THE PRODIGAL SON--AN AMERICAN EXPERIMENT

Have you ever noticed how you can read a passage in the Bible at one time, then read the same story years later and notice something new? I got a little insight into that last week. My Sunday school teacher, Al, tried an interesting experiment on us.

Al is always researching and read about an experiment a missionary conducted. The missionary notice that Americans, usually left out a specific fact from a very common Bible story. Al tried the experiment on us and we acted just as anticipated.

We were each asked to summarize the Parable of the Prodigal Son, a story we were familiar with, Luke 15:11-32. The story is about a wealthy man and his 2 sons. The youngest wants his share of the inheritance before his father is death. He leaves the family and lives lavishly until he runs out of money. He returns to beg his father to work as a servant, but the father is so happy to see the son that he has a celebration. The faithful brother is jealous of the father's attention, but the father reassures him and explains that they should all rejoice when the prodigal returns.

As we each retold the story, Al smiled and we knew something was up. When it was over Al explained that most Americans leave out one fact to the story that people in many other countries find very important. The Bible says that there was a famine in the land.None of us remembered that fact but it is clear in Luke 15:14. We all looked it up.

It seems that older Americans that have experienced the Dust Bowl Era, do pick up on the verse about the famine, but if we haven't experienced one, that doesn't seem like a significant detail.

I guess that tells a lot about how we read the Bible. Things we've experienced do seem to jump out at us.

The older I get, the more relevant the Bible seems. I've had more life experiments.

FRIGHT NIGHT

I usually spent Halloween night with a bowl of popcorn in one hand and a bowl of candy for Trick-or-Treaters in the other.  I watch Halloween movies and hand out goodies.

This morning I was thinking about some of my favorite Halloween movies and scenes that stuck in my mind; 1)  Charlie Brown's, "I got a rock," 2) the scene in Ed Wood where he sits in a diner and converses with the great Orson Wells, 3) the "Keep your eyes on the heaven," speech from numerous cold war alien movies.

Then I remembered Fright Night.

Okay, Fright Night wasn't a classic.  It was one of those teen, the adults don't understand us kind of movie.  The teens figure out that a neighbor is a vampire and enlist the help of the local TV horror movie host, a vampire slayer, played by Roddy McDowell.

When McDowell is convinced that they are up against a real vampire he relies on what he has learned hosting movies.  Armed with vampire fighting equipment, they face the neighbor.  When the vampire attacks, McDowell hold up a wooden cross.  The vampire responds, "That only works for those who believe."  McDowell's fate is sealed.

 For a cheesy movie, I thought the comment was profound.

Lately, I've noticed a lot of unbelievers quoting scriptures on-line.  Usually it is a meme with a single verse or picture from a Bible story, completely out of context from surrounding literature. It is much the way a political candidate might take a one-line from an opponent's speech and make it a sound bite.  The verse doesn't take into account history or culture.

The person who does this usually appears very self-righteous about quoting from a book he doesn't even consider sacred, much like McDowell holding up the cross in front of the vampire.

The words don't work for those who don't believe.  As in Fright Night, the outcome can be tragic.

Sibling Rivalry

I have always thought it was very significant that a large part of the first book of the Bible, Genesis, deals with family relationships. A theme that appears over and over again is sibling rivalry. You see it with Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau, Rachael and Leah. What a sad trap those sisters were caught up in.

Maybe God wanted us to know that sibling rivalry is real and that parents should intervene or it can get out of hand and destroy a family. In fact, later in the Bible we see how it affected a nation in the case of King David and his children.

I was simply reminded of this because I took my dog Dixie Belle to the vet. She will be at the animal hospital for 2 nights. What does this have to do with sibling rivalry? Bear with me.

I didn't have the joy of having two children so I never had to worry about sibling rivalry as such. I have had two dogs, though. I inherited Dixie Belle when the neighbors moved and left her behind. She was accustomed to being tied to a tree. Her only entertainment was to eat through her collars. When she succeeded, she would run for days up and down the street until her owners would notice she was untied. She was used to interaction with other dogs.

Dixie liked the freedom of our backyard, but missed running with dogs and was very moody. We (my son and I) thought another pet might help. It did, too. They loved to play in the back yard.

The problems came when we became involved.

Dixie Belle and Taz, a Carolina Dog, would do almost anything to get all the attention from one of us. It was funny sometimes, bothersome other times. An adult lab/boxer mix on your lap is very uncomfortable--and if Taz could get on my lap, Dixie thought she belonged there, too.

Anyway, I was convinced that Taz, would love having two days of our undivided attention while Dixie Belle was at the animal hospital--but I was wrong. Taz saw me put the collar around Dixie Belle and lead her to the car. She was upset because she wanted to go with us. --But she was also upset when I got home and there was no Dixie Belle with me. She was really confused when it was bed time and there was no Dixie Belle. Right now she will have next to nothing to do with me. She may want all the attention when both dogs are at home, but she really does love her companion.

It is fortunate that love can overcome sibling rivalry.

We saw that in the Biblical case of Joseph and his brothers, too.