GOD

SERMON TITLE: GOD

Genesis 1:1-3

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said let there be light and there was light.

He is the God who began the beginnings before the beginnings began. The one who stepped out of eternity into time. He is Elohim the eternal creator, YWHW, omnipotent, auspicious, and the magnificent one. Isaiah 45:5 says that, “ I am the Lord, and besides me there is none else, there is no God beside me…..” You must understand that many of us are taught about church, church history, the history of theology, religion, creeds, dogmas, doctrines and philosophies but we are often not taught about God. So we reduce God to some earthly, sensual, human, carnal thing that can be manipulated this way or that way according to our own human dictates and desires. But the God we serve according to the holy scriptures is high and lifted up, he is the king of kings and the lord of lords, he is so absolute, so divine, so authoritative that all of the angels cry holy, holy, holy. He is not some other God, he is not a choice, he is not an option, he is not a collection of Gods in a room of Gods contending for a position, he is the omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient and omnibenevolent God. His name is to be called Jehovah, Elohim the creator of the universe. He did not meet with a board, or committee, he did not assign a taskforce to create the human race but he stepped out on absolutely nothing and said I will make something and the power of life came shooting out of his mouth and when he said let there be, it became whatever he said it was because he is God. I know its not popular these days because people are preaching a relative God, a God who can not do anything unless we pray, or a God that can not do anything save we fast or a God who can not do anything unless we touch and agree but I beg to differ with you tonight. God does not need you to agree, pray, clap, dance or shout to do a thing. Before there was a when, a where, a this or a that, there was God. Before there was a preacher, a pastor, a president or a prophet there was God. God said let there be and it became whatever he said because he is sovereign. No one voted him into power and certainly no one can vote him out power because he is sovereign. He is the custodian of all power, the highest judge, the CEO of the universe and the one who sits on the circumference of the earth. He is sovereign, he decrees a thing and it is established because he is God, not a governor, not a lieutenant, not a general, not a mayor nor the president but God.

When I consider the present political and cultural milieu in America today, it is evident that we need God. The current mindset of autonomy in West and the pride of a capitalist Godless society is catastrophic. We are in a culture that desperately needs the ground of being God. The darkness that blankets this culture is so dense and thick, no wonder why people are killing each other, families torn apart, the economy meaningless, and the political leaders seemingly confused. Whenever there is gross darkness there is need for a God to proclaim light. We need God to speak to the walls of injustice and to the foundations of oppression, racism and subjugation. When God speaks the current dominant culture tumbles to the ground. The scriptures say that every knee shall bow every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. Therefore I declare that every knee of oppression must bow, every knee of classism must bow, every knee of racism must bow, and every knee of domination must bow in the name of Jesus the son of the living God. Let God arise and let all his enemies scatter, as smoke is being driven away so drive them away O Lord. Let unrighteousness in our judicial, economic, and political systems melt like wax.

In Genesis chapter one God manifests himself as the transcended creator yet in Genesis chapter two he reveals himself as the imminent one. He is so big that he flung the stars and the galaxies by the words of his mouth yet he is so imminent to the fact that he stoops down so low and molded panoply of flesh out of the dust of the earth. He actually preforms a mouth-to-mouth resuscitation in order to infuse the breathe of life (Zoe) into Adam. This mighty and big God is so in touch with our anthropological and existential needs and concerns. In John 1:1-5 declares that, “ In the beginning was the Logos and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.” The word goes on to say that the Logos was made flesh, and dwelt among us or tabernacled among us or boothed among us. The Logos was Jesus Christ the creator, redeemer and yes indeed God. According to Athanasius, Jesus is God incarnate. Jesus is God who entered into our human situation, in order to transform it. Jesus was no mere creature but co-creator of the Universe with God the father. Is it not true that Isaiah the eagle eyed prophet says talking about Jesus, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father and the prince of peace. How can this same Jesus be mighty God, eternal Father and have attributes associated with the Holy Spirit? This must be the revelation of the Trinity. Doesn’t it say in another place in Matthew quoting Isaiah that, “Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us.” This Jesus proclaimed and said I am the way the truth and the life and no one comes to the father except by me, he said I am the door, I am the bread of life, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last and I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore; and have the keys of hell and of death.

This Jesus charged straight into the synagogue in Nazareth soon after triumphing over Satan in the Wilderness and opened the book of Prophet Isaiah and prophetically announced that, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and opening of prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our god; to comfort all that mourn; To appoint unto them in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness…” It is time for America to reconnect with the ground of being God. This is no longer the time of cooling off and languishing in the sweltering heat of autonomy.  This is not the time to take the inebriating drug of relativism, and be pushed to the margins of mediocrity and passivity. It is time to shift the gears from orthodoxy to orthopraxis. What is the good news but to say that God is the voice of the voiceless, the formerly forgotten, the poor, the last the least and the lost? God is moving in the interior corridors of evil and is unhinging its underpinnings. Jesus is the great beacon light of hope to all the millions of souls suffering in polar vortex of oppression, suppression, subjugation, domination and marginalization. In the words of Dr Martin Luther King Jr, “I refuse to believe that bank of Justice is bankrupt. I refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity in this nation.” And so I have come to cash this loaded check, a check of freedom, a check of justice, a check of equality, a check of access and equal opportunity. America it is your time to rise from the quicksand of hegemony and fallacies. Arise and shine for your light has come.