God is Faithful Still (Isaiah 46:3-4 and 49:14-16, and Luke 15:11-24)

We continue our series on “The Brief Statement of Faith,” a creed or confession of the Presbyterian Church, with a look at lines 41-51 today.  Please pull out your bulletin inserts; you’ll find these lines on the back of that page, up at the top.  Let’s read them aloud together.  Lines 41-51:

In everlasting love,
The God of Abraham and Sarah chose a covenant people
To bless all families of the earth.
Hearing their cry,
God delivered the children of Israel from the house of bondage.
Loving us still,
God makes us heirs with Christ of the covenant.
Like a mother who will not forsake her nursing child,
Like a father who runs to welcome the prodigal home,
God is faithful still.

Sometimes you’ll hear Christians talk as if the Old Testament doesn’t really matter a whole lot.  As if ours is strictly a New Testament faith, and the Old Testament contains a bunch of confusing bits that we might as well skip right over.   But the two halves of God’s story revealed to us in the Scriptures go together so closely that it really doesn’t work to divide one from the other.  And notice that here in the “Brief Statement of Faith,” the authors are clear not only that the God of the OT is the God of the NT, but that the story itself continues from one testament to the next.  It is the very same God of grace, who reached out to the people of Israel, who also reaches out to us, in Jesus Christ.

We are reminded here in the creed that we as Christians worship the God of Abraham and Sarah, patriarch and matriarch of the people of Israel.   Back in Genesis 12, God not only promised Abraham and Sarah a land of their own, and a great number of descendents, but also promised that through them all families of the earth would be blessed.  Meaning even we are descendants, in a way, of that same covenant.

This same section of the creed also invokes the story of the Exodus, though it’s not named as such.  But that’s what it’s talking about in the lines that read: “hearing their cry, God delivered the children of Israel from the house of bondage.”  The Hebrew people were slaves to the Egyptians, and Moses was called by God to go to Pharaoh and demand their release.  A release that didn’t come until a series of plagues visited the Egyptians, after which the Hebrews were finally allowed to leave Egypt, making their way across the Red Sea, and beginning their journey toward the promised land of Canaan.  Again, this important part of Israel’s story is invoked here in a Christian creed, reminding us that the biblical story is one story, from Genesis right through Revelation.  The same God who made promises to Abraham and Sarah makes promises to us.  The same God who heard the cries of the Hebrew people in Egypt, and delivered them, stands ready to hear our cries as well.   God loves us still.  God is faithful still.  And we are made heirs of that same covenant, through Christ.

Still more biblical references lie behind the last couple of lines in today’s section of the creed.  You heard, as Laura read our texts from Isaiah this morning, that the range of biblical metaphors for God includes references like these, to God as mother.  “Listen to me … all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne by me from your birth, carried from the womb… I have made and I will bear; I will carry and I will save.” (Isaiah 46:3-4)  “Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb?  Even these may forget, but I will not forget you…I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.” (Isaiah 49:14-16) And the story Jesus tells in Luke 15, the parable of the prodigal son, lies behind the last line there – “like a father who runs to welcome the prodigal home, God is faithful still.” God will not give up on us, no matter what we do. None of our actions, not even our faithlessness, can ever negate God’s faithfulness to us.  God loves us still.  God is faithful still.

Can you think of examples of God’s love and faithfulness in your own life?  In the life of someone close to you?  We may think of God demonstrating faithfulness primarily when our prayers are answered the way we want them to be answered.  And certainly there is much to celebrate about God’s goodness when that happens.  But remember, too, that it can sometimes be in our most difficult moments that we feel God’s presence with us.  Faithfully sticking by us, when everytying else seems to be falling apart.  So not only when things are turning out the way we might wish, but even and perhaps especially when life feels frustratingly out of our control, we are invited to call to mind these same words of comfort:  “Like a mother who will not forsake her nursing child, like a father who runs to welcome the prodigal home, God is faithful still.”

Stories of God’s faithfulness can be quite personal to each of us.  So I want to offer you some time to reflect privately on them for a few minutes.  This morning you are welcome – as we did last week – to simply reflect while seated, on the questions you’ll see on p. 10 in your bulletins.   Or this time, if you wish, you’re invited to come forward during these next few minutes of quiet music, to light a candle as you remember a circumstance of God’s faithfulness to you, or to someone close to you.  It could be an answered prayer, a moment of great joy.  Or it could be a painful or difficult time, when you were nonetheless aware that it was God who carried you through it.  Either way, light a candle as you recall it, a visible witness to God’s faithfulness.

Parents, your kids are welcome to come forward and light a candle too, so long as you are with them.  You might invite them to consider in their own ways what it means to say that God is good to us, and God loves us.  Or you might simply explain that’s what the candles up front are about.  All of us giving thanks together for God’s goodness and God’s love.

Any of you who do come forward will find instructions here on the table, including a couple of lines from the creed that you are welcome to repeat quietly to yourself if you wish, as you light your candle.  So please feel free to come forward now, or to reflect as you remain seated on the questions printed in your bulletin, as Rob offers us a few minutes of music…

Sign on table with candles:

Like a mother who will not forsake her nursing child,
Like a father who runs to welcome the prodigal home,
God is faithful still.
Thank you God, for your faithfulness!

Reflection questions for bulletin:
If God is like a mother who will not forsake her nursing child, this means God is …
and I am…

If God is like a father who runs to welcome the prodigal home, this means God is …
and I am…

[At conclusion of reflection time]  Let’s stand and say together one more time lines 41-51 of the “Brief Statement of Faith.”  Lines 41-51 on your bulletin insert:

In everlasting love,
The God of Abraham and Sarah chose a covenant people
To bless all families of the earth.
Hearing their cry,
God delivered the children of Israel from the house of bondage.
Loving us still,
God makes us heirs with Christ of the covenant.
Like a mother who will not forsake her nursing child,
Like a father who runs to welcome the prodigal home,
God is faithful still.
Amen!