The Prodigal: A Ragamuffin Story (21 page)

Jack’s phone started to ring before he could take his next question, and he pulled it from his pocket, took a look. Martin Fox. Seattle, Washington. “I’m going to make my life here in
Mayfield,” he went on, shoving Martin back into his pocket. “I’m going to love my family, raise my daughter, cultivate my friendships, write, teach, try to serve God.”

He shrugged, raised his palms in front of him. “It isn’t going to look like ten thousand people listening to me go on about things. It’s certainly not going to look like this, with the camera scrum and all of you wondering what I had for breakfast. Eggs, by the way. So I guess I have no idea what life is going to look like. But a clergy friend of mine said the other day, ‘Better the battered soul who lives his life on a voyage of discovery than the timid soul who never finds out who he is.’

“So that’s the story. I’m going to be a battered soul on a voyage of discovery. I’m going to be a small-town pastor, if they’ll have me. I’m going to work at my family’s hardware store.” He laughed. “I may even do my bit to help the Mayfield Wildcats go to State again—”

“Go Wildcats!” someone in the crowd shouted, and the media actually laughed.

“So I guess what I’m saying is this: If there ever was one, there is no story here anymore. Go home to your lives. Go home to your families. Go home.” He raised his hands in blessing—and he meant it. “And may God go with you.”

He lowered his hands, nodded. He was done.

Dennis stepped in front of him to make a path, but it wasn’t necessary. The reporters and camera operators and sound technicians began to step aside. Voluntarily, even.

Some of them held out their hands to shake Jack’s.

Some of them said, “Thank you,” or “Good luck,” or even “God bless you.”

Some of them simply nodded as he passed.

Dennis walked with Jack all the way back to the car. He held out his hand when they got there.

“You’re a wonder, Twelve,” he said, shaking him like a maraca. “So. I guess—thanks for staying.”

“You’re gonna owe me some ribs for that,” Jack said, gratefully freeing his hand. “This weekend would not be too soon.”

He got ready to get into the car, but he noticed that Kathy had trailed them down the street, and he stepped back out, leaned across the roof.

“Did I give you the story you wanted, Ms. Branstetter?” he asked.

She nodded.

“Are you going back to the
Post
now?”

She took a breath, considered, shrugged.

“I think I might just hang around for a while,” she said. “See what happens. You know: ‘Better the battered soul on a voyage of discovery’ and all that.” She shook her head. “Vintage Father Frank.”

“Vintage,” he said. “So. I’ll see you around?”

She nodded. “I’m sure you will.”

Jack got into his father’s car, started it, turned on the radio. During the day it got nothing but static. They had no FM stations worth hearing out here, just some AM and not much of that. The music got lost in the hills and valleys, bounced away off the limestone and the water. But at night they pulled in Mexican radio, talk shows from the West Coast, and AM classic rock from Chicago.

Mayfield, Texas, was nowhere.

And it was the center of the universe.

Wherever it was, Jack decided as he drove off to see his father, Mayfield, Texas, was plenty of world for him now.

A
lison ran off the plane and into Jack’s arms just like she had in his dreams.

On Friday evening, before dinner, Dennis took them all on a ride. Alison had never been on a horse before, and Jack knew after only minutes on the trail that she was smitten. She promised to send Lady letters from Boston, and Dennis promised to read them to the horse. Jack thought he actually would.

They visited Tom in the hospital on Saturday morning on the way to San Antonio, and he seemed weak but much recovered. He joked with Alison, and they colored Barbie coloring books together for a solid hour, comparing colors and outfits.

“You’ve got an eye for fashion, Dad,” Mary told him.

“Second career,” he said, without looking up from his work. “I think I’ve given everything to hardware I know how.”

Tom had taken the news that Jack was staying in Mayfield without fanfare, almost as though he’d anticipated it all along. “I’m glad,” was all he said.

He did not say whether he had seen Jack announce it on TV, but everyone pretty much figured that he had.

Now as Jack watched his father playing with his daughter, as he saw his sister sitting by the hospital bed, he began to imagine the future.

The elders of Saint Paul’s had met on Thursday night and voted unanimously to call Jack as their minister. Salary: five hundred dollars a year.

“That seems … ample,” he had told Bill, who had called the hospital to report the vote.

He would make it work. Jack had held a job at the Buy-n-Buy in high school to subsidize his paper route. Now he would just work in the hardware store to subsidize his preaching.

Mayfield would not let him starve.

He had started writing again, in secret for the moment, although it wouldn’t be secret for long. He had already told Sheila what he was working on, and she agreed it was what people needed to hear now.

“What are you calling it?” she asked him, as excited as he had heard her in a long while.

He had given this some thought, and he thought he knew exactly what the title would be.

“Beggars at the Door of God’s Mercy
,” he told her.

It seemed only fitting, somehow.

And although this was months away and much could change, in his head, Jack was already making plans for a journey.

When Tom was fully recovered and Alison’s spring break came around, he wanted them all to go to Florida—Tom, Jack, Mary and Dennis, Alison. Tracy had already given her consent. In fact, once she discovered that Jack didn’t intend to fight her on the divorce, she became surprisingly generous about visitation.

They would get a place on the beach at Destin, some little mom-and-pop motel like where they used to go when Jack and Mary and Martha were children, and they would set up chairs and umbrellas on the beach and stay out all day.

Dennis would grill seven different kinds of meats. Mary would sit under an umbrella, protecting her fair skin, and read mysteries instead of tax codes for a change. Alison would build sand castles, do a fashion show of brightly colored bathing suits, play chase with the waves, flee happily from the gulls.

And Jack—

Jack would walk with Tom across the warm white sands to the water’s edge, take him by the hand, ease him into the surf, hold his father upright as the waves crashed against them.

His father had always loved the beach.

And he would see it with his family, if only just one more time.

1. Jack Chisholm is described early in
The Prodigal
as “the people’s pastor.” What does that title mean to the media in
The Prodigal
? What do you think it ought to mean?

2.
The Prodigal
is a contemporary retelling of the parable of the Prodigal Son, a powerful archetypal story that Jesus tells in Luke 15:11–32. Can you think of other contemporary stories that retell the Prodigal Son or recent events in the media that echo the story? Why do you think the Prodigal Son story resonates so powerfully?

3. Jack comes back to the small Texas town where he grew up after living for fifteen years in Seattle, Washington. What do you think would be the biggest challenges for someone making this shift? What are Jack’s big challenges? Do you think the saying “You can’t go home again” is true? Why or why not?

4. One of the major themes of
The Prodigal
is that we live in a celebrity culture with instant access to news and culture through both traditional and new media. What are the positive things about that reality? What are the elements
of that culture that disturb you most? How do you see celebrity culture explored in the events of
The Prodigal
?

5. Our family of origin is often the most potent influence on the people we become. In what ways does Jack’s family history shape him as a pastor and as a person? How does
The Prodigal
offer hope that we need not always be stuck in the dynamics of our family of origin?

6. The news seems to offer up some scandal daily, perpetrated by someone in the public eye. In what ways do Jack’s disgrace and the way he handles it seem typical of what you observe in the news? Does Jack’s behavior throughout the novel offer any insight into how public figures should and should not respond when they are caught in a scandal?

7.
The Prodigal
features stories about both longtime friends and enemies with whom Jack has to interact. Are there people in your life whom, try as you might, you cannot win over? Are there friends with whom you have lost touch? What does
The Prodigal
suggest about how relationships grow and change?

8. Jack’s church in Seattle, Grace Cathedral, does good work in the world, and it offers encouragement and solace to thousands of worshipers. It also seems to operate a lot like a big business with Jack as its charismatic CEO. In what ways is this bigger-is-better megachurch a good thing? Are there ways you see this model falling short of what you imagine church to be? Why does Jack feel that he has discovered a more authentic experience while preaching in the tiny church in which he grew up?

9. The character of Father Frank is based upon Brennan
Manning. Did you recognize any of Brennan’s teachings in Frank’s dialogue or actions? How do you imagine your life might be changed if Brennan were your pastor—or your friend? What challenges do you think you would face in that relationship? How does the relationship between Jack and Father Frank develop throughout the course of the novel?

10. Brennan Manning wanted to leave behind a novel about grace, his most enduring theme, and this book is the result of that desire. How do you define grace? In what ways do you see
The Prodigal
exploring the theme of grace? Has the novel made you think about anything differently as a result of reading it? If you discussed it with someone else, what topics would you want to talk about?

11. Brennan Manning wrote in
The Ragamuffin Gospel
that the Prodigal had mixed motives when he came home, and coauthor Greg Garrett said, “I’ve always wondered what happened to the Prodigal after he returned.” How does Jack change as a result of the events of
The Prodigal
? What does he learn about God, community, and being a pastor? What do you imagine will happen to Jack and the characters of
The Prodigal
next? Would you like to read more stories about Jack?

B
rennan and Greg gratefully acknowledge Rick Christian and Andrea Heinecke at Alive Communications for bringing them together on this project, and for their support and enthusiasm across the years. Editor Natalie Hanemann worked wonders on this story, and the editorial and promotional professionals at HarperCollins, including Daisy Hutton, Amanda Bostic, and Ruthie Dean, have been a joy to work with.

Greg wishes to thank Hulitt Gloer for the use of the cabin on Turtle Creek, outside of Kerrville, Texas, where he did almost all of his writing on this book, and Baylor University, the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest, and Gladstone’s Library for supporting the planning and writing of this novel with time, space, and resources. Most of all, he wishes to thank Richard Francis Xavier Manning for bringing a message of love and forgiveness that washes over us like the waves. Rest in peace, beloved ragamuffin.

Into your hands, O Lord, we humbly entrust our brother Brennan. In this life you embraced him with your tender love; deliver him now from every evil and bid him enter eternal rest. The old order has passed away: welcome him, then, into paradise, where there will be no sorrow, no weeping or pain, but the fullness of peace and joy with your Son and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.

B
rennan Manning was a Roman Catholic priest, a lifelong seeker of wisdom, a world traveler, a sojourner among the poor, and a sinner forgiven by a gracious God. For fifty years, Brennan offered the message that God loves us without condition or reservation, loves us as we are and not as we think we should be. It is a message of grace and forgiveness that has helped reconcile many to God, and a message that he lived out for the whole world to see, with courage and conviction, warts and all. A renowned speaker, preacher, and retreat leader, Brennan authored or coauthored twenty books, among them his memoir
All Is Grace, The Furious Longing of God, Abba’s Child
, and the million-selling and life-changing book
The Ragamuffin Gospel.
He went to rest in the loving arms of his Abba on April 12, 2013, but his voice still echoes in the hearts and minds of his readers.

Greg Garrett is the author or coauthor of over fifteen books of fiction, nonfiction, and memoir, including
The Other Jesus, We Get to Carry Each Other: The Gospel according to U2
, and the acclaimed novels
Free Bird, Cycling
, and
Shame.
A frequent speaker and media guest, he is—according to BBC Scotland—one of America’s leading voices on religion and culture. Greg serves as Professor of English at Baylor University, Writer
in Residence at the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest, Residential Scholar at Gladstone’s Library in Wales, and as a licensed lay preacher in the Episcopal Church. He lives with his family in Austin, Texas.

“For all of us who have had our fill of guilt, religious performance pressure, hypocrisy, and shame,
The Prodigal
reads like a needed vacation for your soul. Emotional Impact Warning: you’ll need a box of tissues nearby as you read.”

—B
RIAN
D. M
C
L
AREN
,
AUTHOR
/

SPEAKER/ACTIVIST, BRIANMCLAREN.NET

“Brennan Manning’s last work continues the powerful message of grace and forgiveness that has transformed so many lives.
The Prodigal
will transform you too.”

—M
ARK
B
ATTERSON
,
N
EW
Y
ORK
T
IMES

BEST-SELLING AUTHOR OF
T
HE
C
IRCLE
M
AKER

“Finding out what kind of person you are and finding out what kind of God you believe in are uncomfortably interlinked. This vivid and often moving novel explores some of those links, not offering glib happy endings but a sense of truthfulness painfully achieved and love and grace painfully absorbed. For anyone who hopes one day to be a grown-up Christian.”

—D
R
. R
OWAN
W
ILLIAMS
, R
ETIRED

A
RCHBISHOP OF
C
ANTERBURY

“Fr. Brannon Manning did not live quite long enough to see the publication of
The Prodigal
, his last novel. But he did live long enough to work with Greg Garrett in creating it. Colorful. Well-written. Engrossing. Totally engaging.
The Prodigal
is all these things and several more that I can think of. But it is also more than any of them. Fr. Manning will no longer write such stories for us, of course, but what he and Garrett have created in this one is the consummate final tale. What they have created is the Ragamuffin at his best, full of hope, full of love, and finally, full of belief in the goodness of God.”

—P
HYLLIS
T
ICKLE
,
FOUNDING EDITOR,

R
ELIGION
D
EPARTMENT
,
P
UBLISHERS
W
EEKLY

“This story contains all the elements of true beauty … pain, loss, sin, and regret, yet overshadowing every bitter tear there is love, forgiveness, and grace. You will find yourself in these pages, in things you admire and things you detest, but more than that, you will be reminded of a Father who stands with arms wide open for every prodigal who would turn their heart toward home.”

—S
HEILA
W
ALSH
,
AUTHOR
OF
T
HE
S
TORM
I
NSIDE