With Open Arms

Reformation Day just passed. For most people, it's called Halloween. While that is fine, (who doesn't like little zombies and vampires roaming around the neighborhood seeking blood and brains...or candy?) this year was special for another reason. God's faithfulness was lived out in a beautiful expression at our church. On Reformation Sunday we welcomed back into communicant membership a brother, James, who was excommunicated for 15 years. Fittingly, our pastor taught a message from the beginning of Hosea regarding his family. A few days later at the Springs Reformed Reformation Day Conference, I was fortunate enough to hear about the reformation and rediscovery of the church and pure worship from 2 Chronicles. These three things got me thinking about the Parable of the Prodigal Son.



Hosea is a book most famous for the prophet's marriage to an unfaithful wife of whoredom. My pastor took the sermon a different path. Instead of being focused on Hosea's wife, he focused on the prophecy given through the naming of his three children, Jezreel, No Mercy, and Not My People (Lo-Ammi). These names are reminders to the northern kingdom, Israel, that because of their hardness of heart, they will be given over to their sin and will cease to be God's people. The ten tribes of the north would completely, forever, disappear into the pagans they were so intent on becoming. God will, in essence, give them exactly what they want and will let them become the pagans they imitated. They will become Lo-Ammi. This is not the end, however. From this apostasy, God will call forth those who are Lo-Ammi and, along with the also rebellious southern kingdom of Judah, will make a rebellious people into a reconstituted Israel, the Israel of God. The rebellious son and the pagan will be grafted into one body, Lo-Ammi will be made Ammi.

At the Reformation Day Conference, the speaker gave a message from 2 Chronicles 15 called "Asa and the Rediscovery of Church Discipline". Through developing the passage and applying it to the reformation of the church, he argued that church discipline (for unrepentant sin) works in concert with the means of grace (Word, sacrament, and prayer) to make the church healthy. When the church is faithful in the means of grace and church discipline, we will see the church most clearly on the path to glory. Church discipline is understood, in our context, as giving the rebellious brother over to Satan for the hope of reconciliation. What Paul instructs of the church in 1 Corinthians 5 can be enlightened by Christ's Parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15.

These two messages made what we saw at church come to life for me. Church discipline works. What we see when we look at church discipline is the child of God given over to their sin like Israel. What we see when we look at the prodigal come home is the faithfulness of God to Judah. God is faithful to his children, he preserves his church. When God brought judgement upon Israel and gave them over to the pagans, he brought hope to the pagans and brought those who were far off into his household. Most of us sitting in churches today are not physical descendants of Abraham. For most of us, we are those who were called Lo-Ammi who God saw fit to call his people, Ammi, to graft into Abraham as full heirs and children of the Living God. For those who are now the children of God, there is still hope in spite of our sinfulness. While we are prone to wonder, our Father will embrace us and call us his own when we are humbled and come home.

What was on my mind this past weekend took two forms. To those who are not of the church, God is loving enough to call you his own. To the child of God who has turned from their Father and run away, God is loving enough to call you his own. Whether or not you are Lo-Ammi or the child under discipline, repent. Turn from your sin and look to Christ. Heed the words of Christ who promised that "there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance" (Luke 15.7). Come home. Your Father awaits to embrace his child with open arms.