Green Pastures and Still Waters
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I always love to hear a child’s excitement when they say, “I made a new friend today.” It’s almost like they were born for that or something… The Facebook generation has brought about friendships of a different variety than what people a few years ago would have called friendship. These days it is not uncommon for people to have 500 or more friends on Facebook and/or other social media. I wonder how many of those so called friends would help if you had a flat tire on a rainy night. I wonder how many would bring a meal after you came home from the hospital. I wonder how many would listen to the sadness and frustration you have without judgment or an attempt to fix you. My guess is the number would be far less than your “status” indicates. I’m not judging you or your friends or social media. I’m simply saying that real and true friends are in short supply. In fact, people with a lot of “friends” can be surprisingly lonely. Some people are even chronically lonely—whether they are married and single. One of our favorite Christmas verses is in Matthew 1:23, "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel" --which means, "God with us." God with us! Wow, who could be lonely if God was with him? It seems like it would be tough to be bored in the presence of an infinite Being of great awe and splendor. So is God with us or not? Was that a promise for Joseph and Mary and we are left on our own? Loneliness is an opportunity for the enemy. When we are lonely we are vulnerable and Satan’s minions love to “kick us when we are down.” According to the Scripture, we live in a God-soaked universe. Our everyday life is dripping with His presence and yet we all suffer from time to time with the feelings of loneliness. What can we do about this? The Word has answers for us and this week, this first Sunday of Advent, we’re going to take a look at this question, “If God is with us, why do I feel lonely?”
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Our New Testament text this week takes us to an Old Testament text, Psalm 110. While not stated directly, the doctrine of the Trinity is certainly implied. Father, Son and Spirit are all present in the text and yet the Scriptures teach that there is one God, not three. Cults are cults because they err on this doctrine. They either deny it or reduce it to humanly understandable terms. The doctrine of the Trinity is admittedly hard to comprehend. Alister McGrath recounts a humorous incident from his childhood about this. He grew up in Ireland in the 1950’s. Using the Book of Common Prayer in their Sunday worship, they recited one of the creeds that affirmed “the Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible and the Holy Ghost incomprehensible.” A local, slightly deaf farmer boomed out, “The whole d*** thing is incomprehensible.” McGrath wrote, “The congregation had paused for breath at that particular point and had no difficulty in hearing this piece of theological commentary.” I’m a little ashamed that this makes me lol. I attended an Ordination Council a few weeks ago and the candidate was asked what he thought about some of the common analogies used to illustrate the Trinity. He said without fanfare that none of them work. He was right! Trying to explain the incomprehensible demonstrates the need for a trip to the Dictionary. McGrath goes on to suggest the reason for our inability: 1) There are limits to what we can understand. We are created beings and as creatures, “There are certain limitations under which we—as humans—are obliged to operate.” 2) We are sinners. Our brokenness is pervasive, affecting every part of our being. To deny its effects is ludicrous. Of course this inability bothers us, especially in a day when people think the only things that are believable are the ones that are perfectly explainable empirically. But the Scriptural record affirms the reality of the Three but One and One but Three God. The Father, Son and Spirit are all affirmed as Divine. Yet, the Word is clear that there is one God. We have three main options here. 1) We can deny it outright because we cannot make it work scientifically. 2) We can reduce it and redefine it to make it explainable in human terms. Or, 3) We can accept it and rejoice in the application of this reality. Upon this doctrine all the important truths of our faith are built…love, relationship, redemption, restoration, resurrection, eternal bliss and ultimate joy to name a few. The fact that Messiah is both David’s son and David’s Lord shut the Pharisee’s mouths. I pray it will open ours in praise and adoration of our wonderful, incomprehensible but knowable Father, Son and Holy Spirit.