Message From Pastor Peggy   Oct 3, 2020
When he came to his senses, he said, “How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare,and  here I am starving to death!I will set out and go back to my father and say to him:

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.” 

So he got up and went to his father. 

  Luke 15:17-20

Most of you will be very familiar with this parable. A story of a son who as much as wished his father dead so he could claim his inheritance. But he didn’t want the money for grad school, to buy a house, establish his own business, or even a diamond for his sweetheart. Well, who knows, maybe he did have good intentions for the money, but not long after he takes off and squanders his new-found wealth, not stopping until he finds himself sitting in a field with a bunch of pigs who are better fed than he is. Scripture tells us it was then that he came to his senses, decides to set out and go back to his father.

The story could have ended there, for often we have such great intentions. We recognize what we ought to do, what is best for us, what Christ Himself is calling us to do, where the Holy Spirit is guiding us, but we sit there doing nothing more than thinking about where we’d like to be, but not doing anything to get there. This story would have had no hope, no celebratory ending if the son had just sat there thinking and dreaming about what might be. This story takes a dramatic turn only when he got up and went to his father. 

I can’t take credit for this revelation! Kyle Idleman wrote a book entitled, AHA: Awakening, Honesty, Action. The God Moment that Changes Everything. In it he states without verse 20, (So he got up), verse 17, (he came to his senses), doesn’t really matter. If the son remains in the field with the pigs nothing changes. Life only changes when he got up and went to his father, and then everything changes. The father restores him and even celebrates him.

But sometimes it’s not easy to get up. Look at Naaman. He was a commander of an army, valiant soldier, highly regarded, but he had leprosy (2 Kings 5:1-16). He goes to Elisha’s house because he hopes that Elisha will cure him, but Elisha doesn’t even come to the door. Instead he sends his messenger to tell Naaman to go wash in the Jordan River seven times and he would be cleansed. But Naaman is furious. First off, because in his mind Elisha didn’t even have the decency to come to the door to greet him. Secondly, in not coming to the door, Elisha didn’t heal him on the spot as was expected. And finally, he is angry because he is told to go and wash in a river that he feels is far inferior to those of Damascus.

Naaman had a choice to make and he chose to stay put – his anger his motivating drive. It was only when his servants talked some sense into him, did Naaman get up and go as told and in so doing God healed him.

The plan is simple, just get up and go, but it takes courage. For years a woman felt trapped in an abusive relationship. She was prayed for. Others prayed with her. Always looking for the out. Then it came. All she had to do was get up and go. The door was opened, provisions were put in place. God was making the way and calling her to get up and go. But when the time came, instead of getting up, she stayed put, settling for what was, instead of getting up and receiving God’s best. Change requires action. Change requires getting up. 

The son made his plan, but that plan was useless until he got up and went to his father, putting the plan into action. That couldn’t have been easy: admitting he had messed up – big time. It couldn’t have been easy returning home vulnerable, embarrassed, disgraced, and expecting well-deserved judgement and condemnation. But in getting up, there was hope. And in returning to his father, he didn’t find the expected judgment and condemnation, but unconditional love, and healing. He found grace … and life.

Idleman notes the son’s plan wasn’t complicated. It was a very simple plan: get up, go home, talk to his father. He didn’t complicate it with any unnecessary steps. He didn’t try to clean up his act first, restore some of his lost inheritance first. He just got up and went. And his father was waiting, watching for him in fact. And when the father saw his son in the distance he ran out to meet him. He lavished him with gifts and set in motion plans for a huge party, (no killing a small goat, this called for a fattened calf), to celebrate that his lost son was once again safely in His arms. No judgement. No condemnation. Just grace, pure grace and unconditional love.

And isn’t that how God treats each of us? He doesn’t ask us to clean up our acts and then come. All He asks is that we get up and come to Him, our Father. But we complicate things and make excuses:

I’m in too deep

I can never be forgiven for what I’ve done

My credit card debt is too great, I could never get out from under it 

It’s too late for my marriage, if we had got help last year then maybe, but not now

This relationship is too broken, it can never be restored

I could never give up the  …. (insert your noun of choice here: alcohol, affair, drugs, porn, gluttony, toxic job, petty theft, my critical attitude, my pride). I’ve tried. It’s no use. There is no hope.

But nothing is beyond God’s unconditional love, His mercy, His healing. But we have to get up and go to Him. We have to be prepared to take action: to get up. To have the faith to know that it’s not about us and our ability to fix our messes, but God’s redemptive work through us to bring about a transformed life.

A recovered alcoholic once told me that he had tried to quit drinking many times but couldn’t do it. It was only when he got up and went to his Father, through AA, that he was able to quit. He told me that his desire for alcohol was taken from him on the spot. He went to God in his brokenness and God embraced him, celebrated him. But nothing changed until he got up and went.

So? What field of pigs are you sitting in? Are you just going to sit there dreaming, thinking, planning? Get up! Go! No!, run to your Heavenly Father. He awaits your arrival. Don’t think you have to get your act together before you can go. Just go. Your Father awaits you with open arms. He has gifts for you that are a sign of His love for you, signs that you are worthy of being called His child. Get up! Go filled with hope and expectation! Let Him wrap His arms around you and carry you out of the field of pigs and into His Kingdom.

May the bridge in your story be, “So I got up and went to my Father …”

Peggy