It comes back to this …

 

Nearing the end of our Wednesday Fellowship, we were about to read the story most often called “The Prodigal Son” that is found in the 15^th chapter of Luke. Chris startled me speaking up from the back row. “Pastor, just tell us the story.”  When I share the Good News of Christ’s love, I often use this parable that Jesus told.  People have heard me reference that, so she wanted to hear me tell it that way.  I thought for a second and told the sad tale of the selfish son who could not wait for his Dad to die to claim his inheritance. He took his wealth and went off to celebrate, foolishly thinking that the best life was in the bright lights of a never-ending party. It was all ‘wine, women, and song’ until the day when the money ran out.

His friends disappeared when he could no longer buy drinks and make them laugh, as ‘friends’ of that nature always do. If the only friends we have are those we find in our times of laughter, those we gather at a party, we will find ourselves alone, sooner or later, when sorrow comes. Know this - it will come. He was desperate and ended up in a pig sty; a Jewish boy feeding hogs. (Jesus had a sense of irony and humor.)  He was so broke he considered eating some of the pigs’ food.  And then it hit him.  “I can go back home but Dad won’t let me be a son. I betrayed him, rebelled, broke his heart, spent his treasure.  But, maybe if I am contrite, he will let me work on the farm. After all, even his farmhands live better than I do.”  After preparing his speech:  "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men." (Luke 15:18-19, NIV) -he headed for home.

That morning his Dad was where he often was those days, remembering a lost son. Then he saw a figure a long way down the road. “That looks like my son,” He thought as he stared. Watching intently, he saw it really was the wayward son. (This the part that always stirs me so deeply that tears slide down my cheeks, even as they did in the telling last Wednesday evening.)  The old man got up and did something he did not do often – he ran!  This is how Jesus told it! “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him." (Luke 15:20, NIV)  The young man was confused. Kisses? An embrace?  He was convinced that Dad would roar at him, reject him, and throw him out – but he found amazing love.

“Bring this kid some clean clothes. Put him back on the family roster with the privileges of an heir. And, invite the neighbors to a celebration,” the old man said.  And so we learn of just how much our Father in Heaven loves us. We find it hard to believe sometimes. We know our own rebellion. We know how we judge others and convince ourselves that He is like us; hard, unforgiving, intent on ‘justice.’  But, He is not those things! He is love beyond imagining.  Oh yes, that young man had regrets and scars from his time of indulgence. Forgiveness does not erase all the consequences of the past, but he was home again; accepted and loved.

I need to tell that story and hear that story often. Everything I do in my pastoral work comes down to this: God’s love for broken, wayward, often desperate, people who are captives of sin, confused by grace; who need to come home. “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him." (John 3:16-17, NLT)

 
Here is the word from the Word.  Hear it again, like the first time.
"When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him.

Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen." (Ephesians 3:14-21, NLT)

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The Reality Some Call Grim

As he walked next to a cemetery in a Benedictine monastery in New Mexico’s desert Eugene Peterson noted an empty grave.  “Did one of the brothers just die?” he asked one of the monks. “No, that’s for the next one!” What an unexpected reply!  The open grave was there to be a  reminder of the shortness of this life to that community of men.  (The Pastor, A Memoir – HarperOne, 2011)  Today, I will do what I do many times each year, leading a funeral service, sharing grief, standing close to grief and sorrow. No matter how many times I say those words, “I am the Resurrection and the Life,”  standing by an open grave is a reminder of mortality, a moment to refocus my life.

We Americans have no time for death, do we?  In another generation there were extended rituals of mourning and grief. Death was familiar, up close, personal. Today we leave our dying loved ones in the hands of the professionals. We rush past the jarring intrusion of loss and seek to resume our ‘normal’ lives as quickly as possible.  I believe that we are spiritually impoverished by our disconnect with mortality. 

My first extended walk ‘through the valley of the shadow of death,’ came in 2009 when my Dad’s life ended. I spent two days and nights each week, for a year, at his bedside. It was exhausting, sorrowful, and one of the treasured blessed seasons of my life as I found the opportunity to know my Dad in a way that I had not known before.  In 2011, Mom moved into my home for the closing months of her life and once again, though difficult, the time was rich with love and I have no regrets about the emotional cost of those days.  Then, 3 years ago, my wife became terminally ill  with cancer and together we faced tht truth. In our time of tears we found a depth of love in those 20 months before her life here came to an end that was unmatched in our 4 decades of marriage.
 

Am I romanticizing death? Not at all. It is ugly, “the last enemy” the Bible says. But, we live better if we face the fact that death- of friend, of family, our own – is inevitable. Those who manage to create an illusion for themselves that Mom will live forever, that they will somehow elude that Last Appointment, often fail to invest their best in those things that truly matter. Those who understand death’s approach will choose to live the best life now.  Living near death has loosened my grip on my stuff, made me tender with others, and turned my gaze to the things of the Spirit.

I face death with Hope, too. Do I know everything about what stands on the other side of that formidable barrier? No!  But, I know enough from the Word.  Here’s my hope!  For the moment it is just a tiny spot of light on the horizon of time, like the North star that guides the traveler.  But, I know it will lead me home. 

"For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him." (1 Corinthians 15:22-23, NIV) "I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” (1 Corinthians 15:50-54, NIV)

Remember this – it is not our record of stellar morality, our membership in a church, or our observance of religious rituals on which our hope for eternal life rests! We hope in Christ – the One who makes us right with God. By faith, we receive His gift and our fear is replaced with peace.  Here is a word from the Word for all of us who are dying. Love Him, trust His grace, face death and live as those who have real hope. "But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God." (Romans 5:8-11, NLT)

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Live Like You Were Dying

He said

"I was in my early forties

With a lot of life before me

And a moment came that stopped me on a dime

I spent most of the next days

Looking at the x-rays

Talkin' 'bout the options

And talkin' 'bout sweet time"

I asked him

"When it sank in

That this might really be the real end

How's it hit you

When you get that kind of news?

Man, what'd you do?"

He said

"I went skydiving

I went Rocky Mountain climbing

I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fumanchu

And I loved deeper

And I spoke sweeter

And I gave forgiveness I'd been denying"

And he said

"Someday I hope you get the chance

To live like you were dying"

He said

"I was finally the husband

That most of the time I wasn't

And I became a friend a friend would like to have

And all of a sudden going fishin'

Wasn't such an imposition

And I went three times that year I lost my dad

I finally read the Good Book, and I

Took a good, long, hard look

At what I'd do if I could do it all again

And then

I went skydiving

I went Rocky Mountain climbing

I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fumanchu

And I loved deeper

And I spoke sweeter

And I gave forgiveness I'd been denying"

And he said

"Someday I hope you get the chance

To live like you were dying

Like tomorrow was a gift

And you've got eternity

To think about

What you'd do with it

What could you do with it

What did I do with it?

What would I do with it?

And I loved deeper

And I spoke sweeter

And I watched an eagle as it was flying"

And he said

"Someday I hope you get the chance

To live like you were dying"

Craig Michael Wiseman, James Timothy Nichols, Tim Nichols
• Copyright © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc, Round Hill Music Big Loud Songs, BMG Rights Management US, LLC

Great Expectations

If you were told, with a unquestionable certainty, that you were going to receive a windfall of wealth in 5 years, how would it affect your life? You would start to think and plan for it!  That home you always wanted, now you would consider owning it. Now you would be able to generously support those ministries you which you care about. Conversations would be marked with references to that promise that would change your life. As the day approached, your anticipation of it would grow. The promise, though unrealized in the present, would have a real and visible impact on you.

Christian, we have a promise that is better than wealth and we will own the promise by God’s own word!  Peter wrote to the Christians who were going through hard times with this reminder. "All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see. So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while.” (1 Peter 1:3-6, NLT)

Is this hope real to you?
Is it fixed in your mind in such a way that it changes how you live?
Are you filled with great expectation?

Jesus returned to the theme of expectation and readiness repeatedly in His teaching.  God’s rule had been announced by His coming and would be fully realized at His return. That promise, He said, should cause those of us who love Him to live expectantly.  “Be dressed for service and keep your lamps burning, as though you were waiting for your master to return from the wedding feast. Then you will be ready to open the door and let him in the moment he arrives and knocks. The servants who are ready and waiting for his return will be rewarded. I tell you the truth, he himself will seat them, put on an apron, and serve them as they sit and eat! He may come in the middle of the night or just before dawn. But whenever he comes, he will reward the servants who are ready." (Luke 12:35-38, NLT)  The first part of the story was common knowledge to those who first heard it. Any good household servant knew that it was his responsibility to be prepared for the master’s arrival at home, no matter how late.  But, then Jesus turned the narrative upside down!  Servants who stood ready to welcome their master, thinking that they would have many things to do for him when he returned, instead found themselves seated and served by him!  It was an unthinkable turn of events.

But, that is what Jesus promises to us who live with great expectation, who continue steadily in His service.  One day He will return and welcome us home. There we will no longer serve, we will be served. Our work will be over and our welcome into the Father’s house rich, glorious, and beyond our imagination. So, Peter urges us to remember the promise and says, “be truly glad!”

Renew your hope in the Promise! Let the certain hope of eternal life bring joyful and steady discipleship to this day.  Here is a word from the Word. Love it. Live it. "Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure." (1 John 3:2-3, NLT)

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Anchor

I have this hope

As an anchor for my soul

Through ev'ry storm

I will hold to You

With endless love

All my fear is swept away

In ev'rything

I will trust in You

There is hope in the promise of the cross

You gave ev'rything to save the world You love

And this hope is an anchor for my soul

Our God will stand unshakable

Unchanging One

Who was and is to come

Your promise sure

You will not let go

Your Name is higher

Your Name is greater

All my hope is in You

Your word unfailing

Your promise unshaken

All my hope is in You

Ben Fielding | Dean Ussher

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Jerry D. Scott, Pastor

Faith Discovery Church

www.FaithDiscovery.com