But he answered his father, 'Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. ‘ (Luke 15:29 from Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32)

Yet: A red flag word

Alongside the older son’s ‘yet’ words there is the preamble to this parable. ‘And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow (Jesus) welcomes sinners and eats with them."‘ This seems important.

Privilege and a sense of entitlement raise their heads and voices. The ‘do to get’, seek and reward system is so strong a motivation within us and vigilance is necessary. It gets a fair amount attention in the Bible, from Cain to Job to Jesus’s ‘the rain and the sun fall on the righteous and the unrighteous’ alike for example. Distinction and otherness is here too perhaps.

Whose side is God on? The exile is a strong reply as are Jesus‘s parables: the good Samaritan and the sheep and goats are but two that come easily to mind. The apostle Paul weighs in too: ‘there is neither Jew nor Greek…’ He appears to be on the side of mercy and justice, also the common good perhaps, and where there is compassion and empathy too I imagine. It leads to the question, What distinctives are the distinctives that really matter? and I also ponder What badges do I wear?

I think my ‘yet’, which may hide my uncertainty about my place, falls quiet as I allow the eagerly waiting and patiently welcoming Father described in this story.

But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. Luke 15:20

Threshold meditation

With a ‘yet’ in mind go to the threshold meditation.