Low Sunday 23 Apr 2017 Sermon

Low Sunday 23.4.17 Forgiving

God is gracious and abundant in His dealings with us. He turns water into wine; He heals the sick, forgives the sinner, raises the dead – what is wrong He sets right; what is right He makes even better.

We can become so accustomed to God’s goodness that we take Him for granted. So if the sun rose this morning did we thank Him? We could not think of every detail to thank Him enough, but we need to keep in mind how dependent we are upon Him.

His generosity to us is especially strong in His treatment of the sinner.

Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven….

Forgiving is giving-with-extra-boost. It is when one party is prepared to go further than strict justice requires.

This is how God treats us - by creating us, which He did not have to do; then by saving us - which again He did not have to do.

And He gives us chance after chance to get things right.

God, in justice, could have wiped us out any time in the last few thousand years. Somehow we are still here, and talking about His mercy.

This is possible only because He is giving more than He has to.

He did not have to become Man, nor be crucified. He simply wanted to do it.

It should make us, at each step, more and more grateful that He has given us such special attention, and treated us so much better than we deserve.

It should cure us of complaining of the way God treats us; whenever we tell Him He is actually not looking after us very well.

We have various sufferings we don’t deserve, according to us anyway. We say we have been good, so He should reward us.

We make the mistake of dealing with God as though He is a business partner, someone of whom we can make demands.

We cannot demand anything from God, only appeal to His generosity.

We forget how infinitely small we are in relation to Him. Or how much power He has.

Mostly things just go on the same, but that is only because God’s will is underlying the whole creation.

Yet there are people who say, Who is this God? What is it to Him what we do?

This is ignorance combined with ingratitude, for which also we must ask forgiveness!

This feast is a chance for us to go back to the start. Like re-doing the scene for a film. We have needed to do the scene millions of times to get the human response right – if we have succeeded yet.

Gradually, we develop a sense of gratitude, getting to know God better, enabling us to have a clearer relationship with Him.

We will find He is on our side. All the while we have been trying to get around him, now we can go straight to Him.

What has God got to do with it?  Everything.

We need to change our tune. Instead of a chorus of complaint, we sing His goodness.

Those who are attached to the Divine Mercy devotion, are hopefully already saying the right things.

More of, Lord have mercy, and less of, Lord, why did you do this?

More of a discovery of the goodness of God, which has always been there, but sometimes has to be discerned as to its depths.

If we are prepared to work with God, and manage to be patient with Him, we will see it all in due time.

He is doing everything for our good. More than we realize, more than we deserve. All thanks to Him!