2/7/10                                             First Presbyterian Church

         Four year old Sarah sat at the kitchen table intently drawing on a piece of paper when her mother came in.  “What’s that?” she asked.  “Oh, I’m drawing a picture of God.”  “But sweetheart, no one knows what God looks like.”  It was then that Sarah looked up confidently from her paper and proudly declared “Well, they will when I’m done!”

         Now, there are a lot of people in this world who would love to see that drawing.   There is something deep within all of us that longs to know God --- that needs to reach out and somehow comprehend –  to capture -- who God is.  That need transcends all ages.  We see the evidence of it as far back as prehistoric times when ancient priests drew God on the walls of a cave.  It’s there in the intricate hieroglyphics found in the tombs of Egypt’s pyramids.  It’s the center of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel and it’s even in the scribbled drawings of a small child. 

         Whether we are Buddhist, Hindi, Muslim, Christian, or a member of any number of other faiths, we share the same longing, the same need for the divine.  We know, deep within our souls, that we will never be truly complete until we are complete in God.  That holy relationship gives purpose and meaning to life.  There is a profound truth in the first sentences of Rick Warren’s now famous book A Purpose Driven Life:  “It’s not about you.  It’s about God.” 

         But why choose Christ over Buddha?  What makes Jesus different from say, Zeus or Confucius?  What makes our faith the way to the heart and center of God? 

         There are books after books that purport to “prove” Christianity.  Personally, I am seldom convinced by their arguments and their “scientific” facts, but I don’t condemn them.  There are too many people who have come to belief through them.  But for me, the “proof” of Christianity is in my own life and the lives of others who believe.  It is because of my own encounters with Christ that I know beyond all doubt that it is the power of a cross that sets me free to become the person I am meant to be. 

I know the truth of Jesus’ declaration that He is “the Way, the Truth, and the life.”  And He tells us clearly that He has come that we might have life and have life abundantly.” 

But what does this abundant life look like?  What do we find in the fullness of God?  Love.  Love divine, all love excelling. 

 God loves us so much that “He gave His only begotten Son so that everyone who believes in Him should not perish but have ever lasting life.”

We believe that God created us for love.  He created us to be loved and to love in return.  And we believe that when we run as hard and as fast as we can away from love that God pursues us to save us from ourselves, even to the point of flinging off His robes of glory to become a babe, a man who would show us in very concrete, very tangible ways, how life is to be lived. 

Indeed, the two commandments Christ gave us are “to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and mind and to love our neighbor as ourselves.”  That, He says, is the sum total of all the law – that will bring us life.

 But how can we possibly do that?  By finally accepting the fact that God loves us. 

It sounds far too simple doesn’t it?  Believing that God loves us.  And yet that can be the hardest thing of all.  We don’t even love ourselves all the time – at times we may even loathe ourselves for what we have done and for what we do.  We know just how far from loveable we truly can be, so we ask, “How can God, who is the ruler and creator of love love even me?”

I don’t know, but I know He does.  A core belief in Christianity is that God’s love is unconditional love because, Lord knows, we do not deserve it.  Yet there it is.  God loves and forgives us even when we have broken His heart, even when we have broken our own. 

The evidence of that forgiveness is found on the cross, when even in the throes of excruciating pain, Christ says, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” 

So often we do not even know what we are doing until it is too late to stop it. 

Now some of you might say that’s too dramatic.  “After all,” you say,  “look at my life.  I’m not a mass murderer or a rapist.  I don’t abuse my children.  I haven’t stolen millions of dollars from unsuspecting widows.  I’m a pretty good person.  Why, I even put a dollar in the soup pot this morning.  I don’t need God to forgive me.” 

But has your gossip ever put a dagger in someone else’s heart?  Have you ever hurt someone you love by lashing out in anger?  Have you ever spent money on some lavish thing when you could have given it to the poor?  Have you ever fallen short of the glory of God?

I have and in your heart of hearts you know you have too.   But God’s love and forgiveness is real and it gives me hope that I can change.  His grace enables me to step out of myself and my sin.  It makes it possible for me to change what I cannot change myself – to begin again forgiven, loved, and free.

Now, you may be sitting there saying you don’t really need God to help you change.  “Surely,” you might say, “I can change myself by myself.  I can do what is right without the power of God.”

 Do you really think so?   Then let me ask you this: how many of your New Year’s resolutions are you still keeping?  How are you doing on that “love your neighbor” thing?  How often do you treat even your enemies with love? 

We are powerless to do it on our own.  We need the Spirit.  She is our counselor, our comforter, our encourager, our source of strength.  She brings order out of the chaos of our lives.  She blows away the dust of the past, the dust of pain, and loneliness, and grief and sorrow so our true spirit can shine through. 

The Spirit is God’s gift to each of us, but like all gifts we must unwrap it and enjoy it.  Can you imagine running down the steps on Christmas morning and seeing the pile of brightly wrapped boxes underneath the tree and refusing to unwrap them?  What good is a gift that is never opened?  It is of no use at all. 

So unwrap the gift of faith and when you go to draw your own picture of God, draw an empty cross standing on a hill for that’s the symbol of all forgiveness, that’s the Way to love.