Springwood Presbyterian Church: Whitsett, NC

John Calvin begins his theological work, “The Institutes of the Christian Religion” by saying we can’t know God until we know ourselves.  But then he declares we can’t ever know ourselves outside of our relationship with God.  That sounds contradictory, until we consider that God’s love illuminates the sin hiding in the dark places of our soul—and when we become aware and sorry for it, when we repent of our sin, we want to go home, back in the embrace of our loving God.

Lent is a time to come to ourselves, to realize the distance we put between ourselves and God, to recover our desire for God.  Henri Nouwen said, “The spiritual life starts at the place where you can hear God’s voice.”  That happens in different ways for each one of us.  Our ears must be ready to listen, eyes ready to see so we can really perceive.  Coming to ourselves prepares us to return home, however home is understood.   

The prodigal son’s journey into darkness--away from home, away from God--begins with the demand, “give me”: “Give me my inheritance.”  When he comes to himself, his journey home ends with the plea, “make me”: “Make me one of your hired hands.  His father’s response isn’t the grudging “give me the money you wasted/ give me the apology you owe me”, but rather, the joyful attitude of “make me your father again.”  [Bass Mitchell]

God’s “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling” is the gate into God’s new creation.  God believes so much in love, and invites us to try it, too.

Thirteen-year-old Christopher John Francis Boone is the narrator of Mark Haddon’s novel, “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.”  He knows every country in the world and its capital.  He’s a math whiz.  He’s especially fond of prime numbers.  One of his favorite things is to take a person’s name and add in his head the number value of each letter--1 for “a”, 2 for “b”, 26 for “z”—to see if the total makes a prime number.  He can recite the prime numbers up to 7,057.  From memory, he draws detailed maps of places he has been.  He never, ever, lies. 

He’s remarkable—and he’s a challenge, especially to his parents.  Christopher can’t look at someone’s face and tell if it’s happy or sad.  He goes berserk when he’s touched, and he gets dizzy if the furniture is out of place.  Although he can’t stand the color yellow, he’ll eat certain yellow food—but only after putting red food coloring in it to make it orange.  He loses his appetite if one kind of food touches another.  He doesn’t like anything new. 

Christopher’s mother and his father argue frequently about him.  While his father accepts him the way he is, adapts to his quirks, and rarely loses his temper, his mother has very little patience with Christopher’s fears and obsessions.  She resents not being able to hug him.  At times, she plays cruel jokes on him.  Even after he’s diagnosed with autism and they understand he can’t help being the way he is, she’s unable to accept this as a forever way of life--it’s just too hard.  So one day, she runs away, goes to live in London with the man across the street.  To spare Christopher from the truth, Father tells him she had a heart attack, and, later, that she died,

Over the next 2 years, his father patiently deals with one thing after another: bailing the boy out of jail for hitting a policeman who touched his arm—having the woman Father dated end the relationship because of Christopher’s strangeness—haggling with Christopher’s school to gain permission for him to test for upper-level math classes.    

And then came the incident of the letters.  Christopher’s mother wrote her son each week, but Father hid the letters so the boy wouldn’t know she was alive.  Christopher finds them, reads all 43, and realizes the truth: she didn’t have a heart attack; she’s not dead; and worse, his father lied to him.  In his way of seeing the world, everything is right or wrong—lies or truth—black or white.  It doesn’t matter that his father lied only to protect him.  All he understands is that the contract between them is broken and he can’t ever trust his father again. 

And so he runs away to London, to find his mother.  When his father tracks him down later that night, Christopher screams and refuses to speak to him, continues to refuse for a very long time.  Yet his father persists, working calmly and gently and patiently, month after month, to be let back into Christopher’s life. 

Have you ever loved someone so deeply, so selflessly? 

Has anyone ever loved you that much?

God does.