Citizens of heaven
Category: Christmas
Speaker: The Rev. John Shellito
Sermon December 27, 2015 Rev. John Shellito
Holy Spirit, use my imperfect words to speak your perfect Word of healing, renewal, and abundant life. In the name of the Creator, the Redeemer, and the Inspirer. Amen.
But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
Happy third day of Christmas! This Christmastide is an opportunity to celebrate the miraculous gift of the Incarnation: that the Christ child has come to earth and is born among us—“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it”. The church is the Body of Christ, crucified, and risen. If you chose to wrap and open Christmas gifts from under a tree, maybe your memories of opening those gifts can be a reminder that we are always invited to open the greatest gift of all: the gift of the Savior’s presence with us, as our teacher and our guide in life. It can be easy to find ourselves in ecstatic anticipation and joy when we are getting presents. I wonder if we can tap into that sense of eager anticipation when we are giving presents, and perhaps even when we are offering gifts back to God in service. Can we find joy in glorifying God, in giving back to God, in seeking to please God, even as we recognize that God is the one who has deep joy simply in the fact of your being? We can give gifts of praise and thanksgiving to God in our services on Sunday, and we can give ourselves to God by helping to make those services happen in a beautiful and abundant way. However, we can also offer our gifts to God when we are acting to relieve the brokenness, poverty and pain, of others.
I feel especially grateful in the times when those two offerings can be connected: when the church can be a sanctuary for healing for all of us who have experienced pain, or disappointment, or weakness in life. It is a gift when the church can be a place where we gain strength in Christ. I see this happening at St. George’s in our Healing ministers, our fellowship ministry, our Altar Guild and our Flower Guild, and our Eucharistic Ministers. I see it in our Meatloaf Ministry, our Community of Hope listeners, our Food Pantry, and our HOST dinners. I see it every time we go to the places where Christ has promised to reveal himself to us in Matthew’s 25th chapter: Christ has told us that when we care for those who are hungry, thirsty, a stranger, or in need of clothing, we will find ourselves caring for Christ. When we visit those who are sick or in prison, we will find ourselves visiting Christ. This is all it takes for us to unwrap the gift of the Christ child. Just the courage to go with compassion to the places where there is need. Caring for others in church can be good practice for the harder work of recognizing God’s compassion in other parts of our lives. I think it can be hardest at times for us to go to the places where our own stories and our own families, are hurting. For me, being present with acquaintances and friends in the congregation can be easier at times than being present with the pain that is closer to home. However, it is in our own story and in our own family, that we can find Christ powerful in healing.
Opening up to the Savior opens us up to the reality of how much we are loved—that God cares about the very practical realities of our own circumstances and choices, and God has already chosen to join us in our uncertainty, our difficulty, our fear, and even our shame. Christ is the one who comes to us, who invites us to accept our adoption as God’s Children—recognizing that we are heirs of abundant life in the midst of difficulty.
Galatians adds to our perspective on what it means to be inheritors. The Apostle Paul wrote:
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.
When we accept our adoption as a child of God, we are trusting that God’s interaction with us is “grace upon grace”, that God is for us in a deep and powerful way. We have been redeemed, we are no longer enslaved to all the ways we may have fallen short of an external standard. Our adoption is something God does for us, we do not accomplish it by our own strength. Knowing we are adopted changes our understanding of reality, to focus more on our relationship with God, and to let God be our strength and our salvation, in the midst of our challenges and circumstances.
Our faith is not something we achieve by our own will or by our own strength. Instead, we are invited to receive Christ’s gift as something that is already accomplished for us.
In ancient Rome, Julius Caesar took Octavius, later known as Augustus as his adopted son. This meant that Augustus inherited the power, the influence, and the role, of his adopted Father. I know its a little radical, but when we hear about our own adoption, can we imagine being invited into the Father’s power and work, as the Body of Christ? Christ came to do the work of the Father, in constant prayerful communication with the Father. Can we follow in his footsteps? Can we allow Christ to be our companion and our Teacher as we journey on the Way? Can we offer our gifts to God knowing that we have been given authority to heal, to protect, and to transform?
Philippians (3:20) tells us of the related idea: how we are citizens of heaven. Citizenship, like adoption, was a legal as well as a moral reality in the Roman world. With it came rights, powers, and privileges, as well as responsibilities. We might recall how Paul was treated differently when his captors learned of his status as a Roman in Acts.
When the Gospel of John describes our new identity as children of the God of Israel, we can recognize that this reflected a legal as well as a relational idea, conveying both belonging and authority.++
Psalm 87 prays about a time to come, that the surrounding kingdoms would be adopted into God’s family—“Among those who know me I mention Rahab and Babylon; Philistia too, and Tyre, with Ethiopia— ‘This one was born there,’ they say…. for the Most High himself will establish it. The Lord records, as he registers the peoples, ‘This one was born there.’” The psalm speaks of a time when even Babylon and those kingdoms that opposed Israel, would be counted as children of God, and descendents of Israel, part of the divine plan. Contrary to what popular culture might say, inheritance is so much more than just money and genetics—it is a way of engaging with others, a tradition, a way of being in the world, and spiritual strength that is passed down. Just look at Luke’s account of the Christ’s family tree-- Jesus’ connection to David and Solomon is through Joseph, as an adopted father.
We all are born into imperfect families. And we are all invited to accept the gift of our adoption in Christ. Our inheritance is the things that we choose to receive, and to carry forward in our own lives.
When we are offered the gift of the Messiah, we are offered the gift of being a part of the Jesus movement in this day, to be part of Christ’s Body and work among us today.
But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
Amen.