DESIRE FOR GOD

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 855, 26 December 1929, Page 6

DESIRE FOR GOD

COMING OF THE SAVIOUR SERMON BY ARCHBISHOP “As we look back through the files of history, we find in human nature an increasing desire to find out God and an increasing willingness on the part of God to be found out, but we also find an increasing realisation on the part of man that finite reason and finite understanding could never accomplish the task.” These words were spokeu by Arch- ; bishop Averill in the course of a Christ- j mas sermon in St. Matthew’s Church yesterday morning. His Grace showed how man must look further than intellect alone for an explanation of the coming to earth of the Saviour. It was by the exercise of humble faith that the great truth was realised. Nearly 2,000 years ago, said the Archbishop, the question had been asked, ‘ Canst thou by searching find out God?” and the human heart was still crying out for more intimate knowledge of God which no amount of human searching could satisfy. The finite was powerless to grasp the infinite. The Psalmist emphasised a great universal truth when he described men as feeling after God rather than finding Him. Men had glimpses of a golden age when God would manifest Himself, but they only saw through a glass darkly. WHERE TRUTH IS FOUND “It is not first and foremost by the exertion of the mind and intellect that we find Divine truth and bow down before the inward and spiritual meaning of the Christmas message, but by the heart and the emotions,” his Grace continued. “The Holy Mother and St. Joseph, simple country folk, saw the King before the wise men skilled in mathematics and the astrology of their day. It is not by mental searching that we find out God; it is not by worldly reasoning that we offer our lowly worship with the shepherds at Bethlehem; it is first and foremost by simple humble faith that our hearts penetrate beneath the sign and realise the underlying truth of the great Christmas mystery. If we humbly and faithfully accept the great message of Christmas, ‘God with us,’ if we humbly and simply accept God’s relevation, God’s message, God’s unveiling of His Fatherly heart, then, like the wise men, we shall be led mentally and intellectually to the feet of the King, born though He was into this world under conditions quite foreign to what our finite minds would consider to be fitting to royal dignity. “In this difficult and complex life which we are called upon to live in this 20th century our hearts sometimes cry out, ‘Oh! that I knew where I might find Him!' and the answer comes back to us, if only we can hear it, ‘Go and search diligently for the young child.’ Reason may stagger, but faith accepts and worships. Perhaps if we searched diligently we, too, should find the Divine in the most unexpected places and under the most unlikely circumstances. We are perplexed at the inequalities of life, the hardships, the sufferings, the cruelties and yet, as we go and search diligently for the young child we find Him ministering to the sick and suffering, sharing the burdens and sicknesses. We see Christ in many strange and unexpected places at Christmas time.

“And, lastly, as the heart cries out for more intimate knowledge of God which human searching cannot satisfy, we hear the answer, and He leads us to His own great banquet. Through finding the Christ and offering to Him our loving obedience and devotion we find that we have found God and are united to the loving heart of the loving Father.”