The Prodigal Son for Radley Confirmation

Harry was just a little more rebellious than your average Radleian. He was a little bit cheekier than the norm in the shell, a little bit more streetwise in the remove, a time when he spent more than the average amount of evening down at the 'stro, and his character continued developing in the same direction from then on. He was deep into the dark tunnel of adolescence by the beginning of the fifths, and stared stubbornly into the middle distance when his French teacher told him he had got 0 out of 20 in his coursework.
In fact that was the year that things really did begin to go badly wrong in Harry's life. He came home at Christmas to his parents house in Chelsea - his mother was at home as usual and his father at work in his chambers - he was a barrister. Both were worried. They had heard from his tutor that he'd had a rocky term. When the reports arrived his Father called him up to his study, something he had only ever done once before when he deliberately hit his sister in the face using his x-box as ball and chain - punishment for her eating his last rolo.
They read through a few reports. It was a sorry tale through and through. Harry remembered a few catch phrases: "with great opportunity comes great responsibility", "It's only because I care for you, that I'm telling you this". but they were the same old, tired, tidy ideas of living life by the rules, thinking of the future, making the most of what he had been given, what he'd heard every single end of term for three years with increasing annoyance.
It was during that conversation that Harry decided he couldn't be bothered with all of this any longer and that he was going to leave home, and school as well, for that matter.
The next morning he looked up flats to rent in Fulham found one and arranged to be there at 12, threw some things into a bag, told his mum he was leaving until further notice and left the house.
His parents didn't hear from him for six months, he refused to answer their calls. He moved again so they wouldn't find out where he lived. He worked as a waiter for a year and then stacking shelves until he was eighteen. In all that time Harry had no contact with and no time for his Dad and his way of life at all, but his Dad was still useful for one thing. His Dad was sitting on Harry's inheritance. After he'd got that from him, he could break off contact forever. His Dad might as well die for all he cared. So One day he arranged to meet up with his Dad at his office and said "Dad, I'm eighteen, I want my share of the inheritance." That meant the flat that they were letting in Notting Hill. His Dad tried to reason with him but it was no use. Within a month the house was on the market, and in two Harry had an extra £200k in his bank account.
As he turned to walk down the steps outside his Dad's office it was as if he was turning not just to leave the place, but to break away from the person too. His back, his eyes, his mouth, and even his mind were turned away from his father and turned only towards his own life from now on.

He set off for Bangkok, Thailand, apparently the Sloane square of the East but without any prying parents, and resolved to live it up. He invited friends out there to stay with him at his own expense. He could be found in the best clubs and bars, buying the most expensive champagne, living the high and wild life with anyone he could find. In fact the wilder the activity the more he wanted to do it. He would pay for the most expensive prostitutes, and when he got bored of that he tried marihuana, and when that wasn't enough he went onto harder drugs, each time pouring the inheritance his father had given him into the bottomless pit of his own pleasure. He came back one morning from an all night full moon party and went to a cash point to get some money. But it was gone. As quickly as his life had changed, his balance had emptied.
He was thrown out of his living quarters, and had no money even to eat. Finally he convinced the local municipality to give him a job clearing up rubbish after the midnight revelers. His pay was just under a pound a day. He wanted to eat the remains of the discarded cold kebabs from the polistyrene boxes strewn across the beach each morning just to save himself from hunger.
After around three months and a particularly cold and wet night under some palm trees on the beach, Harry got to thinking for the first time about home and his parents, probably sitting around a warm fire with mum's carrot cake at that very moment. Suddenly he was overcome with longing to be back there, in the safety and warmth of home. but how could he? He had closed those doors for ever he thought. Effectively, asking for his inheritance so early, he'd wished his father dead, he'd rejected pretty much all that his family had fought for in his education, and all that they stood for. If that wasn't enough, he had squandered all that his loving father had prepared for him in his inheritance. He could never look his father in the face again.
No he couldn't go home. Not as a son. But he just couldn't face carrying on here either. Perhaps he could go back as gardner, just ask his Dad for the minimum wage, keep his head down and live his life out quietly.
In that moment he decided, just as he had so resolutely turned away at the steps of his father’s office, to turn back. He realised his mind had already changed, he no longer wanted the life he had made for himself out there, life without his family, focused only on himself. And so just as his mind had turned back to his family, so he himelf stood up and turned back to go to the city. There he sold his last pair of jeans and paid for half an hour to email home and ask, well, beg for some money for a flight home. Even before he logged off he had a reply from his father. “I’ll be in Bangkok airport tomorrow evening. Meet me there”. He got together his meagre bunch of remaining possessions and headed off to the airport the next day, rehearsing in his mind the words he would say to apologise and ask his Dad to employ him. “I’m sorry Dad, I’ve wronged you, I’ve rebelled against you, in fact I’ve done so much wrong, I’m not worthy to be called your son anymore, please just give me some menial job around the house, I can’t stand this any longer”.
No sooner had he entered the building, his Dad threw his arms around him and as stammered out “I’m sorry Dad, I’ve wronged you, I’ve rebelled against you, in fact I’ve done so much wrong”. But you couldn’t hear the end because his father’s embrace stifled it.
Harry’s father could hardly control himself for the joy of seeing his own son return to him. He calmed himself just long enough to ring his wife and tell her to get all their best friends around, get hold of a marquee, splash out on some top West London catering and get the celebrations going by the time they got home. He shouted ecstaticly down the phone, “Harry’s here, we lost him, darling, but we’ve found him again.”

Perhaps we’re thinking, a nice story a good yarn, particularly good for the real reprobates. But let’s face it we’re not going to run away from home, and we might not get on with our parents perfectly, but we’re certainly not going to ask them for the inheritance early.

But when Jesus told an almost identical story he wasn’t talking about family unity. He was talking about the relationship between man and God.
We may never have asked for the inheritance from the parents, but we’ve certainly all taken what God has given us in creation without so much as a whisper of acknowledgement. We may not have moved out of home, but we’ve certainly made sure we don’t spend too much time in conversation with God our creator. Perhaps we’d never think of turning our backs on our parents, and yet have we not all, so often treated God as if he did not even exist, turning our backs, our eyes, our ears, our minds and our hearts away from him?

We’d perhaps not squander the education our parents gave us like Harry did, but could any of us say that our hands, our lips, our intellects, our time has been consistently devoted to the God who gave them to us? Could we honestly claim that all that he has invested in us we have turned back to him?

Even if our physical reality is very proper and orderly, our spiritual reality is, metaphorically speaking, in Bangkok living the highlife far away from God.

So there we are with Harry I would like us to ask ourselves where we stand in that narrative that I have just related. It might be helpful to consider three stages.
Stage 1 Perhaps we are still in the heady days of independence from God. Just as Harry was, cashing in those cheques for whatever made him happy, completely oblivious to the one who had given him all that he had. If that is where we are, we need to repent. That is one of the three things you will declare on Sunday, “I repent of my sins”. It means change your mind. It’s like the moment that Harry looked around himself on that cold beach and said, this can’t go on, I’ve got it wrong, I need to do a complete u-turn.
So perhaps we need to repent.
Stage 2 Perhaps we identify more closely with Harry after he had changed his mind. Still looking around us, knowing we’re in a mess, knowing even how much better it would be to return to God but not sure what to do next. We’ve repented already, now what? If that is where we are, we need to turn to Christ. That’s another one of the three public statements you’ll make on Sunday. “I turn to Christ”. Just as Harry got up, and turned back towards the city, back towards contact with his father, indeed asked him for forgiveness and restoration, so we should turn to Christ. Despite all our guilt and sin, all that we have done against God, because of Christ’s death on the cross we can be forgiven.
In the parable it’s clearly a no brainer isn’t it. Harry had the option Stay there in the cold eating rotting kebabs or go home. You don’t need to think too long about which one to go for. Harry’s Dad’s part-time gardener had is five million times better than he is, let alone his brother.
It was better even to renounce completely his status as son, to go home as a lowly gardener than to stay in Bangkok, such was the misery. If it’s worth coming back to God even as a servant rather than living for ourselves, how much better would it be to return to him and be welcomed as his son. That’s what he promises. God is not waiting for you to return for him to slap you on the wrist, look you sternly in the eye, and let you in with an ‘alright then, just this once’. Go and sit over there with the naughty ones, and keep quiet. His arms are open wide longing to see you return. As the parable says, he’s longing to put a robe on your shoulders and a ring on your finger. To welcome you. So it’s a sort of soggy apple versus 5 courses in the ritz kind of situation – it’s just a no brainer. You’d go for the ritz, and you’d go for turning to Christ any day. So if that’s us then let’s simply ask the Lord Jesus to save us. Ask God to be part of his family once more. He has promised “ I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”
Wherever you are, send that spiritual email, pray to God and ask to return. He loves to welcome his children home.

Finally, perhaps you have repented, you’ve turned to Christ, and now you wonder what happens next. Perhaps that is a recent thing. This particular parable doesn’t touch on this aspect really, but the bible study we have just done illustrates it powerfully.
The third thing you will declare on Sunday is “I renounce evil”. The parable stops before we find out, but my guess is Harry doesn’t wait for the end of the party only to nick another grand from his Dad and get back to Thailand. He has a new life back with his father. Wasn’t Zacchaeus remarkable. When he met Jesus his life was completely changed, he renounced his former most likely corrupt and treacherous ways, gave half his possessions to the poor and gave back four times the amount he had defrauded. When a person meets Jesus he cannot remain the same, the change may happen slowly or quickly but he will long to renounce evil. That is the third thing which you will declare on Sunday. Let’s ask ourselves, have we yet made that commitment to live a life under Jesus’ rule, rejecting the example of the world around us, even our close friends at times, and renouncing evil.
So those are the three stages, and that is what you will be declaring on Sunday. I repent of my sins, I turn to Christ, I renounce evil. Let’s examine ourselves, can we say those things not just with our lips but also with our hearts?

Pray.

Change my life? OR “Morality is like Art. It’s a matter of Taste”

What is Christian morality, and why should I embrace it?
Consider: a few popular approaches to morality, contrast them with Christian morality
Ethical Hedonism
Perhaps the most common, least complicated and therefore most accessible moral system is Hedonism. It makes pleasure the most important pursuit of mankind, and in most cases, my pleasure.
So how do I know whether something is right or wrong?
Well the question is will it make me happy?
I don’t know if you looked at a self help book in WHSmiths recently, but they give us a real indication of what this will look like. You should do whatever will make you feel good about yourself. Are you feeling oppressed? Don’t be. Be confident and you can always get your way. Are you feeling angry? Don’t let it get the better of you, get it off your chest? Are you unhappy with your marriage? Don’t suffer needlessly, get a divorce. Are you unhappy with being pregnant right now? Don’t let it worry you, have an abortion.
The problem with this approach is that pleasure is a great by-product of life, but a dangerous goal.
I read part of Eric Clapton’s autobiography in the Sunday times a few weeks ago. It became so apparent that here was a man who, in all things had pursued unadulterated pleasure, and he had the tools to do it with as well. So he had a string of beautiful women, whomever he fancied at the time, whether he was married to them or not. He drank he took drugs, lived the high life, any pleasure that money could afford, and it left him a destitute man in the end, because no pleasure was sufficient to cure his yearning, and indeed many pleasures he obtained a great cost, a cost to his family and private life which he only paid later. The fact is an individual may get through his own life unscathed but the mess he will leave behind in other’s lives is untold. So pleasure is not a good one to live for.
Moral relativism – cultural morality
Secondly there is moral relativism. An individual guides himself not by any greater, higher moral principles but often, though not exclusively espouses a cultural morality, that means he chooses the path of least resistance according to the society he is in. He hates the apparent arrogance of those who believe there is one absolute idea of right and wrong. Who are we to lay exclusive claim to morality. What is right for one person may not be right for another. But since we have to choose some kind of code, he’ll go for the society’s consensus. If everyone seems to like the idea of giving to charity, sure he’ll give to charity. If it’s acceptable to dodge taxes, he’ll dodge taxes, If people around him are ganging up on the Jews, he’ll join in, if slavery is the norm in society, who is he to argue?
It’s attractive. The moral relativist doesn’t have to think much – because if morality is relative it doesn’t matter too much. No one can categorically say that what you do is wrong. So you don’t need to beat yourself up thinking about it.
The problem has already been highlighted. Without moral absolutes, ideas about right and wrong that are true for all time and all places, societies very quickly implode morally. The Moral relativist could not say, for example, that there was anything wrong with flying planes into the twin towers, cannibalism, the holocaust, or child labour. You see all these ‘crimes’ were committed by individuals who, according to him, have just as much right to decide what is right or wrong as he does.
You might be thinking, yes but how about moral relativism, only with a couple of unchanging ground rules, like don’t murder, don’t oppress etc.
But that isn’t moral relativism. The moral relativist who signs up to the Human rights Charter is no longer relativist. He is a moral dictator, an absolutist, he is not tolerant at all. The fact that lost of people agree with him does not make him any less absolutist.
Moral absolutism
So that leads us onto moral absolutism. That is laying down a code claiming it is the truth, living by it and justifying intervention in the affairs of others if they transgress against that moral code. This can be horrific, or quite acceptable. The Taleban in Afghanistan prohibited women from working; from wearing clothing regarded as "stimulating and attractive," including the "Iranian chador," viewed as insufficiently complete in its covering); from taking a taxi without a "close male relative"; washing clothes in streams; or having their measurements taken by tailors.
The fact is we are all in some way moral absolutists. Whether we call ourselves tolerant or not, whether we recognise it or not we all have some basic beliefs about right and wrong which we do not believe are cultural, or socially derived but are always true.
The problem is. Which moral absolutes are right. For example, why can you say it is wrong to kill someone because of their faith? What authority do you have over any other person?
But now it really matters. We are all absolutists of one kind or another and the bible says that is because we have God’s laws written on our hearts. Deep down, even if we differ on the rules, we all know there is right and wrong and we want to do right.

Christian Morality
This is where Christian morality comes in.
I believe it answers all those questions and more.
Christian morality has absolutes. But they are not just plucked out of the air, they are God’s commands. The only one in a position to make absolute, uncontestable judgments.
Why do Christians say murder is wrong? Not because they think they are clever, but because God says it.
Why do Christians believe sex is for marriage? Not because they think they are clever but because God says it.
Of course this is wonderfully liberating. Following the majority is an awful way of deciding what is right (imagine being a German during the 2nd world war), it’s just inconsistent to say that you don’t care about morality because everyone makes value judgments weighing up the good and the bad. So how should you live, well what better way than to live the way that the creator designed you. Imagine a monkey got hold of an excellent bottle of wine and went around hitting other monkeys with it because he knew no better. What a waste! How much better to do with it what the maker intended and drink it. In the same way, from our perspective we could easily make a mistake in the way we live because we do not understand what we were created for.
But Christian morality is far more than that. It’s not about following another set of rules, it’s about a whole new purpose.
Imagine you’re an extra terrestrial and your earthling friend invites you to a wedding. Unfortunately your rookie pilot took a wrong turn at the milkyway so you arrive late, only to hear the vows. You hear the following comfort her, honour and protect her,
and, forsaking all others,
be faithful to her as long as you both shall live?
Your English isn’t that good and so you miss the next bit until you hear “to have and to hold, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, till death us do part” Now you have no idea of the background of the event and you can’t read human emotions Illustration about marriage.
You think marriage is just a bunch of rules. Getting married means committing to doing certain things and not doing others that’s all.
Well that’s a gross misrepresentation. Sure there are rules, but marriage is not about rules, the behaviour described in those rules is the outworking of a relationship. And they can’t be separated from the relationship. So, in a marriage relationship for example you can’t go and have sex with someone else who isn’t you spouse and then claim that’s ok because you thought married people are meant to have sex. It’s not just what you do, but who you do it for.
You can’t separate the action from the recipient of the action. It’s the same with Christianity. It is not simply a standalone moral code, which can be bought into according to choice.
Which means following a commandment in isolation doesn’t make you a Christian. It doesn’t make sense to say he’s nice to people and therefore is a Christian anymore than it makes sense to say he’s always doing romantic things for all sorts of different women therefore he’s a good husband.
Christian morality is not just following rules, it is embracing a whole new purpose. That purpose is to live in relationship to him and to live in honour and praise towards him through our moral decisions.

So – hedonism – doesn’t come up with the goods, and spells chaos for the world
moral relativism – an illusion, and who wants to say for example that genocide is a question of cultural context
moral absolutism – great but where do you get your ideas from?
Christian morality – wouldn’t it be a shame to be a monkey missing out on what life is all about because we failed to read the maker’s instructions.