The Parable of the Prodigal Son is the end of Christianity as we know it, and the beginning of the Church as it should have been from the start. Jesus knew what he was doing when he did it, and his motives for doing so could not have been better calculated to offset entirely the image that would be cast of Jesus by the Church that rose from his grave to conquer the world in his name.

As told by Jesus and recorded in the New Testament in Luke’s Gospel, 15:11-32 we find the story of the younger son of a farmer who goes to his father and asks for his inheritance, which his father grants.

The son leaves his home and journeys to a far country where he spends all his money in reckless living and falls on hard times. When a famine in that country forces him to take work feeding pigs that have more to eat than he does, the son reflets on his plight and reasons, “If I return to my home and tell my father that I am sorry for my behavior and say, ‘I realize that I have brought shame on myself and upon you, and am no longer worthy to be treated as your son, so I ask that you treat me as one of your hired hands’ I will be in better condition than I am now.” and he leaves thefar country and makes his return home.

(This reminds me of The Princess Bride where Mandy Patinkin practices his lines, “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.”) I envision the son practicing his lines all the way home, and when he arrives there, that is exactly what he says, following the script perfectly.

But it was completely unnecessary because while the son is still some distance from home, his father sees him coming and before the son can say anything, his father runs to embrace him and kiss him, and welcome him home with gladness in his heart.

When the son gets his chance to deliver his lines, his father brushes his words away, saying in effect, “Get out of here with that talk! Your litany of confession  and repentance is completely out of place here! I am your father and you are my son! You were lost and now you are found! You were dead and now you are alive! Welcome to the joy of your father!” And he called his servants to dress his son for the party and make things happen to celebrate the return of his long lost child, which they do.

Meanwhile, the older brother gets word of what is happening and refuses to go into the Welcome Home feast. His father goes to him to urge him to join the festivities, telling him, “All that I have is yours but now is the time to rejoice and celebrate for your brother was lost and is found, was dead and is now alive!’

Which raises the question, “What would the son have had to do for the father to say, ‘You are no son of mine! Go back to where you have been, and never even think of coming here again! Hell, itself is too good for you and your kind! Get out! Get out! I don’t want to see you ever again!’”

Would the son have had to be gay? Transgender? Perhaps a physician who performed abortions? A drug dealer? A male prostitute? An atheist? What would it have taken for the father to say, “Be Gone,Damn You! Stay out of my sight forever!”? What?

The father would have never said that. Yet, the religious establishment of Jesus’ day would have said it to anyone who was poor and could not pay the Temple Tax. They would have said it to lepers and to the families of lepers. They would have said it to the undesirables of every shape, size, gender, variety.They would have said it to Jesus.

And so would many Christian churches today, even though all of them have signs on their front lawn saying, “Everyone is welcome.” With the unstated line being, “except those who don’t fit the mold.” And there are 10,000 ways of not fitting themold. Asking questions being the most significant one. Especially questions the church cannot answer.

This parable blows away all concepts of merit and reward and what we must do to be deserving of such—which raises the question, if our birthright is heaven on the other side of death, why bother with the church at all here, now? What becomes of the church without the threat of hell and the promise of heaven? How will the church sell itself in the aftermath of the questions I raise here?

Spoiler alert: The church is well-positioned to thrive far into the future as long as it presents itself as the father in the Parable of the Prodigal Son.

The church through the ages has used the parable of the Prodigal Son to talk about the son’s repentance and to emphasize the necessity of repenting in order to “Get Right With God” and go to heaven when we die. But the son never repents. He never said, “I am sorry.” He said, “If I say I am sorry,” continuing the con-man, shyster routine he was so accustomed to.

And the father gave no thought to the son’s memorized lines, and welcomed him with the genuine gladness of a father upon seeing his son.

The elder son shows his true colors in reacting as he did to his brother. “I’ve never had a party! Yet, this scoundrel gets all the glory!” The eldest son’s motives are exposed for what they are, playing it smart and inheriting all the wealth of his father instead of just enjoying the father for who he was, and his own position for what it was, without thinking about gain or reward, and letting the day be sufficient for itself every day.

In telling this parable as he does, Jesus was making plain that it is the attitude, perspective, heart of the Prodigal’s father that is he hope of the church in every age. Simply seeing, hearing, what’s what and what is called for in each situation, when, where and how it needs to be done. Just as the Prodigal’s father did—and just as Jesus did throughout his life, with no motives, expectations, agendas, plans, opinions, desires, stipulations, beyond doing the right thing in the right way at the right time in the right place for no reason other than the joy of doing it and the satisfaction of having done it alone. This is always and forever the attitude that lives at the heart of the Kingdom of God. And all that is asked of any of us ever.

It is this perspective of innocence integrity, sincerity, spontaneity, transparency, that makes us “Transparent to transcendence” (Joseph Campbell), and brings the wonder of that which has always been called “God” to life in our life, so that we and “the Father” become one in this way, and all are blessed by the grace and beauty of “more than words can say” in the here and now of the day-to-day.

The Prodigal’s father proclaims, “It is time to celebrate and be glad for your brother was lost and is found, was dead and is alive!” Two things here: We only need to show up to be welcomed home by our heavenly father.

The son’s birthright is to be welcomed home! By virtue of his birth alone! He belongs at home with the father and his family. There is no Original Sin keeping any of us out of the father’s good graces! There is no need of redemption, of atonement, of repentance, of confession and penance by crawling on our stomach to show our remorse for all our sins, etc. All we have to do is show up to be welcomed home.

This is the first thing. The second is like unto it: The father says about the prodigal son, “My son was lost and is now found, was dead and is now alive!”

The younger son has been resurrected! And as with him, so also with all of us! We do not have to be redeemed because we are resurrected! Just as Jesus was resurrected—we are as Jesus is! We are who Jesus is!

This is the meaning of the word “Transubstantiation.” It is not that the bread and and the wine become the body and blood of Jesus, but that WE are transformed into the body and blood of Jesus, in a “Thou Art That” kind of way!

We are daughters and sons of our father, and are welcomed into his presence as a right of birth, as sisters and brothers of Jesus, who is the Son of God in the same sense that we all are. We are all sons and daughters of God, and have been resurrected as the Prodigal who was, dead and now is alive, was lost and now is found. It is only a matter of realizing who we are in becoming who we are, one with the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit! As the Prodigal recognized by his father became the favored son, he was along with his brother, the other favored son. As with them, so with all of us!

This is called “Turning the light around.”

And it is the truth of the Parable of the Prodigal Son for all who have eyes to see, and ears to hear and hearts to understand. It is easy to see how this parable along with everything else Jesus did or said (“The father and I are one!” “When you have seen me, you have seen the father,” “In as much as you have done it, or failed to do it, to one of the least of my brothers and sisters, you have done it or failed to do it unto me!”) would have been more than enough reason for Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin to sentence Jesus to death for heresy that led to his crucifixion at the direction of Pontius Pilate—with nothing about his crucifixion being connected in any way to a sacrificial offering by Jesus to God as atonement for the Original Sin of Adam and Eve—which was inherited by all of their descendants and broadened to include all human beings on the earth throughout time.

The idea of Original Sin being passed along to descendants is also rejected by four Old Testament texts:

Psalms 49:7 reads—“No can redeem the life of another, or give to God a ransom for them.” 

Deuteronomy 24:16—“Parents are not to be put to death for their own children’s sin, nor children put to death for their parent’s sin. Each will die for theirown sin.”

Jeremiah 31:30—Whoever eats sour grapes, their own teeth will be set on edge.

Ezekiel 18:20 — The one who sins is the one who will die. The child will not share the guilt of the parent, nor will the parent share the guilt of the child. The righteousness of the righteous will be credited to them, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against them.

The idea of Jesus dying for anyone has no scriptural support beyond the theological gymnastics performed by New Testament writers in the nearly four hundred years between Jesus’ execution and the closing of the Canon in 392 CE. But they don’t tell us any of this in Sunday School. Which doesn’t imply that we dump Sunday School.

The church that wakes up is still the church. Read all I have said about “the community of Innocence,” and get to work being that church! That which has always been called God is older by thousands of years than the God of theology who was created by the Church of Rome and the other Orthodox churches during the period when the Christian churches were establishing their authority and power in the Roman Empire.

And now we are at the point of finally seeing the truth reflected in the light of what resurrection means for all of all of God’s children everywhere who are listening anew to Jesus’ words, “You cannot be my disciple without picking up your cross daily and following me!” And in doing so, the Church will be finally getting it right after all these years!