The good news in today's epistle lesson is that God has "reconciled us to himself through Christ." Then the gospel shows us how this plays out in Jesus' parable that we know as the Prodigal Son. First, we see the wastrel son finally coming to his senses and turning toward home with a humble heart. The father is filled with compassion as soon as he sees the son who he had thought was lost but now is found. As the father embraces and kisses his son, he is reconciling him back into the life of the family. The loyal, self-centered son is not ready for reconciliation. In his jealousy, he can't see beyond his grievances. He is the example of why God has entrusted the message of reconciliation to us here and now. Folks today still need to be reconciled to God and to one another.

In reflecting on the parable, we often look at the two sons and use them in our self-examination. I suggest the father may have more to offer us as a model of compassion and self-giving love, of acceptance and welcome. Paul tells us that 'in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them." Can we do that this Lent; can we begin to accept that when we are in Christ, "everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new" in the world around us, in our families, in our work situations, our churches, our communities?

Most of us will need to experience God's healing, reconciling touch in our hearts, to come to know, as our collect puts it, that Christ "may live in us and we in him" before we are transformed into such self-giving love as demonstrated by the prodigal's father. Now is the time for us to be reconciled to God.