Family Dinner & Devos, Mar 4-10

Something Old, Something New

Learn-By-Heart Verse for the Week (NIV Translation):

“’For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’  So they began to celebrate.”  Luke 15:24

Something Old:  Psalm 32:1-5

Something New:  Luke 15:11-32

1.  This week’s passages are about forgiveness.  “Confession & Forgiveness” has been a central part of the liturgy of churches across the ages.  Around your dinner table, you may want to begin with the words of confession that are found in the Lutheran hymnal.  Then you may pick one person to read the words of forgiveness:

Most Merciful God,

We confess that we are captive to sin and cannot free ourselves.

We have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed,

by what we have done and by what we have left undone.

We have not loved you with our whole heart;

We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.

For the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us.

Forgive us, renew us, and lead us so that we may delight in your will

and walk in your ways, to the glory of your holy name.  Amen.

In the mercy of Almighty God,

Jesus Christ was given to die for us, and for his sake God forgives us all our sins.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

2.  What might be the importance of confession and forgiveness?

3.  Luke tells a family story.  As you sit around the table with your family, pretend that you are one of the characters in the story… the father, the “lost” – or prodigal – son, the older brother (or sibling), the mother (who is never named in the story, but we know that everyone has a mother), or perhaps you could be another unnamed sibling (also not in the gospel, but perhaps there were more siblings - like unnamed girls).  You could even imagine you are one of the servants.  Describe how you think you would feel about this whole situation… are you mad that the one son ran off?  Do you think he should be welcomed back or not?  Should there be consequences for his actions?  Do you think you would be slow or quick to forgive?  What is the first thing you might say to the “lost son” (ie brother/boy)?

4.  Share about a time you experienced forgiveness from someone.  And/or share a story of when you extended forgiveness to someone else.

(an option before entering prayer)  You could have each person around the table take a turn saying, “I am sorry if I have ever hurt you in any way” (or any variation of this).  Then each person can say, “I forgive you and I love you.”

Prayer

Dear Jesus,

We give thanks that we can always come to you with the truth.

We give thanks that you love us, forgive us, and always welcome us back home to you.

Help us to live in that spirit of forgiveness and extend grace to others.

We say this in your name,

Amen.