Hand it to Jesus. He knows what he's doing. Hand it to Jesus. He knows what he's doing because this isn't a story about a dad and his two sons as much as it is about church life in general and us here at First Congregational-UCC in particular. Let me prove it. We can find ourselves in the three characters Jesus talks about in this story: the younger son who takes his earthly inheritance and runs, the father who, with loving arms, accepts his wandering son's return, and the eldest son who resents his brother's warmhearted homecoming.

Let's talk about these three and see how this lesson from Jesus is about acceptance—acceptance of who we have been and where we have been, and, just as importantly, acceptance about who we are in regard to God's love for us. Taking a look at our three sermon points along the way, we'll see that, with God's love, we can know and name who we are more fully, and, in knowing opinion more easily. 

First, we can accept difficulties. We can face difficulties and, like the younger son, turn them around, or, more specifically, we can turn ourselves around and get back to God.

No matter who we are, we have all been in the shoes of the younger son. That realization is important enough to make it our first sermon point this morning. We have been, at least in part, in the shoes of the younger son.  Call it the sin we inherited from Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden or your own waywardness, we have been wanderers at some point in our Christian lives, or wander still today. We have been to places that have left us not starving for real food, like we have here in scripture, but just so hungry for spiritual food, spiritual food we talked about last week in the Isaiah passage. And we've been so hungry for the greater connection that we come back. We're so sure of God's mercy for us that we return. We're so convinced of God's love locked in for us that we walk back into his arms again. And God is there. Like in our story today, God even comes out to meet us.

This is true. Otherwise, we wouldn't see such a faithful church following, even on a morning where we've lost an hour of sleep. We wouldn't see such devotion to our committees; we wouldn't see such faith in our future, a future we are building on. Out in a dark and often nasty world, we realize, time and time and time again, that it's good to come home to God.

You're here today because you said yes to God, aren't you? You're here today because you chose to come back to your Father's house, and the reward—the reward far, far greater than the banquet held for the youngest son—is here. The love is here. And because that love is here, we can face difficulties. And when we face difficulties (not cower or try to quit from them), these difficulties are overcome.

With difficulties overcome by our turning, or, in the case of the younger son, returning to God, now, in a second step, let's move on to diversity.

Again, I shared this sermon is about acceptance—acceptance of where we've been and acceptance of where God always is in our lives.

Let's move on now to our second point and the eldest son. Hopefully none of us here would think of going to the places the first son went with his emotions and his actions. We wouldn't exclude ourselves from the banquet of God's presence on a Sunday morning here in church because someone we haven't seen in awhile has returned. In other words, with that so-and-so here in church, we wouldn't stop coming. That would be exclusionary, and that's not God. God welcomes the differences, the diversity, the outcasts, the downtrodden. See God apparent, God who is clear or obvious, is welcoming of all his children.

And, in His image, we can be just like Him. Let Jesus speak and remind us all that we need to be very careful and very sensitive when it comes to the return of someone here. That's our second point this morning. We need to be very careful and very sensitive when it comes to the return of someone here.

Since 2008, when my fulltime ministry here began, I've heard more than a few times someone say this: "Boy, when I came back to this church, I'll tell you pastor, I heard, 'Well, where have you been?'"

Be careful. Be sensitive. Again, that's point two. Watch your words. However well you intend them, words can still be misconstrued or misinterpreted. Sometimes 'less is more', meaning a hug and or a handshake with that eye-to-eye I care about you thing going on means so much more than any words other than, "It's good to see you."

Consider a sermon sometime back that lifted the fact that it is very difficult for some to return to church after an extended absence. Someone away from church for three months—or maybe even three years—may well be coming through a lot more than just the doors to the sanctuary here.

There is diversity. Point two doesn't apply only in church situations. You have friends or family who, in not coming to church, who, in being 'different' than you, bill you as 'religious.' You know someone in your life—be it your spouse, your sibling, your nephew, the woman who shares a cubicle near you at work—and that person sees you a bit differently, holds you a bit further apart, or carries just a bit of resentment against what you have and they think they do not have.

Be careful. Be sensitive. In more subtle and far less slam-you-over-the-head ways, do not be like the first son. Instead, let that person know your love of God. Let that person know of your love for God by what you do more far than by what you say. In other words, we've talked about love not as a feeling but as an action for about a month now, let your love of God and your love for that person draw that person to God.

We all know people who don't get religion—but let me say from a heart as caring as yours—this: we all know people who don't get religion yet.

Be careful. Be sensitive. Be kind. Be patient. Let God's love guide you. Rather than bark out words, bite further into a prayer life that enables your friends and/or family members to see how you live your life. Sharing the importance of God in your life goes a lot further than slapping someone with the question, "And just where you spend eternity?" Talking about a sermon or a hymn or a miracle in your day reaches a lot further than the question, "Do you even know where a church is?"

This can seem difficult. How do I know what say? How do I know what to do? Accept that God is with you always. Do not despair. Do not be discouraged. God is here. God is clear. God is apparent.

And that's our sermon title. God is apparent in His love for all of us. And that love is transformative. That love is informative. That love is substantive. That love, that energy, has no end. That's our third point this morning. God's love, God's energy, has no end.

We talked first about difficulties with the second son, and about diversity (or overcoming diversity) with the first son. Now, finally, we'll talk about how God's love can help us all understand and overcome differences of opinion.

Differences of opinion are our lot in life. Someone I respect very much shared this past week of how all churches have problems, and this person meant that all churches have problems because all churches are made up of people.

This person shares this: people can change. People can learn. People can overcome differences of opinion. And people can change, learn and overcome differences of opinion when we accept this truth from our lesson last week: God's ways are higher than our ways, and God's thinking is higher than our thinking.

This sermon is about acceptance. He's got this. Now give it to him.

This sermon is also about the bears we heard about in the children's sermon a few minutes ago. We barely give to God what we should. God does have this. Now give it to Him.

Give your situation this morning to God. Give your worry or your trouble, give that name that's in your heart over to God. As a Father, as a parent, His care for you is greater than you can ever conceive in your imagination. This story proves it. God, as a parent, God who is apparent, makes this clear: love Him and He will love you back.

Love the one who loves you.

Today we looked at three points. Through this scripture, we see that we can accept difficulties, overcome diversity, and, with God apparent, we can level differences of opinion.  And again, we do this all by loving the one who first loved us.