“Genuine Life”
April 6, 2014
The 5th Sunday of the Christian Season of Lent
Ezekiel 37: 1 – 14/Psalm 130/Romans 6: 16 – 23/John 11: 17 - 44
His Excellency
The Most Reverend Ariel Cornelio P. Santos D.D.
of the
Archdiocese of Manila
the
National Church in the Philippines
and the
Territorial Church of Asia
International Communion of the Charismatic Episcopal Church
Welcome to the Cathedral
of the King! Welcome back home! It is good to be back. I stand
here, swallowing my pride in making an announcement that we would meet
somewhere else. I don’t mind. I should have said, “The Lord wills…that we
would meet there.” In the past few days, God moved. He made
arrangements and we are back here, at least for the end of April.
Eventually, He will lead us to the land that He promised to us.
God moved for the sake of the apple of His eye. For our
sake, He did not keep silent. Happy are those who believed in God! Thank
God! He leads us by stages according to His command. He knows where
to take us at certain stages. He leads us in triumph. He is not
done. I want you to expect in your heart greater things because God
is moving in our midst. You know in your heart that He uses
circumstances and personalities that God move and He is taking us to that which
He wants us to go. He is our God; we are His people. As long as we
follow Him, we will never be disappointed.
In the Daily Morning Office of Prayers, we have just concluded the
story of Joseph. It is a very, very beautiful story of Joseph and his
brothers, of how God used him. His brothers, who represent us, the
Church, turned from a bunch of cruel people who sold their brother to the
enemy. They betrayed him. We are traitors to him. They even lied to
the father as to say, “Your son must have been killed by a beast.” They
did that to him. It was evil. Somebody who trusted them, they
betrayed. It was family; their own flesh and blood that betrayed Joseph.
Joseph went through slavery, through suffering and went to prison for
standing for righteousness. The whole time, through suffering, his hands
were blessed by God so that anything he touched turned into a blessing.
However, small or big, eventually, God used him to be in control of the
resources practically of the whole world, as symbolized by Egypt. He
preserved the whole world – God’s people and the Gentiles alike – through seven
years of famine.
In Genesis 50, Joseph revealed himself to his brothers. His
brothers, after their father died, asked forgiveness of him. They said to
him, "Before our father died, he charged us saying, ‘Tell Joseph to
forgive his brothers for the evil they had done to him.’” Joseph
said to them, “Am I in the place of God as to take vengeance on you for my
sake? ‘Vengeance is mine,’ says the Lord. Joseph said, ‘You meant evil against
me, but God turned that evil intention into something good for the present
result, which is the salvation of the whole world.’”
Many times, our tendency is not to look at the big picture.
We don’t understand that God uses people. Sometimes, He causes them
to be blessed; sometimes He causes them to enjoy things; sometimes He causes
them to suffer for the sake of His kingdom. The martyrs of old could have
rise up today and say, “It is so unfair. The Christians today have their
Bibles, but they don’t even read them. They sit in air-conditioned
auditoriums, yet, they complain. We were served to the lions. We
were tortured. We were sawn in two and we were tested for our
faith.” The ultimate test for the Christian in the 21stcentury
is, “Are the seats comfortable? Do I have to sit through a service that I
have to suffer through?” This is the challenge for us today. You
can’t say that is unfair. God uses people just as He wills, according to
His desire.
Joseph said, "In order to bring about this present result,
God used me. I had to go through slavery and imprisonment so that he could put
me in this place where I am right now and serve you and my father and the whole
Egypt and all of the world for the common good.” Our tendency is, “What
about me? I suffer. People did this to me. I had to do this
for the Church. I had to do that for my brother.” For what
reason? It is for the good! Instead of complaining, like Joseph, be
thankful. It is for the common good. Joseph said to his brothers, “Do not
be afraid. Trust in God. He knows what He is doing. He let me
fall into your hands. He let you put me in a pit and sell me to
strangers. He let these things happen because He was working something in
me. It doesn’t matter who sinned and what their intentions was.”
Joseph brothers repented but they were traitors who sold their
brother. They matured and became a bunch of brothers who would sacrifice
themselves for each other. When Joseph said, “I will take one of
you. You leave one of your brothers here and go back to your home and
bring your youngest brother so that I know that you are telling the
truth.” When they were talking to Jacob about bringing Benjamin,
the youngest, to Joseph, one of them said to Jacob, “I will suffer. Put
it on me – the responsibility on my children if I do not bring back Benjamin,
your youngest son back to you. I will take that responsibility.” From
being traitors to being self-sacrificers. It was for the common good.
St. Paul says in 1Corinthians 12:6, “God works all things in
all persons.” Verse 7, says “For the common good.” “There
are varieties of effects but God works all things in all persons.” To
some people, the effect is suffering and pain. To some people, they are
being used to be blessed by material things so that they can bless
others. Is it unfair? No! Do we have a right to question God?
No! God works all things in all persons. Verse 11 says, “The
Spirit works all these things just as He wills.” He is Lord and His will, like we pray,
is to be done. Just as He wills, He works all things.
Verse 18 says, “God has placed the members, each one of
them, in the body just as He desired.” Can we question God and say, “Why did
You make me a hair in the nose? Why didn’t You make me an eye? Do
You know what is inside the nose when it gets dry? I am beside sticky stuffs
and not so pleasant things.” We ask, “Why did You make me hair in the
armpit? Do You know how it smells in there?” Do we have a
right to question God? Just as He wills, He put each member in the
body, in His wisdom. Who is wiser, you, me or God? He is! In
His wisdom, He placed the members, each one of them, in the body as He desired.
I ask you, “Do some members do more or seemingly do more
work? Do some seemingly have less work?” What is the responsibility
of the hair instead of just being pretty? Does it carry a load like the
shoulder does or the hand? Does it carry the whole body like the feet and
the legs do? Do the feet and the legs have a right to complain to God and
say, “It is not fair! The hair is on top and is seen and all it does is get
brushed all day to look pretty.” God is wise! He works all
things in all persons for the good of all.
Romans 8:28 says that God causes all things to work together for
good. St. Paul said this – he who was not a stranger for suffering.
His resume can be seen when he takes his shirt off – it shows the scars for the
suffering of the gospel that he had to go through. He says, "Who can
be against us? Who can condemn us? Who can separate us from the
love of God in Christ? Shall tribulation or distress, or persecution, or famine,
or nakedness, or peril, or sword? St. Paul, who was left for dead and who
was flogged and betrayed by his own brothers and suffered many things – hunger,
thirst, sleepness nights – says, “In all these things, we overwhelmingly
conquer. Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor
things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any
other created thing including the emperor at that time who really persecuted
him and the rest of the Christians, will be able to separate us from the love
of God.”
Church, hear what the Spirit is saying to us: forget what you
think is so big and can separate us from the love of God. You might ask, “Why
did we have to get kicked out of the Church for one Sunday?” It was part
of God's plan. Maybe, He was testing our communication systems among
Areas. Maybe, He wanted us, in our last meeting place, to finally just
get everybody connected to an Area and belong.
Lean not on your understanding. Somebody may have stepped on your
toe; somebody may have betrayed you, whom you trusted, whom you treated as your
brother, who in fact is your spiritual brother. They may have betrayed
you or destroyed your trust. God works all things in all persons for the
good to bring this present result, as Joseph says. The present result is
for good.
Our deadline here is until the end of the month. I am
telling you that this is good! Inconvenient for a while, but this is
good. Do you know how I know that? Because God says so! He
said, “I am working all things for good." You don’t see it right
now. When Joseph was in the pit, I am sure he could not have said what he
said to his brothers after so many years, “This is all God’s plan.”
Joseph, running away from temptation of Potiphar’s wife and being jailed for
it, I don’t think he said, “This is just all part of God’s good plan.”
While he was there, I am sure he questioned God, like you and I do sometimes,
but let us hear what the Spirit is saying: stop dwelling on the
inconveniences on the famine, the peril, the persecution, the sword.
Understand that God is working all things in all persons for the common
good. Lean not on your own understanding. Do not be afraid and do not
lose hope! With God, there is hope beyond hopelessness.
Ezekiel was brought to a valley, a low point. Israel was in
captivity at that time, at a low ebb in their history, as a nation.
He was shown in the valley very
manyand very dry bones. Paint a picture of
discouragement and negativity. This was a bleak future pronounced. It was
not just a valley of the shadow of death. It was the valley of ultimate death –
pronounced. God asks Ezekiel, “Can these bones live?” God was
asking him. It reminds me of Jesus asking Philip, “Where are we to buy
bread to feed this five thousand people?” As if Jesus did not know what
to do. In one gospel narrative, Jesus knew what He was intending to
do. God knows what He was intending to do when He asked Ezekiel, “Can
these bones live?” He knew what He was going to do in a moment. Then
God says to Ezekiel, “You prophesy over the bones. Jesus tells His
disciples, “You feed the multitude.” Was it Ezekiel who actually did the
resurrecting of the bones? No! He was used! Was it the
disciples who actually fed the five thousand? No, they were just used!
Their hands were used. It was Jesus who multiplied. It was God who
brought the bones back to life.
We are just being used. We are co-redemptrix; co-redemptor;
sharers in the plan of the salvation of God. The counselors of the Church,
when they stand in aisle, they assist the people wanting to know God.
They are sharers in the plan of salvation. When we minister to people, we
are sharers in the plan of God. God is the Master Planner and the
Master Executor. He invites and wants us to participate in His
work.
In Ezekiel, there were the rattling of the bones and they started
to come together. Skin, sinews and other parts of the body started growing on
the bones and they became individual bodies and became an army. God says,
“Prophesy over the breath to come into them.” Ezekiel did. Israel thought
they were cut off. They said that they have given up hope; that they were
cut off from God. Death is not a deterrent to God's plan or His work.
Death is not a finality. Death cannot stop God. St. Paul
said, "Can death separate us from the love of God?” No! In
fairness to Ezekiel, he didn’t have Romans 8 to read then. Death is not
beyond hope. We have our theologies and we say, “After death, that is
it. God will have to judge you.” No! God is the Author of life and
He has destroyed death. Death is not too late, not if you are a believer
in God.
This was demonstrated in the gospel. They thought that death
was it; it was too late. Jesus said, “This sickness of Lazarus is not
unto death, but for the glory of God.” This reminds us of last week
gospel where Jesus said, “It wasn’t the parents or this blind man who
sinned. It was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”
Jesus knew what He was intending to do. He waited two days before He went to
Bethany where Lazarus was. He said to His disciples, “Lazarus is dead and
I am glad for your sakes that I was not there so that you may believe.”
Martha and Mary both said to Jesus, “You are too late. If You have
been here earlier, like soon after we gave You notice, our brother would not
have died. Now, You can’t do anything anymore.” Martha, Mary, and
the Jews, all chosen people of God – all saw death as greater than the Author
of life. This is sad. Jesus had to say, “I am the Resurrection and
the Life.” It is an insult to say to God, “You are too late. You don’t
understand the situation that death has won.” Four days dead and bound, and
yet, Lazarus was raised from the dead.
The power of God’s mercy, the power of His love is stronger than
all including death because God works all things in all persons even those born
blind. Even those dead for four days. He works all things, in all
persons, dead or alive, for the common good. Even a whole nation who thinks
they are very dead and very hopeless. Jesus says, “He who
believes in Me will live even if he dies. Even if death is the result of
sin, he will live; he who believes in Me.” Romans 6:23says that the free
gift is life. Even if you sin, and the result of sin is death, even if
you die in your sin, you will live.
The Author life is greater than death and death has been
abolished. Psalm 130 says, “If You mark iniquities, who can stand?” God
does not mark iniquities. 2Corinthians 5:19, “God does not count men’s
sin against them.” No sin, no death because death is the result of
sin. He tells us to hope in Him because He will redeem us from all our
iniquities.
God works all things, whatever it takes, in all persons for the
good of all!
If you go through a suffering, think this! If you go through a blessing, think
this! God is not interested in each of us individually. God is
interested in the welfare of the whole so that we may be forgiven of our
sins. So that we may be delivered from death, from weariness, from
discouragement, from hopelessness.
Think of our situation now as a Church. God works all
things, even in all situations, even for all persons, for our good!
Whatever we are going through, the purpose is that we may be forgiven of our
sins; that we may be delivered from the weariness, discouragement, hopeless;
that we may know that He is God and that He has spoken His promise and He has
done it and will continue to do it! He is not done with us so expect
greater things. This is so that we might know that His Spirit is in us.
As in Ezekiel, “That He may place us in our own land!”
God never changes. Israel was the people of God; we are the people
of God today! As He promised His people then, He promises His people today, “I
may place you in your own land that we may be His people and He our God!”
God does it! Not Ezekiel, not man, not me! We simply trust and obey and
we let our hands be used to feed the people, to prophesy, and to resurrect
people to life, and to be a witness to the nation. We simply allow
ourselves to be used because my friends, this is the way it is in the kingdom
of God.
LET US CONTINUE OUR REFLECTION
WITH
CARDINAL OF HOLY MOTHER CHURCH
AND
VENERABLE PRIMATE
OF THE PHILIPPINES
THROUGH
THE WORD EXPOSED
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