[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 06/Dec/2020]
The sermon series for the last few weeks have been on forgiveness. Rubbing people up the wrong way comes naturally to just about all of us and I’m sure you know some people who seem to have a particular gift in this area. I joined the Connect in Faith meeting on Zoom yesterday and one of the comments made was that it is hard enough to forgive your enemy for something they’ve done wrong, but perhaps even harder to forgive a friend, because the sense of betrayal goes even deeper.
Let’s examine the relationship between us and God. He creates the most beautiful garden in the world, gives us charge over it and we then decide we know better than him and disobey him. Not long after, Cain murders his brother Abel, and we go on to excel at all manner of rebellion and evil. Genesis 6 verses 5-6 state that “The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil.So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart.”
Think of children making a racket upstairs, and their mum says: “If you don’t stop that noise, I’m coming up and you won’t like it when I do …” Well, we had pushed and pushed and now, God was coming to earth. It wasn’t quite what we were expecting though. Eugene Petersen’s rendering of John 1:v14 says that “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighbourhood.” It captures in one short sentence what Christians believe happened – Jesus Christ came into the world as a human being and we celebrate this at Christmas.
Having described what happened, it is helpful to think about why. On different occasions, Jesus explained this to his disciples and others who were listening. He said he had come: “to preach the Message of good news to the poor, … to announce pardon to prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to set the burdened and battered free, to announce, ‘This is God’s year to act!’ ” Jesus mentions again in that famous verse John 3:16, that “God sent His one and only Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but should have everlasting life.” Perhaps less well known however, is John 3: 17, which states that: “God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.” In Luke 19, where we read about the story of Zacchaeus, Jesus says in verse 10, that he came “to seek and to save those who are lost“.
It is comforting to know that long before we knew that we were lost, or that we needed help, God had made provision for our salvation. We had broken his heart, but when Jesus came down to live with us, it was to show us that God was not intent on condemning us for going astray, but rather that he wanted to forgive us and reconcile us to him. To wipe the slate clean, to embrace us in His arms, if only we would, like the prodigal son, come back home. There is something about Christmas time that lifts the spirits. For many, it is the presents, the commercialism, the thought of meeting up with family and friends to celebrate. These are all laudable, but sometimes leave us with a hollow feeling on Boxing day when it’s all over. Perhaps this year, our joy should come from the realisation that we matter so much to God, and Christmas time should remind us again that He cares and as Jeremiah says, His faithful love never ends, His mercies never end and they are new every morning.
That’s something that will last even after Boxing day.
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