This past week I read the story of Tom. He was a thief. Just 14 years old, but a daring, quick, very good thief He worked as student assistant to the school custodian washing blackboards, sweeping floors, pushing desks back into neat, straight rows..... and raiding students' lockers and teachers' desks, stealing small change and valuables. He knew where the master key was kept, and knew how to get it, use it quickly and return it without anyone knowing.

Over the weeks and months the school community grew annoyed at their losses. Usually they were small, but once the money, a lot of it, from candy sales at the basketball game was gone. Another time an 8^th grader left her birthday money in her locker to find it gone on Monday.

Tom, meanwhile, was trying to geth the most mileage he could out of the thefts: buying clothes to impress his classmates, buying little presents for people he admired. Blowing a lot of money on video games. Yet all people would do is look strangely at him and walk away. He never got the friends he so desperately craved, and remained lonely, terribly lonely....
unaccepted.

Tom knew it was a time bomb ticking in his life. One day he would be caught and it would blow him up. The conscience that Tom had taught to shut up so that it wouldn't shout at him began to whisper insistently at night. Some nights he could hardly sleep. Other nights he was troubled by nightmares of being chased by people with guns and handcuffs.

Then, one Thursday, he was caught. As he was going through Mr.Gunsts' desk, Tom was startled by a voice. Mr. Gunst, the history teacher, had suddenly materialized behind him and was asking in a quiet voice what Tom was doing. Tom tried to imagine some innocent reasons why he would be searching Mr.Gunst's desk, but he couldn't think of any. He could tell from the tone of Mr. Gunst's voice that he couldn't, either.

So they talked.
Mr. Gunst was one of those teachers you didn't exactly like but you always respected. He never joked around with students; he was a firm man.
But he was also fair.
At first Tom tried to lie about all the other thefts. But by now he was feeling tired and small and guilty. Besides, Mr Gunst was remarkably hard to lie to. Tom ended up admitting everything.

He even admitted the reason for his stealing:
he told Mr Gunst he felt unaccepted and out of the centre of things, and was trying to get in.

Mr Gunst's attitude was interesting. He was firm about what Tom had done. It was plain wrong. Stealing could not be justified. Tom would have to make friends some other way, some right way. And somehow the stolen money would have to be repaid.

On the other hand - perhaps because Tom was so miserable and felt so wrong and guilty - Mr Gunst was incredibly kind to Tom himself. He acted as if, although Tom had done something all wrong, Tom himself was all right. Mr gunst did not justify what Tom had done, but he did justify Tom. That is, he accepted Tom, forgave him for going through his desk, and tried to arrang e things so that Tom could be reconciled with the school community.

In doing these things, Mr Gunst - knowingly or otherwise - gave us a wonderfully active picture of God, and how He in His holiness acts towards us.

All of us, I think, can identify with Tom to some degree. None of us can live in total issolation and rejection from those around us.
We need others.
Acceptance is not some frill we can do without.
All of us have a need to be accepted -
- by ourselves
- by our fellow human beings....
- and by God.

It appears more openly sometimes than others.
The teenage years are probably the high point for that. Those who, in middle age, sigh whistfully and say, "my, those were the happy days" obviously have forgotten them. They can be excruciating days of seeking acceptance, and being willing to do almost anything to get it..... including theft.
Perhaps that struggle isn't always as a teenager.
Sometimes it's earlier.
Sometimes later.
Perhaps for some of you it's happening right now.

And somewhere along the way - somewhere in our life - we all end up standing in the space where we have to wrestle and struggle with finding acceptance.....
.... by God.

Oh - I know - perhaps we can stuff that down for some years. Even say it doesn't matter at all. But eventually a close friend dies unexpectedly, or we grow older and come closer to the statistical end of the road, or we go through a tragedy or some other difficult time where we need help and feel all alone.
And we begin to think about eternal things.

It is at times like that when a particular nagging though may well lodge itself into the back of our mind. One that says, "Hey, what about it? Is it really good? Does God really smile at you....... or is He frowning?"

That can be an awkward question.
I mean - there are very few people who will claim to being perfect.
Virtually everyone has a sense that their life's track record contains some blemishes. Whose doesn't?

And we'd like to think that God will give us the benefit of the doubt..... except for some of those sentences from the bible which we have heard or read somewhere along the line. Sentences like:

• Be perfect, therefore, as your Father in heaven is perfect. (Mt 5.48)
• All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. (Rom 3.23)
• The wages of sin is death. (Rom 6.23)

Which would leave us in terribly sad shape.
We might as well not baptize any more babies. Close the doors.
I'll go get some other kind of job.
And we may as well dig into whooping it up as wild as we can. Medicate things away.
Since there's nothing else beyond.
BUT
never
never
never
let anyone let you even begin to dream that this is the case.
'Cause there's more.
There's lots more!

We have a God with an amazing attitude towards us.
He is very firm about what we have done. There is much in our lives which is just plain wrong. We can't even begin to come up with innocent reasons to justify it.
On the other hand, God is incredibly kind to us. He acts as if, though what we have done was something all wrong, we ourselves are alright. God doesn't justify what we have done.... but He does justify us.

In other words - He accepts us.
He forgives us for violating the trust He has placed in us.
He arranges a way for us to be reconciled with Heaven.

If you want to get right down to it - know what the basic message of the Bible is?
It's a message of acceptance!
God accepts me.
I can now accept this great fact for my life.

Open your hymn books, please. I ask you to join me in reading q/a60 of the Heidelberg Catechism (p.886).

Question they ask is - how are you right with God?
Or - we could easily put it - how can you get to the point where God will accept you, welcome you, enjoy you, in His presence?

Join me in reading the answer, please:
Only by true faith in Jesus Christ.
Even though my conscience accuses me
of having grievously sinned against all God's commandments
and of never having kept any of them,
and even though I am still inclined toward all evil,
nevertheless,
without my deserving it at all,
out of sheer grace,
God grants and credits to me
the perfect satisfaction, righteousness and holiness of Christ
as if I had never sinned nor been a sinner,
as if I had been as perfectly obedient
as Christ was obedient for me.
All I need to do
is to accept this gift of God with a believing heart.

Do you morals stack up to heavenly perfection?
Is your thought life heavenly pure?
Are your actions and motives without flaw?
..... don't have to say much, eh? Perhaps you find the language strong, but I think deep down each one of us gets and resonates with the stuff about being unworthy and sin-stained........
right?

AND YET!!!!
God looks at me - He looks at you
with the same favour and love and interest and welcome as He does His holy son Jesus!!

This doesn't mean that God tolerates sinful behaviour.
Think of what Mr Gunst said to Tom - things could not remain the way they were. Things had to be cleared up. Restitution had to be made.
Somehow there had to be payment for the wrong.

God does not tolerate sin; overlook it; wink at it. It is an affront to Him.
So - someone has sinned. Someone must pay.
And that someone...... is Jesus.
We are accepted by God because Jesus was rejected.
We are loved and cared for because Jesus was left out in the cold and dark; left to suffer without anyone listening to His cries.
He suffered what we, by right, ought to have suffered.

What does God do with sin?
Have a look at this overhead. Read it out loud with me, please:
- The Lord takes away sin (2 Samuel 12.13)
- He takes away sin as filthy garments (Zechariah 3.4)

- He removes sin as far as east is from west (Psalm 103.12)
- He sweeps away sin (Isaiah 44.22)
- He blots out sin (Psalm 51.1)
-He puts all our sins behind His back (Isaiah 38.17)
- He hurls all our sins into the depths of the sea (Micah 7.19)

God forgives everyone who surrenders their life to Jesus; places their life in the hands of Jesus. Jesus paid the penalty - and sin no longer comes between the believer and God.
It is over. Gone. Removed.
No longer will God dwell on it, harbour it, or nurse a grudge.

Hear these amazing words of the Bible -

Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 5.1)

Simple words.
Powerful in meaning.
....... and terribly hard for us to pick up -
because we're such independent people; who hate to admit that we're wrong, or corrupt in some way. We like to think we can contribute. We don't like to think of ourselves as culprits. We tend to behave like Tom when confronted by Mr Gunst - standing before God and trying to deny the other thefts, the hastily spoken words, the moments of vicious anger, the lustful thoughts, when we ignored God.

And God patiently waits until we are willing to crumble before Him, feeling tired and small and guilty, knowing that God is remarkably hard to lie to, and telling Him everything, even the reasons why we did what we did - what our hopes and ambitions are.

So come - open. Honest. Come.
For God waits. Desiring your presence.
You!
Accept you.
Love you.
Hold you and keep you for all eternity.
You....
For Jesus' sake.