St. Paul’s Church in
Bergen, Jersey City NJ
December 29, 2013
The First Sunday
after Christmas
Isaiah 61:10-62:3
Psalm 147:13-21
Galatians 3:23-25;
4:4-7
John 1:1-18
Our Relationship Status with God
Some
of you know that I really try to get the word out about St. Paul’s on the
social media sites facebook and twitter.
Part
of my daily routine is to get up early in the morning, fix a cup of coffee and
then fire up my computer. I try to post something every day on the St. Paul’s facebook
page – usually information about the holy man or holy woman we’re honoring that
day, reminders about our service schedule or a heads up about upcoming events.
It’s
amazing to me that our facebook page gets so many “hits” – sometimes over a
thousand a week - allowing people who aren’t able to be physically present to
still be part of our extended community.
It’s
wonderful.
Then
there’s my own personal facebook page. I try each day to post some verses of
scripture or a prayer or a quote that I hope might be meaningful to some
people. As a rule I almost never post anything about my personal life. I feel
like being a priest is already very public and people already know quite a bit
about my life, thank you very much.
But,
I do give my basic information. So, people who click on my facebook page know
that I live in Jersey City and they know where I went to school and they know
that I’m the Rector of St. Paul’s.
And
they also know what facebook calls my “Relationship Status.”
Actually,
facebook offers its users eleven different possible relationship statuses.
It’s
comprehensive list, some statuses very clear while others are deliberately
vague. They are: single; in a relationship; engaged; married; in a civil union;
in a domestic partnership; in an open relationship; it’s complicated;
separated; divorced; widowed.
There
are many people who share big news about their personal lives by changing their
facebook relationship status. Getting serious with someone? “Single” is changed
to “In a relationship.” A marriage comes to an end? The relationship status is
changed. Want to be mysterious? Same thing.
Lots
of times I’ve learned about major life changes among friends and even family
through a change in facebook relationship status.
Relationship
status.
The
truth is Christmas commemorates a profound change in our relationship with God.
For
all of us, for all of humanity, God changes our relationship status by becoming
one of us in Jesus.
And
we heard reflections on that change in relationship status in the today’s two
lessons from the New Testament.
Today’s
Gospel lesson is once again the powerful, achingly beautiful, cosmic view of
Christ’s birth offered by the Prologue of the Gospel of John.
Most
scholars agree that the Gospel of John is the last of the four gospels to be
completed, probably around the year 100, seventy or so years after the earthly
lifetime of Jesus.
So,
the Gospel of John is the product of divine inspiration working through decades
of Christian experience – decades of Christian reflection on the meaning of
Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.
The
author of the Fourth Gospel proclaims that God has come among us in Jesus of
Nazareth – that when we look at Jesus we see God - and now everything has changed.
“From
his fullness we have all received grace upon grace. The law indeed was given
through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen
God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made
him known.”
In
and through Jesus, God changes our relationship status.
Probably
no one understood this change in relationship status better than St. Paul.
As
we were reminded just the other day on the Feast of St. Stephen, Paul (or Saul
as he was known then) was a Pharisee and a persecutor of the first followers of
Jesus. He kept an eye on everyone’s coats as they stoned Stephen to death.
But
after his dramatic conversion experience, Paul has the remarkable and
unexpected insight that Jesus is the Messiah not only for Israel but of the
whole world.
Paul
has the insight that through Christ our relationship with God has changed – we
are no longer slaves but are now God’s beloved children.
And
Paul has the insight that through Christ our relationship with each other has
changed – we are no longer Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male or female, but one
in Christ. We are beloved sisters and brothers.
Our
relationship status has changed.
And
we hear Paul describe that change of relationship status in today’s lesson from
the Letter to the Galatians.
The
letter is written much earlier than the Gospel of John, probably around the
year 55, just two decades after the Resurrection. Paul is writing to mostly
non-Jews, Gentiles, in churches, small Christian communities, that he founded.
But,
it’s not just a “Hi, how are things going?” letter. No, Paul has gotten word
that others – probably Jewish Christians – have brought a different gospel to
the Galatians. It seems that these Jewish-Christians are telling the Galatians
that in order to follow Jesus they must – even though they aren’t Jews – follow
the Jewish Law.
And
some of the Galatians seem to be doing just that.
Well,
Paul is infuriated. He’s angry because the Jewish-Christians deny Paul’s status
as an apostle. (I’m sure you’ve all heard what happened to Stephen!) And, Paul’s
upset because they seem to be missing the whole point of the gospel: in and
through Jesus everything has changed.
Our
relationship status with God has changed.
So,
Paul writes to the Galatians, reminding them of the story:
“But
when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born
under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we
might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent
the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying ‘Abba! Father!’ So you are no
longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.”
Our
relationship status with God has changed from “slave” to “adopted child” and
“heir.”
On
facebook when you look at your own page you’re reminded of your relationship
status. And when we look at other people’s pages we can see their relationship
status.
Well,
one of the reasons we come here to church week after week is to be reminded of
our relationship status with God.
We
come here and are reminded that in and through Christ our relationship status
with God has changed.
Our
big challenge is to live our lives with love and integrity and faithfulness so
that our family, friends and neighbors are able to look at us, to listen to us,
and see our relationship status with God – to see that in Christ we are beloved
children of God.
May
it be so.
Amen.
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