1452AFC122614 – Our Return Policy
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Psalm 126:3 – The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy. (New International Version)
Luke 1:49 – for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. (New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE))
Psalm 116:12 – What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me? (Authorized (King James) Version (AKJV))
Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Very much Love to you, Beloved! If you are reading this on Friday, yesterday was Christmas. I hope you had a wonderful CHRISTmas filled with the realization that God brought Heaven to Earth for you. Our Pastor, Reverend Father Anthony Rapozo, reminded us in his Christmas homily that Jesus came to us as a helpless infant to redeem the human race, the very race that betrayed him, first in the Garden of Eden and then again in the Garden of Gethsemane. He did that intentionally, purposely placing himself among us as in a way that we could choose to accept him as a Gift. What a GIFT! And yet in the 33 years Jesus spent walking among us, hardly anyone figured out what he was doing here or why he came. Now that we do know, we have billions of people who know him and love him; he is the Christ of God, the only begotten Son of the Father, sent to redeem the World and every living soul in it. It is a Gift of inestimable value, so immense, so rich, so literally awesome that we can never hope to make a return for it or to adequately thank our Almighty Everliving God for his Glory and Grace. And yet, the part of us that is created in HIS Image eagerly strains to acknowledge the Gift by honoring the Giver. We honor him by accepting the gift, using it in our lives, and sharing the Gift with others.
This Aloha Friday Message is the fifth and last in the 2014 Advent Series. I didn’t tell you in advance that this was a series, though. I wanted to make it a surprise. I have always loved surprising my family with special gifts chosen for them and kept secret so that on Christmas Day – or birthdays, or anniversaries, or just for fun – the surprise of the gift is an integral part of the giving. If you think back about the past four Fridays, you might be able to guess the topic of the series, but I’m just going to spell it out for you by listing the dates and titles:
11/28/14 Grateful Stewards Gratitude
12/05/14 Did you do that? Responsibility
12/12/14 Fully Aware I Trust Him FAITH
12/19/14 Generous Helpings Generosity
12/26/14 Our Return Policy A Return to the Lord
These are just five of the many characteristics of a good steward, the good and faithful servant Jesus described in some of his parables. I kind of gave it away in the first installment, but kept the topic “under wraps” in the four that followed. Together, these five messages make up my present to you, and also a small gift to our God as a token of appreciation for all his benefits. But, as the Psalmist says in Psalm 116, “How can I repay the LORD for all the good He has done for me?” I cannot, at least not fully, but there are some things I can do that are characterized by the word return.
The one most of us think about when we hear that phrase – A Return to the Lord – is the triple admonition to give tithes and offerings of our time, talent, and treasure back to God. I’ve touched on this many times over the years, but one in particular comes to mind from November 23, 2012. The point in that message was that there is no room for compromise when we decide to step forward and serve God. It’s all-in or not at all. We dicker and bicker with God about how we want to measure and define our service. When we do that with each other, it usually leads to strife. Somehow, when we do that with God, we get the very surprising gift of his unconditional love and all the blessings that come with it. In Romans 5:15, Paul tells us, “But there is a great difference between Adam’s sin and God’s gracious gift. For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ.” New Living Translation there is no tithe or offering from our time, talent, or treasure that can come anywhere close to matching the magnanimity of such a noble and generous gift! Only the gift of our life, freely given, is in the neighborhood of that type of generosity. Jesus gave his life freely for us, and that is why his is always the “even greater” gift – the loving gift of redemption. Think about redemption, not in the usual religious terms meaning freed from sin, but in the worldly terms of indebtedness: The action of regaining or gaining possession of something in exchange for payment, or clearing a debt. He freely paid our debt of sin, freely endured the wages of sin, and freely accepted death – even death on a cross – to cancel our debt utterly and forever. Knowing that, I should be completely, totally, utterly, unreservedly subservient to him rather than to my sinful human nature.
I am not.
What I return to him are excuses, betrayals, and empty promises. It seems my return policy is to return junk for Treasure. God, in his infinite mercy and wisdom, accepts my junk and sanctifies by covering it with the Precious Blood of Jesus. The sum of what I owe is so immense that I cannot even calculate it, and yet by that baptism in the Blood of Christ, I am made whole and become a child of God. You will remember John 1:12 is a “foundational verse,” a verse that describes the basis for our salvation and the result of our faith – we become the children of God. God is omnipotent and omniscient, so he can still forgive and forget the stupid things I do to hurt myself and others. How does he do that?!?! He does it with another surprising Gift. He waits for me to come back to him.
GOD’S Return Policy is that I can – and should – always come back to him. Take a look at how the Prophet Joel expressed it: Joel 2:12-13 – Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing. What happens when I, when you, when we return to the Lord? Everyone rejoices. The Angels in heaven, the people we love, the people that love us, the Holy Trinity, our ancestors in Heaven and all the saints we know plus all the saints we don’t know – they ALL rejoice! They are ALL made happy when we gift our lives to God by going back to him. And that, Beloved, is how we Give a Return to the Lord – we give him love, worship, praise, glory, honor, time, talent, treasure … in short we return everything he has given us by just going back to him and letting him walk with us all our days. As we do that, we are at the beginning of living out the true purpose of the Life he gave us since the Dawn of Creation: To be with him where he is forever.
Return to the Lord. Think of it as Life Assurance. What’s your policy?
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever — at your service, Beloved.
Please continue to pray for the victims of the heretical murderers in ISIS, and pray that those perpetrators of evil will repent and return to truly serving their Creator.
Remember that Jesus loves you, and I love you, too. Pray for one another, Little Children of the Most High God. He is waiting for our return even as we await his. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Mele Kalikimaka me ka Hauʽoli Makahiki Hou!
May Hope and Peace and Love and JOY be yours in the coming of the Christ Child.
Hope Peace Love Joy
Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
