Reimagining Family A Story of Radical Welcome A reflection on Luke 15:11 32 on the Daily Bible refresh with Dr.

Brad Miller.

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Let's have our reading for the day from Luke 15:11 32 from the Message the Story of the Lost Son Then he said, there once was a man who had two sons.

The younger said to his father, father, I want right now what's coming to me.

So the father divided his property between them.

And it wasn't long before the younger son packed his bags and left for a distant country.

And there, undisciplined and dissipated, he wasted everything he had.

After he had gone through all his money, there was a bad famine all through that country and he began to feel it.

He signed on with a citizen there who assigned him to his fields to slop the pigs.

He was so hungry that he would have eaten the corn cobs in the pig slop, but no one would give him any.

That brought him to his senses and he said, all these farmheads working for my father sit down to three meals a day.

And here I am starving to death.

I'm going back to my father and I'll say to him, father, I've sinned against God.

I've sinned before you.

I don't deserve to be called your son.

Take me on as a hired hand.

And he got right up and he went home to his father.

When he was still a long way off, his father saw him and his heart pounding, he ran out and embraced him and kissed him.

And the son started his speech, father, I sinned against God.

I sinned against before you.

I don't deserve to be called your son ever again.

But the father wasn't listening.

He was calling to his servants, quick, bring a clean set of clothes and dress him.

Put the family ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.

Then get a prize winning heifer and roasted we're going to have a feast.

We're going to have a wonderful time.

My son is here, given up for dead and now alive.

Given up for lost and now found.

And they began to have a wonderful time.

And all this time the older brother, the older son was out in the field.

And when the day's work was done, he came in.

And as he approached the house, he heard the music and the dancing and calling over to one of the houseboys, he asked, what is going on?

And he said to him, your brother came home.

Your father has ordered a feast.

Barbecued beef.

Because he was home safe and sound, the older brother stomped off in an angry sulk and refused to join in.

And his father came out and tried to talk to him, but he wouldn't listen.

The son said, look, how many years have I stayed here serving you, never giving you one moment of grief, but have you ever thrown a party for me and my friends?

Then this son of yours who's thrown away all your money on whores shows up and you go all out with a feast.

And his father said, son, you don't understand.

You're with me all the time and everything that is mine is yours.

But this is a wonderful time and we had to celebrate.

This brother of yours was dead and he's alive.

He was lost and he's found.

Great story.

You're familiar with it.

We sometimes notice the prodigal son.

It's really a story of reimagining family and radical welcome.

And there's this family parable here and it's all about radical inclusion and challenging some traditional family structures with unconditional love.

So here's some points to ponder.

First thought is to go beyond binary thinking.

That is to say, the story is often reduced to kind of a good son, bad son kind of a thing, but invites us to move beyond a simplistic understanding.

What we might call a binary.

Just the duality of this.

Both sons are trapped in different ways, one by rebellion and one by rigid conformity.

The father's response challenges our tendency to categorize people as deserving or undeserving, worthy or unworthy.

In our current context, this speaks to how we might move beyond polarizing politics and judgmental theology.

Here's another point to ponder.

It's about disrupting the power dynamics that were going on.

The father's actions are revolutionary and in the Middle Eastern culture, running was undignified for an elder.

Yet he runs.

He interrupts his son's rehearsed confession, refusing to participate in shame based restoration.

This models how privilege and power can be used to dismantle hierarchies rather than reinforce them.

It's particularly relevant as we consider how institutions might respond to marginalized communities seeking reconciliation.

Then there's the economics of grace.

This isn't just a story about family dynamics, it's about economic justice.

The younger son's request affectedly wishes his father dead, yet the father responds with radical generosity.

The older son's complaint reveals his transactional view of the relationship.

I've served you, you know, where's my party at?

And the father's response is everything I have is yours.

And it suggests an economy of abundance rather than scarcity.

And this challenges both the capitalistic accumulation and religious merit based thinking of that day.

And ours as well, I believe.

Here's your action step Practice radical welcome auditing that is examiner your personal and your communal spaces, the places you hang out, you know, your home, your workplace, your church, your faith community, your friends through the lens of welcome.

Who feels comfortable there?

Who doesn't?

What unspoken rules or expectations create barriers and choose a concrete action to make your space more welcoming to those who may be typically excluded.

And you might want to document that the challenges that arise in that and consider how you can be more inclusive.

We're going to pray in just a moment here.

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Let's pray.

Oh God, you are divine.

Love and we are just amazed by a love with the example of the Father here that runs to meet us.

We confess we're often more comfortable with transaction than grace with judgment than welcome.

And sometimes we're the younger child breaking free from suffocating expectations.

And sometimes we're the older son resentful of grace extended to others.

And sometimes we're the watching neighbors quick to whisper and judge.

Help us recognize how we perpetuate systems of worthiness and unworthiness.

Give us courage to release our grip on who deserves celebration and who doesn't thank you for modeling a love that doesn't wait for perfection, that runs to meet us in our mess, that throws parties for the undeserving.

May we become people who create spaces of radical welcome, who challenge systems of exclusion, who dare to celebrate resurrection where we find it.

Amen.

So good to be with you here on the Daily Bible Bible refresh.

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Brad Miller.

Just encouraging you to know that God's loyal love doesn't run out.

His merciful love hasn't dried up.

It's created new every morning.