How does God feel about you?

It’s international welcome week and if you’re arriving in Newcastle for the first time, then we are thrilled to have you. And I would image that there is a lot of names to learn, excitement at meeting new people, concerns maybe about what life may be like here; will I find friends? Will I settle in? Will I be accepted? And that anxiety, well it can seep over into our relationship with God can’t it? Does God accept me? How does God feel about me?

For those of us regular at JPC, I wonder how you would answer that question. In a sense there will be as many answers in this room as there are people. But maybe we think God isn’t too pleased with us at the moment; we haven’t read our Bibles in a while, the Bible in a year ended in February, or we’re still struggling with that same sin and we slipped up again, and we imagine perhaps that God is upset with us, or maybe even we despair that God would ever really be pleased with me or accept me? How does God feel about me?

But those looking in on the Christian faith, you are so welcome among us, but how would you answer that question? How does God feel about me? Maybe you image God, if he even exists, is a hard task master? He expects moral excellence from his creatures but doesn’t give them the capacity to carry it out, and then punishes them maliciously when they don’t comply with his arbitrary standards. Or perhaps if there is a God, he clearly doesn’t care about me. He’s at best distant or at worst apathetic. Having set the world up he’s not left it to implode on itself. How does God feel about me? Well, perhaps he doesn’t care very much at all.

We’re going to be looking at perhaps the most famous story in the Bible apart from the death and resurrection of Jesus, and if you’ve heard it before then I would ask that you (as best as you can) suspend your knowledge of the story’s ending. For those of us visiting, particularly from an international context, if this story is unfamiliar to you; then I am thrilled to be able to share it with you for the first time. We are in the gospel of Luke, a first century doctor who chronicles based on eye witness testimony the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And he has done so to give us certainty of his life. Luke.1.1-4:

Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.

And Luke has carefully arranged his material therefore around key questions, which work as a heading for the rest of the section. Our section’s question, is found in Luke 13.23:

And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them

In other words, Lord, who will God accept? And our story this morning is an answer to that question. We come then, to perhaps the most offensive beginning to a story in the New Testament. Luke 15.11-12:

And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them.

Our boy sits his old man down, and says give me my inheritance now. It would be like, for the students in the room, just before leaving for university, sitting Dad down and saying ‘Dad, you breathing is a little inconvenient for me at the moment, you know with tax changes coming in soon and this Labour government. It would really help me if you could either get a terminal illness right now, or just in effect act as if you’re dead and give me my inheritance money now.’ And our boy’s Dad relented, and handed the money over. We in the west might get some of just how offensive this is, but our friends from an international context will really get this. The 1st century culture, like our friend’s from China or South East Asia, had an honour and shame culture. It would be utterly unthinkable, to say to your parent, I wish you were dead. Give me my money now.

I read this passage with my Chinese teacher in Beijing, and I asked her, what would your Father do if you said this to him and asked for your inheritance now; and she replied:

[Speaks Chinese].

Now you don’t have to know Chinese to get the thrust of that but what she effectively said is that he would strike me. And she wasn’t joking, and nor did she think that that would be an unreasonable response to such a request. Parents give us everything. They give us life, a home to live in, money to survive, food, clothing, warmth and, at best love care and support. The children are looking shifty in the room. So to turn to the person who literally gave you life, and say to them I wish you were dead. To say to them, I only see you as a pay cheque, is outrageously offensive. But it gets worse: our boy then takes the money, and leaves. Luke 15.13:

Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living.

Reckless living has the connotation of prostitutes and gambling, not just that our boy has made some poor investment decisions. It’s the student, who takes all the money his parents have given him to survive the year (accommodation, food, travel) and blows it in the first week on booze for him and his mates at the club table and the girls that come with it. Or on the blackjack table, having just turned 18, so that by the end of that first month, his parent’s money is all gone and he’s left utterly destitute. And so, our boy having found himself without his inheritance, is then hit by famine. Luke 15.14-16:

And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.

Within a Jewish context this is utterly despicable. Pigs were unclean, and so for a Jew to feed them would be the lowest of the low, and no one gave him anything. But it would be wrong to feel sorry for our boy. This is exactly what his foolish and arrogant choices deserve. Wishing his father dead and spending the money in such ways: this outcome is absolutely right. Listeners to Jesus would have thought this just consequence for his actions. In fact, Jesus could have ended this story here. This story could well have ended here and simply been a parable for what happens when you mistreat your parents; that would have been entirely appropriate to the listeners and entirely appropriate for us today. But, you see there is a bite in the tail of this story; why is Jesus telling it? He’s telling it because, our boy, is us. He is a picture of everyone in this room. For we all have a Father in heaven. We all have benefitted from his immeasurable kindness. We all have received food, clothing, warmth, love, acceptance, a place in his world. And how have we used it? Well, all of us in this room (Christian or not) have used it on ourselves. If we aren’t a Christian here this morning, we have to confront the question ‘If God has given me everything, and I have spurned him, and used his gifts on myself, if I have lived as though he is dead to me; not could God accept me, but why on earth would he? For as we look at our boy in the pigsty, we look in a mirror. As we look at our boy, we see ourselves. And returning to the story, our boy knows this. Luke 15.17:

“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger!...”

He came to himself. We mustn’t think this is some great moral epiphany. I looked up recently our legal code and recommendations for sentencing. I know there are some judges in the room so I need to be careful. But the recommendations for sentencing are that a judge should take into account in their decision at what point the defendant admitted guilt. The earlier they admit to their crime, the more lenient the sentence should be. Well our boy utterly fails doesn’t he? It is only at the point of starvation does our boy decide to return to his father. And he prepares his speech, Luke 15.18:

I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you…”

asking to be accepted back as a slave and not a Son. And again, we mustn’t think that good parenting would involve anything other than sending our boy right back to the pigsty. Master your son is here to see you. No he isn’t. Kindness would be a new pair of shoes and a bus ticket. Father I have sinned against heaven and against you. Yes you have. And, even if in an incredible act of mercy the Father accepted our boy back as a servant, he sleeps in the barn doesn’t he? He earns his keep and right to be there. And certainly, you would never trust him with the money or responsibilities involving finances; and you’d make darn sure a careful eye is kept on him around the family assets. Luke 15.20:

…But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.

How long was the Father waiting? Standing on a hill, watching the horizon for our boy to come home? And he felt compassion and ran, don’t run! In that culture you never run! He ran and embraced his son and kissed him, and our boy he’s prepared his speech and he only gets through half of it Luke 15.21:

And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

But the father interrupts him and calls for the best robe and ring on his finger. Luke 15.22:

But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet...’

And these are no ordinary pieces of clothing. The robe is a status symbol of being the heir and beloved Son, the ring, the company credit card with no limit, able to sign and buy whatever he likes in his father’s name. And then Luke 15.23:

And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate.

The fattened calf, saved for weddings is brought out and killed and the call let us celebrate! Luke 15.24:

For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.

For this my son was dead and is alive again and is now found. And they began to celebrate. The most offensive story there ever was, meets the love of the Father, and it is no match. Not even close. Oh it is a wonderful thing to be loved. It is a wonderful thing to be loved. How does God feel about you? A hard task master? A distant despot? No. God is your Father, waiting on a hill, waiting for you to crest the horizon and come home. But you see, our story goes further than our boy’s. For it only cost a fattened calf for our boy to come home. But for us, for me, for you, the Father on the hill gave His one and precious son. The son who died on a lonely Roman cross so that we can be welcomed home into the arms of our Father. Friends you are more loved than you ever dared imagine. How does God feel about you? He is waiting to welcome you home.

I have in my few years of ministry heard some variation of the following many times: ‘Benji God could never accept me, you have no idea what I have done!’ Here is the Father, arms wide open, waiting for you to come home. ‘Benji you don’t understand, God could never accept me, you have no idea what I have had done to me!’ Here is the Father, arms wide open, waiting for you to come. All we have to do, is come to our senses, and return to Him. How does God feel about me? Well our prayer at JPC, and especially at this time of international welcome, that whoever you are, wherever you have come from, we might help you see the love of the Father for you. It is a wonderful thing to know that you are loved. Let me pray.