, AND I am even LESS certain as to why, since I haven’t blogged for months, I feel compelled to share the experience here (especially since I don’t share my messages on the internet or social media—frankly, my giftedness lies MUCH more towards the teaching side so I don’t think I am a gifted preacher who has stuff that others want to steal—and since only about an 1/8 of my congregation is computer literate—it is not the best use of my time)…but for whatever reason I do…so I am.

I confess I often don’t frequent the most well known stories in Scripture because it is always difficult to find something (anything?) new to say about them…notice I didn’t say RELEVANT…but new.  Such, I believe, is the case with the seemingly parabolic stories that Jesus tells in Luke 15: a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost son.

Oddly enough, the first thing that emerged was a graphic concept (I tend to think better in images)—so while I was sorting through the material choosing how to present it, etc… I developed this graphic to “advertise” the upcoming series:

 (NO, the picture used in the graphic is not original with me, and YES..I realized after the fact, that I failed to capitalize the "w" in "way"---thanks for noticing!)

The “tag line” “A Way Forward or a Way Back” was intended, at that point, to be the introduction to the series. Our small congregation is at a pivotal point in its history so I had hoped that we might use this as a way forward (into the future) while standing firmly on our biblical foundations.  I hoped to show that it is either a way back to God (through Jesus) or a way forward serving the Kingdom as we seek HIS future…ultimately, both ways lead “home.”

So I began to pray, and study, and seek, and what emerged was a 5 message series:

1. Prodigal: A “Lost” Story (An introduction—setting the stage)
2. Prodigal: A Son’s Story (A wayward son—the core of the story)
3. Prodigal: A Prodigal Father (The father’s response)
4. Prodigal: The Prodigal Church (The view of the older brother)
5. Prodigal: A Way Forward of A Way Back (Where do we go from here?)

Somehow in the process of preparing and sharing this series of messages I began to glean some new things from this old, and often too familiar story. So, as my time allows, I want to share with you, NOT the messages themselves, but the “behind the scenes” of each message and how I presented what I had learned from revisiting the text.  There will no doubt be nothing here that you cannot find somewhere else, and I am quite certain that others have done it better…but this is my journey and if anyone can find use in any of it…welcome to it.

I look forward to sharing it with you…if you have comments or questions please feel free to contact me.

I believe, help me in my unbelief.