Parable of the prodigal son
is about ‘Father’s love’
By Paula R. Kincaid, The Layman, July 14, 2009
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The parable of the prodigal son is not about the sons, according to Rhashell Hunter, “it’s about the Father’s love – God’s grace.”
Hunter, who spoke at Tuesday morning’s session of the 2009 Churchwide Gathering of Presbyterian Women in Louisville, is the director of Racial Ethnic and Women’s Ministries/Presbyterian Women for the Presbyterian Church (USA).
Following the reading from Luke, Hunter recast and updated the story. She told the story of a mother, Mary, and her daughter, Cynthia, who wanted her college fund so she could go out and see the world. With the college fund in hand – converted to “traveler’s checks and cash,” Cynthia bought a ticket to Europe – where incidentally her boyfriend was – and they partied every night with their new friends.
Hunter’s story continued: Cynthia’s boyfriend dumped her and the money ran out. “It’s funny how fast one person can run through money someone else saved,” Hunter said.
Cynthia couldn’t afford her hotel room, and after finding a part-time job cleaning tables at a bar, she barely had enough food to eat. Cynthia even wished she could eat the scraps from the customers’ plates. She realized then that the clerks in her mother’s store back home had enough money to eat and live.
She worked until she saved enough money to buy a ticket home, and practiced her repentance speech as she walked up the road to her mother’s house.
Mary saw her daughter walking up the road, and ran out to greet her. When Cynthia saw her mother coming toward her, she “ran right into her mother’s embrace,” Hunter said.
“Before she even got the repentance speech out,” said Hunter, Mary embraced her child.
Hunter said she was glad she wasn’t cast in the story, “because I would have to get an ‘I told you so’ in.”
“This is a story about God’s grace,” Hunter said. The parable in the Bible is called the prodigal son, she said, but “I call my version mother’s baby girl.”
And, just like in both stories, “before we get the repentance speech out, God embraces us. These children did not have to be anything but God’s children,” she said.
“I believe Jesus tells this story to show God’s love,” said Hunter. “It brings me to tears, God loves us so much.”
“God never gets tired of giving God’s love away, even to you,” Hunter said, “a beloved child of God.”
Following Hunter was the second part of “Puah’s Midwife Crisis,” a musical presented by Goose Chase, Ink. The first part was presented Monday evening. The music and lyrics were written by Cheryl Goodman-Morris and Karen C. Russell.
It tells the story of two midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, in the time of Moses’ birth, and how they disobeyed the Pharaoh’s order to kill all male Hebrew babies. The program states, “Puah and Shiphrah’s courageous response to the Pharaoh is the first act of civil disobedience recorded in the Bible, and it was carried out by women!”