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Turning to the Lord |
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Home About Sermons: The Doctrine of the Two Swords Turning to the Lord The Resurrection and the Life The Resurrection The Good Samaritan The Holy Spirit Spiritual Liberation Easter Day Thanksgiving Day Miracles Stewards of the Mysteries of God The Wrath of the Lamb Links Write to Father Politzer: P.O.Box 221115 Carmel, CA 93922 |
Turning to the Lord.  The period of Lent is a time when we are directed by the Church to draw closer to our Lord. Symbolically and sacramentally we are to walk with Him the way of the Cross. It is our prayer that we will find it to be none other than the way of life and peace. In order to come closer to our Lord we need to turn away from all of those things in our lives which crowd out His presence. We need to fill ourselves with His Holy Spirit and let Him drive away the unholy spirits that would darken and cloud our lives. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." It is this purity, this singlemindedness, that the season of Lent is meant to instill in us. We are all creatures of our time. Most of us are influenced by the teachings of the so-called pundits, wise people, and counselors who tell us that we are really not responsible for our lives. Therefore, we tend to think that we are just a product of our environment, our heredity, or the conditioning that has occurred in our childhood through our relationships with our parents and our families. The notion of taking responsibility for ourselves does not rate very high with us. Yet God in His Word in the Bible has told us otherwise. In the Book of Ezekiel we hear the prophet speaking the Word of God saying, "All souls are mine." Every individual is simply that - an individual before God. God has given us freedom of choice and freedom of the will, which makes us responsible in spite of all the influences and all of the conditioning that have become part of us. We are the final arbiter, the one who makes the choice for our lives. We really do have the power and the ability to turn away from those dark influences that the world experiences and practices, and instead let the Spirit of God fill us with His joy and power. It is interesting how we tend to cloak the moral problems of our lives. St. Paul said let no man "defraud his brother in any matter." We have developed euphemisms to describe such unpleasant things as fraud. For instance, in reference to the Congress of the United States we use an oxymoron called "congressional ethics." Each word cancels out the other. We use the term "high finance", which very often means nothing more than a scheme to separate the small investor from his money. We speak of "recreational drugs." There are no such things as "recreational drugs." Drugs are medicines essential to our well-being. if they are not used properly they become poisons. Alcohol is such a poison when it is misused. We talk about "adult entertainment" which is really an euphemism for juvenile sexual interest. We refer to "safe sex." There is no such thing as "safe sex." The sexual nature that we have been born with is a great gift of God. It is a wonderful part of our lives and the world in which we live. It is a tremendous power that must be used rightly, and if misused it becomes deadly and destructive. The plague of AIDS now sweeping the world is an example. AIDS is not a homosexual disease, it is not a heterosexual disease. It is a sexual disease and should be treated as any other venereal disease. We are called by God through His Holy Word to turn away from fraud, self-induced intoxication, and promiscuity. Rather, we are to be filled with His spirit - the spirit of righteousness, the spirit of true love and affection, the spirit of holy joy and praise. We have the ability to make this choice. We are the ones who can decide the kind of life we are going to live and it is never too late. There is never a point in our lives when we are totally out of touch with His spirit and the power of God. 
I can remember years ago a good friend of mine, a member of our Church in Salinas, who I feel, is an outstanding example of how God's grace can come into our lives through prayer and totally regenerates the human spirit. The Bible does not deal in abstractions. The wonderful teachings of the spiritual presence of God and His moral energy all are meant to be fleshed out in human living. This man was a painting contractor who had a good business. I became acquainted with him when he did some work on our church. Occasionally, when I had the time, I even worked along with him. He was a man who had a great sorrow and disappointment in his life. He had become bitter and cynical. He lived in a little hotel room in downtown Salinas. Every Friday night he would get on a bus to Reno and gamble away his money and drink to excess and consort with prostitutes. Monday morning he would show up to work hung over and sick. One thing I admired about him was his tremendous ability to work. Regardless of how badly he felt, he never set that paintbrush down until quitting time. He liked to make jokes about the church and to kid me for being a preacher. One day I was walking through the corridors of the local hospital. A door was open into one of the rooms and I saw him lying in a bed. I walked in and said, "Hello Slim. How are you feeling?" He said, "Well, I'm going to have some surgery and I'm not feeling very well." So, as I always do, and as any other priest would do, I asked him if I could say a prayer for him. He said okay. I said a brief prayer and just as I left, I noticed tears were coming out of his eyes. I stopped by to see him a few more times before he went home. Low and behold, about a month later he showed up in church on Sunday morning. He started coming regularly to church and he changed the whole pattern of his life. He rented a nice apartment. Instead of going up to Reno on the weekends, he would come and help with social affairs at the church. He was a marvelous cook, He could make the best baked chicken I have ever eaten. He was a friend to everyone. He proved to be a handyman who could fix anything. One sunday a nice middle-aged woman accompanied him to church. He introduced me to her and said she was his landlady and they had become good friends. A few months later, they decided that they were going to be married. I was glad to perform the service. He took on the support of his wife and her two daughters, helping them through high school and college. Subsequently, I learned a lot about his career. In the past he had owned a profitable business, going all over the United States painting the smokestacks of smelters and atomic power plants. His first wife left him bitter and disillusioned. He was broken in spirit until, by God's grace, the word of prayer that was said as an act of pastoral concern touched him and he changed. He decided to put his life back on the track of goodness and wholeness. The words of St. Paul tell us that "God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness." The word "holiness" in the Bible does not mean extreme piety or an other-wordly attitude. It simply means "wholeness" - to be together, to be an integrated, complete person. What all of the destructive forms of personal degeneration do to us is to deny our wholeness. They disintegrate our personalities until spiritually, emotionally, and mentally we become totally disjointed and strung out. To be whole means to be living in harmony with oneself, to be in love and charity with one's neighbors, and to trust and obey God. The decision is always within us. We can never excuse our behavior for such reasons as a tragedy happened to us, or we have suffered a great loss, or someone did us dirt, or our parents were unkind and uncaring. True, this is a dangerous and difficult world. Nevertheless, as God tells us, "All souls are mine." All souls belong to Him. Each one of us has the ability and the opportunity to make a decision to give our lives to Him, and to let Him in His own way and His own time regenerate us through His spirit. The fact that this happens is the demonstrable proof of the power of Christianity. That is why, 2,000 years after our Lord came upon the Earth, our churches are filled with men and women, boys and girls, who are being renewed and regenerated by the power of Christ. As we share in this time of Lent, let us heed the Word of God, "Cast away from you all your transgressions whereby ye have transgressed and make you a new heart and a new spirit. For why will ye die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth saith the Lord God. Wherefore, turn yourselves and live." Turn away from the darkness of this world to the light that is within Christ, and Christ will give you life. |
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