“Return…!”

“Return…!”
Return is an intransitive verb defined as “come or go back to a place or person.”
It came to me as a renewed inspiration that the word return is the central theme of Scriptures. By central theme I mean that Scriptures is about God asking us to come back or ordering us to go back to him and to the place of our salvation.
To return presupposes that a move away from someone or place had taken place. In the case of our relationship with God, from the day of the fall and as God banished Adam from the garden of Eden, man has kept on drifting away from his presence.
However, being the loving and compassionate Father that he is, God has not left us on our own. He wants us to be where at creation we were intended to be.
Today, through his prophet God once more beckons on us, “Return, O…Cameroonians to the Lord your God.”
In the past it was emphasised that “No one is to appear before me empty handed.” One had to bring first fruits from the harvests or animals for sacrifices (Ex.23:15ff).
In the new dispensation God is not interested in those offerings when they come from people steeped in sin. To return to the Lord in genuine repentance we need to take just his words. He says, ” Your sins have been your downfall. Take words with you and return to the Lord. Say to him, ‘Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruits of our lips…'”(Hos.14:1-7).
Yesterday in a homily in honour of a great anglophone statesman, I reminded the Governor of the North West region that way back in 1917, still at another funeral we appealed that we shouldn’t bandage tight a wound without any dressing and medication. The wound runs the risk of becoming gangrene. This time around our appeal was that we are tired of bloodshed, be it the blood of the military, the seperatist or the innocent citizens, blood is blood. To paraphrase John Donne, the death of any man diminishes me!
We have drifted away from righteousness and truth, we need to return!
We have drifted away from peace, we need to return!
We have been displaced from home, we need to return!
We have moved away from love and being humane, we need to return!
We have drifted away from camaraderie to hate and hunger for human blood, we need to return!
Above all, our sins have been our downfall. Let us take the words and return to the Lord and say to him, “Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruits of our lips.”
Our God is a God who loves us unconditionally; such that he sacrificed his Son for us. Your sins may be overwhelming, but the Lord Jesus Christ says, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have come not to call the righteous, but sinners”(Mk.2:17).
My dear friend, like the philosopher said, we shouldn’t look to the stars for the solutions to our problems. The answer is within us, Let us return to the Lord so that he restores us.
Sunday prayer: Lord Jesus Christ I have sinned and moved away from the Father. Purify me and bring me back. Amen!
Have a blessed Sunday! Peace be with you!