A Prodigal Culture
A Parable of Two Cultures
“A man had two sons. 12 The younger son told his
father, ‘I want my share of your estate now before you die.’ So, his father
agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.
13 “A few
days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant
land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. 14 About
the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to
starve. 15 He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man
sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. 16 The young man
became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him.
But no one gave him anything.
17 “When he
finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired
servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! 18 I
will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven
and you, 19 and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.
Please take me on as a hired servant.”’
20 “So he
returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father
saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced
him, and kissed him. 21 His son said to him, ‘Father, I have
sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called
your son. *’
22 “But his
father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put
it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. 23 And
kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, 24 for
this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he
is found.’ So, the party began.
25 “Meanwhile,
the older son was in the fields working. When he returned home, he heard music
and dancing in the house, 26 and he asked one of the servants
what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother is back,’ he was told, ‘and
your father has killed the fattened calf. We are celebrating because of his
safe return.’
28 “The older
brother was angry and wouldn’t go in. His father came out and begged him, 29 but
he replied, ‘All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a
single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one
young goat for a feast with my friends. 30 Yet when this son of
yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by
killing the fattened calf!’
31 “His
father said to him, ‘Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and
everything I have is yours. 32 We had to celebrate this happy
day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now
he is found!’” [1]
I would like us to reimagine this parable as not
about two sons and a father, but two cultures and their God. One culture is
mainstream western culture. They have taken from God their share of the
inheritance. They have built tall buildings, and mass transit facilities and
many things which their God has provided them. They have ignored God’s laws and
set up their own idols to worship and now are thinking that they have arrived
at a state where they no longer need police to keep law and order in the
streets.
They set up their own morality. Sexual license abounds
without restriction. They squander their goods in riotous living and set up
therapy sessions to assuage their feelings of guilt and loss. They have so
bought into the therapeutic culture that they even contemplate the use of
social workers instead of police to counter the rising problems of crime and
immorality in the streets. Their moral decay and depravity have not yet caused
them to seek after God in fact they disdain even the hint that something is
wrong with their profligate lifestyle.
There is another culture at work in the world. We
will call this the Biblical culture. This culture is careful to keep all of the
commandments of their God and rely on God’s grace when they fail to live up to
the Biblical standard. This culture tends to look down their collective noses
on the other culture. Armed with self-righteousness they parade their piety
before each other and the watching world. They often hold to the form of
religion while living lives of powerlessness in their daily lives.
This alternative culture is vexed in their daily
life. Having to put up with the other culture creates great strain on their lives.
In fact, may of the youth of this culture are enticed and drawn away into living
lives of compromise if not outright capitulation to the worldly culture
surrounding them.
The question is when will the alternative culture
hit the wall. When will they realize they are feeding on pig slop and come to
their senses. We know from the Biblical parable that God will be only too happy
to receive them back into fellowship. In fact, he will throw a party for them.
Cleaning up the messes they made and giving them new festive attire.
The question remains then since God is willing to
welcome those who have spurned his love for so long. How will those who never ran
away treat the newly repentant culture? Let us hope it will be with rejoicing
and thanksgiving that the culture that was lost is now found. The spiritually
dead have been raised from the dead.
Help us to react better than the Older Brother in
the parable. Let us be open to praising God for this miracle. Help us even
today to walk along side our brothers and sisters who may be struggling in the
mainstream culture helping them to see that another way of living is possible.
Offering them the chance to repent and seek wholeness which only a life lived
for God can provide.
Meanwhile though let us pray for all people to
come to the knowledge of God through His son Jesus Christ. Help us to both pray
and act so that true devotion to God may be known in the world. May our lives
embody the love of Christ before a watching world.
[1]
Tyndale House Publishers, Holy Bible: New
Living Translation (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers,
2015), Lk 15:11–32.
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