The Beginning of This Road

Facing Our Sin in the Light of Prodigal Grace

Prologue

Several years ago I was searching for a way to teach The Scarlet Letter in a church setting. I had the privilege of teaching that piece of classic literature a number of times to high school students, but I wanted to go further into the theme of sin and forgiveness. However, most casual readers or former students of high school literature wrongly remember only one thing about this famous book: the commission of adultery. I disagree that this is the leading theme.

You see, The Scarlet Letter is not a story of adultery; it’s a story of the repentant and unrepentant heart. In the novel written in 1850, by Nathaniel Hawthorne we meet the famous Hester Pryne, long remembered for the punishment her church and city leaders impose upon her for the sin of having a baby out-of-wedlock: wearing the letter A on her garment. She quietly and stoically bears the punishment and in the course of the story becomes a spiritual and moral leader in her community.

We also meet several other characters who do not traverse the pages of the novel with as much grace and decency as Hester. What makes the difference? Why is it that the one with the most public humiliation and condemnation proves the most faithful to the supposed principles of the church? What is it about the others we meet who do not learn the lessons as well?

As God so typically does, he gave me an opportunity when I least expected it. I was called upon to teach in a small church setting and I was in a local bookstore exploring options. Facing me outward at eye level was a book entitled Why Sin Matters by Dr. Mark McMinn. I grabbed it of the shelf and an idea was born; a marriage was made. Here was the vehicle I needed to teach the book I really wanted to: I would package the two together. Little did I realize at the time that Why Sin Matters would come to mean as much to me as The Scarlet Letter does.

But God wasn’t done yet. At this same time I was playing keyboard for a church musical entitled Evidence of Grace by Steve Moore and David T. Clydesdale. In the next days when I attended practice I found a part of the narration was taken from Luke 15, the story of the prodigal AND an image of Rembrandt’s painting The Return of the Prodigal was to be projected during one of the musical numbers. Both the text of Luke 15 and Rembrandt’s painting are the foundation of the opening of McMinn’s book.

My soul thrills at the memory. I knew in that moment that the Lord was up to something and I would get to be part of it. I had been handed the material to do what I love to do: teach! All I had to do was tie the ideas together. I set out on that journey and in 200? I taught the first version of this project to a small group. Some wonderful class members even took the challenge to read The Scarlet Letter on their own (no easy task).

At the end of that class I was quite satisfied with the work and put it on the shelf with the feeling of a goal completed. Years passed and I taught other books and other subjects, but this particular study never left me. In the back of my mind I wanted to do it again. That opportunity came in the fall of 2010.

(I also had to live through the necessity of offering forgiveness in a personally painful experience)

When I begin to revisit my notes and look for updated ideas, I was amazed at the number of resources now available to the savvy internet surfer. I discovered numerous books and articles to add to my previous stash. I found, though, that those numerous resources could take me off the track of the original premise: With God’s grace I must recognize my personal sin and I must understand that repentance of sin means life; unrepentant sin means death. So, I only added two new books to the mix: The Prodigal God by Timothy Keller and The Return of the Prodigal Son by Henri Nouwen. Both greatly expanded the ideas of the original two.

Since the completion of the class in the fall of 2010, I have not been able to put the material back on the shelf. Something continues to draw me to these books and these principles: without an understanding of grace I am nothing; without an understanding of sin, I can’t know grace. My prayer is that the lessons I have learned and attempted to teach in person will transcend the distance of paper and pages and reach you as well.

This journey would not be possible without the faithful stewardship of my dear friend and thinking companion, Jeanne. She is the motivation for this written piece; she sees the potential for this journey and she has kept us on track as we have dreamed about this project.