During October, we’re following the theme, “The World Where It Happens,” and looking at a young, daring church in Antioch as our guide for what it means to follow God in the world. This week, the church “goes rogue” by breaking long-established traditions.

There are several ways to hear the third parable of Luke 15: A prodigal son who “comes to himself” as he turns to go home; A joyous father who has found a lost son; or A resentful brother who never left in the first place.

We get a story of all of the gospels’ great stereotypes gathered around a table. Some endearing parables of things lost and found grow out of a complaint that Jesus keeps bad company.

We face one of the most difficult and demanding sayings of Jesus in the Scriptures, calling us to choose discipleship over our own interests, even the family that we love the most.

In Luke 14, Jesus at table is calling for a reversal–challenging privileged, powerful religious folks to shift from an ethic of scarcity to one of abundance. We’re still struggling to uphold that call today, but trying to do so reveals the beauty of God’s way through the mess of communion and community.

For the last of our “Heroes and Villains” series, we hear a story where the “villains” are not awful people doing horrendous things, but people who are praying without really expecting God to answer.

While Herod’s villainy is obvious and extreme, Joseph heroically participates in what God is doing by becoming a refugee along with the Christ. Can we possibly tell the story of Christ apart from this family’s refugee status?

Both the hero and villain of John the Baptist’s birth narrative are introduced as good and righteous people. The difference between them is whether they ‘push back’ or ‘live into’ what God is doing in the world.

A persistent question throughout the Scriptures is, “How can we maintain faithfulness in a foreign land?” The crisis facing Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shows a moment when one has to take a stand, regardless of the cost.

The common biblical definition of a “fool” is one who denies that the world has any ultimate meaning or justice. The story of Nabal – whose name means “fool” – expands that definition to one who denies having interdependence with others.