Still alive today

Thursday September 20th, Luke 15: 1 Now the tax collectors and "sinners" were all gathering around to hear him. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them." This is the preparatory paragraph for one of the main sections in scripture, the stories of the lost and found in Luke. The ones Christ is directing these stories of finding the lost and rejoicing to are the major religious leaders of the day. They represent the tendency in religion to drift off course from righteousness and ritual to holier than thou and institutional tradition. We still do that today. The current trend in the world for the melding of fundamentalism and political power, whether it be Islamic fundamentalists in the Mideast or their counterpart, Christian fundamentalists in Washington, is contrary to where God is calling us as well as dangerous. It is into an earlier version of our current religio-political system that Jesus tells the stories of lost and found and rejoicing. It is into our current situation that we need to hear them anew with grace filled ears.