Coming Home | Jonny Gumbel | HTB Livestream

0:03 Thank you so much, Archie and Sam. Shall we read a passage from the Bible this afternoon? So we're going to read from Luke chapter 15 and beginning at verse 11. It's a passage that may be familiar to some of us here. Luke chapter 15 and verse 11. Jesus continued, and there was a man who had two sons. the younger one said to his father, Father, give me my share of the estate. So he divided his property between them. And not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country, and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs.

1:00 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. When he came to his senses, he said, how many of my father's hired servants 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'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants. So he got up and went to his father. 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. The son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, Quick, bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.

1:57 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. So they began to celebrate. Meanwhile, the elder son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. Your brother has come, he replied. and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound. The elder brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, look, all these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. And when this son of yours, who has squandered your property with prostitutes, comes home, You kill the fattened calf for him. My son, the father said, you are always with me and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. I want to talk today about coming home.

3:17 And being here today, it feels very much like coming home. I was baptized in that font just over there as a baby. As a child, we used to sit in the third or fourth pew back there, and I would refuse to come to the front during the family worship. Then I used to be in the kids' groups down below in the cribs, and then in the youth in the spring or a church house. And this was my church in my early 20s. and then I started training for ordination and then went with Archie and Sam down to Brighton for 13 years so to be back with Archie and Sam definitely feels like coming home and then we were in Brazil for four years and Brighton while we were there and I was married we've had got four children that very much felt like home and then Brazil really felt like home we absolutely loved our time there. And so now we're here and we can't quite work out whether we're coming home or whether we've left home or where our home is. But there is within all of us a desire for coming home.

4:25 It's one thing that people say is that the heart of actually every story is this search for home, whether it's the Odyssey or whether it's Lord of the Rings or whether it's Spider-Man. There's a longing for home. And actually, football's been trying to come home for 60 years, or maybe just less than that, because it was at home for four years until 1970.

4:49 And so we're looking for home. And obviously, we need a physical home. And it's one of the great tragedies in life, that not everyone has a physical home. And it's an amazing part of the life of this church that so many people are involved in ministry towards those who are experiencing homelessness. Then there's an emotional or social home, being surrounded by friends, family, a place where you feel like you belong. But deeper and much more significant than a physical home or even emotional or social home is a spiritual home, when we're at home with our Heavenly Father. God is described in the Bible as our dwelling place. In the New Testament, Jesus says, live in me make your home in me the great theologian saint augustine and prayed this famous prayer said lord you have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they find rest in you there is a home that is only found in the arms of the father and yet so easily we can find that we're not quite at home we don't feel like we're really at home and this has been a problem with humanity ever since the Garden of Eden when humanity lost its home and we've been searching for it ever since. And this story that Jesus tells in Luke chapter 15 is a story of two boys who really need to come home. For one, it's very obvious. The younger son is geographically distant from his father. But the older son too, he is emotionally, relationally distant from his father, and they both need to come home. For the younger son, his leaving home was dramatic and obvious. For the older son, it was gradual and subtle, but just as real. For the younger son, it was through the pursuit of pleasure. For the older son, it seems to have been his work.

6:49 but they are both away from their father. 1921 Carl Jung wrote his famous article Psychological Types where he popularized the ideas of being an introvert and being an extrovert and he argued that introverts were drawn to the internal world of thoughts and feelings whereas extroverts were drawn to the external world of people and activities.

7:19 And so introverts tend to analyze events around them, and extroverts tend to throw themselves into the events and what's going on around them. And looking at this story, it strikes me that the younger son looks like he's an extrovert. It's parties and it's friends and it's wild living. And then the older son seems to be an introvert. its thoughts and deep feelings. And actually there are extroverted ways of getting lost and there are introverted ways of getting lost and they are just as real.

7:55 And so how do we find our way home? Well, the first thing is to spot the signs. The younger son, it says, he comes to his senses. He recognizes that there's something that's not quite right. and so he stops thinking. He could have carried on pretending, oh, no, I've always wanted to work with pigs. This is great. I'm having a great time, but he doesn't. He comes to his senses. He spots that maybe what had promised to be freedom actually turned out to be another form of slavery, and so he needs to come home. He says that he was working with pigs. He was a good Jewish boy. He would have thought he would never go anywhere near an unclean animal, like a pig. But when you find yourself doing the things that you always promised yourself you would never do, then maybe it's time to come home. And it says that he longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating. Again, when we find ourselves wanting to try and satisfy a longing within us with things that we know deep down won't satisfy us, then it's time to come home. But the signs are there for the older son as well that he needs to come home. I mean, he has been filled with bitterness and resentment. His heart has become hard towards the people around him. He's lost his compassion. Earlier this week at 2.30 in the morning, earlier on Wednesday morning, Tara and I were woken up by a car alarm going off in our street. And it went on for a bit and then stopped and then it started again and then stopped and then started again and stopped. And this went on for about half an hour in the middle of the night.

9:46 It was so loud. And we couldn't sleep. And I was getting more and more frustrated. And any compassion for the owner of that car who might be, someone might be trying to break into it, something might be going wrong, completely disappeared. And I just felt really cross and resentful that I was losing my sleep. So I started trying to work out where the noise was coming from. And actually, we don't own a car, but I noticed that the car, the noise was coming from a car right in front of our house. And our upstairs neighbors have a car just parked in front of our house. And they are, I'll actually name them, they're called Ben and Martha Bryant. And they are wonderful. They used to be part of the team here. And then they are really old friends of ours. and they came with us to Brazil. And we were serving together in Brazil for four years and our children are great friends, old friends, our children are friends. We ministered together. All of that was forgotten in this moment.

10:40 And I just felt quite cross. And I sent a message saying, I think, because they were clearly awake as well, I think it's your car, exclamation mark, trying to keep it light. And waited about a few minutes for a response. And during that time, I remembered that we'd actually borrowed my parents' car and parked it out front of the house. And then I got a reply from Ben saying, I think it's your car. Which it was. This older son, when he's told that his younger son, that his younger brother's come back, he says, this son of yours who squandered his wealth with prostitutes. And actually, this isn't what the story says. He's actually imagining the worst about his brother rather than the best. and when we find ourselves exaggerating the faults of others, then maybe it's time that we need to come home.

11:39 In fact, he doesn't even acknowledge that it's his brother. He says, this son of yours. And when we find ourselves isolated from and hostile towards those we should really be loving, then maybe it's a sign we need to come home. And he's annoyed about the chaos and there's a party and the disruption rather than rejoicing that his brother's come home. And we can get like that sometimes. We've got four children, and I was always struck when Tara and I would go and see my parents, and we were aware we'd come into the house, and there'd be all this chaos and noise and toys everywhere and food everywhere and tantrums, and it was even worse when we took our children. And my parents were so good because they never complained about the disruption. They were just always pleased to see us. But sometimes we can miss that. And this older son has become resentful of the disruption that this has brought.

12:39 And he's focused on what he's lacking. I never got this kind of party. When actually he owns the entire estate. And when we become so focused on what we're lacking, rather than all the things that we've been given, then maybe it's time we need to come home. And he says, actually, he doesn't even call his father father. He says, just look. I mean it's so rude and disrespectful and when God ceases to be a devoted father who loves us and instead becomes a distant figure who's wronged us then maybe it's time we need to come home and so we spot the signs and then we begin to take a step home and the younger son he begins his journey home and he begins it even before he starts moving he remembers his father he says my father and that's the first step in my father he remembers that there's a father who let him go in the first place when most fathers wouldn't have done that who gives him freedom who lets us wander off a father who waits for us and never gives up loving us i mean what this younger son has done is the most painful thing you could do to a father. In asking for your inheritance, you're saying, I want you to be dead.

14:02 And it's just so, so painful for the father. And yet his father never gives up on him, never stops loving him. And the older son too. The older son, in refusing to enter the party that the father's throwing, in refusing even to call him father, so disrespectful. and yet the father keeps on loving him and keeps on loving him. A reminder that there is no distance too big, no sin too great, no shame too overwhelming, no consequences that seem too complicated that cannot be overcome by the greatness of God's love.

14:41 And so it's not really the extent of our lostness, but it's the greatness of our God who's able to find us. and so we begin to take that journey back and actually the older son has begun a journey too because he's talking to his father he's telling his father what he feels and what he thinks and that's a start and so we start the journey home starts with those small steps it's coming back into church or the beginnings of a prayer or opening up the bible that's been clothes for many years. And then when we do that, then God rushes to us and covers the great distance. And we begin to experience the greatness of God's love. And look at what the Father does here. He welcomes us when we've got nothing to offer him. He embraces us. He gives him a robe. And the robe would have been something to cover his shame, cover his rags, to show that we're going to see him now in a different light.

15:51 There's a verse in the Old Testament which talks about God who covers our sins. Now, this is different from a cover-up, because the Father could, at this moment, have gathered everyone together quickly, gathered all the servants and said, this never happened. My son has always been here. No one is ever to speak of what's happened over the last few years. He was always here. He's always been with me because of my shame, his shame. We're never going to talk about this. We're just going to cover it up. But he doesn't. He says, no, he was lost and now is found. He was dead and is alive again. But we're going to put this robe around him. And so we're not going to see and look at the son who ran away. We're going to look at the son who's come home. And so he puts a robe on him. He puts his sandals on him to show that he's a son and not a servant. And he gives him a ring. I mean, what was it that Beyonce said about rings or sang about rings?

16:47 I can't actually really remember. And even trying to study the lyrics in just written form. I don't completely understand what's going on, but I think she's drawing a link between being liked or loved and being given a ring. and it's one of the great privileges of doing a wedding that there's a moment where the priest prays over the rings and you pray may these rings be to you a symbol of unending love and faithfulness and this is what this son has been given a symbol of unending love and faithfulness and this is what we can all receive whether you're single or whether you're married whether you're divorced or whether you're widowed, all of us get to wear a ring. And he embraces him. He gives him a hug. I remember reading of a seven-year-old boy who went to hug. He talked about how he went to hug his father. And his father stepped back and pushed him away and said, now you're seven years old. We don't hug anymore. We just shake hands. And he said, this boy said something died in me that day and here in this story we get the opposite the son goes to shake his father's hand and instead he's wrapped in an embrace and something comes alive in him but the father is also going out to the older son as well he goes to him and he talks with him and he reasons with him he's still loving the older son and remember what I said about the introvert and the extrovert. Actually, the father loves his sons in the ways that they need to receive love. For the extroverted younger son, he loves him in very extroverted ways. He throws a party and it's loud and it's public and everyone's involved and they're going to have this massive celebration. But for the introverted older son, he goes out to him and it's quiet and it's a one-to-one conversation and very quietly he talks with him and he reasons with him because God knows

18:54 each of us he knows what we need and he knows the secret of how to bring each of us back to him and back home and this then becomes how we operate as a church we then begin to operate out of the father heart of God we too welcome people when they've got nothing to offer. We too put a robe around people so we see the sons and daughters who've come home and not the ones who've run away. We too love people with unending love and faithfulness, bringing people into the center instead of leaving people at the edge. And as we love one another, then we're a community that's fully alive. Back in 2012, there was a story that hit the news about a young girl called Megan Stammers who ran away to France with her maths teacher.

19:53 She's 15 from Eastbourne, ran away to France with her maths teacher. And it was this really upsetting story in the news. And there was this moment where her mother went on live television and she looked into the camera and she said, I've got a message for my daughter. I don't care what you've done or why. I just want you to come home. And I think God says something very similar to each one of us. Well, there's not quite that, but of course, because of course God cares very deeply what we've done and why. He cares about us so much that he sent his son, Jesus Christ, to go the greatest distance ever traveled from heaven to earth. And Jesus experienced not an embrace, but rejection. His robe was taken from him, and it was divided amongst those who were crucifying him.

20:54 He was given the death, not of a son, but of a slave. And instead of being given a ring, a symbol of unending love and faithfulness, he was given the cross. a symbol of shame and judgment. And he really did die. He really was lost. But he was then alive again. And because of what Jesus has done, each of us can come home to the Father again and again and again, experiencing the fullness and the warmth and the wonders of his great love for us.

21:33 Amen. Why don't we stand and I'll pray for us. Father, thank you that you are a God who loves us so perfectly. The perfect Father. the one who knows us completely and loves us so faithfully We're sorry for all the times we wander off and get distracted and allow other things to creep in and draw us away from your love. when we come back to you again this afternoon into your embrace thank you Lord Jesus Amen