Readings: 2 Samuel 7:4-17; Psalm 89; Mark 4:1-20
How will you feel if you generate an idea, you give it form, you can anticipate the positive impact it will have, you share the idea with your friends and they are all impressed and then when you bring it before the relevant authority for approval and they reject it, how will that make you feel?
Most times, it is very painful to accept “No” where we are so much expecting “yes and well done.”
Dear friends, in our relationship with God, there are times we must be ready to accept “no.” Let us use James and John as a case study. One day, they asked for permission to call down fire on the Samaritans, Jesus said “no” (Luke 9:54), they must be disappointed that he didn’t allow them display their power. At another time, they came to ask for seats at the right and the left in Christ’ kingdom, they got another “No” (Mark 10:35-40).
In the first reading of today, God sent Nathan to go and tell David that his intention is plausible, genuine, and commendable and that God is impressed and that David will be blessed. However, the answer is “No, but thanks for the kind initiative.”
Sometimes God says “no” to us. He says ‘no” for various reasons. In some cases, God’s ‘no’ tests the genuineness and depth of our love, our trust, our humility, our faithfulness to God. Sometimes ‘no’ is because God sees more than we see and we really don’t understand the whole truth of what it is that we want. He says ‘no’ sometimes because He has a better and bigger plan for us.
The truth is that it is not everything that makes sense to us that also makes sense to God and by all standard God’s wisdom is infinitely greater than ours.
The human person may say ‘no’ to a good idea out of human malice, abuse of power, envy, pride or foolishness, God’s “no” always proceeds from His love and His wisdom.
This is why like a good soil, our hearts must always be prepared to receive from God whatever He wills for us even when it is a “no” to our wish and plan.
Sermon preached by Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Baraka Gukena Okami on January 29, 2020.