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Lost
People Matter to God by Reverend Murray Spackman, Vicar. Sunday 21st March, 2004 Lk.15: 1-3, 11b-32 A few weeks ago I was rather startled to read in the newspaper that at any one time there are literally scores of missing people around New Zealand. Parents, sick with worry, –at some time or other in the not too distant past, - have phoned in to the Police and registered their son or daughter, husband or wife as a missing person. Fortunately, many of these missing people eventually turn up – but as we know – some do not! We can only guess at the trauma and anxiety this must cause caring parents and family members, and all the wider circles of friends and relations. In some instances, the missing person is a young person – fed up with the restrictions placed upon them by Mum and Dad – and they now want to spread their wings and do their own thing. But regardless of what they might have done, how they might have behaved – when it all boils down – most normal loving parents care an incredible amount about their children, and don’t want them to be out there - lost! It is with that same kind of anxiety and yearning for His family, if you want to put it that way, that Jesus says God the Father cares about us, and for us.
In the gospel reading today Jesus is telling not just a lovely and
rather moving story about a
rebellious son – the Prodigal Son – who decides its time to move out,
take his share of the inheritance and do his own thing; - and who
eventually comes to his senses and returns home.
That’s not really what the story is about!
The story, in a way, is not so much about the son, as it is about
the Father. And the purpose of Jesus telling the story is to say to you and me – and to say to our next door neighbours and friends, and even our enemies – that in this story/ parable - that’s what God is like! That God loves you! That God cares about you! God doesn’t only care for the righteous, moral, good-living people of the world – but he cares for everyone else as well – those who aren’t righteous, or moral or good-living people. No matter who you are, where you have come from - or what you have done --You matter to God! To use the phrase that is printed at the top of the Newsletter - The Lost Matter to God! If we are in that spiritual condition where we identify outselves with the Rebellious son, and we think that we are quite happy in our own self-centred world pursuing our own goals without any reference to, or consideration of, God – then that’s the condition which the bible describes as being “Lost”. You and I matter to God because we are God’s creation – and we are unique. And God’s created intention for your life and mine is that the dividing wall of sin separating us from God should be broken down – and that we will come back to him and experience the depth and breadth of the Father’s love. Through Jesus Christ’s death on the Cross – that dividing / separating wall was broken – and now the way is open for us to return to the Father. The only obstacle standing in the way of our return is our own self-will, our own refusal to return home to our heavenly Father. Though it doesn’t say so in the story, my guess is that the Father probably walked down to the end of the road day after day, in the hope that He would see his son returning home. And each day he must have returned saddened and disappointed. His son - to all intents and purposes , was a missing person! And as long as he was missing from his father’s house – the father’s heart was aching and breaking. I’m sure that that’s the same kind of ache which God feels towards us as we deliberately stay away from him – or even just wander down our own road of personal interest which leaves Him out of the equation; or maybe we just haven’t yet realised how much God really does love and care for us. When we are away from God, its as though we are lost. And Lost people matter to God. Today , if you feel a homesickness in your heart that nothing can satisfy – its because that homesickness is for a deep and eternal relationship with God. It manifests itself at different times and in different ways. Sometimes that eternal homesickness reveals itself as a deep ache for a relationship that goes much deeper than what we can experience with another human being; Sometimes that homesickness reveals itself as a dissatisfaction with all that the material world has to offer. We know and experience in our hearts the longing for another eternal world which will finally satisfy all our deepest longings. When these echoes of another world begin to resonate within our hearts, then we know for sure that God is calling us back to Himself, not wanting that any of us should be lost or missing from His eternal family. So how do we begin our personal journey back from this far country? It begins in the same way as the rebellious son began his journey! “He came to his senses and said…”I will get up and go to my Father and say, “Father, I have sinned against God and against you…” That’s all that’s required - a recognition that we are far from where God wants us to be, and a desire to return to the Father’s heart. That’s all that is required to start the journey back! And when we make that turn-around,- beginning in our hearts, - God Himself, like the Loving Father, comes towards us with arms out-stretched, and welcomes us back into His “Forever” Family. Last week in my sermon I said that God, in His mercy, gives us Time! – Time to turn to Him and begin again. Today I invite you again to take that opportunity and receive that gift of Time – and this morning make that decision to turn around, like the Prodigal son, and come back to God. The Father waits, with patient love, to receive you back home.------------------------ |
