In today's gospel we don't know anything about the quality of the relationship between the two brothers in their earlier years. The older brother may have been the favorite, and all those years he remembered slaving away in his fathers business, he may have never been given parties to celebrate with his friends, but with all that overtime he may have been building up a 401K that would make Oprah Winfrey jealous. If that's the case, then the return of the younger son - who has gone off and wasted his father's fortune (although we have mainly his older brother's word for it) - is about youth being forgiven its excesses and finally coming into its own. The father's response is about the older child having had their day, and the father's joy that now it's time to give the younger brother his turn, and bless him for his efforts, even if he has a bit of a struggle understanding the ins and outs of investment strategies. This, surprisingly, is something like the way the story has most often been told in church settings, since it's known as the story of the prodigal, the younger, son.  

But what if it's really a story being told by Jesus from another point of view, altogether - that of the older brother? Perhaps it's really the parable of the older son - what we might rename "the prodigal of the overachieving first born child"? The younger brother, after all, may have had a long habit of wastefulness and acting out. Meantime, while the younger brother is living the life of the quintessential party-animal, his older brother has been slaving away on the home front, doing the oldest-child routine - you know, the one who always feels responsible for everything ... and everyone!

How many here this morning is the oldest child in your family? Even if you're the only child, you know that being the first-born can be a burden. You work and work over the years to be responsible and make your parents proud, and live up to everyone's expectations. You're the first, the trailblazer. When you came along, your parents were rookies - and you were the guinea pig? So you survived. You helped teach your parents how to do their jobs! You probably even did some of their job for them at times. You excelled. If you're like most first-born children, you overcompensated and overachieved. Not only did you feel responsible; you were responsible.

For some of you first-born children, a wondrous and earth-shattering day arrived - the day you were no longer alone, the only child. Suddenly (at least from your perspective) a screaming, demanding, overbearingly cute sister or brother arrived. And all at once there wasn't even enough air in the room for two of you to breathe? Now you had to cope for even a sliver of your parents' attention. And worst of all, the new ‘baby' simply could do no wrong. Totally unfair!! You'd been the ‘good' child, all those years, and living up to everyone's expectations (with the exception, perhaps, of your own). And now this ‘baby' is not only allowed to get away with anything, but when she acts out, everyone thinks its cute - or even something to throw a party about...everyone, except you.