Dear Readers and Listeners, Friends in Jesus Christ,
Our watchword for today is taken from the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah, Chapter 16 verse 20, “Can mortals make for themselves gods?” The word of God came to the prophet Jeremiah and revealed to him the waywardness of the people whom God had brought out of slavery in Egypt. They have turned against God, the living God, and have made idols from wood, stone and other materials. They have worshipped them and have sacrificed to them the produce that God gave and created. They even engaged in the detestable practices of sacrificing their children to idols. God is angered, as He was angered when they made the golden calf while Moses was on the mountain receiving the law of the Lord. God’s anger is provoked because people prefer to bow down to their own creations, life-less idols, and sacrifice prayers and praise to the gods that they have created. God is the all-knowing, all-seeing God, perfect and holy. It is in His mercy, loving-kindness and long-suffering patience that He waits for humanity to turn from worshipping dead idols, to worshipping Him. In the world we live in today, the fear of the Lord is not a concept that is part and parcel of the ways that people think or behave.
God is not recognized for His omnipotence and His almighty power. People have become a law unto themselves, and their gods, or idols, are manufactured by their various skills, knowledge and technologies. There are many God-fearing people in the world, but there are even more who pride themselves for having no fear for any power, including the Creator of the Universe: God, our Father. Many countries announce themselves as being secular countries. Their laws and their science, their constitutions and their traditions have taken the place of worshipping God, as the Ruler and Creator of the Universe. In our schools and places of learning, teaching biblical truths and praying in the Name of the Lord are not encouraged. Man has become self-sufficient and proud in his own eyes. Humanity believes that human knowledge and technology will serve them and bring them to a place of peace, harmony, an end to poverty, disease and strife. The past year has dismantled many of our idols and gods for what they are, dead and lifeless, not able to save us. We have been shocked at the turn around in the world as we used to know it. Still, there are no signs that the rulers of the world are managing to sit around one table and agree on what is best for the world and the people of the world. We are all suffering and our pain is palpable. There is only One who can turn these calamitous times around. The world is not in the hands of the movers and shakers of society, who are here today and gone tomorrow, but in the hands of God, the living God.
“We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life,” was written by John, in his in the First Epistle, Chapter Five verse 20. When Pilate was cross-examining Jesus in the trial that led to Jesus’ crucifixion, Pilate asked, “What is truth?” (John 19 verse 38). The Way, the Truth and the Life stood in front of Pilate, he saw Jesus; but he could not discern that this was the Son of God. We have received knowledge of the truth, it has been proclaimed through the word of God, through the testimony of the world-wide Church and of the believers, past, present and future. “All things were made and came into existence through Him; and without Him was not even one thing made that has come into being,” (John 1 verse 3).
Father, we thank you that you have been from eternity and shall be to eternity. We thank you that you allow us to look into the mysteries of your magnificence through the Life, Death and Resurrection of our Lord, Jesus. We praise you, the One and Only God, Amen.