the first reading today was jeremiah 31:7-14
the second reading today was ephesians 1:3-14
the holy gospel according to john (1:1-18)
In
the beginning was the Word,
and
the Word was with God,
and
the Word was God.
2The
Word was in the beginning with God.
3All
things came into being through the Word,
without
whom not one thing came into being.
What
has come into being 4in the Word was life,
and
the life was the light of all people.
5The
light shines in the darkness,
and
the darkness did not overcome 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.
9The
true light,
which
enlightens everyone,
was
coming into the world.
10The
light was in the world,
and
the world came into being through him;
yet
the world did not know him.
11He
came to what was his own,
and
his own people did not accept him.
12But
to all who received him,
who
believed in his name,
he
gave power to become children of God,
13who were born,
not
of blood
or
of the will of the flesh
or
of the will of man,
but
of God.
14And the Word became flesh and
lived among us,
and
we have seen his glory,
the
glory as of a father’s only son,
full
of grace and truth.
15(John
testified to him and cried out,
“This
was the one of whom I said,
‘He
who comes after me
ranks
ahead of me
because
he was before me.’”)
16From
his fullness we have all received,
grace upon grace.
17The
law indeed was given through Moses;
grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
18No
one has ever seen God.
It
is God the only Son,
who
is close to the Father’s heart,
who
has made God known.
the gospel of the lord.
-----
the word, the wisdom of god, there for the birth of all
creation. there since the dawn of
time. the word who is the
light—the first spark in the darkness, the light of the big bang, the light of
the sun by day and the stars and moon by night. the light shining in the darkness, sparking the fire of
faith, igniting our journeys. the
light that comes into the world.
the word become flesh in the world to live among us.
that word comes to us for relationship, for salvation. jeremiah tells of the lord’s plans for
redemption for israel. the hebrew
understanding of redemption is what a sibling might do when a person is unable
to pay their debt. literally
buying back the debt of the person, buying them out of their indebtedness. arresting the one who kills a sibling. standing up to the bully picking on you
on the playground, at school, or at work.
god
redeems israel. god steps in and
saves israel when the nation is without hope. god becomes the best sibling any of us could ever have. god redeems the israelites, bringing
them all together back from exile.
as jeremiah says, “those with
child and those in labor, together;
a great company, they shall return here. 9with weeping they shall
come, and with consolations i will lead them back,”
god brings the israelites back from exile together, caring
for all along the way. god clears
a path that they might return together, without stumbling. god redeems israel and goes even a step
further, as paul states in ephesians.
god adopts us as children.
god knows us and loves us and chooses us.
and as the word adopts our form, becomes flesh, we are
adopted into the family of god.
just as in baptism we are joined to the whole life, death, and
resurrection of the word made flesh, our whole beings, body, mind, and spirit,
are also adopted into the family of god.
i personally have not adopted any children, but i have
several friends who have. they’ve
adopted children for a variety of reasons, and they are frequently asked of
their children, “are they yours, or are they adopted?” the answer, which we receive in
ephesians and in john is, of course: yes.
as lutherans, we understand deeply what adoption is. when god adopts us in our baptism, god
makes us god’s own—we are adopted, chosen. we become god’s own—god’s children, heirs to the profound
love, active always in the world.
god adopts us and we receive more siblings than we could imagine. now, for some of you who have only good
things to say about and fond memories of your siblings, this is pure good
news.
for those of you, like
myself, who have had a few more ups and downs, maybe even more downs than ups,
with your siblings, there might be a bit more hesitation at the news that you
now have more siblings than you can count. what exactly does it mean to be a part of the family of god?
it means that we are all connected, related. as the word becomes flesh to live among
us, the word also connects us to each other. the word proclaims us each children of god. the word proclaims us beloved. siblings, heirs, and bestowers of god’s
inheritance of love.
the comfort and gladness god gives in jeremiah is the
comfort of family, by blood, by choice, and by adoption.
this past week i got to celebrate days 5-10 of christmas
with my family. while we don’t
always get along—we know each other’s buttons and how to push them—this trip
back to colorado was a trip of comfort and gladness for me.
as we sat around the dinner table with family we were
born into and family we had, over the years, chosen, my brother and
i rejoiced to hear stories of our family—some of which we knew and others we
had never heard before. these
stories, which took place before either of us were born, were stories of real
people—stories with the good and the bad of real people, mistakes, triumphs,
blunders, and all. we sat around
the table together and we listened to stories and we talked about life. we created space to be vulnerable together,
to have conversations that in other places would be impossible. as family, we decided to trust each
other with our lives, our truth, and our stories.
that is family.
the people at the table with us.
the people we share our meal with.
the people we come to for support, for trust, for vulnerability and hard
conversations. even sometimes the
people that we disagree and argue with.
and also, the people we sit with, sharing stories—real stories of the
good and the bad and the funny of life and of people.
and
that
is church. each week we gather
around the table, for a feast set for us by god. we sit together with family—family by blood, family by
choice, and always family by adoption—and talk and listen and struggle
together. we sit with each other
in our vulnerabilities, we have the hard conversations that are impossible in
other parts of our lives, and we hear the stories.
we
hear of god redeeming the israelites from their exile—returning them from the
forced removal they had experienced from their land. we hear the stories of paul and the early church, figuring
out what it meant to follow the word of god together in the face of persecution
and death. and more than any
other, we hear and sing of the word of god, that “in the beginning was the
word, and
the word was with god, and the word was god. 2the word was in the
beginning with god. 3all
things came into being through the word, without whom not one thing came into
being. what has come into being 4in the word was life, and the
life was the light of all people.”
at
church we hear that “17the law indeed was given through moses; grace and truth came through jesus christ.” jesus christ, the word made flesh,
light of the world, who took on our flesh. became human, joining our humanness to celebrate the gift of
bodies in relationship to each other.
it is the word of god who gathers us together around a font—water with
word—grace upon grace—the presence of god among us. the word of god, jesus christ, who teaches us to love god
and each other, and to turn that love outward in service and outreach, toward a
world in need of love.
god
is love and in the word of god, love comes to live among us, to be fully with,
and one of, us. the word of god,
whose name is jesus the christ, the light of the world, comes to us, adopts us,
and sets us on our journey in the family of god.
thanks
be to god
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