By Greg Jones
What does God want? I mean really – what’s God looking for in people? What’s he want from us?
The Bible says – the prophets and apostles and martyrs and saints say – Jesus says – and we say it every Sunday – that what God wants is us. Starting with nothing, God made us for himself. Yes, God wants us.
When we turned away – and became subject to evil and death – God sent us gracious voices to show us the way back home. Yes, God wants us.
When we seized His place in our lives – claiming His center for ourself – He came right on into that anthropocentric world we’d made as One of us – and said, “See I am lord here too, come, follow, enter my kingdom.” Yes, in Grace, God built us, built us a household, and all because he wants us.
To be with Him, to Love Him, to become more and more in an eternal companionship. Yes, God wants us to come home – to belong – to have significance in His house. That’s what Leviticus is talking about where it says, ‘Be holy for I am God, I am holy.” It means, “I made you, be with me, for you are my beloved.”
It’s what Jesus repeats in the summary of the Law in today’s Gospel – the message of total love: of God, neighbor and self. And it’s what Jesus alludes to by describing a messiah not merely the kingly son of David, but a messiah who is from, with, and IN, the Holy One of All.
God wants in, my friends, with us, for us, and between us. But do we? The answer is probably, “Sort of?” “Sometimes?” “Maybe?” God wants to love, honor and cherish us, but we’re not so sure we’ll return it. To Him, or any other, perhaps even to that ‘inner other’ of the potential human self.
Yes, with all that He is and all that He has, Christ honors us: but we’ve got cold feet.
But, you know, our feet might be cold, but we who attend the weekly feast of thanksgiving, who have gone to the chapel, and who are at the altar with Christ, and that counts for something. We go to be with our savior, and thankfully, shaky as we are: He’s not shaky at all. The Good News is that our bridegroom, Christ, has enough love to make up for what little we bring to this marriage of humanity and divinity known as the
Church.
Yes, we’re here, in the Church, not only before God’s altar, but in God’s house, and our bridegroom has brought us home, and we belong here, and have significance here, because with His great, “I am,” and our feeble “I will with God’s help,” we have become one in Him and He in us.
We’re his. Emmanuel, which means God with us, has joined us to God and each other. Alleluia.
But let me say, though we go weekly in celebration of this sacred communion relationship, God is not looking for wedding presents. No, God’s not looking for our gifts – because God gave them to us in the first place, and God knows where they are right now.
God’s not looking for our gifts, God’s looking for our promise, love and commitment. God’s not looking us to give Him anything, God’s looking for us to use what He’s given us for the good of the Kingdom He’s trying to build with us.
Friends, God has already paid blood for your soul in Christ. Christ is looking now for your promise to join with Him, in promise, in commitment, and to build up His household.
Those who share the love and gifts God has given, can do mighty acts in times of trouble. That time is always now, and this sacred household and our divine partner want us to be fully involved – right here at home.
The Rev. Samuel Gregory Jones (‘Greg’) is rector of St. Michael’s in Raleigh, N.C. A husband and father, Jones is also the author of Beyond Da Vinci (Seabury Books, 2004), and the bass player in indie-rock band The Balsa Gliders – whose fourth studio release is due on iTunes this month. He blogs at fatherjones.com.