12-13-2019

Good Morning All, 

         Galatians 4:5; “to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons”

      I remember watching a movie a few years back that was about the gangsters of the 1930’s.   It had these three men rob a bank.  Over the next few years they ran and ran but everywhere they went; pretty soon a policeman from the town that had the bank that they robbed would show up and they would have to run again and again.  Eventually, at the end of the movie, there was the big shoot out scene and one of the brothers is killed and the other two are wounded but arrested.  As they are hauled away in the police car a narrator voice that sounded like a cross between Broderick Crawford and William Conrad said, “You can’t outrun the long arm of the law.”

    That phrase, “the long arm of the law” is really very old.  It goes back into the 1500’s and originally referred to the king’s ability to collect his taxes.  There was no place to hide from the long arm (or hands) of the king.  It later changed to the law in the United States.  It simply refers to the idea that you cannot get away with anything.  The law will always be after you and you will never have any peace.  You can run all you want but eventually you will get caught.

    This saying refers to using fear to accomplish its goal. The goal of this saying is to maintain order and to keep the law.  It uses fear and guilt to keep you obeying the law.  We are afraid of the punishment, so we behave as desired.  In many ways, we can see the law of God the same way.  It has long arms as well.

     We may think that there are times or places where we can live away from God’s law but there truly isn’t.   Late at night, when no one is watching or even when we are completely alone in our thoughts; whenever and wherever sins creeps or leaps into our life the long arm of the law will be there.  It will be there to point out our faults and our sin.   It will be there as the weight for us to carry as we soon see our weaknesses and the distance between who we are and who we should be. 

     The wonder of God’s Gospel is that it has even longer arms than the law.  God’s Gospel message of forgiveness because of Jesus reaches for us no matter how great a depth or distance away from God that we feel we are; God’s love reaches us with his merciful words of forgiveness.  No matter how guilty we feel because of the law; God’s grace reaches farther and wraps us in his loving embrace to comfort and to forgive you and to bring you home.

Father of all love and mercy, when I feel beaten down by the law and my guilt and pain are great, you are there to give me the comfort of your love given to me through Jesus.  Lead me to see that your love changes my heart and my life.  Help me to change into the person that you desire me to be.  Help me to see that life in harmony with you rather than opposed to you brings peace and contentment to my life.  Open my eyes, dear Father.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret