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March 21, 2010

At Home in God's Abundance

March 21, 2010 At Home in God’s Abundance
Luke 15:1-3, 11b to 32

Many of us know this story. It is often referred to as the parable of the prodigal son… a son who was immature, self-centered, and yes, lost. His father had provided him with everything he needed and more. But it was not enough.

One prodigal who shares her story is Maya Angelou; author, speaker, and committed Christian. Ms. Angelou is currently an active member of Glide Memorial United Methodist Church in San Francisco. She moved to San Francisco as a young woman. In the process, Maya became sophisticated. It was the thing to do when you moved to San Francisco. And with her sophistication, she became an agnostic. Maya said that it wasn't that she stopped believing in God, just that God no longer frequented the neighborhoods that she frequented. And she didn’t have the time or inclination to look God up.

During one voice lesson, Maya’s teacher had her read a section of a religious pamphlet. This particular reading ended with these words: "God loves me." Maya finished the reading, put the pamphlet down. The teacher said, "I want you to read that last sentence again." So she picked it up, read it again, this time somewhat sarcastically, “God loves me” then put it down again.

The teacher said, "Read it again." Maya read it again. Then she shared what happened. "After about the seventh repetition I began to sense there might be some truth in this statement. There was a possibility that God really loves me, Maya Angelou. I suddenly began to cry at the grandness of it all. I knew if God loved me, I could do wonderful things. (1)

She is not alone in this thinking. Many people have a similar “Aha” moment when they come to move beyond their misconceptions that God would care about them. They realize that God does indeed love them and God intimately knows them by name. As Maya testifies, to experience God’s incredible, all encompassing love, through the lens of our own actions toward God and others, it changes you.

Like Maya Angelou, John Newton, certainly identified with the younger child in this parable. As a young man in the 18th century, John left home and went to sea. He lived a rough and wild life. Even though he was raised by a Christian mother, John was highly critical of the Christian faith. He enjoyed tearing down the faith of the people he met as he sailed from port to port. It was only in later years that he realized he had wasted his young life. In fact, he had not only wasted it, but he had been offensive to God and to all God-fearing people.

Like the young prodigal in the Gospel lesson, John repented and sought, in humility and obedience, to serve God for the rest of his days. His experience of God's forgiveness and God's grace is described well in the emotion packed words of the popular hymn that he wrote—Amazing Grace.

Before his death in 1807, he wrote his own epitaph. In it, he describes himself and his experience of God this way: "John Newton, clerk, once an infidel and libertine, was by the rich mercy of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long labored to destroy." (2)

But there is more to the gospel lesson than the young prodigal. And Jesus does not end the story when the prodigal returns home and the mother has a party. The story also includes the eldest daughter …a child who was not at home with her mother’s abundance.

Retired seminary professor Fred B. Craddock shared an encounter he had one of the many times he preached on the parable of the prodigal son. After the worship service a man came up to him and reported that he just doesn’t like this story. When Fred asked the man what he doesn’t like about the story, and the man replied, “It’s not morally responsible.”

Curious and wanting to continue the discussion Fred asked the man to explain. He replied that the father should not have forgiven the boy. In fact, what the father should have done is have the boy arrested. At this remark, Fred waited for the man to crack a smile, thinking he was joking. He was not.

Fred referred to this elder child who did what he was supposed to do as a “quality control person—the moral police.” The man wanted the same strict standards that apply in the law to apply to relationships within a family, as well as our relationship with God. It is a blessing for all of us that God does not operate this way, at least that’s what Jesus is trying to tell us with this story. (3)

As United Methodists, we have a different example of the elder sibling who never left the farm, who did what he was told; an eldest child who was lost because he had not fully experienced how much God loved him. This eldest child was John Wesley. John traveled to the Americas; he visited people in prison and hospitals on a weekly basis; he studied the scriptures; he fasted. But something was missing.

And it was not until his 35th birthday, after years of ministry, when Wesley experienced God in such a way that he was able to write: "I suddenly felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt that Christ had died for my sins, even mine and had saved me from the law of sin and death." This happened at a Bible Study on the book of Romans. This is known as John’s Aldersgate experience.

Even though he had never “gone to the far country” or turned his back on God, John Wesley had been looking for some validation of God’s love. He desired to know how much God loved him. And in that heartwarming experience he was found.

We don’t need to go to a far off land to be lost and separated from God’s love.
As you think about this story of the two siblings, do you find yourself in any of these situations this morning?

1) Are you off doing your own thing, God and Christian community far from your mind?
2) Do you have a relationship with God and part of a Christian community, but not experiencing any joy in serving?
3) Is God and a Christian community in your life but only when it serves you and when you have time?

It doesn’t matter to God which category you are in. If you’ve left God and want to renew your relationship with God, surrender your ego and come home. God loves you.

If you have been working for God and you find yourself joyless and disappointed that life isn’t fair, surrender your rule book and come home. God loves you!

If God is low man on a long list of other priorities, surrender your heart and come home. God loves you.

(pause) The two daughters of God each exhibited a truly human propensity, one that has put a damper on our relationship with God since the beginning of time—think Garden of Eden and the apple. It is our “What about me?” mentality.

Youngest child: Mom, I know you’ve given me this great life but I don’t care about that. I wish you would give me my inheritance now. Why would I want to hang out here with you and work like everyone else? When will I get to go play? What about me?

Eldest child: I know you’ve given me this great life and I really could be happy here. But I look around and see how lucky other people are and I think; Why do they get all the breaks when I have to work for everything I have? When is it going to be my turn? What about me?

And that, I believe is Jesus’ point. It is not about us. It is about God and God’s abundant mercy, love, provision, diversity, wisdom. As your pastor, that is my wish for you--that you will be “At Home in God’s Abundance.”

God’s abundance is unlimited and beyond our imagination. It doesn’t run out and it cannot be put into a box by us.

As the church, the body of Christ, my wish for this community of faith is that we would make our home in the middle of God’s abundance. Not worrying about what we have or don’t have. Not caught up in everyone contributing equally to the common good. But trusting in God’s abundance, sharing what we have been given—love and acceptance; financial resources and spiritual gifts to those in need in our community and beyond.

When we, as individuals and the church, make our home in God’s abundance, the focus shifts from “What about me?” to “What do you want me (us) to do God?”

When we are living in the middle of God’s abundance, we are defined by our enduring gratitude for God’s amazing grace. As such, our lives reflect the abundance of God…

On a cold, dreary December evening, several hundred people gathered at a large downtown church in Winston-Salem to celebrate the Christmas season. Bishop Ernest Fitzgerald, present that evening, had gone down a long hallway to help a small boy who was pushing against massive oak doors trying to get outside. The boy was about 2 years old and as he pushed he was crying as if his heart would break.

The Bishop picked him up, thinking he belonged to someone at one of the Christmas parties but as he opened the doors and looked outside he spotted a beat up old car speeding away in the darkness. Gradually, it dawned on him that the child he held in his arms had been abandoned.

Phone calls were made, and soon the church was filled with people wanting to help in any way they could. Within moments, the local TV stations interrupted their usual programs to ask if anyone knew the identity of the little boy. The next morning, one of the city's newspapers put the child's picture on the front page.
Under the picture there was an article describing the events of the evening before. The article began with this striking line: "Someone trusted the church last night, and the church came through!"

When Bishop Fitzgerald later reflected on this event he realized it would be a long, long time before he could forget that newspaper headline. So much of the world's future depends on the faithfulness of the people of God to Jesus’ Great Commission. There is a deep hunger across our land as countless people grope for answers to the deepest questions of the human spirit.

The message of Christ speaks to these questions, bringing hope to the hopeless and seeks the lost. Our world will be changed as the hearts of people are changed. Sharing the love of Christ, as we have experienced it, is no longer an option for the church. It is essential to the survival of our world.

The line in that Winston-Salem newspaper is a haunting reminder of what the world expects of the church. "Someone trusted the church last night, and the church came through!" (4) Let that be our witness!

When we are able to remember that it’s not about me…it’s about God. Then, we can have an opportunity to be share the love of God in amazing and abundant ways. May God make this a reality in our community and may God begin with each and every one of us, right now!

Footnotes:
(1) Adapted from Mark Trotter’s account of Maya Angelou on sermons.com
(2) Adapted from Richard J. Fairchild’s account of Newton on sermons.com
(3) Adapted from William A. Ritter’s account of Fred Craddock’s story on sermons.com
(4) Adapted from Brett Blair’s account on Sermons.com which he adapted from Bishop Ernest Fitzgerald, "Someone Trusted the Church," Michigan Christian Advocate, May 5, 1997, p. 8.

Posted by vickie at 10:00 AM