When God is involved (HOMILY FOR THURSDAY OF THE 4TH WEEK OF EASTER MAY 2023

 HOMILY FOR THURSDAY OF THE 4TH WEEK OF EASTER

Acts 13:13-25; Ps.89; John 13:16-20

When God is involved

In the first reading of today Paul gave a brief history of the life of the people of Israel in the synagogue of Antioch, as word of exhortation. The goal here was not to educate the people on their history but to present the history they already know too well in a way they never understood it. What was unique about how Paul told this history was that he interpreted the events of their past in the light of the action of God. By this, he ruled out the thought of coincidence or the pride of personal effort, and rather channeled the focus on the grace of God.

By this, Paul was revealing to the people that the direction of happenings in their history was a result of the purposeful plan of God. The events of their history was not all rosy; there were moments when they were confused and complained that God had abandoned them. There were also times when they derailed from God’s commandments; still God was with them. It therefore means that it was not their effort but God’s mercy and love that kept God with them. If we are repentant, our weaknesses cannot thwart God’s plan for us.

It is one thing to have an experience but another thing to give it an interpretation. The interpretation we give to our experiences informs how we are affected by the experiences and how we respond/react to them. When the Israelites interpreted their lack of water and food to mean that God had abandoned them, they murmured against God and Moses. When they interpreted the absence of Moses to mean the absence of God, they made for themselves a molted calf. As a result, God referred to them as a stiffed necked people. Again, the way people interpreted their encounter with Jesus determined whether they believed in him or not.

The question before us today is: how are we interpreting the events of our lives. Many persons have fallen victim of misguided helpfulness by those who attached a frightening interpretation to the happenings in their lives. Today, we want metaphysical explanation for everything. This would not have been bad if we were approaching God in His Word and in prayers. But many are rather doing so through some occult and semi-occult means. Hence, we fall prey of those who tell us what we want to hear. When we later discover that we have been deceived, we generally conclude that Church/men of God are scam. No! It was you who was guilty of wrong expectation(s).

Beloved, it is not unusual for inexplicable things to happen in our lives. It is not unusual to be shocked by the suffering and death of good/young people. It is not strange for people to put in their best into a business or endeavour and it fails. It will not be unusual for things not to always work out as planned. When these and many more happen to us, while we may have the right to feel bad, as humans, we must be very careful of the interpretation we give or the ideas we accept from others. Any interpretation that connotes abandonment from God is a bad one. Jesus died while God was with Him. Any interpretation that will not make you godlier is false. For every Child of God, the hand of God is always in all that happens to him/her. Be patient and remain faithful especially when you are confused. _If God dey on top ur matter, las las everything go make sense and everywhere go stew.