Magyar Egyház, 1978 (57. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1978-01-01 / 1-2. szám

8

MAGYAR EGYHÁZ

MAGYAR

CHURCH

IN PREPARATION FOR LENT

Scripture Lesson:

Isaiah 1:9-20.

During the six weeks of Lent we seek through spiritual discipline and devotion to prepare our souls for the celebration of Christ’s glorious resurrection on Easter morning. Is there an urgency to this preparation and is it that important?

Let us pretend for a moment; let us suppose. Let us suppose that you got a call from the President of the United States. Now I don’t know how you feel about the President either; whether you think he is a great leader or whether you think he lacks the quality of leadership, I don’t know. But he is the President of the United States and, if he called you and said, “You know something, about the problems of our country and I have decided that you are a person I would like to talk to about it. I would like to sit down with you and discuss these matters,” then you would really make preparations, wouldn’t you? Then you’d really make arrangements. You’d get your house in order, you’d get yourself dressed in your finest and you’d be all a’flutter and you’d be making a lot of preparation for such a meeting.

Suppose you were called to a meeting on a very, very serious matter, and called to discuss it, with the Lord God Almighty! ... I think that would take a bit of preparation, wouldn’t it? The Lord had a quarrel with His people and the matter was serious. It was serious in terms of their relationship with God, it was serious in terms of their relationship with each other, it was serious in terms of their national preservation. It was dreadfully serious; and God said to them, “You are guilty of all kinds of sin. Your hands are full of blood. You’re a bunch of hypocrites. You have been guilty of selfishness and greed and lust and shame of every sort. Then you come to my house and raise your hands piously to heaven. I’m not going to look or listen when you do that. I’m sick of your sacrifices. Never mind your coming trampling my courts and saying, “We are God’s people!” Forget it! Your hands are full of blood. You are greedy and selfish. I don’t want any more part of it. I am sick

and tired of it.” God says, “Now, go wash yourselves. Make yourselves clean.” Well now, wouldn’t we, if we were going to such an important meeting? Wouldn’t we get ready?

The tragedy of the thing is that so many people think that getting ready is the whole secret of Lent. A man once said to me, “No, I’m not a church member. I live a decent life. I get along pretty well. I think my neighbors would tell you that I’m a decent person.” That’s fine. I approve. I think anybody will. But that doesn’t solve the problem, that’s just getting ready for the meeting. God says, “Go wash yourself, make yourself clean. Stop oppressing the needy. Be concerned about the widows and the fatherless. Learn to do good. Turn away from evil so you can learn to do good.” And people say, “Well, isn’t that all there is to it?” God’s answer is, “No, that’s not all there is to it. All that is, is by way of preparation.” When we have ceased to do evil and learned to do good, we have cleansed ourselves and made us clean, then we are ready to appear before God to talk about the basic problem.

So God says, “Now we are ready to sit down and talk about the basic problem. Though your sins be red as crimson, I can take them away and make them white like wool. Though your sins be red as scarlet, I can take them away, and make them as white as new-fallen snow.” You see the whole business of preparation in itself doesn’t accomplish the thing. The problem is the basic problem of sin in the human heart. The problem is the problem of sin and God says, “let’s talk it over. I’m ready. You can be cleansed in spirit. Your life can be made new — only by faith and the reality of a deep, abiding relationship with God.”

That’s what He said to His people long ago. Men couldn’t understand it and wouldn’t believe it, and so He sent Christ to die for our sins, that in Him, by faith, we might have life. So in this Lenten Season, let's clean up and get ready to talk with God about the basic need of the human soul, the need to be cleansed from sin; and only God can do that.

Tibor Toth