The Prodigal....Village?

Let's talk Prodigal Son for a minute.

No promise on the minute part though.  Speaking of promises, the book of Proverbs, is not a book of promises.  So please don't quote them to me like they are some kind of guarantee.

Back to the Prodigal Son.  Remember that story?  A father has two sons, one leaves home with his inheritance and squanders it all on booze, hookers and gambling.  The other stays home with his dad and works really hard on the property.  They spend a lot of quality time together.

Then one day the son who took his inheritance early came home, head hung low.  His dad saw him in the distance and ran to him, looked him in the eyes and said to his son, "I love you.  I have always loved you.  At your best and your worse, near or far, I've loved you and never stopped.  Welcome home."

One of their finest livestock was killed and cooked and a feast followed.  It was a party.  But not enough to make the son who returned feel awkward....just loved and welcomed.

But what about the son who never left?  He was kinda pissed.  His bro made a choice to leave.  To take all his money and leave the family.  He was jealous of how his brother, who contributed nothing to the family over the past several years was getting this huge party and all kinds of money and assets were being spent on him.  Most people skim right over this guy.  Writing him off as a selfish prick who's not happy to see his brother come home.

This story is just as much, if not more about the selfish prick as it is the son who returned.  When the selfish son talked to his dad about his feelings, his dad reminded him that all the land, all his wealth, everything he had has ALWAYS been available to him.  He's been in the good life this whole time.  But he's been spending his time working hard to earn favor.  Favor that's been there whether he worked hard or not. The prodigal son tells us that.  Just being there is enough.

Is that photo the way most Christians today feel? When someone comes along and wants to be a part of the faith they are told, "GREAT!  Here's what you have to do......"   I think this story is telling us that method is wrong.  You didn't earn anything.

You know what else this parable reminds me of?  The Village.  Yeah.  The M. Night Shyamalan movie.  The elders in this older 1700's community told stories of the creatures in the woods.  And that you mustn't go past a certain point or else.  Well, someone did.  And she discovered that is was 2004. She saw cars.  And found medicine.  She found that is was all a setup to keep things the way they were.  Really crazy movie.  You should watch it.

But all I can think of is how this parable was written by really smart people to keep believers who were born into the faith from walking away from their faith.  It tells a story of someone who's experienced the world, yet still comes back.  They paint the world as a scary place and home is better.  Just stay at home.  Home is awesome.  You don't have to do anything to earn favor at home.  Just be here.  It's all yours.  And you just blindly stay in your beliefs without ever making them your own.  They are.... inherited.   And the more I read the bible...the more I see a story about a religion than actual events that happened.