The Joshua Victor Theory

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The parable Jesus tells in today’s reading is a profound picture of God the Father’s love for us. The story takes place in a time and culture where the community was shaped by honor and shame. Everyone in that community would have seen that the runaway son did a shocking dishonor to his father. It wasn’t like he’d just asked dad for a loan, and then spent it wastefully. Rather, it was as though he’d said to his father, “I wish you were dead! and all I care about is your money, so I can go have a good time.” Even though it was unthinkable, the Father granted this outrageous request. The son’s request was shameful to the family, and he would’ve been despised by the community. Probably few of us have grown up in a culture where honor and shame played such a powerful role in shaping expectations and behavior. The community wouldn’t have expected to hear back anything good about this son. ...

Sermon Outline:  1.       Jesus’ visit to His hometown wasn’t what you might expect. Family visit, warm welcome, reunion of friends and neighbors. Left a young man, a carpenter; returned grown, now a teacher (!) filled with astonishing wisdom, and performing mighty works! Same guy? Little kid from down the street? Now with a band of disciples, teaching in the synagogue about the kingdom of God, and repentance. Sizing Him up against the little kid they remembered, wondering who does He think He is? The Son of God? Well, yes, He is! They took offense at Him. Scandalized . Stumbled over. 2.       As one author put it: “The people were also scandalized by Jesus’ lowly origin. They found it difficult to believe he was any better than they or his family were. In their opinion he was nothing more than an ordinary craftsman. Their physical knowledge of Jesus prevented them from having a spiritual knowledge of him” (J.A. Brooks). So it...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. The story of the prodigal or lost son is probably one of the most familiar parables Jesus taught. A son rejects his living father as dead, wants to cash out his inheritance now, and run off with the money to party and live life to the fullest. The parable is about that ever-so-difficult homecoming when the lost son returned broken and empty-handed to beg for food and a place to stay from the father he’d disowned. Today we’ll consider how the father and the older brother each reacted. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The lost son was lost when he squandered all his father’s inheritance in wild living. Then he returned to his home and to his father, but when he arrives, in another way he’s still lost. He doesn’t know his own father. So he comes on the grounds of his own merits. But he realizes that he’s shot any merits he’s had to oblivion. He’s a l...