2-25-2014

Good Morning to All,

     Genesis 3:9; “But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”

    When I was very young I used to like to watch a TV show called “Car 54, Where are You?”  It was a comedy about the misadventures of officers Toody and Muldoon as they were policemen in Bronx, New York.  They would have run-ins with the Russians every so often.  Through most of the show, these two officers were never where they were supposed to be but always ended up in the right place at the right time.

    There is something to be said about being in the right place at the right time.  Seeing the breaking of a new day with the magnificent red and purple hues in the cold of a frigid South Dakota morning may not seem like being in the right place at the right time but once you’ve seen it, you know. 

    There is also something to be said for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Ask any pedestrian who gets splashed by a car at an intersection and see what they think.  It isn’t that much fun.  It isn’t much fun to be where you don’t want to be when trouble occurs.

    That is sort of what Adam and Eve felt when they were “hiding” from God.  They had sinned and knew they had sinned.  So they went and hid behind a bush hoping that God would not see them.  The thing about this verse that can be so confusing is that God actually calls out to Adam, looking for him in the garden.  Why would God, who sees everything, have to look for Adam?

    The fact is that God didn’t need to look for Adam but rather God was calling Adam to return to God.  This is a call to repentance.  “Where are you?” isn’t a physical question but a spiritual question.  God wanted Adam to see “where” he was; he was away from God, hiding from God.  Adam thought he was hiding from God’s wrath but what he really was doing was hiding from God’s grace.  He was hiding from God’s love and forgiveness.

    We do the same thing when we avoid repenting of our sins; when we try and hide some of those sins which we think are either too great to be forgiven or too small to be noticed or maybe we still kind of like them.  No matter how we measure them; when we hold onto a sin we are hiding from God.  So God calls out to us, “where are you?”  Where we are is missing God’s grace and mercy.  Where we are is listening to the devil’s lies about anger and punishment rather than to God’s Words of forgiveness and hope.

    “Where are you?”  Hopefully, you are at the cross where you can cling to God’s grace shown to us in its most definitive form.  Prayerfully, we are calling out to God offering our praise and thanks for the forgiveness which we have received.  Where are you?  You are in the arms of a loving God; trust in his promise.

Father, too often we are hiding from you and in doing do, we hide from your grace.  We ask that you continue to call us and to keep us close to you.  We pray for those who are continuing to hide from you.  Seek them out Father and bring them back to you.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace

Pastor Bret