The Wayward Child

The Congregational church in 1853 ordained the first woman pastor in the United States, Rev. Antionette Brown. We proudly proclaim this in our denomination. One of our firsts we are so jubilant about. What we don't tell is that after one year of ministry, the leadership of the church fired her because they wanted a man in the pulpit. She never got another church, so she was cast out. She took her education and skills and put them to use in a life-long struggle for woman's suffrage and lived long enough to see the 19th Amendment become a reality. She was not a lost sheep, she was driven out of the flock, the church.

A good portion of teens who run away from home do so because of abuse or because they are LGBTQA+ and are escaping from unhealthy and sometimes dangerous family situations. A good portion of our homeless are veterans who have served our country and are having trouble reintegrating into our 'normal' society and another group are those struggling with a mental illness. A good portion of those who are struggling with addictions have a trauma in their life they are trying to recover from. Those whom we deem the problems of society, are most often those who are most in need of God, the church, and healing. 

In the verses we have skipped over, Jesus tells the parables about the shepherd leaving the 99 sheep to go find the lost one, a woman who searches for the lost coin to answer the Pharisees who look down Jesus and try to call him out for eating and hanging out with tax collectors and sinners. What is probably true, is that the Pharisees, in their zeal for perfection, have probably driven out the tax collectors and sinners so that their synagogues and communities are better, more faithful, and purer. Pharisees are often the 'bad' guys of the gospels and they seem to often get things wrong, but if we pay attention, the disciples also don't have a great track record themselves when trying to follow Jesus. But they get, deserved or not, a reputation in the gospels of being the ones who seek the letter of the law and not it's spirit. They always seem to pop up and Jesus often dines and drinks and hangs out with them as well. So they can't be all bad, right?

In our own families, we may have one 'black sheep' or the one we don't talk about like Bruno from Encanto. If we dig into it, we often find that the story is a little more messy than they were a bad seed, a bad kid, or they just didn't want to be a part of our family anymore. So the younger child in this story, may have a story to tell about why they left this family and traveled to a distant land. It may have been as simple as they wanted to party, to be in the spotlight, and to go the big city. But in the reaction of the older sibling, something may have gone on before the younger one skedaddled. For the older sibling surely wasn't living their best life that they thought they couldn't have even one party with their friends after all these years. Families are dysfunctional, all of them are, some are better at embracing the dysfunction and some are better at hiding it. 

But the Pharisees, and others we can be sure, are trying to shame Jesus into keeping away from 'those' type of people. In the Jewish religion at that time, there were two types of people, Jews and Gentiles, and then there were two types of people, clean and unclean. Jews didn't associate with the Gentiles, and the clean stayed clear of the unclean. And Jesus is telling them that God has sent him to seek out those who are unclean and those who are Gentile. There will be more celebration in heaven for the return of one of the lost sheep and lost coin than all the righteous put together. 

No matter who you are or where you are on life's journey, you are welcome here. This is a bold statement, but I truly hope that it is in line with the story of the wayward child, the prodigal son. That if someone is in need of family, community, help, and love that they will find us with arms wide open. If they want to reconnect with God, with their spiritual side, or just with something that is bigger than themselves, I hope they will find us ready to shower them with love and acceptance. 

Let us, as the church, continue to grow in our love and look for the lost. Let us celebrate that we are part of God's kingdom and not just go about our discipleship grudgingly and grumpily with our church family. Let us be ready to forgive and welcome any and all who show up. Amen?