Starter:
[In pairs] Tell of a time when you felt loved and welcomed (back?)
by an individual or by a group/community of people.

Worship:

Reading: Luke 15. 1-3, 11b-32
(Read passage aloud then re-read passage & commentary and reflect on the personal focus questions in silence. Then share what you wish of your reflection in triplets)

Commentary:
This parable, perhaps the best known of parables, is hard to exhaust in terms of drawing out its meanings. The younger son initiates the action. He asks for his inheritance from his father; it would be a small fraction of the elder son's sum. Perhaps foolishly (?) the father agrees. The parable tells us that the son squanders his inheritance in “dissolute living” (note not necessarily on prostitution, also note the elder son's rather biased view!). As a Jew to feed pigs would be the most abhorrent job possible, but he “comes to his senses”, he recognises his plight and decides to return home.

The father's joy is merely in seeing his son again (he does not know at this stage why he is returning!). Dad now becomes the focus of the story. He is filled with compassion; before the son completes his confession he has robes ready to dress him in, the fatted calf killed and the party in hand! Both father and son are found. The father, however, acts with exuberance that might make him seem a fool to his neighbours (no Palestinian father would run to meet their son- such action was undignified!). Convention would surely have dictated that the father asks for a full report on his son's activities & heard his confession before offering forgiveness). Here the father's love knows no limits.

For the elder son there is no recognition scene; he does not run to greet his brother; he does not share in his father's abundant joy. His attitude is that he has worked hard like a slave (i.e. “lower” than a hired servant; is he really a son?).(Beverly R Gaventa). Tax collectors and sinners were drawing near to Jesus; perhaps he has in mind Pharisees and scribes when he draws a picture of the elder brother. They only complain and criticize. For Luke those who keep all the rules and think they can earn their salvation by their own efforts are further away from God than the sinners who recognize their plight (Baranowski).

Personal Focus Questions:

1. Which of the three characters do you most readily identify with?
   
   
2. How do you feel about the father’s response to his son’s return?
   
   
3. Think of a time when you found it hard to ask for forgiveness?
   Why was it hard?
   How did it feel?
   
   
4. How do you feel about the elder son’s attitude?
   
   
5. How do you handle resentment in your life? What advice might you offer the elder son?

Life Focus Questions:

1. How can your church community be like that “welcome home party”?
2. Can we suggest any plans to make our community more accepting and welcoming?

Prayer concerns:
Pray for families where there is strife and bitterness.
Pray that as a Christian community we may embody that love, grace forgiveness and welcome of God.