SCRIPTURE: Galatians 4:4-7
TEXT: 4But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, THEME: Our Lives are shaped by God dwelling among us. INTRODUCTION The idea of God Dwelling with us is an interesting one to follow. We can see it in the beginning, in the description of the Garden from Creation. God is intimately involved with the creation of humans and their placement in the garden. Then there are concerns about of companionship and the creation of a partner. God is walking in the garden when Adam and Eve were being human and God’s love never ends but moves with the changes in their relationship. God continues to be involved with humans when they disconnect from each other and the chaos of water creates a handful of survivors as seeds for the relationship with God and the people of God to be preserved. God dwells with the family of Abraham and Sarah, with their descendants and in the land. Then liberates them from slavery in Egypt. This is where the nation of Israel forges their relationship with God in the wilderness. Warriors, prophets, judges, and kings re-inhabit the promised lands until they are defeated by the Assyrians and exiled to Babylon, God and Israel’s relationship has been bumpy with ups and downs. But now with the gift of God’s self at Christmas there is a new way where God comes to dwell among us. SCRIPTURE Christmas (as the apostle Paul has discovered) is where the fullness of time had come. Everything comes together at Jesus birth. God comes to dwell among us by becoming flesh and blood, born of Mary. Paul’s letter to the church in Galatia shows how Paul understands this. The first descriptor of our relationship with God was articulated in the 10 Commandments. The people of God received these while they were being formed in the wilderness. Ten Commands later became known as the Law, describes what people who have a relationship with God are like. These descriptors of their relationship with God make them distinctive from all other people. But these Descriptors are not exclusive to only them, but available for anyone to adopt. These Commandments from God details their relationships with God and each other. Unfortunately, we as humans tend to regulate things, administrate what we can’t control and make the things more difficult than they need be. They have taken these 10 Descriptors, something that was freely given to all, and used them as a way to rank themselves with God and measure themselves against each other. Paul declares, “Jesus’ Good News fulfills all of the Law’s requirements. A redemption has been paid in full and our indebtedness to God has been settled. The Law that had become an entity in itself to be satisfied has been rendered obsolete by Jesus as the Christ.” God’s Son (Jesus-Divine), Born of a woman (Mary-Human), Born under the covenant of the Law (as a description of the people who lived in relationship with God) is no longer needed as a way to mark sin in people’s lives. God’s dwelling among us in Jesus is proof of God’s loving grace and not our doing things perfectly. This takes us out of the loop of sin, debt, and repayment. Jesus fulfills the requirements of the Law and creates a new measurement for the People of God; love, grace, and forgiveness. The idea of Grace is so radical that our greatest temptation is to put a price on it or ironically make people earn it. So, Paul takes the idea of relationship with God, out of a financial system of debt owed and paid, and restates it in the system of Ohana; hanai-ed, loved, adopted, parent, child, and heir. No matter what you do, you are identified as family member. And as an icing on a cake; God sends the Spirit of his Son into our hearts to dwell, at no extra charge. More grace upon grace, ♫ This This the angels sing is Christ God’s holy offering ♫. APPLICATION What does it look like having God dwelling with us? Living freely is the first. We are freed to live, not saddled with a bunch of rules that tie us down to earns eternal life points, but free to live creatively, inventively, productively, meaningfully loving God and loving others. Relationships are what God is all about. Relationships that heal, reconcile, and grow in intimacy. Relationships that form covenants, families, communities and peacefully living of generosity, justice, living collaboratively in harmony. It’s about sharing our time, effort, and resource with others. This is what our Food Pantry is all about. Taking stock in what we have, and being willing to share with others. We don’t say this enough, but our food pantry is also supported by the generosity of Ala Lani Methodist church and Emmanuel Lutheran church. Last week one of the refers was out, and we discovered that through their generosity towards this ministry, were do not able to purchase a refrigerator from a premium appliance store and avoid the 6-week delivery wait. God dwelling with us is the second thing. Christmas and the incarnation maybe the preview of God dwelling with us forever. In Revelation 21 there is a vision of the new heaven, the new earth and the new Jerusalem that comes down here from God. A voice speaks and says; “See the home of God is among mortals, He will dwell with them as their God they will be his people, and God himself will be with them…” God dwelling with us is something God has always wanted to do. Wrapping our mind around this takes a shift from the theological paradigms of escape handed down to us. That theory is actually the opposite of the incarnation. We not going anywhere, God is coming to us. This is in line with our living our resurrected lives now instead of waiting for later. We are to live with God as our parent belonging to the Family of God now and not wait for death before we start. This is how Jesus lived his life. Some theologies live with the idea that we are not perfect and so not good enough. The earth has been messed up by us and not good enough. And everything is no good so God has to replace everything. That is not what I get from the pronouncement at Creation where everything is good. Or how God wants to dwell with us, or how God never stops loving us even when we willfully eat from the wrong tree, or that God’s grace is abundant and is able to forgive us when we make mistakes or that God sends the Spirit of Jesus to us to help us when we make a mess of things or to be equipped to participate in the activity of God. To dwell in us. Ah there it is again, this time it is God’s Spirit dwelling in us. We can have a positive outlook of ourselves and the world because God does. So as messed up, warm, crazy, and dangerous our world may be. It is still good with the potential of doing better. God has not given up on us so we shouldn’t either. We can be positive, creative, inventive, resourceful, disciplined, mindful, kind, and generous in doing better. There is lot of hard work to do. CONCLUSION I remember doing a Bible Study with teenagers where the curriculum said the purpose of salvation was ‘fellowship with God;’ 1 John 1:3 was the text. Loosely paraphrased it says, “Through Jesus, there is fellowship with other Christians, as we share a common Parent God (Father) and have a common sibling in Jesus (his Son/our Christ).” All of this for fellowship. Through the years, this where my theology has taken me. What God does is all for fellowship, relationships, our relationships with each other and intimacy with God. God created us, much with the same sense of longing that God created us partners. Our Mission is not alone but with others and for others. Our mission with God never seems to be complete but continues on, to be worked on, improved, refined, adapted, and evolved with a community of believes, the church. The birth of Christ at Christmas is the Fullness of Time that brings all of the divine elements we need to help us to participate in fellowship, work and mission with God dwelling among us.
0 Comments
SCRIPTURE: Luke 2:16-20
TEXT: 20The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. THEME: Being present with Jesus changes our lives with God’s peace. INTRODUCTION The shepherds are present at Jesus’ birth. Angels have announced the birth to them. But it is at an unusual setting, a stable. And they should be allowed in with no problem. Christ’s birth was announced to them. They were invited to go and see. And they did. No enyo hold back SCRIPTURE They didn’t shower. They didn’t change their clothes. They didn’t try to get the sheep smell off the them. They didn’t bring any omyage with them, Not even a lamb, a sheep skin or lamb chops. They were the presents, They were present. No Shame. One of the lyrics we hear during this season is “I don’t want a lot for Christmas….” Ending with: “All I want for Christmas is you “Yeah." This is what God is singing to us at Christmas. “All I want is you…” “Baby" This is exactly what God is doing at Christmas, God is giving, God’s self to dwell with us in the baby Jesus, Which makes it possible for us to be present with God. I’m sorry, but nobody is the Queen of Christmas. No act Jesus puts the Christ at the CENTER of our worship or mass And THAT is all there is room for. So Christmas is about showing up and being present. Ourselves being present before God. Like the shepherds who come, Showing up and being present. After they took their selfies with the Christ child, They put their phones away so they could be present, Focused, And take in all that they could from the time they had with Jesus. Hele Mai come by here Christmas, it is about our being present with God and taking in all we can from Jesus. That’s why we take the extra effort to be with each other at Christmas. It is the Spirit of God that moves us to be together. Being together has always been God’s plan. From in the garden, to wilderness, to God’s gift of Jesus, And to having a vision of heaven being right here on earth Where God gets to Ohana with us. APPLICATION To be present, as a family, is one way God’s Spirit moves us through this ‘gift giving’ holiday. To be about relationships, reuniting, reconnecting, reconciliation and renewing. It also has become a way of acknowledging, appreciating, and celebrating the event of Christ’s coming together. God is relational and is always moving us towards communities of love and care. The Spirit of God moves us like how the Shepherds come down from the hillsides to be present. God’s Spirit in us moves us to be welcoming, inclusive, accepting, loving and kind, to all people. We will see through Jesus that as human beings we can forgive hurts in broken relationships and do the work of reconciliation. Wise persons from the East detect God’s activities through the stars and come to be present. They cross scientific, religious, racial and political boundaries to do so. Powerful autocrats are threatened by God’s movement in the hearts of people and seek to exercise their power to destroy what they fear Jesus will take away from them. Love will always be in conflict with those who exercise their power to create fear in others. Love will always give confidence to those who are confronting those motivated by fear. The freedom Jesus baby brings is messy, chaotic. uncontrolled and un-uninformed. That is salvation away from Empire, Autocracy, fascism, and tyranny. Individuality, corporately, diversity, inclusion, acceptance, appreciation, held together with our presence, present at the manger crib, surrounded by parents, shepherds, animals and angels bathe in the presence of God. Live Aloha CONCLUSION The shepherds show us that there is nothing keeping us from God’s self accept our own selves. No enyo, No be shame, no act, hele mai, Ohana and live Aloha. God is at peace with us through love. We can be present at Jesus’ birth as we are willing to come. No Fear. SCRIPTURE: Luke 1:26-38
TEXT: 38Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her. THEME: We serve of a loving God. INTRODUCTION The timing referenced of this passage is from the number of months of Elizabeth has been pregnant. Beyond childbearing years, she and her husband Zechariah are expectant parents. A miracle in its own right, she is in her 6th month of pregnancy carrying the Forerunner to the Messiah as the angel Gabriel goes to visit Mary. One of the commentators of this passage compared Zachariah’s reaction to the angel with Mary’s reaction. Needless to say, just saying “Don’t be afraid” isn’t enough for Zechariah as his inability to comprehend and embrace all of what God is doing leaves him mute, while Mary ends up singing. SCRIPTURE Mary was quick to pieces together all of the events of her angel visit and decides the best thing she should do, is to do her part in this mysterious, grandiose plan of God. Even though she shares part of the family line of king David she certainly lives more like a pauper than royalty. The origins of the Son of God are Divine. Even from the very start Jesus will be at odds with the Empire and their Emperor who also claims to be divine. Unmarried but engaged, young but favored by God. Mary will conceive and give birth to a son who she will name Jesus; “The Lord is Salvation.” Unmarried there are all kinds of problems with this. No support from the Ohana, no sheltering from a husband, vulnerable to public scrutiny, where will the food come from? Who will provide the things she needs? And where will the household come from? The ancestral promise of a royal linage, has earthly connotations, but now with a flare of the Divine. When the angel appears to Zechariah and Elizabeth, they had enough faith to go along with God’s plan, but Mary, was by herself. Later she is bolstered with Joseph’s compassionate faith and Elizabeth’s witness of God’s possibilities. APPLICATION Why not us? Sometimes we don’t get to choose but find ourselves living the impossible with God who makes it possible. All it takes is an eyelash of faith, like Zechariah. He was high on the form of religion being a priest in the temple, but had difficulty believing, but it was enough for him to do his part in God’s plan of living among us. Mary had faith to accept what God was doing, moving beyond the normal to be among us, through a birth. She was willing to participate in what God was doing. It would be a blessing for all people. Love is not mentioned in this passage but it is embedded. This is the same God who heard the Israelite’s cry while slaves in Egypt and whose love initiates a plan of liberation with the birth of Moses. Moses doesn’t get to choose but his experiences with God are compelling, moving him to participate in God’s compassionate mission of liberation. In the same sense Mary didn’t get to choose but was compelled to participate in the loving works of God for all people, with the assurance that 'nothing will be impossible with God.’ As with Zachariah and Elizabeth beloved by God, their child will prepare the way for Jesus. CONCLUSION The child, that comes, to dwell in our world, disrupts and the quiet lives of parents, and changes the world. God’s plan of liberating love will challenge the reach of the Empire, will change the religious order of things, will change the social economic classes, will change racism, will change immigration policies, and will change the redistribution of wealth. In God’s realm, everyone is seen, cared for and ministered to. Mary trusts that God is loving and only wants what is best for us. It is like being on the Amazing Race. Some of the feats the participants need to complete seem to be life threatening. They have to trust that the producers and planners have taken in every consideration that what seems impossible to the participant will require their skill, talent, and agility but they are more than capable to accomplish this feat without dying. All they have to do is overcome their fear and do their best. Trusting in God’s love, trusting in God’s plan, trusting that God will take care of them even though we know what God wants us to do, would be impossible for us to do on our own. All it takes is any amount of faith to trust in a love that is more powerful than our fear. Joy and happiness are two different things. The feeling of Happiness is about what makes us happy, While The feeling of joy is about our relationship with God. When we are happy we have joy But when we are unhappy or sad we can still have joy because God is with us. So when; Our things are taken away, We can still have joy. when we have to Move away from home, We can still have joy when we are Living under new rules, We can still have joy and when we are surrounded by lots of strangers, We can still have joy Because God is with us God will always help us God is our friend God is listening to us (when we pray) God will show us what to do and God will comfort us with love. In the 126th song in the Bible The Psalmist sings about ‘The fortunes’ ‘of the place where God dwells’ A fortune is not always about money, but about something very valuable to us: our Relationship with God. This relationship with God is being restored As we get ready to celebrate Jesus’ Birthday It reminds us of how valuable Jesus is to God How valuable we are to God, And how valuable Jesus is to us. Jesus helps us to know how to be in relationship with God. Our relationship with God gives us joy -we belong to God’s family -God promises of love for us -God is with us so we can be strong -God deepens our relationship with intimacy When we see what God. Is doing we can say ‘thank you’ and be happy What we do, even when we are sad can be good and when we feel better there we will be able to appreciate our hard work. The birth of Jesus was a surprise to most people. Maybe that is why we like to surprise people on Christmas with gifts. Surprise is an element that makes people laugh. Joy is the surprise in knowing that God is always working to make us free. Joy is a part of Christmas.
SCRIPTURE: Isaiah 40:1-11
TEXT: 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. THEME: The birth of Christ opens us up to learn new things about God. INTRODUCTION Last week we began our Advent journey to Christmas. Imagine two rows of Preschoolers sitting in these front pews. All you have to do is say the word “Christmas” to see their little bodies squirm with delight and anticipation. But when you are the adult, and you say the word “Christmas" we shudder with a nervousness of all the things we think we have to do before the 25th to make Christmas happen. We need to find a middle place where we recapture some of that childlike delight to balance our drivenness. SCRIPTURE Sermon Brainwave Commentator Anathea Portier-Young, said the Hebrew word for ‘comfort,’ naḥămû means to reverse one’s mind, feeling or state. Comfort, O comfort - reverse your mind, your feeling, your state, away from anxiety and fret of being captives of Babylon. Comfort your frame of mind towards being freed, liberated, released to go home. The prophet Isaiah is speaking these words to shock you out of your captivity; “Your term is up, the penalty paid, The extraction team is on its way, negotiations were successful, you are going home!” Not only you but everyone. This adds meaning to the word ‘Comfort’ that the English word does not contain. The Change in status or feeling or state of mind that brings comfort and a lot more. The way in the wilderness is a metaphor of a change in thinking. The highway in the desert is a metaphor of our theology, when it is legalistic and does not bring life. The straight road is a metaphor of our thinking, to be open to new ideas. To think about things in a new way. The valley lifted up is a metaphor of our self-image and insecurity being challenged by higher expectations witnessing the greatness of God. Seeing the Glory of God. Making hope possible. The Mountains made low is a metaphor of changing those high ambitions for more realistic, gentler, practices, kinder and doable successes. Un-even ground smoothed out takes care of the differences we have with each other for a spirit of cooperation and collaboration. And the rough places a plain, creates a space to receive new revelations as a foundation for faith to be built upon So, to comfort my people is to give us the chance to change our status or mind set. To be open to a change, to see things from a different point of view and get a glimpse of the Glory of God - in the birth of Jesus the Christ. We bring the present of ourselves. Our being present to the Christ in our midst. God is eternal compared to our mortality. God’s truth is eternal throughout the ages. This is what we know about God’s love for us. We are created by God. God has our back and God wants to dwell with us. This is what Zion is all about. Zion is the place where God dwells. At Christmas, God dwells with us making our world Zion. APPLICATION How does the way we believe bring comfort to others? Yesterday I went to a Memorial Service at a church different from our own. The Funeral Talk retold the story of Adam eating the fruit he knew he was not supposed to. Blame was passed on to his wife. So now we have a ransom paid to escape death. The congregation was nice, trying to understand the complexity of our family’s grief. They had points they wanted to make at the expense of getting the facts correct which made it hard to listen to them. The message of the sinner’s need, for an atoning sacrifice did not portray a compassionate concern for loss. The moral degradation of a soul, ransomed by a debt paid for by Jesus was more of a business transaction than love. I was comforted by the stories of how faith changed a life, although most of my family members failed to witnessed this changed life. It was hard to listen to explanations of the text that were like a collage drawn from many places from the Bible to make one point, instead of wrestling with a passage in its context. This made me think about how difficult it is to hear a familiar passage that draws a different conclusion from how we might have understood it in the past. The Gospel writers connect this passage from Isaiah to the ministry of John the Baptist, the prophetic voice crying in the wilderness preparing the way for Jesus. But there are also undertones of our being open to understanding God differently through the revelations Jesus will bring, giving us the opportunity for our theology to evolve and bloom. Brace yourself for a different kind of Messiah who is not born king in a palace, and a different concept of the Kingdom of God that is not contained just in Judea but made-up citizens from every country in the world. And a different sense of reconciliation that is centered on the practices of love and forgiveness instead of retribution. And a community of God that is more diverse than its Jewish roots. The incarnation, of God being flesh and blood and living among us, may include the foretaste of heaven, not being somewhere else but here; Where the Garden of Eden is, where Jesus dwells among us, Where God dwells in Zion on earth, with the new heaven and new Earth and new Jerusalem descending from the heavens onto Earth. The dwelling of God dwells with us. Zion the place where God dwells being here on this magnificent planet, with us as God’s magnificent people. We are not waiting to live resurrected lives but live this life into resurrection. CONCLUSION Christmas is a call for us to be present, as God is present to us through Jesus born to Mary and Joseph, to live among us. Christmas is Zion, where God dwells with us because we are ‘good’ and the earth is ‘good.’ God’s plan is not to discard us or the planet but to live in partnership with us to; reuse, renew, revitalize and to ‘Comfort.’ What we know about God is foundational and has held faith for us through generations. So, like the Judaism that Christianity is born from, or the Catholicism that the Protestants reformed, or the church that the Holy Spirit revived, and this is what we have something to evolve from, and blossom into today. There is a leveling, a rising up and a bringing down of our openness to how God wants to work in our world through the church today. “Comfort, O comfort my people” to be open to the compassion of God to “reverse one’s mind, one’s feeling and one’s state” for what is next to come. |
Pastor robbSermons Archives
April 2024
|