1. Where Are You?
When we think about communion with God we too often think of some religious practices. We go to church to commune with God, we see the sacraments of baptism and communion, the formal act of worship, as giving us access to God. Even in our private devotions we adopt a certain posture and attitude towards God, we tend to get religious.
Hands together softly so, Little eyes shut tight.
Father just before we go Hear our prayers tonight.
We are all your children here, This is what we pray,
Keep us when the dark is near and through every day.
Even as we believe we may ‘boldly approach the throne of grace’ (Heb.4:16) yet we are, like our first parents, aware of our sinfulness (Gen.3:10). As did Adam, we hide from God, even as we hear his voice seeking us out, ‘Where are you?’ (Gen.3:9)
Before the Fall we see a very different picture. Here we witness how it was in the beginning, with God expecting to enjoy open communion with Adam, the communion of the garden. Of course, God’s question is rhetorical. He knew where Adam was and what he had done. God wasn’t in the dark, Adam was. This wasn’t God seeking information, this was God seeking relationship. The question could be framed differently, ‘Won’t you come into the light so I can see you?’
The same question is asked of us today; where are you? Like Adam, we are called into the light, to give an account of where we are and how we got there. So much of our religious posturing is our attempt to appease God, mitigate his anger with piety and acts of righteousness. However, like fallen Adam, we have no righteousness, we bring only our nakedness, our fallen nature. The LORD said to Israel:
‘What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?..Bring no more vain offerings...I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly...Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean...learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression...Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD; though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land.’ (Is.1:11-20)
Our religious assembling, no matter how solemn, joyful, or well intended, is unacceptable if we don’t first honestly answer that question; where are you? How will you learn to do good if you hide in your iniquity, hide in the dark? How will you be cleansed if you don’t come to the only one who can make you clean? (Mt.19:23-26) Are you willing? Where are you? It is a question we may answer in this life, changing everything for the good, or at the judgement, completing our ruination for eternity.
2. Who Do You Say I Am?
If you met God in your daily life would you recognise him? People have all sorts of ideas about who God is, what God is like. If you answer the first question, ‘I knew I was naked and hid,’ if you stepped into the light, would you recognise the God who called you out of the darkness? The writer of Hebrews wrote of Jesus, ‘He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature…’ (Heb.1:3) If you want to know what God is like look at Jesus.
The problem with that last thought about seeing God in Jesus, is people’s perception of Jesus today; gentle Jesus, meek and mild. People see Jesus as manageable, they categorise him with spiritual leaders in history and declare him ‘nice.’ That is like saying he is beige!
It is this Jesus people see in God. However, the Jesus they see as nice and manageable is the same Jesus who brought judgement and declared destruction in Matthew 23:1-24:2. The same Jesus who said, ‘Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden…’ (Mt.11:28-30) also insisted, ‘Don’t give to dogs what is holy…’ (Mt.7:6) He is a lot of things but please don’t call him ‘nice.’
John the Baptist declared Jesus was more than a man, someone whose sandals he was unworthy to carry (Mt.3:11). Peter declared, ‘You are the Christ,’ (Mk.8:27-30). John said of Jesus, ‘all things were made through him, and without him not anything was made that was made,’ (Jn.1:3) John went on to write, ‘And the Word became flesh and dwelt (lit. ‘tabernacled) among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth,’ (1:14). Paul wrote of Jesus:
‘He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn (indicating status) of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible whether thrones or dominions or rulers and authorities-all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be pre-eminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell…’ (Col.1:16-19)
It is in this Jesus that God purposed to unite all things, to fulfil his divine purposes (Eph.1:1-14). It is this Jesus who will judge the living and the dead, which is why Paul solemnly charged Timothy to ‘preach the word: be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort...For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching…’ (2 Tim.4:1-5)
Come to him, then, all who labour and are heavy laden, and you will indeed find rest, but make no mistake about the Divine nature of the one to whom you come and, ‘Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you perish in the way…’ (Ps.2:12, cf Jn.5:23)
3. What Must I Do To Be Saved?
Shopping has become a major pass-time in our bloated, privileged society. High street businesses across the western world have had to make major adjustments in the face of overwhelming competition from online companies. The pandemic has been a shock for businesses in general and people with time and money are filling their time and their lives with more stuff. Shopping has become our idée fixe or our bête noir depending on your point of view.
This obsession with material possessions has found its way into the lives of Christians, our faith becoming a market place for the next thing. From tee-shirts to Bibles, from knick-knacks to jewellery, self-help and lifestyle Christianity is all the rage. I even find people shopping for a god, picking and choosing what best suits and serves them. ‘My god wouldn’t…’ they say, ‘I could never worship a god who would…’ they declare, ‘I like Jesus, he’s nice…’
Paul addressed himself to such a world, bloated, self-satisfied, fussy and demanding. In that world, as in our own, they were spoilt for choice with theatres, galleries, stadia, magnificent public buildings, history, order and hierarchy, ‘civilisation.’ Like Rome, the eternal city, like Jerusalem of Jesus’ day, it all looked solid, indestructible. Just as Jesus would proclaim of the temple, ‘there will not be here one stone upon another’ (Mt.24:2) so Paul warned the Athenians:
‘The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, for he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man who he has appointed; of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.’ (Acts 17:30-31)
Our Creator calls to us to come out of the darkness and into the light. Just as he covered the shame of Adam and Eve by means of a sacrifice (Gen.3:21) so God has provided for us a covering for the shame we finally confess and bring into the light, ‘redemption through [Christ’s] blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.’ (Eph.1:7)
We don’t shop for God, he calls out to us (Gen.3:9)
We don’t choose him, ‘he chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.’ (Eph.1:4)
In light of this, our response should not be, ‘let me see what you’re offering.’ Rather, we should cry with the Philippian jailer, ‘What must I do to be saved?’ The reply of Paul and Silas is the best news anyone can ever hear:
‘Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved…’ (Acts 16:31-32)
From the Baptist’s message in the Jordan, through Peter’s message at Pentecost, to the cry that goes out to the world today and every day ‘till he comes, the message is the same:
‘Repent and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.’ (Acts 2:38-39)
These are the three vital questions:
Where are you?
Who do you say Jesus is?
What must I do to be saved?
Addressing these questions changes everything.
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