God's Two Hands
Sermon
GOD'S TWO HANDS
Sermons for Advent, Christmas and Epiphany
Again as the years turn, as the planets swing around the sun, we come to the season of Advent, the renewal of hope, the fulfilment of promise: the Christ is on the way! God brings us back again and again to the moment of hope, of vision. He yearns to see us bring the vision into reality in the relations of human beings on the planet earth. God gives us the vision; he has made it clear in Christ; he offers us sustaining grace; and he waits.
Why not first strive for joy? Everyone wants joy. But it doesn't come that way. Joy comes through righteousness and the universal experience and expression of love made real in life. God waits with a sad heart; but he still holds out the promise:
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised ... In those days ... will I cause the branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land. (Jeremiah 33:14-15)
That is the vision and the promise of every Advent season. God reaches out to us with two hands, offering us the choice between life and death, and imploring that we choose life. Even in the day of Jeremiah, those in touch with the mind of God knew that the Christ was coming. Even in our day, those in touch with the mind of God know that his Kingdom is going to be realized. But there are some hard choices to be made. At the present moment of history we seem to be ignoring those choices and are drifting toward death.
"God's hand is stretched out still." There is the offer of life or death. And as Professor Horton expressively put it, "God has two hands: with one he offers grace, forgiveness, reconciliation; but, if we refuse that hand, he has another, with which he offers penalty, result, consequence. Both of these hands are redemptive; one by appeal and the other by restraint." If our eyes were not blinded by the overwhelming love of money and pleasure; if we could only see the truth about life, the decision would not be hard to make. If we really knew and loved Christ the decision would already be made. What does Advent, the coming of Christ, mean to me?
The Children of Israel in Jeremiah's time had forgotten God. Their private and public morality had disintegrated. That is what is happening in our nation and our world today. When God is out of mind for a people, the awareness of sin does not exist, for sin is a conscious break with God. With a return of an awareness of God there comes a return of the awareness of sin and humankind begins to shape up. If God is not the center of our life, then sin does not exist and anything goes. The bars are down. We break all laws - health rules, psychological rules, the rules of social and international relations. We live it up - and burn out.
In the 18th Century Bishop Berkeley insisted that God was totally involved and present in all of life. He answered the limerick of an Oxford student with one of his own:
Student:
There was a young man who said, "God
Must think it exceedingly odd
If he finds that some tree
Continues to be
When there's no one around in the Quad."
The Bishop's answer:
Dear Sir:
Your astonishment's odd:
I am always around in the Quad.
And that's why the tree
Will continue to be,
Since observed by
Yours faithfully,
God
As God comes back into the awareness of humankind the awareness of sin returns. As James Wall of the Christian Century puts it, "Sin is back because God is back."
Some day Advent will bring God back into our awareness. That's what it's all about!
In fact, I believe it is happening now. Some years ago the psychologist, Karl Menninger, wrote a book, Whatever Became of Sin? It sold 140,000 copies. Scott Peck, the psychiatrist, has just written a best seller, The Road Less Travelled. In this fascinating study the doctor rediscovers God in the struggling subconscious minds of his patients. Old-line churches are rediscovering the Holy Spirit. Sin is back because God is back - and the healing of sin by repentance, by grace and forgiveness, once more emerges.
God is not just "The Man Upstairs"; He is
The master of the universe!
The creator of the universe!
The ruler of the universe!
The center of life!
The Heavenly Father!
Almighty God!
And he is like Jesus!
Jeremiah puts it: "The Lord our Righteousness." And Micah asks, "What doth the Lord require of Thee?"
In personal life,
In sex,
In family,
In human relations,
In love,
In business,
In politics,
In world relations,
In caring for others?
"What doth the Lord require of thee?" We are accountable!
God has never been away (though he has been out of mind). Ignoring God is basic sin. As a result all life breaks down. Our world is experiencing fear, despair, emptiness, everything out of kilter, unprecedented violence, abject loneliness. The human spirit is deeply troubled because of a basic break with God. "We have sinned against Thee, and against Thee only have we sinned." Into such a world God comes with judgment and grace. A person, a business, a home, a nation, a world, not corrected by God's square will fall because of sheer moral gravity. But when we repent and turn to God, he forgives, heals, and enables us. Without God's grace there is no hope.
God has never forgotten us, though we have forgotten God. He demands righteousness and is a giver of righteousness. He is a dispeller of darkness and a healer of wounds. This could be the moment of God's return. If China and Russia could really discover the spirit of Christ - and communism become truly Christian communism; if the United States could really discover and live out the spirit of Christ in all relationships - and capitalism become truly Christian; then the world would have a drastic change of climate and swing into a new orbit of caring, forgiveness, trust, peace, joy and life's ultimate fulfilment. The grace of God in Christ makes this possible. On the other hand, judgment and disintegration continue toward the point of No Return. Jeremiah, in his long struggle as a prophet in Judah, discovered that when his people returned to God, there was peace and return from exile; when they forgot God, there was defeat, moral break-down, hopelessness and misery. These are God's two hands!
"Have you done anything wrong?" asked Bishop Costen Harrell of a children's class. "Yes," came back the answer. "Did you ask God to forgive you?" the Bishop continued. "Yes," was the answer. "Did God forgive you?" persisted the Bishop. "Yes," persisted the children. "How do you know God has forgiven you?" concluded the Bishop. "Because I feel different in here!" explained one of the children.
That is the answer of God's forgiving grace. The soul is released, the heart is made free, the burden is lifted; we are new persons. "He that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out," promised Jesus. That is the history of the Jews, and the history of the human race. Success leads to rebellion against God, and then destruction! Return to God results in restoration, life and peace!
"For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still." (Isaiah 9:12) God's two hands are judgment and grace!
"God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man sows that shall he also reap." One of the most brilliant young men in a church I once served burned up too many brain cells on drugs. The last I heard he was an orderly in a hospital where he could have been head surgeon. Aids appears to have a direct relationship to sexual abuse. Dishonesty in government and business will cost us dearly. Some day we will reap the consequences of the abuses by the C.I.A. Alcohol and drugs are robbing youth and adults of life and sanity. Unfaithfulness is destroying the American home and robbing children of the love and guidance they must have. Outward breakdown originates in inner breakdown.
The "Lord of Righteousness," Jeremiah's hope, announced each Lent has not been allowed to possess our hearts. God is still in charge! When Old Testament people or contemporary people play fast and loose with their fellows, whether it be in wages, rents, dishonest relations, unfaithfulness in marriage, a shoddy day's work, any unfair advantage of others, God is displeased and the universe repudiates such action. "The mills of the gods grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly small." The wicked do not flourish as the green-bay tree. Not really. Down deep there is "outer-darkness" and "weeping and gnashing of teeth."
"I, poor wretch," writes Saint Augustine in his Confessions, "foamed like a troubled sea, following the rushing of my own tide, forsaking Thee, and exceeding all Thy limits. Yet I escaped not Thy scourges. For what mortal can? For Thou wert ever with me mercifully rigorous, and besprinkling with most bitter alloy all my unlawful pleasures: that I might seek pleasures without alloy. But where to find such, I could not discover, save in Thee, O Lord ..."
We look at consequences for a moment, consequences today: a woman driven to suicide by the unfaithfulness of her husband; a man destroyed by the selfish blindness of his wife; a boy committing suicide because his father had to be a playboy; a girl driven insane by the thoughtlessness of both father and mother. These cases and more I have observed. God lets consequences take their course because it may lead us back to sanity and new life. The saving grace of God always awaits us. God is not indifferent. In his prevenient grace he works in many ways to correct our evils and restore us to life. "His anger is not turned away; his hand is stretched out still." No wonder the young people of today sing: "Twas grace that taught my heart to fear: and grace my fears released."
God has two hands: one is grace and forgiveness; the other is penalty and consequence. Both are redemptive. One works by appeal, the other by restraint. Something can be said for Saint Augustine's observation: "We are punished, not so much for our sins, as by them; we are redeemed, not so much for our virtues, as by them."
"God is interested in more than religion"; God is in the whole business of life. Good or bad, we are in his hands. When necessary his hand is outstretched in penalty; when we are ready to accept it, his hand is outstretched in grace. "The Lord chastens those whom he loves." This applies both to personal and corporate history. God is involved with us in life.
That's what the Prodigal Son is all about. At home he was nurtured under the hand of love. He rejected the hand of love. He dissipated his talents and his heritage in a far country - far from the ways of life. Inescapably he felt the hand of consequence. Things refused to turn out right. He was hungry, lonely. No man gave unto him. Only then did he begin to glimpse the meaning of his father's love; only then did he see that his father's servants were better off than he. Now he saw his father for the first time. "He came to himself," and said, "I'll ask father to let me work for him. I am not worthy to be a son."
We know what happened. The father saw him in the distance; he ran to meet him. He took him into his arms, he accepted him, he gave him a banquet, new clothes, a ring on his finger. He was a son again; and this is the old, old story: love and grace, rebellion and break-down; repentance and return, love and grace once more. God guides us into the abundant life with the reins in both the right and the left hand. Judgment and grace are both necessary to life. These are the reins of God, held in his hands, with which he guides humanity and individual persons through the wilderness of life to the "City of God." Even in this machine, computer universe God is present, never unaware, never unconcerned. Justice, fairness, love are built into the constitution of the universe. The universe will not settle for any other terms. Judgment, grace, life, eternal life are ours if we will accept them. "His hand is outstretched still." This is Jeremiah's promised "Lord of Righteousness."
Jeremiah was seeing dimly what Isaiah saw more clearly: (Isaiah 53) "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed."
The mass breakdown in the world today is not a sign of God's absence; to the contrary, it is an undeniable indication of God's presence. It reveals the fact that when the Ways of Life are ignored, the ways of death take over. When the ways of God are laughed at, something terrible comes up out of the drains. The hand of consequence placed the thief on the cross next to Jesus; the hand of love restored him to life. Why is it so hard to learn the simple lessons of life? The Children of Israel would not listen to the prophets until they were carried into captivity. In captivity, they listened, they repented, they changed their life style, and they were restored. The bitter event of the cross brings us to attention. Our sin cost Christ his life. The resurrection puts us on our feet again, with hope in our hearts. Christ bridges the gap between humanity lost, and humanity the redeemed child of God. The hounds of God pursue us in our sins; the Good Shepherd seeks us in our lostness. "His hand is stretched out still." Why is it so hard to see the whole picture of what God is doing?
Alfred Whitehead gives us an interesting picture:
First, we see God, the void, the incomprehensible one.
Second, we draw closer: we tremble in the presence of God, the enemy. Our own unworthiness is revealed in the holiness of God.
Third, there, in encounter, through repentance and forgiveness, we may behold God, the Friend. Then we come alive!
In George Bernard Shaw's drama, Joan of Arc cries out: "Great God, must Christ be crucified in every age to save those who have no imagination?" In an old movie, Humphrey Bogart is shot down flying over the "Hump." In order to escape, he is disguised as a priest. As he works his way from village to village, a Christian altar boy calls on him to celebrate mass. Bogart (unprepared) says: "Their sins will have to wait." "No!" the boy replies: "Their sins can't wait. Their sins are heavy. The people are tired. God can lift their burden, then the people will be free."
God's hand is stretched out still. The world is tired. God can lift the burden of the world, and the people can be free!
In A. J. Cronin's Keys to the Kingdom, Dr. Tullock, the dying physician, says to the priest, "But I cannot believe in God." And the priest answers, "But God believes in you." There is judgment, but there is also grace! The message of Christ was and is, "God loves us." When are we going to get this into our heads, and into our hearts? What are we doing about God's love for us? Edward West asks, "Can you imagine there is a human being in the whole world of no value to God?" No! I cannot. Can you? Then, even I must be in God's concern - and so must you!
This is not of this world! No! It is a glimpse beyond this world. We know it in encounter with Christ. He is out of this world, yet every day in the very midst of this world. This is Advent! The Promise! The Gift! "My Lord, and my God."
The American Ambassador to India and I were on a flight from Kabul in Afghanistan to Lahore in Pakistan. We were flying low over the dangerous Hindu Kush Mountains in an old D.C. 3. As we approached a high mountain wall, a violent thunderstorm blocked our passage. Suddenly our pilot dived the plane. It seemed that we would fly right into the face of the mountain. We held our breath. A gap opened up in the cloud. We slipped through into the glorious sunshine. We were alive. Awesome terror gave way to ineffable beauty! Judgment, then grace! God's anger is not turned away from evil; but his hand is stretched out still in mercy.
God is back; sin is back. God's two hands are consequence and forgiveness. Accept them both. Like the prodigal, come to yourself; go home; before it is too late. As the old Spanish proverb puts it: "God keep you from 'It's too late!'
God does not keep truth hidden. He revealed it long ago. Jeremiah spoke for God: "I will perform that good thing which I have promised ... I will cause the branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land." (Jeremiah 33:14-15)
Listen. The Lord has spoken!
On a Hill at Midnight, near Bethlehem
O God, it's dark tonight,
And bleak the rocks beneath the moon:
The world a tomb
Where is our hope?
O God, the wind blows chill,
And whistles mournful by our cave;
The sheep, here, bleat and huddle -
Where is warmth and life and
love?
O God, I see but one small light
In yonder village on the hill;
And all the darkness of the night
Conspires to blot it out.
Then:
Out of the blackness
Burst a light!
Out of the silence
Came a song!
Out of the village
Rose a Life!
My night of doubt is overcome:
In darkness
I shall ever know the Light;
In silence
I shall ever hear the Song;
In despair
I shall know the everlasting Hope;
In loneliness
I shall never be alone!
For God has spoken;
The night of earth He's broken;
The hills and vales are bright as day;
And I - I see, at last, the heart of things -
For Christ's birth has made the difference!
From All Heaven Broke Loose: A Christian Pilgrimage in Poetry and Art, by Robert G. Tuttle, 1986, C.S.S. Publishing Company.
Why not first strive for joy? Everyone wants joy. But it doesn't come that way. Joy comes through righteousness and the universal experience and expression of love made real in life. God waits with a sad heart; but he still holds out the promise:
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised ... In those days ... will I cause the branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land. (Jeremiah 33:14-15)
That is the vision and the promise of every Advent season. God reaches out to us with two hands, offering us the choice between life and death, and imploring that we choose life. Even in the day of Jeremiah, those in touch with the mind of God knew that the Christ was coming. Even in our day, those in touch with the mind of God know that his Kingdom is going to be realized. But there are some hard choices to be made. At the present moment of history we seem to be ignoring those choices and are drifting toward death.
"God's hand is stretched out still." There is the offer of life or death. And as Professor Horton expressively put it, "God has two hands: with one he offers grace, forgiveness, reconciliation; but, if we refuse that hand, he has another, with which he offers penalty, result, consequence. Both of these hands are redemptive; one by appeal and the other by restraint." If our eyes were not blinded by the overwhelming love of money and pleasure; if we could only see the truth about life, the decision would not be hard to make. If we really knew and loved Christ the decision would already be made. What does Advent, the coming of Christ, mean to me?
The Children of Israel in Jeremiah's time had forgotten God. Their private and public morality had disintegrated. That is what is happening in our nation and our world today. When God is out of mind for a people, the awareness of sin does not exist, for sin is a conscious break with God. With a return of an awareness of God there comes a return of the awareness of sin and humankind begins to shape up. If God is not the center of our life, then sin does not exist and anything goes. The bars are down. We break all laws - health rules, psychological rules, the rules of social and international relations. We live it up - and burn out.
In the 18th Century Bishop Berkeley insisted that God was totally involved and present in all of life. He answered the limerick of an Oxford student with one of his own:
Student:
There was a young man who said, "God
Must think it exceedingly odd
If he finds that some tree
Continues to be
When there's no one around in the Quad."
The Bishop's answer:
Dear Sir:
Your astonishment's odd:
I am always around in the Quad.
And that's why the tree
Will continue to be,
Since observed by
Yours faithfully,
God
As God comes back into the awareness of humankind the awareness of sin returns. As James Wall of the Christian Century puts it, "Sin is back because God is back."
Some day Advent will bring God back into our awareness. That's what it's all about!
In fact, I believe it is happening now. Some years ago the psychologist, Karl Menninger, wrote a book, Whatever Became of Sin? It sold 140,000 copies. Scott Peck, the psychiatrist, has just written a best seller, The Road Less Travelled. In this fascinating study the doctor rediscovers God in the struggling subconscious minds of his patients. Old-line churches are rediscovering the Holy Spirit. Sin is back because God is back - and the healing of sin by repentance, by grace and forgiveness, once more emerges.
God is not just "The Man Upstairs"; He is
The master of the universe!
The creator of the universe!
The ruler of the universe!
The center of life!
The Heavenly Father!
Almighty God!
And he is like Jesus!
Jeremiah puts it: "The Lord our Righteousness." And Micah asks, "What doth the Lord require of Thee?"
In personal life,
In sex,
In family,
In human relations,
In love,
In business,
In politics,
In world relations,
In caring for others?
"What doth the Lord require of thee?" We are accountable!
God has never been away (though he has been out of mind). Ignoring God is basic sin. As a result all life breaks down. Our world is experiencing fear, despair, emptiness, everything out of kilter, unprecedented violence, abject loneliness. The human spirit is deeply troubled because of a basic break with God. "We have sinned against Thee, and against Thee only have we sinned." Into such a world God comes with judgment and grace. A person, a business, a home, a nation, a world, not corrected by God's square will fall because of sheer moral gravity. But when we repent and turn to God, he forgives, heals, and enables us. Without God's grace there is no hope.
God has never forgotten us, though we have forgotten God. He demands righteousness and is a giver of righteousness. He is a dispeller of darkness and a healer of wounds. This could be the moment of God's return. If China and Russia could really discover the spirit of Christ - and communism become truly Christian communism; if the United States could really discover and live out the spirit of Christ in all relationships - and capitalism become truly Christian; then the world would have a drastic change of climate and swing into a new orbit of caring, forgiveness, trust, peace, joy and life's ultimate fulfilment. The grace of God in Christ makes this possible. On the other hand, judgment and disintegration continue toward the point of No Return. Jeremiah, in his long struggle as a prophet in Judah, discovered that when his people returned to God, there was peace and return from exile; when they forgot God, there was defeat, moral break-down, hopelessness and misery. These are God's two hands!
"Have you done anything wrong?" asked Bishop Costen Harrell of a children's class. "Yes," came back the answer. "Did you ask God to forgive you?" the Bishop continued. "Yes," was the answer. "Did God forgive you?" persisted the Bishop. "Yes," persisted the children. "How do you know God has forgiven you?" concluded the Bishop. "Because I feel different in here!" explained one of the children.
That is the answer of God's forgiving grace. The soul is released, the heart is made free, the burden is lifted; we are new persons. "He that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out," promised Jesus. That is the history of the Jews, and the history of the human race. Success leads to rebellion against God, and then destruction! Return to God results in restoration, life and peace!
"For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still." (Isaiah 9:12) God's two hands are judgment and grace!
"God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man sows that shall he also reap." One of the most brilliant young men in a church I once served burned up too many brain cells on drugs. The last I heard he was an orderly in a hospital where he could have been head surgeon. Aids appears to have a direct relationship to sexual abuse. Dishonesty in government and business will cost us dearly. Some day we will reap the consequences of the abuses by the C.I.A. Alcohol and drugs are robbing youth and adults of life and sanity. Unfaithfulness is destroying the American home and robbing children of the love and guidance they must have. Outward breakdown originates in inner breakdown.
The "Lord of Righteousness," Jeremiah's hope, announced each Lent has not been allowed to possess our hearts. God is still in charge! When Old Testament people or contemporary people play fast and loose with their fellows, whether it be in wages, rents, dishonest relations, unfaithfulness in marriage, a shoddy day's work, any unfair advantage of others, God is displeased and the universe repudiates such action. "The mills of the gods grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly small." The wicked do not flourish as the green-bay tree. Not really. Down deep there is "outer-darkness" and "weeping and gnashing of teeth."
"I, poor wretch," writes Saint Augustine in his Confessions, "foamed like a troubled sea, following the rushing of my own tide, forsaking Thee, and exceeding all Thy limits. Yet I escaped not Thy scourges. For what mortal can? For Thou wert ever with me mercifully rigorous, and besprinkling with most bitter alloy all my unlawful pleasures: that I might seek pleasures without alloy. But where to find such, I could not discover, save in Thee, O Lord ..."
We look at consequences for a moment, consequences today: a woman driven to suicide by the unfaithfulness of her husband; a man destroyed by the selfish blindness of his wife; a boy committing suicide because his father had to be a playboy; a girl driven insane by the thoughtlessness of both father and mother. These cases and more I have observed. God lets consequences take their course because it may lead us back to sanity and new life. The saving grace of God always awaits us. God is not indifferent. In his prevenient grace he works in many ways to correct our evils and restore us to life. "His anger is not turned away; his hand is stretched out still." No wonder the young people of today sing: "Twas grace that taught my heart to fear: and grace my fears released."
God has two hands: one is grace and forgiveness; the other is penalty and consequence. Both are redemptive. One works by appeal, the other by restraint. Something can be said for Saint Augustine's observation: "We are punished, not so much for our sins, as by them; we are redeemed, not so much for our virtues, as by them."
"God is interested in more than religion"; God is in the whole business of life. Good or bad, we are in his hands. When necessary his hand is outstretched in penalty; when we are ready to accept it, his hand is outstretched in grace. "The Lord chastens those whom he loves." This applies both to personal and corporate history. God is involved with us in life.
That's what the Prodigal Son is all about. At home he was nurtured under the hand of love. He rejected the hand of love. He dissipated his talents and his heritage in a far country - far from the ways of life. Inescapably he felt the hand of consequence. Things refused to turn out right. He was hungry, lonely. No man gave unto him. Only then did he begin to glimpse the meaning of his father's love; only then did he see that his father's servants were better off than he. Now he saw his father for the first time. "He came to himself," and said, "I'll ask father to let me work for him. I am not worthy to be a son."
We know what happened. The father saw him in the distance; he ran to meet him. He took him into his arms, he accepted him, he gave him a banquet, new clothes, a ring on his finger. He was a son again; and this is the old, old story: love and grace, rebellion and break-down; repentance and return, love and grace once more. God guides us into the abundant life with the reins in both the right and the left hand. Judgment and grace are both necessary to life. These are the reins of God, held in his hands, with which he guides humanity and individual persons through the wilderness of life to the "City of God." Even in this machine, computer universe God is present, never unaware, never unconcerned. Justice, fairness, love are built into the constitution of the universe. The universe will not settle for any other terms. Judgment, grace, life, eternal life are ours if we will accept them. "His hand is outstretched still." This is Jeremiah's promised "Lord of Righteousness."
Jeremiah was seeing dimly what Isaiah saw more clearly: (Isaiah 53) "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed."
The mass breakdown in the world today is not a sign of God's absence; to the contrary, it is an undeniable indication of God's presence. It reveals the fact that when the Ways of Life are ignored, the ways of death take over. When the ways of God are laughed at, something terrible comes up out of the drains. The hand of consequence placed the thief on the cross next to Jesus; the hand of love restored him to life. Why is it so hard to learn the simple lessons of life? The Children of Israel would not listen to the prophets until they were carried into captivity. In captivity, they listened, they repented, they changed their life style, and they were restored. The bitter event of the cross brings us to attention. Our sin cost Christ his life. The resurrection puts us on our feet again, with hope in our hearts. Christ bridges the gap between humanity lost, and humanity the redeemed child of God. The hounds of God pursue us in our sins; the Good Shepherd seeks us in our lostness. "His hand is stretched out still." Why is it so hard to see the whole picture of what God is doing?
Alfred Whitehead gives us an interesting picture:
First, we see God, the void, the incomprehensible one.
Second, we draw closer: we tremble in the presence of God, the enemy. Our own unworthiness is revealed in the holiness of God.
Third, there, in encounter, through repentance and forgiveness, we may behold God, the Friend. Then we come alive!
In George Bernard Shaw's drama, Joan of Arc cries out: "Great God, must Christ be crucified in every age to save those who have no imagination?" In an old movie, Humphrey Bogart is shot down flying over the "Hump." In order to escape, he is disguised as a priest. As he works his way from village to village, a Christian altar boy calls on him to celebrate mass. Bogart (unprepared) says: "Their sins will have to wait." "No!" the boy replies: "Their sins can't wait. Their sins are heavy. The people are tired. God can lift their burden, then the people will be free."
God's hand is stretched out still. The world is tired. God can lift the burden of the world, and the people can be free!
In A. J. Cronin's Keys to the Kingdom, Dr. Tullock, the dying physician, says to the priest, "But I cannot believe in God." And the priest answers, "But God believes in you." There is judgment, but there is also grace! The message of Christ was and is, "God loves us." When are we going to get this into our heads, and into our hearts? What are we doing about God's love for us? Edward West asks, "Can you imagine there is a human being in the whole world of no value to God?" No! I cannot. Can you? Then, even I must be in God's concern - and so must you!
This is not of this world! No! It is a glimpse beyond this world. We know it in encounter with Christ. He is out of this world, yet every day in the very midst of this world. This is Advent! The Promise! The Gift! "My Lord, and my God."
The American Ambassador to India and I were on a flight from Kabul in Afghanistan to Lahore in Pakistan. We were flying low over the dangerous Hindu Kush Mountains in an old D.C. 3. As we approached a high mountain wall, a violent thunderstorm blocked our passage. Suddenly our pilot dived the plane. It seemed that we would fly right into the face of the mountain. We held our breath. A gap opened up in the cloud. We slipped through into the glorious sunshine. We were alive. Awesome terror gave way to ineffable beauty! Judgment, then grace! God's anger is not turned away from evil; but his hand is stretched out still in mercy.
God is back; sin is back. God's two hands are consequence and forgiveness. Accept them both. Like the prodigal, come to yourself; go home; before it is too late. As the old Spanish proverb puts it: "God keep you from 'It's too late!'
God does not keep truth hidden. He revealed it long ago. Jeremiah spoke for God: "I will perform that good thing which I have promised ... I will cause the branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land." (Jeremiah 33:14-15)
Listen. The Lord has spoken!
On a Hill at Midnight, near Bethlehem
O God, it's dark tonight,
And bleak the rocks beneath the moon:
The world a tomb
Where is our hope?
O God, the wind blows chill,
And whistles mournful by our cave;
The sheep, here, bleat and huddle -
Where is warmth and life and
love?
O God, I see but one small light
In yonder village on the hill;
And all the darkness of the night
Conspires to blot it out.
Then:
Out of the blackness
Burst a light!
Out of the silence
Came a song!
Out of the village
Rose a Life!
My night of doubt is overcome:
In darkness
I shall ever know the Light;
In silence
I shall ever hear the Song;
In despair
I shall know the everlasting Hope;
In loneliness
I shall never be alone!
For God has spoken;
The night of earth He's broken;
The hills and vales are bright as day;
And I - I see, at last, the heart of things -
For Christ's birth has made the difference!
From All Heaven Broke Loose: A Christian Pilgrimage in Poetry and Art, by Robert G. Tuttle, 1986, C.S.S. Publishing Company.
