Week 6 Discussion Questions 2 and 3

2. What positive images come to mind when you hear the word "home"?

Comments made by class members included seeing "home" as a place where you are always welcome and can be yourself, also realizing that not everyone has had a positive experience in their homes. Having a home gives one a sense of security, belonging and healthy attachment to others. People, such as children who grow up in a series of foster homes, miss the experience of having one home that provides them with these benefits and have difficulty later one because of this lack.

The book talks about "home" as powerful, yet elusive concept.

"The strong feelings that surround it reveal some deep longing within us for a place that absolutely fits and suits us, where we can be, or perhaps find, our true selves.Yet it seems that no place or actual family ever satisfies these yearnings. . ."

"The Prodigal God" pages 91-92

In this way, Rev. Keller sees the human race as exiles, always yearning to be home, always traveling, but never arriving.


3. How is our longing for home explained by the biblical narrative of creation > fall > redemption > restoration?



Creation
(See: pages 95-96)

In Genesis, we are told we were created to live in a garden with God, where there was no parting from love, no decay or disease because it was life in the face of God, in his presence.

Fall
(See: page 96)

But we chafed under God's authority. We wanted to live without God's interference. So we turned away, became alienated from him,and lost our home for the same reason the younger brother lost his. The result was exile.

In this way, we became wandering spiritual exiles who are living in a world that does not fit our deepest longings.

Redemption
(See: pages 101-102)

Jesus came to save all of us from sin, evil and death itself. He came to bring the human race Home by taking upon himself the full curse of human rebellion and cosmic homelessness.

Restoration
(See: pages 102-103)

At the end of history, the whole earth will become the Garden of Eden again, where the father will meet us, embrace us, and bring us into a feast that is beyond our imagining.