Calvin Synod Herald, 1977 (77. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1977-11-01 / 11-12. szám
4 CALVIN SYNOD HERALD GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE JESUS AT CHRISTMAS John 3:16 1 am afraid that many Christians have a misconception of God: they think of Him as the angry, disappointed, hurt God who is after man to punish him. This misconception continues when one puts Jesus against this angry God as the beautiful Savior, the gentle, loving Jesus who is there to pacify the angry God even by sacrificing his life. The misconception here is that God and Jesus are set against each other. This is wrong because God and Jesus are one (Jesus said, “I and the Father are one”). God was in Jesus, God became man in Jesus born in Bethlehem. The apostle John captured this mystery in saying, “God so loved the world that He gave His Son.” God so loved. That’s it: God is love and out of this love He initiated man’s salvation. God started man’s salvation and the basic divine motive was love. You see, the angry God might say: “I shall break man, I shall punish man, I shall challenge man.” How would the angry God do this? What would the angry God want? Submission, flattery, suffering, in all which the angry God would take delight? But God is the God of love and what He wants is love returned. Sure He breaks man — with the horror on the cross; He punishes man — with proving the utter futility of hatred; He challenges man — let man show anything mightier than love. God so loved the world. This is hard to understand or to like it. We like to feel that we are God’s exclusively chosen children. We, the nice church people, the faithful ones who come to church (at least once in a while), joyfully sing, piously pray, cheerfully give, and who are all around respectable. We hear that God loves us — of course He does; we are glad to hear that. But when we hear that God loves the world we are not clear what He means: the whole world, all people? The real sinners, all nations — Second World, Third World, even the enemies of America? All the unlovable? Let’s see. The real sinners — what are we: unreal sinners, spotless sinners? The unlovable — we wouldn’t fit into that category, we are always perfectly lovable, are we? All nations — not only America the beautiful? By America the beautiful we also mean, of course, the America of drug addicts, city slums, labor disputes, pollution, crime ridden America where there are millions in poverty and where people are killed on the street in open daylight with scores of people watching wordless and motionless because no one wants to get involved. Like it or not the Gospel says “God so loved the world.” So, God loves them all. God wants His whole creation of men to be happy, free from pain, free 30th ANNIVERSARY “THIRTY YEARS IN HIS SERVICE” - this was the title of the worship service in which the Norridge United Church of Christ (formerly Chicago West Side Ev. & Ref. Church) and the Rev. Desmond D. Parragh, .deputy bishop of our Synod, gave thanks to God for their joint ministry. The service took place in the church of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Peace, Chicago, 111. on November 6, 1977. In addition to the Rev. Parragh, nine pastors participated in the order of service, including the Rt. Rev. Arpad L. Beretz, who preached in English, and the Rt. Rev. Dr. John Butosi, Bishop who brought the message in Hungarian. The choir sang two numbers under the direction of Mrs. Grace Parragh and with the help of Mrs. Rose Ella Palfi, guest organist. At the conclusion, a robe was presented by the Ladies Aid Society to the Rev. Parragh. After the church service, a banquet was held in a joyful, celebrant mood. The Rt. Rev. Arpad George, President of the Hungarian Ref. Federation of America and a life-long friend of the celebrant was the main speaker, relating humorous insights of past 30- 40 years and presenting to Rev. Parragh the highest decoration of the Federation, the gold medal. The formal program concluded by the remarks of Rev. and Mrs. Parragh, but those present stayed together for several hours yet, dancing and sharing the joys of a well-prepared and beautifully executed occasion. Dr. John Butosi from hunger, free from bondage, free from fear and free from an evil conscience. If the Gospel says so we must accept. But. .. But, then, what about us? What about us, God’s faithful children? It is quite a vexing question: if God loves the whole world what is the sense in being faithful, God-fearing, praying, giving and forgiving, what is the sense of being Christian? If God loves the whole world including all colors, all parties, all systems; if He loves the whole world including communists, socialists, capitalists, atheists, agnostics, rich people, poor people, everybody (also that very unpleasant neighbor of mine or yours), yes, if this so, then what is the sense of being Christian? There can be but one answer to this: God chose us to interpret, to communicate His Word to the rest of the world. To tell: God loves you, God loves you all, don’t resist His love, rather return it by loving all your fellow men. To portray this love, to show how to say it, how to do it God gave us His Christmas gift in Jesus born in Bethlehem. A.
