Return of the Prodigal

Message of Reconciliation

“Your brother was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.”

                                                   Luke 15:32

The text tells us that Jesus was teaching and that tax collectors and sinners drew near to listen. The scribes and Pharisees who were there complained about the company Jesus kept. Once again, Jesus was breaking the Jewish laws of cleanliness—he was not only consorting with sinners, he was eating with them. In response to the grumblings of these leaders of the synagogue, he told the story that we know as the return of the Prodigal Son. It is a message of reconciliation—the son is restored to his father not by his admission of guilt, but by his father's undying love.

A few Sundays ago at Pilgrim, a couple who had withdrawn from the church due to an misunderstanding came back. They are a same-sex couple with a young son, now four years old. It was their little boy who brought them back, saying, “I want to go to our old church.” The congregation was delighted to see them, welcomed them back, and last Sunday, that reconciliation felt complete when they served communion. The church that I attend is an open and affirming one in which all are welcome, and not only welcome, but honored. There is no requirement that we conform to a common standard, or to the norms of Birmingham's conservative society. There is a sweet spirit of love there that children feel right away.

Jesus broke all the rules. He welcomed the stranger, the foreigner, the tax collector, the prostitute, the sick and the lame. He talked to women, even fallen and foreign ones. He laid his hands on people who were banished to the fringes of society, the beggar, the leper and the "possessed." He did not take the safe route, and he did not say, “you're in and you're out” regardless of who darkened the door. His job, as he saw it and lived it, was to reconcile all people to a God of love and acceptance, not support the laws and restrictions of his own particular religion in his own time. He changed the ground rules forever.

If we would follow Jesus, we must learn acceptance of those who are different from us. Not only acceptance, but welcome; not only welcome, but honor; not only honor, but love. Those are the new rules by which we must play if we would call ourselves Christians.

                                                        In the spirit,

                                                           Jane