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Holy Trinity Anglican Orthodox Church
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Wonderful |
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Isaiah 9:6-7 First Sunday of Advent December 2, 2007 The Great Pyramid, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Lighthouse of Alexandria, what am I talking about here? Don’t know? What if I add the statue of Colossus at Rhodes? I am listing the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, aren’t I? Of course, when we start talking about wonders, it is hard to know where to stop, so if you look up the wonders of the world you will see they are divided into many categories, and they are no longer limited to seven. There are many items in each category, and rightfully so, because it would be difficult to know which things should or should not belong on the list if it were limited to seven, or even to a hundred. Is the Grand Canyon more of a wonder than a caterpillar that turns into a butterfly? Is the Aurora more of a wonder than a lightning bug? Is a lightning bug more of a wonder than the life that exists in plants and animals, and even in bacteria and protozoa? It is truly difficult to limit the list of wonders, but it is not difficult to know where to start. It starts with God. He is the source of all else. He is the Great I Am. He is eternal, for time itself is His creation. He is self-existing, and all else exists only in Him. He is self-determining, and He determines all else. He is the Wonder of Wonders. All wonders exist in Him, and He is more wonderful than all else combined. Thus, when, through the prophet Isaiah, God described the Messiah to us, it is no …wonder… He said, “His name shall be called Wonderful.” He is wonderful because He works wonders. As we look through the pages of the Gospels we are confronted with so many miracles, we almost begin to take them for granted. We’ve heard the story of the feeding of the five thousand so many time we almost fall asleep in the middle of it. It ceases to amaze us. Yet His miracles are called signs and wonders. They are wonders to behold. They are inexplicable by natural means. They are the signs of God. He is wonderful because His being is wonderful. We are men. I use that term as the Bible and the Prayer Book use it, as a synonym for human beings. We know about man. We even know something about God. But put the two together and you have a great wonder. Some would say it is impossible to join the two. Down through history there have been many who deny either the humanity or the Deity of Christ. God is “other” than man, and man is “other” than God, they say, and like oil and water they cannot “mix” in one person. Yet, that is exactly what the Bible says happened in Jesus. He is the God/Man. He is God, become man while yet remaining God. This was absolutely essential if Jesus was to be our Saviour. He had to be fully human. He had to live by the Laws of God, by faith, and by the Holy Spirit, with no special privileges or insights, save for the fullness of the Holy Spirit dwelling in Him after His baptism, just like every other man. If He were not fully human, His sinless life was a farce. In the same manner, He had to be fully Divine and suffer vicariously for us on the cross, or His crucifixion could not save us. The wonder of Christ is that He was/is the God/Man. He is wonderful because His love is wonderful. More wonderful than that God could become man, is that He would become man. What would cause God to become a man, to live in this fallen world, to suffer rejection, and humiliation at our hands, and, finally, even to die for us? Love alone is the answer. “God is love.” “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Love was His motivation for creating the world. Love was His motivation for creating the trees and the animals. Love was His motivation for creating us. And when we had gone astray, when we had rejected Him and loved His gifts instead of the Giver, and loved our sins instead of His righteousness, and loved ourselves instead of Him, it was love that motivated Him to come to earth Himself, and offer Himself on the cross, and, thus, redeem our souls from the jaws of hell. “I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me,” said St. Paul in Galatians 2:20. “The Son of God, who loved me.” Remember Paul had been a persecutor of the Church. It was Paul who held the cloaks of those who stoned Stephen to death, heartily approving their deed. It was Paul who was on his way to Damascus to imprison Christians when the Lord appeared unto him. How many Christians had died because of Paul? How many families had been separated, children orphaned, and homes destroyed because of Paul? Yet he could say, “the Son of God … loved me and gave Himself for me.” Likewise we, miserable offenders, having gone astray like lost sheep, having lived as though God has no claim upon us, having offended against His holy laws, having left undone those things which we ought to have done, and having done those things which we ought not to have done, even we can say, “the Son of God … loved me and gave himself for me.” What wondrous love is this, O my soul? What wondrous love is this, that caused the Lord of bliss, To bear the dreadful curse for my for my soul?” He is wonderful because His mission is wonderful. Born of a virgin, raised from the dead, lifted bodily into Heaven, these wonders were part of His mission. Healing the sick, raising the dead, calming the storm, these, too, were His mission. But all these pale in comparison to the great essence of His mission, to be “the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world.” When we were lost sheep, alone and vulnerable in the wilderness of sin, we were unable to find our way back to the flock or to the Good Shepherd. That is the definition of being lost. So The Good Shepherd came to us. The Good Shepherd took us in His arms and carried us back to the fold. When we were dead in our trespasses and sins, we couldn’t make ourselves alive again. But the Great Physician touched our dead souls with the balm of His power and raised us up to life in Him. That was the mission, the wonderful mission of Christ, accomplished the only way it could be done, by giving His life on the cross as the ransom for our souls. “The Son of God … loved me, and gave himself for me.” Truly, His Name is Wonderful. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus, Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace, who loved us and gave Yourself for us, we give Thee thanks for Thy great mercy, and wondrous love, which brought us out of our darkness and death, and into Thy light and life. Grant, O Lord that we may ever dwell in Thee, and Thou in us, through Christ our Lord. Amen. The Rev. Dr. R. Dennis Campbell, Vicar, Holy Trinity Anglican Church,
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