The Parable Of The Prodigal Son

If we accept this understanding of God that we see in the story of the Prodigal Son, that God is just pure, undiluted love, meditation then is about finding this God within our- selves. This love of God cannot reject us.

Audio: Hamish
Photo: Unsplash

Transcript

Hi everyone,

This is Hamish again and welcome to another reflection from the WCCM Young Channel.

On this channel we share teachings from John Mayne,

Lawrence Freeman and the Christian Contemplative Edition.

Over this 10 episode series I've been reading 10 chapters from Grace at Work,

A series of talks given by Lawrence Freeman.

In the last chapter,

Chapter 6,

We looked at the the nature of God or what kind of characteristics God has and in this chapter today,

Chapter 7,

We're going to be looking at the parable of the prodigal son,

One of the most famous of Jesus's parables.

So let's start.

Chapter 7,

The parable of the prodigal son.

Quote,

If we accept this understanding of God that we see in the story of the prodigal son,

That God is just pure undiluted love,

Meditation then is about finding this God within ourselves.

This love of God cannot reject us.

End quote.

The experience of God is found,

Entered into,

Through losing and finding and this experience of joy discovered in the finding is God.

God is the joy itself.

This is taken further in the third parable of the prodigal son.

Luke chapter 15 verses 11 to 32.

There was once a man who had two sons and the younger said to his father,

Give me my share of property.

So the father divided his estate between them.

A few days later,

The younger son turned the whole of his share into cash and left home for a distant country where he squandered it in dissolute living.

What does this tell us about the father?

What do we know so far about the father?

Well,

The father gave the son his freedom.

Obviously the father in this story is a symbol,

A metaphor for God.

God isn't controlling in the ordinary sense of the word.

This is the first sense that we have that God is love.

You are my son,

You are old enough to know what to do,

You are a human being and you're not a puppet.

Let's continue the story.

He'd spent all the money,

The younger son that is,

When a severe famine fell upon the country and he began to be in need.

So for the son,

What stage of recovery is that?

It's awareness.

This is also maybe a symbol for recovery from addiction.

It is when he hits rock bottom.

It is when the money runs out,

Health collapses,

You lose your job and your friends.

So let's continue.

So the son went out and attached himself to one of the local landowners who sent him onto his farm to mine the pigs.

He would have been glad to fill his belly with the fodder the pigs were eating,

But no one gave him anything.

So what's the son feeling for doing that job?

Perhaps disgrace,

Rejection,

Dehumanization,

Humiliation.

Let's continue.

And then the son came to his senses.

He says,

How many of my father's hired servants have more food than they eat?

And here I am,

Starving to death.

What kind of mental postures is the son exhibiting here?

He sees a solution in being one of his own father's hired servants and he's working out this in stages.

Is he being rational?

Yes.

He's saying,

Why am I here starving to death when my father's wealthy?

I'll go home and be part of his group of servants.

And then he thinks,

Now how am I going to get there?

So let's continue.

I'll go home and say,

Father,

I've sinned against God and against you.

I'm no longer fit to be your son.

Treat me as one of your hired servants.

So the son wants to go back and make amends with his father and he's worked out his strategy.

We see recovery has started.

He is putting his life back in shape.

He's worked out his strategy and he sets out for his father's house.

But whilst the son was still a long way off from his father's house,

His father saw him and his heart went out to him.

He ran out to meet him,

His son,

And he flung his arms around him and kissed him.

Now this is not what he or I think anyone else would have expected in this situation.

So it's as if his father just couldn't restrain himself.

He has just mastered by the joy of seeing his son come home,

Overwhelmed by joy.

We never hear in this story,

We never hear any negative aspect of the father,

Never any anger or grief or resentment or anything.

But if there was any,

He certainly had experienced loss.

So then what would you expect the son to do?

Let's continue the story.

The son says,

Father I've sinned against God and against you and I am no longer fit to be called your son.

So the son comes out with his little prepared speech.

He prepared the speech because he thought he was going to have to deal with an angry God or I should say angry father,

Sorry,

Which is often perhaps our image of God and an angry father.

But in fact what does he meet?

He meets pure love,

A loving father.

No resentment,

Not even a word of I told you so,

You shouldn't have,

Don't do it again.

Nothing of that,

Just sheer joy in finding his son,

Divine joy.

And the younger son doesn't get it just yet,

Does he?

He still thinks he has to come out with this self-justification or excuse to perhaps manipulate his father and win his father's approval.

He doesn't quite trust his father's joy yet,

Perhaps.

Let's continue the story.

The father says to his servant,

Quick fetch a rope,

The best we have.

Put it on him,

Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.

So he's now being reinstated into his formal position.

Bring the fatted calf and kill it,

Which means a very big party,

A big celebration.

Call in the neighbours and the friends,

Let us celebrate with a feast,

For this son of mine was dead,

Has come back to life.

He was lost and is found.

And the festivities begin.

Now you'd think that might be the end of the story,

But now the second phase of the story begins with the elder son.

Let's continue.

The elder son had been out on the farm and on his way back,

As he approached the house,

He heard music and dancing and the servant told him,

Your brother has come home and your father has killed the fatted calf because he is in back safe and sound.

But the elder son was angry and refused to go in.

Now the older son is,

For us,

Another form of the ego.

The younger son is the ego that we most usually recognise in ourselves.

The self-indulgent,

The wayward,

The pleasure-seeking ego.

But this older son,

The brother of the younger son,

Is the other side of the ego.

What is the negative ego?

It's the ungenerous,

The mean-spirited,

The resentful.

But the ego has both of these functions and he was angry and refused to go in.

But now the father of both sons comes out and pleads with the elder son.

So just in the same way the father runs across the fields to meet the younger son,

So the father again shows no pride or lost dignity in going out and pleading with his elder son.

But he retorted,

And this is the negative ego speaking to God.

Let's continue with the elder son.

You know how I have slaved for you all these years.

I have never once disobeyed your orders.

Yet you never gave me so much as a kid to celebrate with my friends.

But now that this son of yours,

The younger son,

Turns up after running through your money and with his women,

You kill the fatted calf for him.

So it comes pouring out of the elder son,

All the resentment bottled up.

But then the father's sheer tenderness,

Even in the face of this ugly negative ego,

Is really something.

Let's continue.

My boy,

Said the father,

You are always with me and everything I have is yours.

How could we fail to celebrate this happy day?

Your brother here was dead and he has come back to life.

He was lost and has been found.

This is God.

If anything expresses the nature of God,

It is this story.

Through the same universal experience of losing and finding,

But now we see it actually as it were from God's experience,

As much as is humanly possible to understand what God feels or sees.

But this is the nature of God anyway.

There is no resentment,

No punishment,

No condemnation at all,

Only the joy.

Our image of God somehow or other,

Despite 2,

000 years of being in a culture that has presented this very teaching to us,

It's been largely stuck with an image of God who is a policeman or judge or executioner,

Somebody who is disapproving or who will punish us because we have done something wrong.

There are all sorts of reasons for that,

Partly our religious education,

Partly our own self-judgment,

But it is we who do the judging and the blaming,

Not God.

Sin does contain its own punishment,

But God does not punish.

We project our own elder brother syndrome,

The resentfulness and the safe-hating,

We project that onto our image of God and we form an image of God out of that.

But I think it's a psychological construction.

But if we choose to accept this understanding of God that we see in this story of the prodigal son,

That God is not resentful,

Not even judgmental,

But is pure,

Undiluted,

Perhaps even crazy love,

I mean this is passionate love.

So if this is our image of God,

This is how we can be open to God.

Meditation then is about finding this God within ourselves.

Now what do we mean by it within ourselves?

It means with ourselves,

In a relationship with ourselves that we cannot separate and therefore in the Christian contemplate tradition in particular it says to know yourself is to know God.

Self-knowledge leads to knowledge of God.

It doesn't matter what you believe in,

In that sense,

When you begin to meditate.

You only have to be open to yourself and then find the God who is in indissoluble union with you because this love of God cannot reject us.

I say again,

This love of God cannot reject us.

Just as the father in the story,

He will let go but cannot reject either of these children that he's got who are so different from each other.

Thank you again for listening to chapter 7,

Grace at Work,

The story of the prodigal son.

I'm really excited for you to join for the next episode which quite appropriately will be called God is Love.

See you next time and until then God bless you all.