So how is it that we can spend our entire lives in the church…working for Christ…serving the church…going to meetings…reaching out to hurting people…worshiping and joining in prayer with other Christians…and not be madly in love with God?
As Rev. McShane writes, “We miss it…we skim right over the first, the most important, the most life-changing thread in the stories that make up our tradition–which is that God is madly, passionately, furiously in love with us. With you. God is absolutely besotted with you, following you around until you notice him, offering to forgive every betrayal, willing to act like a fool for love of you.”
Think about the stories that Jesus told to give us a picture of who God is: God is a woman who enlists everyone she knows to help her find the one coin that got lost. God is a parent who is so crazy in love that he sacrifices every shred of his own dignity, running and lifting up his robes, to welcome home a child who only came back because he had spent all the money.
In his short story, “The Capitol of the World,” Ernest Hemingway tells the story of a Spanish father and his teenage son. The relationship between this father and son became strained and eventually shattered. When the rebellious son – whose name was Paco, a common Spanish name – ran away from home, his father began a long and arduous search to find him.
As a last resort, the exhausted father placed an ad in a Madrid newspaper, hoping that his son would see the ad and respond to it. The ad read, “Dear Paco, Please meet me in front of the newspaper office at noon. All is forgiven. Love, Father.” As Hemingway tells the story, the next day at noon, in front of the newspaper office, there were 800 Pacos, all seeking forgiveness from their fathers.
God is constantly putting an ad in the newspaper, sending out a letter, placing a message on people’s hearts, using our experiences to speak volumes, giving us a message through the Word, the messages preached on Sunday, the sacraments we receive at church – nudging us to look at the sunset – God is constantly saying to us, “Please meet me…All is forgiven…Love, your Father.”
Staying is love with God is the cure the Heart has been looking for.
Wesley’s intention was not to create a list of do’s and don’ts, but to serve as a guide. If you want to live a relationship to God, and you want to be faithful to the way of Jesus, this is the way you do it. These are the building blocks of the Christian life.
Slides: Worship 8.05.12 Stay in Love with God Pt 1
Notes: Sermon Notes 08.05.12. Stay in Love with God
Audio: Stay in Love with God 8.5.12L Stay in Love with God 8.5.12E
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