What Could the Show “The Good Place” and the Painter Rembrandt provoke in us?

February 26, 2020

From Steve’s sermon last Sunday:

“…not all of us have known fathers, or mothers for that matter, to be full of love and forgiveness, or very good at expressing it. A few of us have known outright cruel parents. Most of us have known parents that tried their best and never wanted to be cruel, but were cruel on occasion nevertheless, sometimes cruel without wanting to be, sometimes cruel without even realizing that was the effect they were having.

Jesus seemed to get this, when he said, you parents are evil. (And I’m paraphrasing here, but only a little – it’s in Luke 11 and Matthew 7.) …How much more, Jesus says, will a perfectly loving parent like God give you all that you need, especially the kindness and compassion and forgiveness that you need. 

God’s not a crueler or meaner parent than us. God is not obsessed with punishment and blame, bound by the need to satisfy his own anger before he can associate with us. Our instincts that tell us this can’t be true, and so does Jesus.”

Meditate on God as the ultimate Forgiving Parent – through the image of Dutch painter Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn’s “The Return of the Prodigal Son” in Week 1 of the Lent Bible Guide

Reflect on how character Chidi’s words from the hit TV series “The Good Place,” resonates with our wrestling about justice, cruelty, and forgiveness.