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John 6:37b I will never turn away anyone who comes to me. Amen.
In Jesus Christ, dear brothers and sisters, we sometimes inconvenience people, when we drop in on them unannounced – although I found, that especially here in South Africa people are still friendly and make you feel welcome even though you are barging in on them unexpected. ¶Now today I would like to tell you about someone who never gets annoyed,unfriendly or even slightly inconvenienced when we come to him no matter who we are, no matter how late it is: YOU ARE WELCOME! In fact, you are very welcome. All the time and forever. He says: I will never turn away anyone who comes to me. Now that is a pretty sweeping statement to make. If we were to make a statement like that, it would sure backfire on us. We might find ourselves very soon with all sorts of unwanted characters and undesirable subjects on our doorsteps, and it might all become a bit much, more than we can handle. I will never turn away anyone who comes to me. Only Jesus Christ can say that. WE wouldn't say that. We would rather make sure first. We like to sift and study, throw out and eliminate, before we cautiously start a new relationship. – Sometimes of course we loose our head completely and get into all sorts of trouble with someone or other. But normally we like to ask many questions like this: Who is coming? When is he coming? Is he coming alone? For how long does he want to stay? Why is he coming? Is he rich? Is he poor? Is he clean? Is he dirty? What's his social standing? What does he do for a living? What sort of upbringing did he have? Which class does he belong to? Which race? What's his nationality? Who were his parents? What's his political background? Is he trustworthy? Is he good looking? What church does he go to? Does he drink or smoke? Are there any mental deficiencies? What's his HIV-Status? AND SO IT GOES ON! In the line of my duty as a missionary I sometimes got questionaires from hospitals and other institutes to fill in, and I was asked to give confidential reports about people from my congregation who were seeking employment. They even asked questions like this one: Has he got a happy or a gloomy dispostion? OR Do you know of anything detrimental in his past? We humans are like that. We want to know and we want to be sure, and more often than not we like to make doubly sure. Check and recheck. Now Jesus Christ doesn't do this. He doesn't ask these questions, not one of them! He simply states: I will never turn away anyone who comes to me.NEVER! Now our presence here this morning in Arcadia bears witness to this fact, and that's something to be very happy about. We have all heard his invitation. We have all come to him, although we are a rather mixed congregation. We come from different countries. We speak different languages.We even come from different churches.And it does not matter at all. We are all one through our Lord Jesus Christ. We are all one in Him! UNITY is a gift only he can bestow upon us. He won't ask you: What's he doing here? OR What does she want here? Nothing like that! But he simply states: I will never turn away anyone who comes to me. And that's a promise you and I can trust. 100 %! The old translation of the King James Bible says: and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. Now we all know, what an outcast is: a dropout freak, somebody who's had it, someone with whom we wouldn't normally associate, unpleasent character.We wouldn't like to be seen with someone like that.¶Jesus Christ doesn't mind. He died for all of us, pleasent or unpleasent. His invitation stands once and for all. He shed his prescious blood for all of us. Aren't we all outcasts of sorts in the eyes of God? Forever rebellious against him, and sometimes even our best intentions backfire on us, its frightening. Day by day our sin seperates us from God and from each other. We are by nature sinful and unclean. Of course we don't like to be reminded of that, but deep down we know, that everything is not as it should be. And what a mess we sometimes make of our lives, of our days, of people and things that we are entrusted with, that we are responsible for! ¶Now we can of course try to straighten things out on our own. Only, we won't get very far that way. I've tried it, and it doesn't work. We are soon back to square one. AND THEN WHAT? Dear brothers and sisters, we won't find the solution in ourselves, that's for sure. We won't square things with God ourselves. We need help. We will only get there when we get to HIM, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who says: Come to me, all of you who are tired from carrying your heavy loads, and I will give you rest.
That's the whole secret! Let us stop pretending and surrender to him. That is so easy, and that is so difficult, because we don't like to admit defeat and failure, we don't like to acknowledge mistakes and wrongdoings. – Let Christ take over, that way we'll last longest, in fact we'll last forever. With him this venture – our life her on earth – won't be an adventure that ends in desaster. We are all important to him, every single one of us. With him it's like a person to person call. He means you personally, and he means me personally, when he invites us like this: I will never turn away anyone who comes to me. That to me is a great comfort. And I have experienced it in the darkest hours of my life: He is always nearest to those who need him most. It might take a lot of patience and prayer, but it's true what he says: I will never turn away anyone who comes to me.
I don't know who you are or what's in your heart this morning. I can't see into your soul. But I know this: If you are full of doubts, afraid or worried, if you are anxious, scared or confused, if you are drifting or searching, if you are shy or just hiding behind your big mouth and your designer clothes, if you have big or small problems, if you are lonely or if it is dark around you, just open your ears & listen: You are welcome! If people shut doors in your face, he opens new one: You are welcome! There is more: We are allowed to come as we are. He will change us himself in time. So let me show you the Lord, as he hangs on his cross for you and for me. His arms are widespread, inviting us all in his merciful love to come to him and to stay and accept his forgiveness. There is no need to be miserable any more. Why don't you tell him that you are and ask for a new start? Why despair and be frightened? His invitation stands even tomorrow, when we start another week full of work and worries. I will never turn away anyone who comes to me. With that we can start a whole new life. Jesus Christ will open new horizons for us. You'll be surprised. His promise is reality. His word is clear, straitforward, sobering and trustworthy; rocksteady, solid and dependable, something to cling to and to depend upon in a crisis. This will hold when everything else snaps. I am inviting you all to believe that, to accept his friendly invitation: I will never turn away anyone who comes to me. Thank you for that, dear Lord Jesus Christ. Amen |
