In today’s parable, we met the Prodigal Son: the wastrel. The one who wanted everything now. He got his one-third of his dad’s estate, and he went off to party! (One-third because the elder would inherit two-thirds, what was known as a “double portion” – because upon the father’s death, the elder son would be expected to care for his mother and any unmarried sisters still at home.) One-third is still a lot. We don’t know if his father had to sell land or livestock to free up that kind of money – but whatever was required, the father did it. In this story, we don’t know much about the players. They aren’t really 3-dimensional persons, they are more like archetypes. That way, it is easier for us to put ourselves into the story. We have the loving, giving father. We have the impatient, wasteful, living-for-himself younger son. We have the dutiful, obedient, hard-working elder son. Do you identify with one of these archetypes more than another? How many here identify with the elder brother, the one who was doing what he was supposed to be doing? Anyone identify with the father? Being so excited about your child coming back that you race down the road to meet him? Who cares what he might say, he’s BACK. He’s okay and he’s BACK. How many here do not identify with the younger son, but have known someone like him: someone impatient to break free of society’s rules, or a father’s rules, or anybody’s rules? Someone who, to quote Cyndi Lauper, “just wants to have fun?” That is the usefulness of archetypes: we can identify with each one. We can see similarities with each one. I trust that most of us “get” that the father in this story is like God. God always welcomes us. God always cares for us, even if we deny God’s claim on us and go wandering off, doing what we want to do instead of what God would have us do. God loves us no matter what. But how many of us “get” that we are both the elder son AND the younger son? I think we all have moments – some short, some longer – moments when we act like the younger son. We want what we want right now. We don’t want to follow any rules. We don’t want to be careful of others’ feelings or needs. We want to shed whatever shackles we think we’re bound by – marriage vows, promises made to God, social mores, work agreements, leases, whatever they might be – we want to spring out of them and just “be free” – however we define that in the moment. We want what we want, and we want it right now. In those moments, I think we are actually dead. We’re dead to our commitments, yes, but we also have died in that we aren’t doing or thinking the things that make for living, for life. We’re being self-centered beyond what is reasonable and necessary for our well-being. We have stopped caring about the consequences of our actions, for ourselves or for others or for our planet. These moments can be small, like when you park your car illegally because “hey, I just need to run into that store for a moment…I’ll be right back.” “I’ll take a notepad from work, they won’t miss this one.” “Dang it, I’m tired of my neighbor letting his dog poop in my yard, I’m taking my shovel and I’m going to lob that stuff right over his fence. Better yet, I’m going to put it right on his front step.” “I am so tired of watching the pennies, I’m going to spoil myself and buy that pair of shoes I saw online – we can just figure out how to balance the budget later.” We’ve all been there, I’ll bet. And then, when we get the ticket for parking in a no parking zone; or when the credit card bill comes in and you have to have an uncomfortable conversation with your family members; then, the whatever-it-is doesn’t feel so good any more. We’re not contented, we’re uncomfortable – and we have to seek forgiveness. And yes, it’s uncomfortable: birth usually is. Because we’re coming back to life. We’re coming back into equilibrium, into balance; and we’re coming back to where we know we belong. How about the elder son? How often have we watched someone else get forgiven and restored, and we have thought, “That’s not fair?” “Look at him: he used to goof off and miss work because he wanted to play golf…but he quit that, and now he gets a raise and I don’t. I work hard for this company, I don’t miss a day….and nobody rewards me.” “I do what I am supposed to, and nobody says to me ‘good job’ or ‘where would we be without you?’” How often do we want to cry “foul!” because someone gets something…when we thought that what they really deserved was to be punished? How often have we forgotten that we already have what we need? We have a great crew of people to work with, or we have a decent level of pay, or we have a comfortable home, or we have a great family life, or we have a wonderful garden. How often do we stop to count what we DO have….and how often do we look around for a reason to feel short-changed? Like we’re missing out somehow? The elder son forgot, and we forget, that we are alive. We are living a good life – so long as we have that comfortable home, and good food to eat, and people in our lives who love and value us. Now some of us may be missing those things: do not hear my words as telling you to be happy with what you have when what you have is not enough. I am not selling the benefits of poverty or loneliness, no way. BUT, if we do have a comfortable and secure home; if we do have good food and good company; if we have what we need; then, we are alive: we are living a good life – and we should celebrate that. Moreover, we should not feel badly when someone else gets to live again. This isn’t a competition. We don’t lose just because someone else quits losing and gets to be re-born. That’s how we are like the father, too. Yes, the role of the father is like God, always loving, always cheering us on, always welcoming us home. But that role is also ours. To open ourselves to the lost and lonely ones finding their way back from death. To forgive. To help them celebrate that they have turned away from their addiction or their destructive self-centeredness or their fierce hunt for the most toys….to celebrate their return and their claiming of God’s love for themselves. This whole parable describes us. It describes our destructiveness, our dutifulness, and our loving welcome. This is us. Which role do you think we should focus on?