Next Sunday’s Lectionary includes the parable of the ‘Prodigal Son’. What you see in it depends on whose point of view you take. For instance I have sometimes been a bit irked by people who have a whale of a time when young, then find God in later life and then take it upon themselves to tell everyone how to behave. I read the parable like the other son and consider myself challenged about my attitude. Or you could read it as the son who goes away, and it’s about love and forgiveness and acceptance for those who reach ‘rock bottom’. Or you could read it as the daughter the man may or may not have had – what were her inheritance rights? Or you could read it as the divided audience. Jesus understands the feelings of the upstanding faithful people who are jealous that he talks to sinners. But he also knows that the sinners belong to God.
And so on…
…where would you stand?