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Knowing the Father Better
* I just had to let you know that your October 26 issue was your best ever. I refer in particular to your multisided exposition of the Prodigal Son/Loving Father. I have a greater understanding of my Father because of your work.

J. Kent and Sherri Patterson
San Antonio, Tex.

* I've already marked Luke 15 in my favorite commentary with a note to always reread this issue before ever preaching on this parable again.

David Roberts
Dublin, Tex.

* Between the interpretations of Kenneth Bailey and Christopher Hall, I am with Hall. While Bailey's Middle Eastern viewpoint was interesting, I cannot agree with his attempt to separate any aspect of the returning prodigal's decision from the fact of his redemption. The returning prodigal may have been na•ve, but it is not correct to conclude that he was not repentant. As Hall implies, to believe otherwise causes many real life (sin) problems. (If even repentance were not involved, then how much worse would the reaction of the older brother have been?)

The Bible makes clear that the decisions by us sinners and saints do matter. I disagree with those theologians who, in effect, say mankind has no free will in the face of God's sovereignty.

Stephen R. Schulze
Kingsley, Pa.

* I greatly appreciate Kenneth Bailey's fresh look at the Prodigal. More than anything, his study shined because it placed the story in its cultural and Old Testament context. It is often easy for us to read the Gospels (especially parables) as if they were written for late twentieth-century Westerners, but I was reminded that Scripture is something we come to in a posture of learning: we don't read our world-view into it, it reads us.

The shock of the outrageous (loving!) behavior of the father coupled with the manipulative, self-serving behavior of the younger son made me relate all the more with the older brother (as I think Jesus was intending his first audience do). Yes, this story takes a richer meaning when we remember it was first written for biblically literate Palestinian Jews. Better knowing the parable's original meaning makes it more meaningful today. Thank you for the reminder.

Rev. Kent Clayton
Sandia Presbyterian Church
Albuquerque, N.M.

* Bailey's paper is very revealing. It comes from original study, not just a rehash of seminary classes.

Miller's interview of Miroslav Volf is most helpful in an age when so many seem to want "togetherness" at any price.

Donald Jeffery
Hudson, Fla.

* When I noticed that this issue centered on the Prodigal, I knew I needed to read it immediately because we have been dealing with that very situation. When I saw the article "The Missing Mother," I knew God was speaking to me, and I turned to it straightway.

What a blessing to my aching heart! I could identify with the author on practically every point: ministerial wife, early profession of faith for the prodigal, and the constant reminder of God to really entrust our son to Christ. To read an article written by a mother who has done everything she knows to do to safeguard the spiritual well-being of her child, and yet still sees rebellion, was very meaningful to me.

I have been struggling with casting off the mantle of false guilt the Enemy would direct against me, and Wendy Zoba's article has taken me further along in this process.

Stephanie Silva

Saying "The Older Brother Had a Point" (Barbara Brown Taylor) is tantamount to saying the Pharisees and scribes had a point when they carped at Jesus because he received sinners and ate with them. The triple parable Jesus then told was his answer to their unjust and ungodly criticism. The Pharisees and scribes are not pictured in the story of the shepherd and his straying sheep or in that of the woman and her lost coin, but they are unmistakably pictured in the elder son in the final part of the parable.

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December 7 1998, Vol. 42, No. 14