What Is God Like?
Sermon
Something's Coming ... Something Great
Sermons For Advent, Christmas And Epiphany
There is an old story about a little girl who was one day drawing a picture. She was so engrossed in her work that her mother asked, "What are you drawing?" "Oh, it's a picture of God," said the youngster. "A picture of God?" "Darling, no one knows what God looks like!" "No," said the little girl, "but they will when I get through." What is God like? How can I find God? These are questions that men and women have asked across the centuries and still ask today. In some inspired words, the prophet Isaiah gives us a portrait of what God is like. Like the little child drawing her picture, Isaiah could not capture all the fullness of the person of the Living God, but his words have come down to us not only as a high moment in the understanding of the ancient Hebrews, but as a wondrous description of the God revealed in Jesus Christ.
1. A God Of Steadfast Love
Isaiah's word portrait begins with a God of Steadfast Love. "I will recount the steadfast love of the Lord .. ." wrote Isaiah, and later in this same passage, he refers to "the abundance of God's steadfast love." Somebody once pointed out the difference between generosity and compassion. Generosity is when you bake two pies for the annual church bazaar, and compassion is when you buy those same pies back after they failed to sell! Compassion is a truly wonderful quality, but the steadfast love of which Isaiah speaks is something that goes far beyond ordinary human kindness and love. Steadfast love is a love that knows no limits. It is a love that nothing can ever change. It is a love so strong that not even death, said the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Romans, can ever separate us from it.
But how do we know that God's love for us is like that? In most cases, love is expressed in giving to the one who is loved. That's why we have just exchanged gifts with those whom we love. Giving a gift is a way to tell someone how much we love them, care about them or appreciate them. Unfortunately, at least in America, our Christmas celebrations have moved from being a time for adoration to a time for accumulation! However, the real proof of love is not in the material gift itself. It is the person in the gift. It is how much of yourself is given that really reveals the depths of love in your heart for another.
There is a lovely Christmas story that helps us understand this truth in a simple way. An African boy listened carefully as the teacher explained why it is that Christians give presents to each other on Christmas Day. "The gift is an expression of our joy over the birth of Jesus and our friendship for each other," she said. When Christmas day came, the boy brought the teacher a sea shell of lustrous beauty. "Where did you ever find such a beautiful shell?" the teacher asked as she gently fingered the gift. The youth told her that there was only one spot where such extraordinary shells could be found. When he named the place, a certain bay several miles away, the teacher was left speechless. "Why ... why, it's gorgeous ... wonderful, but you shouldn't have gone all that way to get a gift for me." His eyes brightening, the boy answered, "Long walk part of the gift!"1
2. A God Who Suffers With Us
But Isaiah's vision goes further than steasfast love. The prophet also speaks of a God Who Suffers With Us. He writes, "In all their affliction, God was afflicted ..." The prophet dares to suggest that in all the Hebrew people have suffered over the centuries from slavery in Egypt to exile in Babylon, the Living God has suffered right beside them. Moreover, the God we meet in Jesus Christ is a God who voluntarily gave up all the privileges and powers of the Almighty to become a human being in our world - to feel what we feel, to suffer what we suffer - to be tempted just as we are tempted.
Can you visualize even for a moment the bridge God crossed from divinity to humanity? Can you visualize a God who has suffered physical torture, rejection, the abandonment of friends, betrayal, and even death itself? This is the God about whom Isaiah speaks whom you and I are privileged to know in the person of Jesus Christ.
Years ago I remember someone telling a modern parable of the Last Judgment. All the people on earth were gathered before Almighty God on a great plain, but they were an angry crowd. They mumbled and murmured about what right God had to judge their lives. There were black slaves who questioned how God could possibly understand the indignities and humiliation they had suffered at the hands of white oppressors. There were Jewish victims of the Holocaust who angrily protested God's ability to judge their lives without having lived through the horror of the gas chambers. On and on it went with the world's people questioning God's right to judge them until someone came up with an idea. Representatives from every group on earth would draw up a bill of particulars that God must fulfill before any judgment could take place. Here is what was included in that set of requirements for God:
Let God be born as a poor Jew.
Let God be rejected by the most important people of the time.
Let God's only friends be those who are held in contempt by the world.
Let God be betrayed by someone trusted.
Let God be indicted and convicted on false charges in a court.
Let God know torture, abandonment by friends, and the finality of death.
As this bill of particulars was read off to the assembled multitudes gathered on the plain, a great cheer went up. Then it grew strangely quiet as one by one the world's people began to realize that God had already in Jesus Christ suffered every single requirement on that list! The great hold of Jesus Christ on the hearts of people lies simply in the fact that God has already walked in our human shoes, sat where we must sit, and experienced every form of suffering we can ever endure. The God we worship this morning is a God who suffers with us, and that may well be the most comforting assurance that we can ever know in our times of suffering and pain.
3. A God Who Saves Us
Isaiah pictures a God of steadfast love who suffers with us in our afflictions. But his portrait of the living God becomes even more dramatic when he insists that God is the One Who Saves. Isaiah writes, "God became their Savior. In his love and his pity, he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old." Time after time in Israel's history, God had saved the Hebrew people from destruction. It was God who saved them from the persecution of the Egyptians; it was God who parted the waters of the Red Sea to save that remnant from sure destruction; it was God who saved the people from the attacks of the other Canaanite tribes; it was God who saved the people when both the northern and southern kingdoms were destroyed; and it is this same God who comes in Jesus Christ as the Divine Physician to heal and to restore our human lives that are soiled and broken by our sinful disobedience.
Only a God who gave us the gift of life can restore us to life in all its eternal fullness. Only a God who has shared our brokenness and despair can so redeem us that we find wholeness and hope. Only a God of great mercy can cleanse us from our sin, and touch our lives in such a way that we begin living our days in at least part of the fullness and richness our Creator intended. There is an old poem titled, "The Touch Of The Master's Hand," that comes to mind at this time of year. In a simple and beautiful way, it describes the God we know in Jesus Christ as our Savior.
The Touch Of The Master's Hand
Myra Brooks Welch
'Twas battered and scarred, and the auctioneer
Thought it scarcely worth his while
To waste much time on the old violin,
But he held it up with a smile.
"What am I bidden, good folks," he cried,
"Who will start bidding for me?
A dollar, a dollar" - then "Two!" "Only two?
Two dollars and who'll make it three?"
"Going for three ..." But no,
From the room, far back, a gray-haired man
Came forward and picked up the bow;
Then, wiping the dust from the old violin,
And tightening the loose strings,
He played a melody pure and sweet
As sweet as a caroling angel sings.
The music ceased, and the auctioneer,
With a voice that was quiet and low,
Said, "What am I bidden for the old violin?"
And he held it up with the bow.
"A thousand dollars, and who'll make it two?
Two thousand! And who'll make it three?
Three thousand, once, three thousand twice,
And going, going, gone!" said he.
The people cheered, but some of them cried,
"We do not quite understand
What changed its worth?" Swift came the reply:
"The touch of the Master's hand."
And many a man with life out of tune,
And battered and scarred with sin,
Is auctioned cheap to the thoughtless crowd,
Much like the old violin.
A "mess of pottage," a glass of wine;
A game - and he travels on.
He's "going" once and "going" twice,
He's "going" and "almost gone."
But the Master comes, and the foolish crowd
Never can quite understand
The worth of a soul, and the change that's wrought
By the touch of the Master's hand.2
As we finish another year and prepare to enter into a new one, many of our lives need that touch of the Master's hand. The God about whom Isaiah wrote so long ago and whom we meet in Jesus Christ is none other than the master architect of human life. God's touch can change lives that are out of tune, lives that are battered and scarred by years of sinful living. As we continue to celebrate this wondrous Christmas season, let this be a time when we draw close to God and discover again the God of steadfast love, the God who suffers with us, and the God who redeems us in amazing grace and mercy.
1. A God Of Steadfast Love
Isaiah's word portrait begins with a God of Steadfast Love. "I will recount the steadfast love of the Lord .. ." wrote Isaiah, and later in this same passage, he refers to "the abundance of God's steadfast love." Somebody once pointed out the difference between generosity and compassion. Generosity is when you bake two pies for the annual church bazaar, and compassion is when you buy those same pies back after they failed to sell! Compassion is a truly wonderful quality, but the steadfast love of which Isaiah speaks is something that goes far beyond ordinary human kindness and love. Steadfast love is a love that knows no limits. It is a love that nothing can ever change. It is a love so strong that not even death, said the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Romans, can ever separate us from it.
But how do we know that God's love for us is like that? In most cases, love is expressed in giving to the one who is loved. That's why we have just exchanged gifts with those whom we love. Giving a gift is a way to tell someone how much we love them, care about them or appreciate them. Unfortunately, at least in America, our Christmas celebrations have moved from being a time for adoration to a time for accumulation! However, the real proof of love is not in the material gift itself. It is the person in the gift. It is how much of yourself is given that really reveals the depths of love in your heart for another.
There is a lovely Christmas story that helps us understand this truth in a simple way. An African boy listened carefully as the teacher explained why it is that Christians give presents to each other on Christmas Day. "The gift is an expression of our joy over the birth of Jesus and our friendship for each other," she said. When Christmas day came, the boy brought the teacher a sea shell of lustrous beauty. "Where did you ever find such a beautiful shell?" the teacher asked as she gently fingered the gift. The youth told her that there was only one spot where such extraordinary shells could be found. When he named the place, a certain bay several miles away, the teacher was left speechless. "Why ... why, it's gorgeous ... wonderful, but you shouldn't have gone all that way to get a gift for me." His eyes brightening, the boy answered, "Long walk part of the gift!"1
2. A God Who Suffers With Us
But Isaiah's vision goes further than steasfast love. The prophet also speaks of a God Who Suffers With Us. He writes, "In all their affliction, God was afflicted ..." The prophet dares to suggest that in all the Hebrew people have suffered over the centuries from slavery in Egypt to exile in Babylon, the Living God has suffered right beside them. Moreover, the God we meet in Jesus Christ is a God who voluntarily gave up all the privileges and powers of the Almighty to become a human being in our world - to feel what we feel, to suffer what we suffer - to be tempted just as we are tempted.
Can you visualize even for a moment the bridge God crossed from divinity to humanity? Can you visualize a God who has suffered physical torture, rejection, the abandonment of friends, betrayal, and even death itself? This is the God about whom Isaiah speaks whom you and I are privileged to know in the person of Jesus Christ.
Years ago I remember someone telling a modern parable of the Last Judgment. All the people on earth were gathered before Almighty God on a great plain, but they were an angry crowd. They mumbled and murmured about what right God had to judge their lives. There were black slaves who questioned how God could possibly understand the indignities and humiliation they had suffered at the hands of white oppressors. There were Jewish victims of the Holocaust who angrily protested God's ability to judge their lives without having lived through the horror of the gas chambers. On and on it went with the world's people questioning God's right to judge them until someone came up with an idea. Representatives from every group on earth would draw up a bill of particulars that God must fulfill before any judgment could take place. Here is what was included in that set of requirements for God:
Let God be born as a poor Jew.
Let God be rejected by the most important people of the time.
Let God's only friends be those who are held in contempt by the world.
Let God be betrayed by someone trusted.
Let God be indicted and convicted on false charges in a court.
Let God know torture, abandonment by friends, and the finality of death.
As this bill of particulars was read off to the assembled multitudes gathered on the plain, a great cheer went up. Then it grew strangely quiet as one by one the world's people began to realize that God had already in Jesus Christ suffered every single requirement on that list! The great hold of Jesus Christ on the hearts of people lies simply in the fact that God has already walked in our human shoes, sat where we must sit, and experienced every form of suffering we can ever endure. The God we worship this morning is a God who suffers with us, and that may well be the most comforting assurance that we can ever know in our times of suffering and pain.
3. A God Who Saves Us
Isaiah pictures a God of steadfast love who suffers with us in our afflictions. But his portrait of the living God becomes even more dramatic when he insists that God is the One Who Saves. Isaiah writes, "God became their Savior. In his love and his pity, he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old." Time after time in Israel's history, God had saved the Hebrew people from destruction. It was God who saved them from the persecution of the Egyptians; it was God who parted the waters of the Red Sea to save that remnant from sure destruction; it was God who saved the people from the attacks of the other Canaanite tribes; it was God who saved the people when both the northern and southern kingdoms were destroyed; and it is this same God who comes in Jesus Christ as the Divine Physician to heal and to restore our human lives that are soiled and broken by our sinful disobedience.
Only a God who gave us the gift of life can restore us to life in all its eternal fullness. Only a God who has shared our brokenness and despair can so redeem us that we find wholeness and hope. Only a God of great mercy can cleanse us from our sin, and touch our lives in such a way that we begin living our days in at least part of the fullness and richness our Creator intended. There is an old poem titled, "The Touch Of The Master's Hand," that comes to mind at this time of year. In a simple and beautiful way, it describes the God we know in Jesus Christ as our Savior.
The Touch Of The Master's Hand
Myra Brooks Welch
'Twas battered and scarred, and the auctioneer
Thought it scarcely worth his while
To waste much time on the old violin,
But he held it up with a smile.
"What am I bidden, good folks," he cried,
"Who will start bidding for me?
A dollar, a dollar" - then "Two!" "Only two?
Two dollars and who'll make it three?"
"Going for three ..." But no,
From the room, far back, a gray-haired man
Came forward and picked up the bow;
Then, wiping the dust from the old violin,
And tightening the loose strings,
He played a melody pure and sweet
As sweet as a caroling angel sings.
The music ceased, and the auctioneer,
With a voice that was quiet and low,
Said, "What am I bidden for the old violin?"
And he held it up with the bow.
"A thousand dollars, and who'll make it two?
Two thousand! And who'll make it three?
Three thousand, once, three thousand twice,
And going, going, gone!" said he.
The people cheered, but some of them cried,
"We do not quite understand
What changed its worth?" Swift came the reply:
"The touch of the Master's hand."
And many a man with life out of tune,
And battered and scarred with sin,
Is auctioned cheap to the thoughtless crowd,
Much like the old violin.
A "mess of pottage," a glass of wine;
A game - and he travels on.
He's "going" once and "going" twice,
He's "going" and "almost gone."
But the Master comes, and the foolish crowd
Never can quite understand
The worth of a soul, and the change that's wrought
By the touch of the Master's hand.2
As we finish another year and prepare to enter into a new one, many of our lives need that touch of the Master's hand. The God about whom Isaiah wrote so long ago and whom we meet in Jesus Christ is none other than the master architect of human life. God's touch can change lives that are out of tune, lives that are battered and scarred by years of sinful living. As we continue to celebrate this wondrous Christmas season, let this be a time when we draw close to God and discover again the God of steadfast love, the God who suffers with us, and the God who redeems us in amazing grace and mercy.
