Bible Study: Gen.1:1-2:2, Gen.22:1-28,
Ex.14:15-15:1, Isa.54:5-14, Isa.55:1-11, Bar.3:9-15, 32-4:4, Ez.36:16-28, Rom.6:3-11
and Luke24:1-12.
Story, story: Story! Once upon a time:
Time Time! Tonight I want to tell you a story and this is a true life love
story, it is a story far greater than any writer or poet could compose, not
even Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet comes close. It is a story greater than
life itself, a story that sums up and in fact captures the whole of world
history from its very beginning till this day.
Surprisingly, this love story has
been ongoing for thousands of years running and it is yet to come to an end. The
day this story will be over is the day life would cease on this planet. And it
so happens that every one of us here this night from the very day we were born have
become principal characters of this love story. We are not just actors, we are
also authors in this story; our everyday decisions, our day to day lives, and
our basic choices are the scripts that this story follows.
It is a story of pure love; love as
it should be, love that is ready to sacrifice anything, love that never gives
up, yet at the same time, we find betrayal in this story, we find intrigue,
suspense, pain and at times, irony in this story. In this story, you also find
moments of true joy, you find commitment, dedication and faith but then, even
though every chapter of this story is unique, the basic storyline never changes.
Dear friends, this is a story of God’s
never failing love for us humans and how we have consistently rejected this
love, a story of how we have given and continue to give our hearts to other
loves, a story of how we have so much frustrated God by refusing to love him,
by refusing to trust him, by refusing to believe in his love for us, it is a
story of how God having forgiven us seventy seven times seven times over and
over again never stops going out of his way to win back our love. This is the
story contained in all of these Nine Readings you have just heard.
In the very beginning, God created
the world out of love. He spoke and it came to be. He created a perfect
universe and put in the engines of life to be self-sustaining. He created order
and elements to demarcate one day from another. After each work of creation, he
said: “It is good.” Then finally, at the apex of his creation, he decided to
create an image of himself again purely motivated by love. He wanted man made
in his own image to be the sole beneficiary of this beautiful universe he had just
created so he blessed us: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and
subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the
air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth." God said,
"See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of
all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for
food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to
everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I
have given every green plant for food.” Genesis 1, 28 to 30. God was so
delighted with what he had done that he happily went to rest. Humans were the
apple of his eye. His love for us kept him vigilant for our sake.
God’s love for humans as time went on
become a concrete reality in the person of one man who particularly delighted him.
That man is Abraham and as far as the faith is concerned, he is our Father. As we
gather this evening in this arena, we are the fulfilment of the promise God
made to Abraham when he said his descendants will be as many as the sands in
the seashore. Nonetheless, before Abraham would got so much of God’s attention,
God himself tested him, God tested the extent of Abraham’s love for him by
asking him to sacrifice his only son, the son that he had waited for years to
have. God wanted to know if it is possible for humans to actually love him back
as much he loves us. And guess what? Abraham passed the test!
In Abraham, humanity proved that it
is capable of letting go of everything to love God. In Abraham, humanity as a
whole proves that it is possible for us to love God perfectly even if it means sacrificing
the source of our earthly joy. If Abraham could place his son Isaac on the
table, tie him up and raise a knife to cut off his neck, then it means you can actually
arrange all your earthly possessions, all your money, all your joys and
everything on the table and slaughter them up for God. But the question is, why
would you rather love your possessions more than God?
Since Abraham passed the test, God
created a whole new race from him and that group of people became the Israelites.
As time went on, this people found themselves in a foreign land, a land that gave
them shelter in a time of famine under the leadership of a man who was sold as
a slave only to become the prime minister. They came into Egypt as lords but as
the years went by, they became slaves. God was not happy with this and one day
he decided to rescue the love of his eyes from the land of slavery and
oppression. Through mighty miracles, through great signs and wonders, God
wanted to show to this people that he deserves their love, their respect and
admiration. Before their very eyes, they saw their slave-riders; Pharaoh and
the full force of his army perish in the sea and they sang with all their hearts.
They sang a song of love, a song of
adoration and praise to God. No sooner had they finished dancing and jubilation,
no sooner had they faced the desert to continue their journey, they started
doubting this love. They began to nag like newly-weds who expect too much too suddenly
from love. They wanted to have everything they were used to under the regime of
slavery in Egypt, they complained bitterly about water, then for food, then they
complained for variety in their food, and when they lost patience, they broke
the heart of God by moulding for themselves a golden calf to which they bowed
to as the god who saved them from Egypt. Right before the very eyes of God,
these people whom he loved so much were worshipping a piece of iron made by
human hands.
Of course, when they faced the wrath
of God, they repented but this would just be the beginning of a repeated pattern
of sin, punishment and repentance only to lead back to sin and punishment and
repentance again and again. Generations upon generations passed but this love
story remained the same. We never learn from the mistakes of the past. God for
his part, did not give up on us, he kept sending love letters and the prophets
were his messengers. And of all the prophets, Isaiah seems to capture this love
message best: “For your Maker is your husband… For the LORD has called you like
a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, like the wife of a man's youth when she
is cast off, says your God. For a brief moment I abandoned you… but with
everlasting love I will have compassion on you, says the LORD, your Redeemer.” Isaiah
54, 5 to 8.
But what happened? We threw these
love letters to the wind. God did stop sending them however. All he wanted from
us was simple: “Let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their
thoughts; let them return to the LORD, that he may have mercy on them, and to
our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” Isaiah 55, 7. Of course, we didn’t listen.
Now, at the very heart of our
disobedience to God is the feeling that his commandments are a burden to us. We
feel that God is somewhat limiting our freedom by saying: “Don’t do this or Don’t
do that!” At times, we just want to push God aside, throw away everything he is
saying to us and try to be wise in our own eyes. We feel that by so doing, we
would find unlimited happiness and peace only to end up with the very opposite.
There is no way sin can bring us happiness or the peace we so crave for. Baruch
says: “If you had walked in the way of God, you would be living in peace
forever. Learn where there is wisdom, where there is strength, where there is
understanding, so that you may at the same time discern where there is length
of days, and life, where there is light for the eyes, and peace.“ Baruch 3, 13
to 14.
At a time, it was almost like God
started wondering if our human hearts were still functional and capable of
loving him. So in one of his love letters, he said “A new heart I will give
you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body
the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within
you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances.” Ezekiel
36, 26 to 27. For us to get this new heart, we needed first to get rid of the
old. So God because of his infinite love for us decided to send us his only
son, Jesus to be born and live like one of us so that by his death, we too may
die to our old nature. And that by his resurrection, we may receive this new
heart of flesh which he promised us through the prophet Ezekiel.
This is what St. Paul explains when
he said: “Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father,
so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in
a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like
his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin
might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has
died is freed from sin.” Romans 6, 4 to 7. Tonight, we gather to celebrate our resurrection
from the death of sin. We gather to rejoice at the fact that we have been
liberated from the prison of sin, that we are no longer under the compulsion of
sin, tonight we celebrate the fact that we now have a heart of conscience
capable of choosing Good instead of evil. We are not rejoicing because Christ
has wiped out our sins but those we plan to commit in the future. No. We are
rejoicing because as St. Paul says, “we consider yourselves dead to sin and
alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Romans 6, 11. Unlike in the days of old, sin is
no longer a master to us humans. We have what it takes now to live as Saints.
Yes, the evidence of our capacity to
become saints is the fact that Christ is no longer dead. The tomb is empty. There
is nothing left there anymore. Christ is alive! Peter and the other disciples
did not believe the women at first, but when they ran to the tomb, they saw for
themselves and knew that Christ was for real. Dear friends, the only way we can
continue to allow sin rule in our lives is if we choose not to let the Resurrected
Christ into our hearts. And this love story continues. Love God back today that
the risen Christ may awaken you from the slumber of sin.
Let us Pray:
Lord Jesus, I love you. Thank you for
never giving up on me. Help me to love you with my whole heart and life. Amen.
God bless you. Good afternoon. Be
Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. Happy Easter!!!.
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