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Introduction As we continue our Lenten series The Last Supper: Conversations That Led to the Cross, we turn to one of the most familiar parables in the Gospels—and possibly the most misread. A young man takes his inheritance early, wastes it, ends up feeding pigs in a far country, and finally heads home with a prepared speech. His father sees him coming from a distance and runs. Before the son can finish his apology, the father is already calling for…

Introduction As we continue our Lenten series The Last Supper: Conversations That Led to the Cross, we turn from a field to a dinner table. A host has prepared a large feast and invited many people. When the time comes, the replies arrive one by one: a new farm to inspect, new oxen to check, a new marriage to tend. The excuses are completely reasonable, and the host sends his servant into the streets anyway. First to the busy streets,…

Introduction As we begin our Lenten series The Last Supper: Conversations That Led to the Cross, we follow Jesus on his final journey toward Jerusalem—listening carefully to the parables he tells along the way. Bishop Will Willimon, in his book by the same name, calls these stories “riddles,” and insists they’re more about God’s character than our behavior. That’s a more interesting (and more difficult) claim than it sounds. Most of us were taught to read parables as instructions: be…

Introduction As we continue our worship series Wrestling with Doubt, Finding Faith, we come to the question that causes more doubt than perhaps any other: why do innocent people suffer? When tragedy strikes someone who has done nothing wrong—a child with cancer, a family killed in an accident, a community devastated by a natural disaster—we struggle to make sense of it. Where is God when bad things happen to good people? This question has shaken faith for centuries. It shows…