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.
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