God's Search for Man November 29, 1964 Communton
Luke I9:1-I0, Genesis [2:1-9

The two passages of scripture | read this morning share a common motif. | One
from the Old lestament,~a story that was transmitted from geberation to generation |

the other from the New Jjestement, an Incident from the lh fe of Jesus. \one telis# a

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story that is 4,000 years ofd: the other an Incident that occurred 2,000 years tater. |

One took place on the very edge of recorded héstory: the. other in the retafivety

sophisticated atmosphere of the Roman Empire. \ at first glance, it might seem that the

two men, Abram, father of israel; and Zachaeus, a first century tax coffector, have
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littie, if anything, in conmon. |But, by way of introduction, t want to suggest that
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the separate Béblical accounts of these twe men, express the game thought; and further~

more, that mey express the central thought of the Bible, | would go even further and

idea
suggest that Ue eeegirt expressed in the two stories Is the most important thought

for all history, for afl human i ty.\ and that the two historical personalities; Abram,

the wandering Semite, and Zacheus, a hated Jewssh Publican, are by far, more sIgnificant

than a book fili of political and military heroes.

Now, what is this thought, this common motif, to which { have attributed so much

importance?|{it Is, primaritjy, a nen about God. | Here ernger

‘ram. Margaret “eade, a noted cul tural anthrepofégist, has

studied the ofdest and puresté civilizations existant va studies have taken her

to the infertors of New Guinea, Indonesis, the Congo and South Amer ica.\ wi th no particular

axe fo grind, Dr. Meade has testified that there has never been a culfure or a_fribe

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known to #s now, that did not have some awareness of a supreme being, or at least of
@ power greater fhan that which they possessed. | Histery reveals that the worlds
great civilizations, the Egyptians, the Persians, the Babylonians, the Greeks, the

Cullural
Remans, all had their dieties. | Cars| Anthropology tells us that lesser civilizations

have worshipped something. | Behavioral and Sociai Science tells us that al! men seen

to have an inherent sensitivity, er an insecurity, that leads them to look beyond themselve
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for ultimate bi ; Q av premc being & Power cbeve all tem porad

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That ultimate something has been the object of a search that has continued from

the beginnings of recorded histoty right into the present. | Man's inherent sensitivity

-$o the infinite and fhe eternal has been expressed in ways as divergent as the separate
— - dents
civilizations themselves.\fihe Babylonians worshipped Marduk, creator ged,” the Egyptians

had their Sun god, for a while the Greeks toy@d with the idea of One God, one universal

seat of reason and frutht, the Romans had their Acropo! s.| the Barbarians worshipped

fertility, precreation, the stars and mooon, the mysterious powers of nature. | the search

has been universal: man has experienced thisneed in every age. (And man in every age has

taken it upon himseff fo full fill! it.

In the history ef man’s religious sensitivity there Is ene tradition, however, that

is out of step: one that is going the opposite direction from ali the rest.| That tradition

begins with Aran. |14 is a radically different tradition.\ Instead of beginning with man's

need, man's religious consciousness, man's creative abiiity to express his loftiest

theughts, this tradition begins with 6od.| This traditon is grounded in the Idea that God

takes fhe ini tiativer| thet Ged introduces himself to man: \that God speaks the first werd

in the eternal dialoge between man and his uitimate.

This is the story of Abram.| this is the radical thought ene finds in the early

pages of the first book of the Old Testament.\ For eleven chapters in Gnesis the seeds

of the tradition are planted, &nd-then—in—the—+2th—chapter—the-plané—spriay creation,

man's sin, man's pride, the genrations of man.| And then Jin the l2th chapter, the plant

springs inte fruition: néstory moves out of the sphere of legend and Into the

arena of human experience) With no theotogical speculation, no mystic imagery, with no

expiainatery footnotes, we read: ("Now the Lord said toe Abram." )

Ged ceme: God_spoke: God took the initiative and confronted an_historical man.

This, | would suggest, is the most radical, most power ful; and mest relevant thought te

be found anywhere in literature.| In ene sentence if sets the God of Israei apart from

every other himan attempt te describe the ultimate retaity.| jn the very first beok the

Otd Testoment speaks the startiing word that God Is one who acts, not a remote idea

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conjured up in the mind of areterizet-etess: but an active tiving Ged who confrents

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AV God wire speales te, or communicates with, AA cite chad
“ere! i re +o “Th £
men where they are, — Ay by ravens Wis Weekure VY eR , e OQpuy

- and Yu gel. of Peraad.
Now, to preceed some 2,000 years to the first century A.D. and the story of Zachaeus.

2achaeus was a tax collector, a Jew appointed by Rame to extract the hated revenue from

his own country men. \ He was a part ef man's fong search for god.| When Jesus came to
Jericho Zachaeus wanted to seehim.|Perhops he was merely curious:\ perhaps he was_desp—

rately lonely and needed something te_stabalize his meaningless Life.| Perhaps he was

seeking that ultimate something that man has always sousht.| The story has a humorous

twist. |e was @ smal] man.\ And in order to see Jesus he had fe climb up inte a free.

And there, in a classic posture of seeking, perched in a tree te catch a glimpse of the

one men were saying was the Christ, Zachaeus was found.| Jesus found him, Jesus spoke the
first word, Jesus invited himself to Zachaeus's house; and there he sa} d:("The Son of
Man came fo seek and save the lest,"

There If is again:| the radically different idea that Ged seeks and finds man: that

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man knews God, nef after he has successfully described him in philesophic concepts: |

net afte r he has bullt an idol and falien down beforw it,\ not when he has expressed his

loftiest thoughts Tn poetry and song: \not after man has completed the search,\ but when

AAN .
\ History is fllled with men who pointed to Ged,

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she allows himse!f to be found by God.

poets, theologians, philesephers, men of deep religious sensitivity.\sut here is one

— —
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going in the opposite direction: here Is one starting with God and pointing te men:
here Is one who said:("| came to seek and to find." }

This idea that is at the center of the Judeo-Christian tradttion, is stilf as radical

todey.| 14 still is out of step with the mainstream of opular religihous thinking.| For
we have never given up the search.\Like the generations befgore us we are not content
to lay down the tools of our leoking:\we are not satisfied te be found. \And SQ we go on

seeking, trying to find Ged, trying to create and make an ‘ultimate, The search continues

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even within the Chureh.\ IF someone said: (1 go to church to find God" /we would naturally

_——W.,

accept that as a sound motive. \And yet It is precisely the eppesite frem_the radical

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starting point of the Bible.

—_—

Perhaps the reason that the search continues is that we have neyer fealty understood

this Biblical idea.\ Perhaps we have heard it so often, afd lived with it so long, that

if no lenger has any affect on our thinking. \ believe every man needs to look fhis

assertion In the Face,| | believe that every man who considers himself a Christian needs

to reexamine his own faith to dent determine tts point of ori gin,| Does it begin with our

ideas about God?\Or does It begin with God's confrontation of man? {I believe that there
is no better time for this than the season of Advent.
Today we bégin the time of expectancy and preparation,| Ouf thoughts are directed to

that one event that fulfilled everything the Old tesstament said about God:\ that_one

evebt which was God's uitimate effort te find man — the coming of Jesus christ.| This

is the radical idea, the trully Good News, that In the Baby born in Sehtlehem, God acted

in human histery to find man:\ that In Jesus Christ, Ged himself dwett among men: that

because of Jesus Christ we knew that God is ever searching: ever confronting men within

the confines of History.

As we proceed through Advent, let us think of it as_the consumation of God's search

for nen. Jas we eelebrate the Sacrament og Haly Communion this morning, let us give up
. our Lord :
our search, \Gathered about fhe table, at which he promised fo be present, let us alfow

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ourselves fo be found. Amen

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