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Holy Trinity Anglican Orthodox Church
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God Is Coming after Us |
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Luke
2 First
Sunday after Christmas December
27, 2009 It
is wrong to think that mankind is somehow seeking after God, but having a
difficult time finding Him. It
is wrong to think that man truly wants to know and love God, but God is
somehow hiding from us, withdrawn, and elusive.
In reality it is we who have withdrawn from God.
It is we who have gone astray.
Like the Prodigal son, we have left our Father's house to spend our
time in the pursuit of things that are only poor substitutes for the glory
of God. We are the ones who
have chosen to live our lives in spiritual pig stys and fill ourselves
with the husks and swill meant for swine.
God created us for better things.
God created us in His own image.
God gave the world into our hands.
God placed us in a Garden, the beauty of which we cannot really
comprehend. The animals were
our friends. Nature was our
servant. Storms and floods,
sickness and death, strife and hate had no place in that Garden.
Only peace and joy and health and life and all good things were
there, and they were all ours. Best
of all, God was there, and we walked with God in unbroken fellowship.
But that was not enough for us.
We wanted to be our own gods.
We wanted to make our own decisions about what is good and evil and
right and wrong. We wanted to
choose these things on the basis of our limited experience and vision
rather than God's infinite knowledge and wisdom.
We wanted to choose these things on the basis of what appeals to us
at the moment, what appears "right for me" rather than on God's
infinite moral perfection. And
so it is we who ran out on God. It
is we who left Him, not He who left us.
It is we who are hiding from Him, not He who is hiding from us. What
makes the Good News Good is that God has not given up on us.
John 1: 14 tells us that the Word who was (is, and always will be)
God, was made flesh and dwelt among us.
We read this rather complacently.
We do find much comfort in it, but I wonder if we really grasp its
meaning. It means God is
coming after us. When I think
of God in this way several images come to mind. I think of the Canadian Mounties and the Texas Rangers
relentlessly pursuing their man, never giving up the chase until they
capture him and bring him to justice.
I think of a hound following a trail with single-minded devotion.
I think of a pack of hounds chasing their prey, wearing it down
until they catch it. Our
knowledge of hounds today is very limited. We see them as gentle, retiring dogs, and they are very
deferential to people. But
put them together in a pack on the trail of their quarry and they are
quite different creatures. They
become possessed by a consuming passion, to capture their prey.
They will run day and night, overcome any obstacle, swim icy
rivers, endure blazing heat or freezing cold, and sustain bodily injury
and death. They seem to be entirely unaware of such things in their
absolute. compulsion to capture their prey.
And when they capture it what do they do? Unless there is some person there to prevent it, they rush
upon it in a wave of fury, tear it to pieces, and devour it. It
is in this way that we should see God coming after us.
There is a very real sense in which it should strike fear into our
hearts to think of it. And yet, this is a comforting thought as well.
For God comes not to kill or destroy us.
He comes not to devour us for His own pleasure.
He comes after us to take us back home.
He comes to take us back into His house.
To take us out of the pig sty and into His glory.
To clean the mud and filth off of us and to dress us in the finest
robes of gold and light. He
comes after us not to punish, but to save us from ourselves.
To take away the pigswill we have been eating, and to feed us on
the sweetest meat and finest food, meat and food that feed the soul unto
everlasting life. Christmas
shows us just how serious God is about coming after us.
This is no small thing that is happening in the animal shed in
Bethlehem. This is God coming
after us by becoming one of us. Indians
used to sneak up on deer by dressing in deer fur and antlers.
In Bethlehem God "dressed" in humanity to come among us
and take us back home. The
Bible is filled with examples of God coming after us. Even in Eden He came to Adam and Eve. Knowing they had sinned, knowing they had rejected Him, He
came after them. They are the
ones who refused to be reconciled. They
are the ones who wanted to pass the buck, never admitting their own guilt,
never repenting of their sin. Why
were they so obstinate? Why
didn't they fall on their knees before God in tears? Why
didn't they beg forgiveness? Why
didn't they cry out to Him that they had tasted sin and it was bitter?
Why didn't they beseech Him to take them back and feed them on the
Bread of Life? Because they
loved their sin. With all its
bitterness, gall, and death, they preferred their sin over God.
Yet God came to them. God
came after them. God
came after Cain. Cain had had
killed his brother, and Cain was running from God, but God came after Him.
God gave Cain every chance to come back, but Cain would not have
God. Cain's heart was closed
to God. It was Cain who left
God, not God who left Cain. God
came after Abraham. God came
after Moses. God came after
Samuel, David, and Isaiah. God
came after Israel when He rescued it from Egyptian bondage, and again when
He rescued it from Canaanite oppression, and yet again when He rescued it
from the Babylonian Captivity. The
Law, the prophets, the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the
ways God comes after us. And
Jesus is God coming after us, God coming after you.
That tiny baby was God invading your world, invading your life.
That cross was God bearing all your sins in His own being, so you
wouldn't have to. When you
think of Jesus in the manger, you should see at least two other images in
your mind. First, you should
see the cross. Jesus came into this world to go to the cross for you. Second, you should see a Shepherd, the Good Shepherd who lays
down His life for His sheep. You
should see this Shepherd going out into the wilderness to seek the lost
sheep. All we like sheep have
gone astray, but the Good Shepherd is not willing that we should remain
lost. He comes after us. He endures the hardship and inconvenience of coming for us.
He faces the dangers, and He pays the price.
Are you surrounded by wolves?
He will scatter them. Does
Satan pursue you like a hungry lion?
He will stand between you and certain death.
He comes for you for your benefit.
He comes to take you home. The
secularisation of Christmas is but one of many examples of the way we run
from God. But no matter how
hard we run we cannot escape the image of the Child lying in a manger.
No matter how we cover our ears we cannot block out the words of
the angels, "unto you is born this day in the city of David, a
Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." And Christmas will always remain a reminder that God is
coming after us, and God is coming for us. Let
us pray. Oh,
God give us the courage to stop running.
Grant us the courage to let You catch us, to take us home.
Help us stop running through this land of death, and let You take
us into the Land of Everlasting Life.
In the Name of Christ, Amen.
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