pat loughery

Today we looked at Luke 15:1-32. In the story/3-stories in this section of Luke, the religious leaders are harassing Jesus for hanging out with and having dinner with (identifying himself with) the wrong people. Jesus’ response is to tell three stories – one about a shepherd who leaves his 99 sheep to go rescue the one which is missing and throws a big party afterward; one about a woman who loses one of her coins and then finds it and throws a big party afterward; one about a father with two sons, one of whom blows his cash stash on hookers and booze but returns home, and the father welcomes him and throws a big party afterward.

We talked a lot about each parable, taking the perspective that Jesus tells a parable to wrap up one point, and to force the listener to decide at the end of the story which camp they fall into: acceptors or rejectors of that one point.

We talked about the misconception that the son is prodigal in the third story (isn’t this story titled “The Prodigal Son” in most bibles, which just proves that the chapter breaks and chapter headings aren’t divinely inspired in the least?), but in actuality the father is more prodigal (as the same figure is in the first two stories).

But then we had to get down to reality: it’s all well and good to say that we should love abundantly, but how do we love and welcome those who keep screwing up their chances? Two of the people in our church are dealing with family members who have gotten themselves into nasty predicaments (both influenced by drug use), and they have to ask themselves the question, “is it better to help/rescue/bail-out, or to not? Which is more loving? One of those people has actually gotten into a situation where her life is being threatened; is it the family member’s responsibility to shelter her, or is that putting the family at too much risk? What Would Jesus Do?

The bottom line for us today was to think about this: Can we, in the name of Christ, love extravagantly but also put up good boundaries? And if so, are we putting up those boundaries to keep ourselves safe in an unholy way, or are we being wise?

One person brought up the point that the lost son in the third story returned to his father in repentance, and maybe that’s a key point. But the coin and the sheep, though, they weren’t repentant when the Father went after them, one would presume.

So, cyber-friends, how do you balance extravagantly loving those that the Father misses against not enabling people to continue further in their own problems?