Sermon 02 Finding your way back to God Awakening to regret

Transcription

1 1 INTRODUCTION How many of you have ever heard the word Rumspringa? SPELL. Rumspringa literally means running around, and it is a word used to describe the Amish practice of allowing youth to sow their wild oats as it were. Now, not every Amish community does this, but the ones that do, allow this freedom for kids around years of age. This freedom grants these teenagers permission to leave the community, go out on the weekends, and experiment with the world outside in whatever way they choose. It comes with an understanding that when the youth come back, they have a choice to make: they can choose baptism within the local Amish church, or they can leave the community permanently, turn back on their family, and choose to live in the world for good. I don t think any of us here are Amish, but that has not stopped us from having our own rumspringas. We just call it different things: explore-your-sexual-freedom-springa, Midlife-crisisresulting-in-buying-a-Harley-without-asking-your-wife-springa, leave-your-spouse-for-a-youngerwoman-springa... Rumspringa ends the same way for everyone with a question: was it worthwhile, did it provide what it promised, was there value and depth and meaning? And that is really where we were last week in the parable that Jesus tells known as the Prodigal son. This younger son comes to the father and says, Father, give me my share of the estate. It was the equivalent of the son saying, dad, I wish you were dead! Any other father would have told this boy to get lost, and given him a klap! But this father liquidates one third of his estate and hands the cash over to the son. The son spends all his money on wild living (Plett rage) until he is basically broke. The low point in the story is when he (a Jew) hires himself out to a pig farmer and finds himself begging to eat the pig s food! But the lowest of the low is the comment at the end of verse 16, but no one gave him anything. AWAKENING TO TURNING

2 2 So in the first sermon we said there is a universal longings we have (hardwired) for love, purpose and meaning. It s these longings that give us that restless feeling that there s got to be more to this life. But unfortunately, too often, we take those God-given longings and look to fulfil them apart from God. We begin to chase stuff that we think will bring us the fulfilment we re after relationships, money, a stellar career, pleasure. Sometimes this chase leads us to make decisions we never would have imagined we d make. And, inevitably, what we thought would bring fulfilment falls short. We find ourselves saying something like, Oh, I wish I could start over. At the same time, I want to clearly say that this is also the experience of people who have already chosen to follow Jesus. Finding God is a moment but it is also a lifelong journey Christians still make mistakes! I often find myself coming back to God after choosing a wrong path. So this morning is the second awakening: Awakening to Regret. I think we can all relate to the desire to start over. Listen to the rest of the story of the prodigal son. Read Luke 15: There are two things we learn about God s love in this passage: 1. GOD S LOVE IS MORE UNBREAKABLE THAN WE ARE BROKEN Verse 17 When he came to his sense You can t move forward until you are completely broken. That is why the first step of in Alcoholic Anonymous in the 12 step process is, We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable. You have to hit rock bottom before you can get out of the distant land. When I was a kid and my mom asked for a jar to be opened I would grab it and twist with all my might but only to find that, despite my best efforts I couldn t do it. And I would have to hand it to my dad. It takes humility to admit that (despite your best efforts) you have a need that you can t fulfil on your own. It is hard for us as humans and for many of us, that stops us form experiencing the love of God. But this son has a moment of clarity as he looks at the circumstances of his: what am I doing here feeding pigs, starving, my father s hired workers are better off than me. And he starts rehearsing a speech to his dad, just give me the bare minimum, don t call me son, just a living wage and I ll be happy. He reasons with himself, he evaluates and he comes to a point of turning. The outrageous nature of this story is that the father s love has not been broken! That is what you would expect. But no! God s love isn t broken by our brokenness.

3 3 2. GOD S LOVE IS MORE ACCEPTING THAN WE ARE UNACCEPTABLE Verse 17 I will set out and go back to my father The son made a decision to come home. But going back to the father, the son did what the Bible calls repent. The idea.of repentance has gotten a bad rap toady because the church has linked it with condemnation, fire, brimstone, and scare tactics for getting a decision. So if I could explain what the Bible says: There are two words in the Bible for repent. One is the Greek work metanoia which means changing one s mind. The second is the Hebrew word tesh-u-vah which means to return. So if you put these two translations together you have a son decides to change his direction, to turn from his present direction and come back to the father. There is a second loaded word in that verse: sin. In his rehearsed statement he is going to say to his father, Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. The Bible does say that sin is doing bad things, but Søren Kierkegaard's The Sickness Unto Death and define sin as building your identity your self-worth and happiness on anything other than God. That is really helpful for us in this story. The son has done bad things (to be sure), but it is much deeper than that: he has taken good things (desire for love, purpose and meaning) and made them ultimate in the hopes that they will bring him what only God can give. So theology lesson over: the point to find your way back to God you need to come to a point of (a) turning from your present way of life and (b) turning to God so that he can fulfil your deepest needs. My guess is a lot of us have come to our senses. We come to a moment of deep and honest regret but we haven t made that second step and so we get caught in a sorry cycle. We want to change and start over but shame and guilt and fear keep us from doing anything. We wonder whether God will accept us or if he will just tolerate us. That is the son in the story he just wants to be tolerated! And as important as tolerance is in a diverse land like South Africa, it is not enough! If I walk in at the end of the day, give my wife a kiss and say, love you and she respond I tolerate you thanks (?) What fills the gap between tolerance and love? Acceptance.

4 4 And, to sneak ahead in the story a bit, that is what the father does: even when we are in a place, and doing thing, and making choice for which he did not design us he comes to us will accept us. CONCLUSION Last week I concluded the service by challenging you to commit to a 30 day prayer wager. I really believe that is great way for God to show himself to be real. This week I want to close with a retelling of parable of the prodigal son by Philip Yancey. Yancey is a popular Christian devotional writer really nails it with the retelling. I M COMING HOME Music underscore from Coming Home part II by Skylar Grey begins. Reader tells the story: Her name was Christa, and she grew up on a small cherry farm in Traverse City, Michigan. She was a wild child who dismissed her parents as old-fashioned because of how they responded to her piercings and tattoos. One night Christa and her parents had a huge fight. At the end of it, she slammed the door and said, I hate you, then acted on a plan she had been rehearsing for months in her mind. She ran away to the big city of Detroit. Within a few hours of arriving in Detroit, she met a man who seemed warm and nice. He drove the most expensive car she d ever seen, and he was willing to take her in. This nice man taught her a few things that would make her valuable on the streets, and because Christa was young, she brought in top dollar for her services. As time went on, and as she got a little older, she wasn t bringing in top dollar anymore, and so she was thrown out on the street, with no money and a drug habit to support. Vocalist sings Coming Home part II by Skylar Grey, the first verse and chorus: And the blood will dry underneath my nails

5 5 and the wind will rise up to fill my sails so you can doubt and you can hate but I know, no matter what it takes tell the world let the rain wash away all the pain of yesterday I know my kingdom awaits and they've forgiven my mistakes tell the world I'm coming... Music returns to instrumental vamp, and Teaching Pastor continues the story: One night she thought back to those sunny spring days when she would be lying beneath the cherry trees. Realizing that renting her body on the streets of Detroit was no way to live, she decided she would head north, maybe move to Canada and start over. On her way north, she figured, she d try something that she thought had no chance of actually working. She mustered up enough courage to give her parents a call. No one answered, but she left a message telling them she was going to be passing through Traverse City on her way to Canada. If they wanted to see her, she would be at the bus station around midnight. After hanging up, she thought leaving the message was a stupid thing to do because odds were they were happier now that she was gone.

6 6 As the bus headed north, she could see the signs saying the bus was getting closer to Traverse City. She ran through the possible scenarios in her mind: nobody there to meet her; someone there, but only to shame her and condemn her. Finally the bus arrived in Traverse City, and she heard the bus driver say, Fifteen minutes at this stop, fifteen minutes. Vocalist sings Coming Home part II by Skylar Grey, the second verse and chorus: Still far away from where I belong but it's always darkest before the dawn so you can doubt and you can hate but I know, no matter what it takes tell the world let the rain wash away all the pain of yesterday I know my kingdom awaits and they've forgiven my mistakes tell the world I'm coming... Music returns to instrumental vamp, and Teaching Pastor continues the story:

7 7 All her mental rehearsing didn t prepare her for what she found when she stepped off the bus. At midnight in this small-town bus depot, she found dozens of familiar faces belonging to aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents, all wearing silly party hats. A huge banner hanging from the walls said, WELCOME HOME, CHRISTA!!! Her dad broke through the crowd and ran up to her, and as she tried to explain herself, he wrapped his arms around her, making it clear that all he really cared about was that his daughter was home. Vocalist concludes Coming Home part II by Skylar Grey, the last chorus: tell the world let the rain wash away all the pain of yesterday I know my kingdom awaits and they've forgiven my mistakes tell the world I'm coming... home COMMUNION Jesus tells two other parables before he tells this one. The first is about a shepherd who, when he loses one sheep, leaves the other 99 goes to look for a lost sheep. The second is about a woman who searches her house painstakingly for a lost coin. In our parable no one goes looking for the lost son! It would have been odd to his hearers. Who should have gone? We can t get into the reasons, but it should have been the elder son. Jesus is the fulfils his parable. He is the one who leaves his father s home and comes searching for the lost son. In his death on the cross he makes a way for the wayward and proud to be forgiven. He absorbs on the cross God s judgement towards sin so that we can be forgiven and go free. That is how God the Father embraces and kisses and accepts every wayward child.

8 8 We are going to go into one of the most precious parts of a Christian worship service: communion. I m going to allow everyone who would like to, to come and receive communion at the front. If you would already call yourself a follower/believer in Christ then come and worship Christ again for his love for you and his sacrificial death. If you are not a Christian and still feel like you are deciding about turning to God then feel free to stay in the pew. But if you are moved in your spirit this morning to say, I want to turn from my present way of life to God; I realise I am more broken and sinful and flawed that I dared admit but at the same time more loved and accepted that I ever dared hope, then come pray with one of our counsellors and then come have communion.