1a) Good news - how we can retrace our steps back to God
[This is an edited version of our Vicar’s sermon at the Midnight Mass service on Christmas Eve 2007]
LET US RETRACE OUR STEPS BACK TO GOD!
Carl Jung, one of last century’s most distinguished psychiatrists, in his book Modern Man in Search of a Soul,wrote:
“I should like to call attention to the following facts. During the past thirty years, people from all the civilised countries of the earth have consulted me. I have treated many hundreds of patients... Among all my patients in the second half of life – that is to say, over thirty-five – there has not been one whose problem in the last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook on life. It is safe to say that every one of them fell ill because he/she had lost that which the living religions of every age have given to their followers, and none of them has been really healed who did not regain his/her religious outlook.” (translator C.F.Baynes 1933; publisher Routledge 2001)
Many of us have lost touch with our souls. We’re disconnected from our inner power; many of us are spiritually empty, seeking the meaning of it all. We don’t know where to turn! That is why Christmas reminds us of who we really are; not only that we are loved and forgiven by a God who has come among us as a child, “God With Us”, but that in him we can rekindle our religious outlook and our inner divinity pent up within us! He is also offering us a gift as well: the gift of complete forgiveness, freedom from sin, and eternal life in Him.
But just as you must accept a Christmas gift for it to be yours, you must accept God’s gift of salvation. Here is how you can accept this free gift:
1. Know and believe that God Loves You!
The Bible says: "God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life". (John 3.16)
2. The problem, the “bad news” is that most of us have been like the prodigal son or daughter; we have moved away from God the source of our life, and we have done, said or thought things that are wrong. Our sins have separated us from God.
This is our tragedy as we heard in the Gospel reading tonight, “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognise him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him” (John 1: 10-11).
3. But the “good news” is that, about 2000 years ago, God is found in a baby. God sent His only Son Jesus Christ to be our Saviour and Healer. This is the most beautiful mystery of Christmas. So there is hope for all of us.
We had a crib service this afternoon in church. The crib services or school Nativity plays excite a mixture of emotions in most parents: mums are smiling at the sight of their child with a tea-towel on their head, pretending to be a shepherd or a wise man, while dads find themselves with lumps in their throats as their little offspring sings Away In A Manger. Christmas touches what is deepest in our hearts and souls! In the Infant Jesus the human and the divine are combined. All around us in the world today there are tragic examples of what happens when we ignore that message – violent religious fanaticism on the one hand or hard-nosed materialism on the other.
The truth about Christianity is that Jesus, in his total humanity, lying as a child in the manger, reminds us of our divinity, or the divinity for which we are destined. He came not simply to show off his own humanity, but to demonstrate our inner divinity – the things we could rise to if we rediscover our religious and spiritual outlook, our divine spark. As Saint Augustine prayed: “Our hearts are made for thee O God, and they shall never rest until they rest in thee!”
We heard in the Gospel reading a while ago, "to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God" (John 1.12). Jesus also tells us: “He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him” (John 14.21). He offers to manifest himself to us if we just love Him and trust him as Saviour.
4. God reaches out to you in love today
If you want to retrace your steps back to God, if you want to rediscover your religious outlook on life and live a fuller life from now on, you can and ought to ask Jesus to be the Saviour and Lord of your life by praying a prayer like this. Do join me and pray silently after me:
"Lord Jesus, I believe you are the Son of God. Thank you for coming to us at Christmas. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins. Thank you for rising from the dead to give me hope. Please forgive my sins and give me the gift of eternal life. I ask you into my life and heart to be my Lord and Saviour. I want to serve you always."
When you say this prayer with a sincere heart, your life will really begin to change!
God bless you all!
© Sebastian Mattapally
Biblical texts © New International Version (NIV)