The Hound of Heaven (Ben Fowler- April 15, 2020)

This past Sunday we celebrated Easter together as a church family. The only difference was, this year we would tune in from our homes on our T.V.’s, iPads, and smartphones. Our online church service had the same joyous, hopeful feel as in years past. It was full of passion, art, laughter, and wisdom. Nothing was lost. In a way, it was especially memorable. In an effort to satisfy our longing to be together, our church hosted an online potluck on Zoom that afternoon. We broke bread, laughed, and visited through our little screens. As the potluck drew to a close, our pastor ended by asking a compelling question, “What is a sentence or phrase that sums up the Easter message for you?” I don’t know why but a phrase came to my mind …“The Hound of Heaven is on the loose.” Why this phrase? Did I recently see the Fox and the Hound on Disney+? In any case, it seemed to sum up the Easter story for me. It references an old poem by Francis Thompson called ‘The Hound of Heaven’. It is the story of God, set loose to pursue a bandit on the run. God is the hound and the bandit on the run is us. When they rolled the stone away, He took off running... after us. When I became a christian at the age of 17, I had a burning desire for my family to know Jesus and would preach to them incessantly. I remember pleading with my mom and brothers to come to church, listen to ‘this’ sermon, or read ‘this’ book. All to no avail. All the while, God was getting His hound ready to let loose on my family. My friend Chris Baron was, by far, the most persistent evangelist I had ever met in my life. Apart from my doing, he was hot on my brother Max’s trail. He was on a mission to bring Max to Jesus. He stopped by the house with food. He invited him to church. He left messages almost daily. He invited him to an ohana-group... and slowly he began to get through. He could not be stopped. Chris was my brother’s hound. Max eventually went to church with Chris. He slowly got more involved and found himself going on a mission trip to Kyrgyzstan with the church. Soon after, he became a passionate christian. Now he was the one preaching to my mom incessantly. To make a long story short, Max ended up becoming a pastor at that same church and is still serving the lord today. The hound of heaven got him. I can’t think of life without my brother Max as a confidant in the Lord. We are like James and John or Peter and Andrew. I surely could not have made it this far without him. God knew that. Which is why He is working now, chasing down our family members, one by one. If they won’t listen to you, don’t worry, God is the Hound of Heaven, and He has a ‘Chris’ hot on their trail.

Easter is the story of God being set loose to pursue us. He has been chasing down people for two thousand years and like a hound, he will not stop until he reaches each one of us.
I fled Him, down the nights and down the days; I fled Him down the arches of the years; I fled Him down the labyrinthine ways; Of my own mind and in the mist of tears. I hid from Him and under running laughter; Up vista-ed hopes I sped and shot, Precipitated adown titanic glooms of chasmed fears, From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.

Prayer:

God, we were all once fighting, and running, and trying to distance ourselves from You.Yet You would not leave us alone. Like this poem describes, You are relentless in Your pursuit of us. We surrender even now. And we ask that as You found us, You would seek out our loved ones and bring them home as well. Amen

An Idea:

Next time you are praying for your family's salvation, leave it to God to do the chasing. When your words are falling on deaf ears, and your invitations go unanswered, ask him to send one of his hounds.