|
DATE |
CHURCH |
SUBJECT |
PREACHER |
BIBLE
REF. |
|
06.01.08 |
All Saints' Church |
God is Working His
Purpose Out |
Rev. Tony Higton |
- |
|
The
old hymn says:
“God is working his purpose out,
As year succeeds to year;
God is working His purpose out,
And the time is drawing near…”
Or is he?
It continues:
“Nearer and nearer draws the time,
The time that shall surely be,
When the earth shall be filled
With the glory of God,
As the waters cover the sea.”
Or will it?
I
have a T-shirt on which are written the words: “At my age I’ve
done it all, seen it all, forgotten it all”
And I have to say that a lot of things over the decades haven’t
seemed to be working God’s purpose out. Far from it - just the
opposite. Sometimes, to quote the cynic, it has seemed that
“Life is nasty, brutish and short.”
Our reading today seems to illustrate what I mean. God brought
about the incarnation of his son through the virgin birth in
Bethlehem, attended by a heavenly choir, and the subsequent
visit of the Magi from the East. Then King Herod hears of it and
acts to destroy the infant Jesus, slaughtering other small boys
in the process. On the face of it, is God really in control? It
is a relevant question.
However this story gives us answers. Firstly:
GOD DOES NOT PREVENT THREATS TO HIS PURPOSE:
These may be threats from wicked people and from human
selfishness. But because he has allowed human beings free will,
he allows them to have their way. Hence Herod was allowed to
threaten the very life of Jesus and therefore the eternal divine
plan of salvation being achieved through the incarnation, death
and resurrection of Jesus.
Secondly:
GOD PURPOSES SOMETIMES PROVOKE SUCH THREATS.
Sometimes we might experience that, after God works in a special
way in our lives, or calls us to a special task, everything goes
wrong. It seems meaningless and unfair.
However it is also true, thirdly, that:
GOD FORESEES ALL SUCH THREATS AND WORKS OUT HIS PURPOSES ANYWAY
God provides a way through the opposition and the problems. We
need to remember that nothing takes God by surprise. He foresees
everything that will happen. This story illustrates that:
Because of Herod’s jealousy and violent selfishness, Jesus and
his family had to flee to Egypt. But, says Matthew: “And so was
fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: "Out of
Egypt I called my son."
Even the very distress of the Bethlehem families was foreseen by
the prophets. “Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah
was fulfilled: "A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great
mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be
comforted, because they are no more."
Recently I came across the concept of Typoglycemia, which I
think illustrates the point I am making. Here is an example of
Typoglycemia. I’m sure that you will find you can read it fairly
easily.
“I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulacity uesdnatnrd waht I was
rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid. Aoccdrnig to
rscheearch taem at Cmabrigd Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in
waht order the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng
is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The
rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a
porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey
lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Such a cdonition is
arppoiately cllaed Typoglycemia. Amzanig? Yaeh and yuo awlyas
thought slpeling was ipmorantt.”
How is it that we can read such gobbledegook? As it said, the
secret is that the beginning and end of each word (the first and
last letters) are accurate and the mind compensates for the
meaningless confusion in between them.
That can be applied to life. Sometimes the beginning is clear
but what happens then is confused and apparently meaningless.
However, God sees to it that the end will be meaningful. He will
also help us to understand the apparently meaningless times. |
