We're All in the Family

 

Text: Galatians 4:4-7

Focus: Community

Function: to focus on our community and its strength (Holy Spirit).

⁴But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, ⁵in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. ⁶And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” ⁷So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir through God.

As always, welcome to the family of God! Indeed, all are welcome as God, by the Spirit, keeps building the church into the community that values the care for the least of these as a metaphor for loving Christ.

We are all children of God. The word here that is translated, “Abba” means daddy. It speaks of a close and intimate relationship, in the Spirit, with the living God. God’s Spirit inhabits the believer and gives them the power to forgive and love, even the least of these, those who are different, strangers and people we might react to.

Sometimes it is hard for us to love the least of these because the culture around us teaches us to fear the other in order to protect ourselves and give ourselves a feeling of security.

But we are now believers in Christ and our security comes from the fact that those who harm us are touching the very children of God and God cares about that. We get that from this passage.

Now the context of the passage is actually about faith and the idea that by faith in Christ we can indeed be just and loving people, the kind of people who turn the other cheek and go the extra mile.

And the theologian here begins to explain that by faith in Christ, I believe, that by holding on to the example of both his lifestyle and death-style, we too can respond with love and grace in the midst of conflict instead of with rage and revenge. It takes faith to rest in the fairness of God’s eventual judgment. We trust that God will sort it out fairly in the end.

That is why we live sacrificially here on planet earth because we know there is a reward in heaven.

And, the death and resurrection of Christ is proof of that. We don’t have to be afraid of death because, as Jesus said in John 11:26: we will never die. I believe he means that our souls will indeed go in in heaven.

Brother Paul, teaching as the theologian in this passage, contrasts the difference between the Old Testament system of sacrifices and etc. with the New Testament system of giving the same break to our neighbor as we would to ourselves or our family or the people with whom we are in community.

In this teaching, he explains that under the New Testament system, we are free from the bondage of performing ritual and sacrifice to actually doing the greatest commandment, to love God by loving others.

And when Jesus mentions the importance of loving others, he is speaking of the least of these.

I want to bring the bible into current here a little bit. I am not being political, but spiritual and I ask you to hear this in spiritual terms as to how you will receive your own reward.

Jesus wants us to stop fearing the dark skinned people at our border and treat them as neighbor. I find it implausible that we cannot find enough workers to fill our minimum wage jobs when there are thousands waiting for a chance to get those jobs. It will indeed stimulate our economy. I am not talking economically, but spiritually, for this is a spiritual discussion, not political. God promises to bless the people who care for the least of these. When we do it, we are caring for Christ himself.

And that is in context with our text this morning. The passages in the context are about the fact that we are all part of the family of God and all are welcome here.

Right before the chapter, Paul gives the famous quote that became part of the baptismal vows of the early Church: “There is neither Jew or Greek, Slave or Free, Male or Female, but all are one in Christ.

Then he speaks of the freedom that faith in Christ brings, and it is the freedom to love sacrificially, just as Jesus did.

He wants us to break down the barriers between the races, the genders and the classes.

He wants us to be part of community. He wants us to have what we have here at Painter Creek.

For example, encapsulated around 1 Corinthians 13, the great chapter on love, both 1 Corinthians 12 and 14 speak of how we are an interdependent body that really needs each other. And we need each other to let the Spirit lead in our lives so that we can express the response to God’s love through the Spirit. That is chapter 12.

Chapter 14, after reminding them to love each other, he reminds the community to ensure that everyone is encouraged to share.

I love our community setting. I love the way we share our joys and concerns together. We depend on each other.

What is new to me is the way that we are also expressing our faith through different talents and gifts. It was a year ago that Edna and Delbert’s gift of hospitality kicked of a real sense of community here at Painter Creek when they opened their home.

And then others with the gift of hospitality joined in and the meals became a catalyst for community.

This was a move of God. Praise God.

And then, we started incorporating arts and crafts and poetry into our worship. Thank you everybody, but especially in alphabetical order Carol and Jody. Your creativity is indeed Spirit inspired and your willingness to share it is a gift to us all.

And believe me, I have been in plenty of churches where any kind of change or deviation was seen almost as a sacrilege, so, thank you to everyone else for encouraging these gifts.

Let it inspire all of us to share and be used by God’s Spirit. It builds our community.

And, he wants our community to be based on the loving values that we just celebrated during advent season. Hope, Peace, Love and Joy, these are all aspects of the faith in Christ that sets of free to love like Jesus did.

So, we have been preparing this throughout the Christmas season. But what we are going to do is make a chain of hope, peace, love and joy together to celebrate our own community and unity for this is what the Spirit does for the Church.

The Light Still Shines

 

Text: Isaiah 9:2-7

Focus: Christmas

Function: Joy at Christmas

¹The people who walked in darkness
    have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness—
    on them light has shined.
³ You have multiplied exultation;
    you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you
    as with joy at the harvest,
    as people exult when dividing plunder.
⁴For the yoke of their burden
    and the bar across their shoulders,
    the rod of their oppressor,
    you have broken as on the day of Midian.
⁵For all the boots of the tramping warriors
    and all the garments rolled in blood
    shall be burned as fuel for the fire.
⁶For a child has been born for us,
    a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders,
    and he is named
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
⁷Great will be his authority,
    and there shall be endless peace
for the throne of David and his kingdom.
    He will establish and uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
    from this time onward and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

Rejoice! Again, I say, rejoice, for God has seen the condition of humanity and came down from God’s throne in heaven and became one of us.

The theological term for when God takes on physical form is called “Incarnation.”

God decided to become present with humanity and the mystery of the incarnation is pretty wonderful to understand.

Why wasn’t the God child born to the Caesar and their family? Why was he born to a family in poverty oppressed in a backwoods corner of the world that was the Mediterranean sea?

And that to me proves the mystery and the power of it. It is like, what if the Messiah were born today in Gaza, or Mexico, or Guatemala, or Argentina, the countries where most of the desperate people coming to our borders come from?

What if the light of the world were sitting on our border seeking refuge just as the baby Jesus was?

The thing is, most of us cannot be bothered with the poor and seemingly insignificant people of the world. And yet, that is exactly the kind of circumstance into which Jesus was born. And for the world to take notice in such a way that we marked our calendars with a time near that of his coming, to me, it is proof of its power. That faith in Christ could have been born out of such humble circumstances proves to me that the light outshines the darkness and will cover it all.

Today we rejoice at the light coming into the world.

For some reason, I have been impressed with the prophecy in Daniel 2 this year during Advent. Under the threat of execution, God reveals a startling dream that the King had. It was a statue with a golden head, silver breastplate, brass loins and legs of iron with clay mixed into the toes. God tells Daniel that the vision in the king’s dream represents the great kingdoms of the earth from Babylon, to Persia to Greece to Rome. And then, in the prophecy, during the time of Rome, an huge boulder is cut out of a mountain and thrown at the image representing the great human kingdoms and shatters them and then becomes this great mountain. God is going to establish a divine kingdom that will transcend the power of human kingdoms.

The angel tells him this boulder represents God’s kingdom that will eventually rule the earth. He is speaking of the peace of God that will reign in the hearts of people by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The people at the time of Jesus were expecting the coming of this Kingdom of God. Jesus told them that now that he was here, the kingdom of God was here as well. Stop waiting for it and embrace it. Sadly, we keep waiting for the kingdom to come when it is indeed, already here in our hearts.

Jesus is the boulder that crushes the human kingdoms and sets up an eternal kingdom.

And we believe that it reigns in the hearts of people.

I had a mystical experience when I was baptized. I saw the light. I came out of the water and all around me I saw these brilliant flashes of light. I think it might have been angels rejoicing. But I knew I was in the presence of God because of the light that was flashing around me.

I believe in that Jesus is indeed the light of the world that transforms it in the hearts of those who would seek his peace.

So here we are, on Christmas, celebrating the coming of the new Kingdom and we have been reminded throughout out the year by the leading of the Holy Spirit that this kingdom rests in our hearts and softens them so that we too can love like Jesus loved.

Let us let our light shine!

The Light of Love

 

Text: John 1:1-8

Focus: Advent 3 Love

Function: to help people wonder at the mystery of the incarnation.

1:¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was in the beginning with God. ³All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. ⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.

⁶There was a man sent from God whose name was John. ⁷He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. ⁸He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.

During this advent season, and all year long, we celebrate Jesus as the Light of the World.

I have to tell you that I did you a disservice a few weeks ago when I was speaking of mystery and the mystery of the light and I told you that understanding what is meant in scripture by Jesus being “The Light of the World” remains a mystery today.

I might have been wrong, or I might have overspoken.

It is part of the job of the Spirit of God to draw us into the scripture and into prayer so that we can draw closer to God. Through those mediums, we get to know the will and the character of God.

And so, since I made that statement, the Spirit of God has been nagging me to find out more about the what it might have meant to the first century Jewish reader by the phrase “light of the world.”

Jesus is the light of the World.

I didn’t know this, but I read that St. Francis of Assisi started the practice of placing candles in Christmas trees to demonstrate that the tree and along with it, all nature is part of creation and bears the light of God.

It is interesting to me that right there in the first few verses of the entire Bible light is mentioned. In Genesis 1 we read that God, on the first day, created light.

The earth already existed but was without form, so the first thing God did to give us a home was to create light.

The second day, God created the sky. The third day, God created vegetation. And it wasn’t until the 4^th day that God created the sun, moon and stars.

So the sun and moon coming after the creation of vegetation shows us that these verses are not literal, but highly symbolic.

That tells us something about the symbolism of the light.

Light as seen as the power of God. It is the manifestation of God.

The Jewish people were deep thinkers. And they saw the peculiar relationship, metaphorically, between God and light through the science of light.

I had to ponder this to get it:

You can’t see light, but because of light, you can see. And, you know that light exists, because you can see.

You can’t see God. But, you can sense the presence of God and you can also believe, that just like light, God permeates everything God touches because, God created it.

It is like, on the first day, God created a reminder that God exists. We worship the light, because it is God. We don’t however worship the sun because it was created after the light was created.

There is also a relationship between light and love.

Love is another thing you cannot see. But like light, and God, you can sense love.

The Jewish people also understood light to be the light of love.

The mechanism for that is the way that love shines a light on the darkness and dispels it.

And just like light is a metaphor for God, and God is light in that sense, also, more directly and better from a scriptural understanding is this: GOD is Love.

The Jewish people understood that love and light are similar, just like God and light are similar.

And the New Testament picks up that theme in 1 John 4:8 when the writer states “God is Love.” And right before that he says, that everyone who does not love does not know God.

Love is the constant theme throughout scripture.

So, just as God is love and God is light, Love is God and Love is light. All of these things are connected metaphorically in the both the Jewish and Christian Scriptures. And, in the Quran, if I am not mistaken.

Love is light and it brightens the darkness.

I think, or hope, every year, during this sermon on love that I can remind you that our Job as Christians is not to curse the darkness, but to shine a light so that others can see.

And that concept is not unique to Christianity. It actually is a Buddhist proverb.

The Spirit of God is still working across the face of the earth, as described in Genesis 1 leading and calling people to soften their hearts and love the other.

So how do we shine a light instead of cursing the darkness?

Acts of charity stem against the darkness.

We give gifts at Christmas because God gifted us with the light of the world in our presence. The gifts are acts of charity toward loved ones to facilitate, in a consumerist society, love for that person.

That is good and wholesome and giving those gifts is my favorite part of Christmas.

And we add to that other acts of charity. When we do acts of Charity, the Spirit of God is moving inside of us to love and care for the other. We are standing against the narrative of the world that is selfish and values self-promotion over the common good.

Acts of Charity remind us and the world that we are all human, all loved by the God, all favored creatures in the eyes of the divine and when we do them, we perpetuate the truth to the world about our faith that God is love.

So, let love be the light you shine.

A Just Peace

 

Text: Isaiah 40:1-11

Focus: Peace

Function: Advent 2

40:¹Comfort, O comfort my people,
    says your God.
²Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
    and cry to her
that she has served her term,
    that her penalty is paid,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
    double for all her sins.

³A voice cries out:
“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord;
    make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
⁴Every valley shall be lifted up,
    and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
    and the rough places a plain.
5Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
    and all flesh shall see it together,
    for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

⁶A voice says, “Cry out!”
    And I said, “What shall I cry?”
All flesh is grass;
    their constancy is like the flower of the field.
⁷The grass withers; the flower fades,
    [[when the breath of the Lord blows upon it;
    surely the people are grass.
⁸The grass withers; the flower fades,]]
    but the word of our God will stand forever.
⁹Get you up to a high mountain,
    O Zion, herald of good news;
lift up your voice with strength,
    O Jerusalem, herald of good news;
    lift it up, do not fear;
say to the cities of Judah,
    “Here is your God!”
¹⁰See, the Lord God comes with might,
    and his arm rules for him;
his reward is with him
    and his recompense before him.
¹¹He will feed his flock like a shepherd;
    he will gather the lambs in his arms
and carry them in his bosom
    and gently lead the mother sheep.

In the Messiah, by Handel, there is a song from verse 11 about how God will feed his sheep like a shepherd. And to me, the style of the music in that one song is unique to the concert because it is sung as a lullaby.

This passage is about the comfort that peace brings. A just peace, not necessarily the absence of conflict, but God’s new kingdom bringing love and kindness to all.

The passage starts out with the Rhema word of God speaking with God’s creative omnipotent power commanding the heavens, and all the physical and spiritual forces to bring comfort to God’s people.

The Spirit of God seems to be speaking here and she is saying that God is done with the accusations and the whole scenario of retribution and punishment for error. God will instead, reckon the weakness of the sheep and come among them and be their shepherd. God will help them. God will comfort and help us.

Let me explain what I mean by the Rhema word of God.

In the Greek, there are two words translated as the “Word of God.” Rhema and Logos. *

Logos is a direct reference to Jesus, in John 1:1, The Word of God. The Logos is literally “the words of” and it refers to the fact that although God is infinite, God gave us a sort of finite being, Jesus, to understand what God was all about in relationship to humanity. The coming of this “Word,” the Logos, is what we celebrate and hope for during the Christmas season.

When the passage says “The Word of the Lord stands forever, it is speaking of Jesus the Logos. That means we don’t worship the scriptures, but the Christ shown to us in those scriptures.

But In a few places the Greek word Rhema is used and is translated as “the Word of the Lord.” It is different from the Logos. It might be more closely understood as the creative voice of God.

Hebrews 11:3 indicates that God spoke and the worlds came into existence. Creation came into being through the command of God’s voice. It is powerful and creative.

Ezekiel speaks of it at the valley of bones when the prophet, speaking the Rhema word of God prophecies to the bones and says “Live” and they start creaking and moving and joining together and flesh grows on them and they become a mighty army. The words created life.

Again, it is symbolic of what happens when God breathes life into something. God’s word, in this case, God’s spoken word, uniquely referred to in the Greek as the Rhema, brings comfort supernaturally to God’s people.

And it is this Rhema voice of God with all the power of creation behind it which speaks to us, just as Ezekiel spoke to the valley of bones and they lived, life from death, God speaks this comfort to us.

We are comforted by the power of God. And that brings us peace.

The biggest change I notice in my aging is that I rise very early. And lately, I have added Christian contemplation and mysticism to my morning routine. It is an effort to reconcile my mystical and supernatural relationship with God through the gifts of the Holy Spirit and my understanding that God loves everyone, not just we who call ourselves believers.

God now reminds me that They love the person with whom I am upset or I disagree with. More importantly, God loves the person on the other side of the aisle from me on whatever topic I am passionate about.

When I take the time to practice this meditation I try to enjoy the beauty of the earth around me, to allow wonder and childlike faith to grow inside of me. I begin to see how this creative power of God which speaks comfort right into our souls and our spirits transforms us and begins to give us peace.

I love the idea of peace, and fostering it during advent. It is a great theme. And Isaiah is speaking of a corporate peace given by God as part of God’s desire to take care of Their children.

Essentially, God promises by the power of the Spirit to clear the path for them so that they can survive and maybe even prosper.

When God promises to level the field for them, God is showing them that God wants a peace that is just and fair for everyone.

We think of peace oftentimes as the absence of conflict. But no. God wants a just peace. One that cares for the least of these as well as those who are privileged by their wealth and power.

He speaks of the valleys being raised up and the mountains brought down. He speaks of a level playing field. A peace that works for everyone.

In contrast, I remember during the civil rights marches hearing phrases about Black people like “If they only knew their place…”

The people who said that were seeking a peace that was merely an absence of conflict, but not justice for the oppressed people.

It took courage for me as a teenager to speak against that kind of speech. It just wasn’t consistent with us singing Jesus loves them all, black, brown, red, yellow and white.

You can’t have second class citizens in an egalitarian society. But most importantly. We are members first of God’s kingdom and in that kingdom there is no race, class or gender, all are one in Christ.

Sometimes peace takes bold preaching to change the culture. But Jesus said, blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons and daughters of God.

So, let us claim the promise of that peace and spread it.

*I know the OT was written in Hebrew and Aramaic, but it was translated into Greek in the Septuagint and that was sort of their standard for scriptures in that day, so a Greek study is appropriate.

Vigilance

 

Text: Mark 13:24-37

Focus: Hope

Function: Advent 1

²⁴“But in those days, after that suffering,
the sun will be darkened,
    and the moon will not give its light,
²⁵and the stars will be falling from heaven,
    and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.

²⁶“Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in clouds’ with great power and glory. ²⁷Then he will send out the angels and gather the elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

²⁸“From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. ²⁹So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. ³⁰Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. ³¹Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

³²“But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven nor the Son, but only the Father. ³³Beware, keep alert, for you do not know when the time will come. ³⁴It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. ³⁵Therefore, keep awake, for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening or at midnight or at cockcrow or at dawn, ³⁶or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. ³⁷And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.”

Keep awake. A command in the imperative form. It is something for us to focus on while we are living here on planet earth.

And it is a great way for us to start the Advent season this year. Jesus is speaking here, and like Matthew 25, when he speaks of the foolish servants who didn’t prepare for a long time coming by the master, he calls for us to remain vigilant until Christ’s return.

In the bible, one needs to do a lot of study to discern what is to be taken literally, and what is to be taken symbolically. Jesus used a lot of symbolic language. In John 8:12, he calls himself the light of the world and yet, he never really explains what that means. He speaks in mystery and trusts that the Holy Spirit will help us understand the symbolism in the message.

He speaks here, what appears to be literally, of a physical return where the sun is darkened, the moon doesn’t give its light and a third of the stars cannot be seen. And then, he says, the son of man will come in the clouds. We talked a lot about that the last month or so. And we look forward to the time when Christ does return.

And as it says in a parallel passage in the book of Matthew, and Paul’s writings in Thessalonians that we just studied, there will be signs like wars and rumors of wars and other things and that is not the end. It is not the end. It is the precursor to the end. But it is not the end.

In this passage, the end is described as what appears to be the end of the planet with the sun and earth lessening their light.

But as we studied, this is the event where Christ returns in the clouds, not the event where we are taken to heaven. All of this takes place right here on planet earth and we believe that it is God coming back to earth to set things right.

One of my favorite hymns is “We’ve a Story to Tell to the Nations.” And it describes the second coming of the Lord in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox tradition.

And those traditions believe that this second coming is manifested in the way that Christ Jesus rules in hearts of humanity.

The line in the chorus goes like this “for the darkness shall turn to the dawning, and the dawning to noon day bright and Christ’s great kingdom shall reign on earth, the kingdom of love and light.

The light shines in our hearts and quickens us to be followers of Christ. The song refers again to the symbolic nature of Jesus being the light of the world.

And when I think of advent, I think of how that light dawns on me.

I really love Christmas lights. I love it when neighborhoods are lit up, almost in defiance of the long winter evenings with no light. And not in defiance of God or of nature, but in hope for the pleasure of beauty and love and all that is good, we resist the darkness with the lights as a symbol that we too are looking to be the light of the world.

Advent starts for me in the heart where during the season I am reminded of the goodness inside of humanity because I believe that the light of God shines inside of everyone. As Richard Rohr puts it, the Spirit created everything, so everything is divine. And according to Ephesians 4:6, another symbolic passage, God is all and in all.

I believe that we have to look for the light. Again, in Matthew 25, Jesus, speaking of what appears to be a delay in his coming, describes the wise servants as those who prepared and kept vigilant while they were waiting.

So, what can we do this advent season to shine the light and be vigilant?

Well, today we focus on hope.

Hope keeps us encouraged. Hope, I believe, is something about which we we have a choice. We choose to have hope or we choose despair.

We walk by faith trusting in the reality that we are God’s children and God cares for us. It gives us hope. Hope builds our faith and give us the power to love sacrificially.

I could not forgive if I did not have the hope that God forgave me. It helps me to see the other as just as valuable to God as me.

So, we don’t know when Christ is coming. But then also, we realize every generation had a hope that perhaps the time is now.

And that is true. Christ is indeed, always coming into this world to transform it.

Last week we read that we are the body of Christ. We are Christ on earth. So Christ is indeed here on earth to redeem it. It happens when we ourselves, individually practice the Christmas spirit of love and peace all year long. But during advent, we get to take the time to remember the importance of having that perspective while we are living here.

That perspective helps keep us vigilant as we practice the love of God when we work with God through conflict and struggles with people.

As Christ is always coming, Advent is always here. We are always hoping in the light of the world casting out the darkness.

Close with reading from Advent: “Take time, in the busyness of this season, for quiet reflection, for the light of God’s love is discernible everywhere. Welcome Christ into your heart this season and go forth with the knowledge that Christ is coming and is our Hope.”