The Parable of the Prodigal and His Brother
Then Jesus said, “There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’ So he divided his property between them. A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living.
My fear
is not that we won’t get back to normal
but that we will
My fear
is that in yearning for all that we miss
we will rush back to what we know
My fear
is that we will forget all we have learned
about how to be community
in the rush to return
to doing church
And then
We truly will have
Squandered
all that we have learned
the beautiful
and the ugly
the obvious
and the hidden
Squandered
in our need for comfort
in the familiar
Squandered
as we return
to reciting our carefully crafted liturgy
without living it out
in the world of which it speaks
and of the God to whom it points
Squandered
as we go back to imagining
that gospel resides
within the church
(building or people)
Squandered
as we overlook
the gifts of the poor
to teach us
about justice
and care
and how to build community
that makes space
for the other.
Squandered
- all the gifts that the Creator has given
for the redeeming of the world.
Wonderful, Liz
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