Revealing a Tapestry: Reconciliation

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Sermon

Oops: We’ve gone to battle against God, ourselves, and others. Toddler kicking against his mom...

I heard a stand up comic lamenting how social media had taken away the “acquaintance”. I used to see you at the grocery store, now we have to be “friends”. Worse, I have to know all your opinions, your sports teams, what vegetable you would be…if somehow you became a vegetable.

I liked you ok as someone I didn’t know well…but now when I see you, I’m thinking, “That guy? Celery?”

Add in the political divide that has widened in the past decade in brand new ways…I love election season. We were watching tv and a barrage of attack ads came through…I was arguing back at all of them out loud…till josh said, “We don’t have to watch these...” Oh yea…changed the channel.

On so many issues I have seen posts that directly or indirectly state: If you hold this opinion, we’re done.

no conversation, no understanding, no relationship anymore.

At the same time, we struggle just as much to deal with ourselves.

We maintain a constant stream of distraction, work, or other forms of self-medication to avoid having to be alone with just us.

When the room is quiet, does your brain go to past conflict, past hurts?

When you look in the mirror are you frustrated with what you see?

Not in shape enough, haven’t achieved enough, or worse...

You see the hurt you’ve caused others and if you stay in the quiet, you wonder…

All the ways you should have parented, should have loved, should have worked a little harder,

Ultimately, you see “not enough”

If you’re wondering how I got in your head…I didn’t. This reality is true at one level or another for every man, woman, and child on the planet.

Each of us with our own level of selfishness, dealing with the impact of others selfishness, and then feeling the guilt of our own and the hurt from others.

So we build distractions into our lives. We avoid thinking too deeply about it all. We now get to use social media as a wall to build around us, surrounding us not only with distraction, but agreement on how it’s others that are the problem.

I was in the store yesterday and heard from the far side of the store the wails of an irate toddler. I was in the store on Wednesday and heard the same…nearly every time I’m in a store, I hear an upset child...

Number 1, I am thankful that we’re finished with that phase.

Our kids are both old enough that they can go to the store for us. I have not had to deal with a tantrum from either of them while pushing them in a cart for at least a couple years.

2, as I was thinking about this sermon, i realized how much like that toddler I can be. I want something, I feel robbed of something I should have, I’m tired of being told no and while I usually don’t kick and cry…we find our socially acceptable ways of tantrum throwing.

But i heard the mom dealing with her child. There were not just threats of consequences, but consequences imminent.

And that got me thinking of conversations we had with our kids often either in discipline, or when we were saying no.

Ugh: What does the mom do? Desire is reconciliation, an agreement on truth. Why do we have so little hope in broken relationships? In wars? Someone has to surrender. (why do you think I’m punishing you?)

I would ask our upset child, “Why do you think I am punishing you?” or “Why do you think I’m saying no?”

“What would be the easy thing for me to do right now? Is it easier to say no, or to let you have or do what you want? Is it easier to discipline you, or just let you get away with stuff?”

easier to just give in...

“So why do you think I’m willing to do it the hard way?”

…this took time. “You love me.”

“Yes, and I not only want what’s best for you, but I probably know a little better too…because I’m old.”

I wish I could remember who gave me that advice, I would bake them a cake. It didn’t fix everything, but it helped so much. As parent, I had a couple goals. One was helping them come to terms with themselves, I want them to connect well with others, but also I want my kids to grow into people I enjoy being around. I want to be connected.

Aha: God’s tapestry, reveals his glory (who he is) and good for us. The blending of those things results in an underlying theme to the whole picture. Reconciliation. God making the first move.

We were created to be totally at peace with ourselves and others. When God created us in Eden we were perfectly content and in perfect relationship with him, and that spilled out into our comfort with ourselves and our intimacy with others.

We have throughout history chosen to disconnect from God. To break that relationship, to take good and evil into our hands.

Choosing separation from the one who made us and knows us, we fight to protect our sense of value at the expense of others.

Started with Cain and Abel, continues through the headlines today.

Broken relationship with God…broken relationships with others, and frankly, a broken relationship with ourselves.

But the weaving of the tapestry we have been talking about. The beautiful image God has been shaping, one in which each of our threads are woven together. That tapestry reveals a picture.

Two weeks ago, we talked about the way it reveals God’s glory, all of who he is. Perfect, mighty, absolutely loving.

Last week, we saw that the tapestry reveals how that glory reveals God working for good…even when we can’t see it. That we can take the holy risks God calls us to, because we can trust his goodness.

If we take a step back and look at the big picture God is weaving together we will see that God’s glory, reveled in his good plan, has a theme. A theme he began weaving from our first rebellion.

Reconciliation. Our choices broke relationships, his are all about restoring them.

To reconcile means to agree to the truth.

When you reconcile your checkbook, if you have one…you compare what you think you spent, with what the bank proves you spent. where they agree, there is reconciliation.

In relationships, reconciliation is still about coming to grips with reality.

And reconciliation is hard.

To be reconciled to God means somehow not only agreeing that God actually is the Lord of the world…and therefore right, meaning we are wrong…but somehow making it up to him.

To be reconciled to others…someone has to make the first move. But if those people you hurt…have hurt you…making the first move is risky. What if you admit you were wrong, what if you give up your side…and they don’t? That hurts worse.

Hardest of all, how do we reconcile with our selves? We know the worst of us.

The gospel in five words: God made the first move.

Whee: To be reconciled: The gospel reconciles us to God, to ourselves, and others

In the tapestry of the gospel, the tapestry that Hockinson Community Church exists to live out and to share, God is at work reconciling the world.

This morning we are going to sit in a parable Jesus tells his disciples to show them this truth. The reason he came.

It’s a story about a father and two sons, the men’s breakfast spent a few weeks in this parable, it’s familiar, but my prayer this morning is that it sinks a few inches deeper into your heart this morning. Let me read it first.

Luke 15:11-13 “He also said, “A man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the estate I have coming to me.’ So he distributed the assets to them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered together all he had and traveled to a distant country, where he squandered his estate in foolish living.”

Relationships broken. Son choosing the father’s money over his presence. A brother choosing wild living over working alongside the other. A man wrecking his own life and livelihood with no one else to blame.

Luke 15:14-16 “After he had spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he had nothing. Then he went to work for one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. He longed to eat his fill from the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one would give him anything.”

He finds his rock bottom. He has now compromised his faith, his family, and future…and he knows it.

Luke 15:17-19 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired workers have more than enough food, and here I am dying of hunger! I’ll get up, go to my father, and say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I’m no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired workers.” ’”

Do you notice how broken this man’s view is? His choices have led him to a place where he believes his entire identity has irrevocable been broken. This is us.

Here is where God’s tapestry, his beautiful story begins to shine.

Luke 15:20-24 “So he got up and went to his father. But while the son was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him. The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I’m no longer worthy to be called your son.’ “But the father told his servants, ‘Quick! Bring out the best robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Then bring the fattened calf and slaughter it, and let’s celebrate with a feast, because this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ So they began to celebrate.”

Let’s stop here for a moment and look at this closely.

A Tapestry of Reconciliation

With God

Let me throw one part of that back up:

Luke 15:20 “So he got up and went to his father. But while the son was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him.”

God made the first move.

This morning if you feel far from God at any level…that’s not God creating the distance. Long before you cared one bit…the father was looking out the window to see you coming.

And the moment you stop pushing away is the moment when he runs. runs. runs to throw his arms around you. Not once you straighten up, not once you know all the right theology…when you come shuffling your feet back to him, he is already sprinting to you.

The death and resurrection of Jesus is above all an act of reconciliation.

God taking on the consequences of your rebellion, covering the cost,

We took the good things God intended for us, and like the son, we chose the gifts without the giver. We squandered and abused the gifts…and the natural consequence of separating ourselves from the giver of life is death.

God became one of us, identified with us, took our place in paying that price and then rose from the dead, inviting all who want to be reconciled to God to have life with him once more.

Paul celebrates this…all over the place…but here’s my favorite

2 Corinthians 5:19-20 “That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us. Therefore...We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.””

The door is open! Step inside.

Being reconciled to God, is the first step to reconciliation

With Ourselves

Back to our parable:

Luke 15:21-24 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I’m no longer worthy to be called your son.’ “But the father told his servants, ‘Quick! Bring out the best robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Then bring the fattened calf and slaughter it, and let’s celebrate with a feast, because this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ So they began to celebrate.”

The son is looking in the mirror.

I can’t believe the way I’ve blown it.

I wasted my finances, I wasted my body, I wasted my mind…I’m not worth more than a slave...

God made the first move.

As the son looks in that mirror, the father comes next to him. He sees what the son sees. He sees the tear tracks and the guilt, and the fear, and the broken identity...

And he says…son, look at your nose. Now look at mine. Look at your cleft chin, and the shape of your brow. You don’t know who you are, but I do. You’re my son. My daughter. My child.

Reconciled to God, our eyes are held up once again to the truth that we were made by God in his image, with purpose and value. And all that running, and ruining, and regret changes nothing.

Father, I have sinned. Yup

I’m not worthy to be called your son…Father interrupts. “Quick! don’t waste time! Get the robe, get the ring, MY SON, this son of MINE was dead…and is alive.

The gospel that reconciles us to God, doesn’t bring us back as slaves, having to earn a place at the foot of the table. The gospel reconciles us to who God made us to be.

Free, restored, alive, purposeful, at peace.

God knows you sinned. And he came and died for that. You are being invited to come to grips with your past, and then to come to peace with yourself over it.

Why did sinners, tax collectors and prostitutes love hanging out with Jesus. They knew how bad they were…they had come to grips with it. And then Jesus reconciled them to God and themselves.

They could sit at his feet with joy and peace, he reconciled them to themselves.

Do you struggle, like me sometimes, with the failures of your past? Of missed opportunity, broken promises, guilt and a sense of not being enough?

God is holding your face up to the mirror next to his. And he’s saying, son…daughter…You have been made in my image and I will never stop choosing to love you.

Being reconciled to God and ourselves, we are equipped to do our part in the last bit.

With Others

This part is rough and we don’t get a satisfying ending.

Luke 15:25-27 ““Now his older son was in the field; as he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he summoned one of the servants, questioning what these things meant. ‘Your brother is here,’ he told him, ‘and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’”

This is the son that didn’t run away. But we’ll see something was missing for him too.

Luke 15:28-30 ““Then he became angry and didn’t want to go in. So his father came out and pleaded with him. But he replied to his father, ‘Look, I have been slaving many years for you, and I have never disobeyed your orders, yet you never gave me a goat so that I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your assets with prostitutes, you slaughtered the fattened calf for him.’”

What did the younger son believe his role would be when he came home? Slave.

What does the older brother believe his role has been?

Now he’s mad.

His brother, his childhood best friend left town and took part of the family wealth away.

Now he’s back and dad is treating him better than he treats me...

He’s not having it.

Note the terms he uses: “This son of yours”…not my brother. Not my friend.

Who hurt you? It’s true for you, for me, and everyone else. We’ve been hurt. And our natural inclination, in our broken identity is to build walls of unforgiveness and bitterness.

When all those sinners, tax collectors and prostitutes were sitting at the feet of Jesus, there was a whole group of others who had lived their lives trying to please God by being right…and they were not on board with anyone claiming to speak for God not making those people go through the same slavery they were in.

The problem?

Luke 15:31-32 ““ ‘Son,’ he said to him, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ ””

Son, you were never a slave. I celebrate you every day. But your brother. YES, YOUR BROTHER has been restored. He’s alive. I’m going to celebrate that.

When we get bitter, defensive, unforgiving, it’s because we’ve lost sight of our reconciliation.

We are forgetting our own sins are forgiven. We’re forgetting that God ran to us despite all we did to him.

We’re forgetting that we aren’t weak, defenseless, or in need of value: We are made in God’s image. We are loved by the creator of galaxies.

1 John tells us:

1 John 4:18-20 “There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears is not complete in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and yet hates his brother or sister, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother or sister whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.”

We often seperate these verses…but they are together for a reason.

Love kills fear. When we know who we are, when we are reconciled to God and ourselves, we know we are loved, we have value and purpose…so we don’t have to fear what someone else might take from us. They can’t take that!

And so when we know that love, we are able to love others without fear. Which means forgiving, letting down walls and bristles

This is hard. Our self-preservation instincts (fear) will always push back. What if you forgive them, you ask forgiveness…and they don’t forgive you? Or, what if they refuse to acknowledge they need forgiveness? Refusing to acknowledge their hurt of you?

Love kills fear.

The parable doesn’t give us resolution to the older brother’s story.

Probably because we’re the ones living it, and we have to decide.

Do we believe the gospel? Do we look at the tapestry of God’s glory and goodness leading to reconciliation between us and God, ourselves, and each other?

As we form our part of the tapestry at HCC, we want to believe the gospel.

The reason I’m excited about those kids getting ribbons isn’t because they know stuff about the bible. Lots of people do and it doesn’t change anything.

The reason I’m excited, the reason we teach children’s church, adult sunday school, every sermon is not so you’re smarter.

Everything is so you might believe the gospel a little deeper, that in that belief you are reconciled to God. That having been reconciled to God, you learn who you are, that your understanding of you is reconciled to God’s proclamations about you. and that we then can be a community that models God’s reconciling love with one another and the world.

Yeah: God has made the first move. How have you responded? Have you been reconciled to God? Yourself? Who have you closed the door on and need to open it?

God made the first move.

Today, let’s respond to that move. I’ll ask you: What will you do?

How will you respond to the love of God reconciling you to him through jesus?

Will you allow God’s identity for you to replace the broken ones you’ve built up, and experience reconciliation with yourself?

And will you have the courage that comes from love, that is built from a foundation of knowing your value to God to forgive, to drop walls, and love others the way God loved you first?

Will you stand with me as we pray together. As I pray, I’m going to describe some heart conditions we struggle with. At certain points I’ll ask you to look up at me so I can pray for you if I’m describing you.

Pray in general

I need to be reconciled to God...

For the first time placing trust in Jesus

I’ve drifted

I need to be reconciled to myself

Guilt/shame/unworthiness

I need to be reconcieled to another

Holding hurt…who?

General…what will you do?

Amen

Paul tells the Corinthian church in 2 cor 5 that now that they have been reconciled, they have been given a service of reconciliation. As you go…making disciples. Reconciled to God, themselves, and others.