Meeting God in Everyday Life: Out of Past toward Coming Futures

Scripture Reading: Genesis 12:1-9

God calls Abram to leave his settled life and journey to a land that can't be known. Before Abram does anything, God promises new life, new flourishing, and new blessing for all of humanity. The promise is a call to trust and build a life based on a deeper reality of God as the creator of life. The journey of trust begins as Abram departs, losing his life for the good news of the promise, and Yahweh becomes the center and giver of everything. The promise to give the earth to Abram's seed opens the whole earth to the journey of faith. All of Abram's offspring struggle to live on the land dominated by limited vision without the promise, but God's grace will fulfill his promise for the world.

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Meeting God in Everyday Life: Knowing Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

Meeting God in Everyday Life

Jesus vividly taught the reality of life and how we live in response to that reality. “Everyday life” is not in contrast with spiritual life. It’s life that knows that everything we experience from ravens & lilies to our most disturbing anxieties & fears and our highest aspirations are always within the active, creative presence of God. It’s distorted when our sense of the “everyday” gets cramped. God is pushed into a “religious” portion of life – special, limited. Jesus wants to elevate our sense of “everyday,” of ourselves, to know unified reality of God.

Jesus teaches how to live not by a set of ethical rules, but by helping us see the deep reality & beauty of everything in God (Truth) and by calling us to live in accord with that great Truth.

We want to compress our ‘reality’ to things we control, including our gods. We get smaller! He challenges us beyond our own vision of the possible – to see and live in God’s reality.

Mt 28:16-20 opens our eyes to God’s reality in Jesus and the Spirit. We share in God’s quest. Yes, it’s a challenge. We all become learners of Jesus. We’re given a plunge, participation in God’s identity, depth, community, unity – learning reality from the inside. We hold on to Jesus’ instructions in live into them. Father, Son, & Spirit are with us every step of the way.

God’s Invitation for Us to Share in God’s Life

In the history of Christianity, so much emphasis has been placed on guilt and the threat of punishment, that we miss the heart of Jesus’ invitation. Sin carries its own destructive power by distorting our lives and making us petty, cut off from reality of God. The very nature of God welcomes us into a new vision of ourselves, even in our limitations.

John 14:15-23. Jesus calls disciples to take his instructions as a challenge. God will give an Advocate/Paraclete/the Spirit of True Reality. He’s with you, in you. Jesus comes to you. “You share my life.” I’m in the Father. You’re in me. I’m in you. All woven in love. We love God as God, creator of all life, center of reality/truth. Jesus is the face of God. He defines God’s nature, instructions, love. Holding on to his message is the transforming adventure of free devotion. Father, Jesus, & Spirit all make their dwelling in disciples. True life.

Ephesians 3:14-19. Paul in prison has learned this great vision and lifts believers up to see it. Jesus gives an open door to the eternal, universal in God. This world is powerful, and it takes strength to enter. That strength is from God’s Spirit within us. We respond by trust in God’s faithfulness in Jesus. That faithfulness is God’s powerful, solid reality of Love. That love is the life-give soil that nourishes the roots of our life, the bedrock foundation that makes our very vulnerable lives unshakable.

As we’re opened to this reality of love, we begin to see its vast dimensions and its delight. It’s always beyond us but calling us always further into new experiences. This is the pearl of great price that Jesus tells of. We hang on to Jesus’ extravagant teaching that calls us into this world of love. We explore and learn, always as disciples. This is how God fills us up.

It’s not by mastering rules or good advice for doing things right in our closed-in world of our control. It’s realizing reality is so much bigger and living into that Truth. You are so much bigger! Our life is now alive with God’s life/Spirit, living every day in our everyday life.

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Advent 3: God With Us - Just One Small Change

The Surprise and Challenge of “God with Us”

Mt gives Jes’ genealogy but incredible birth with challenging choices. What you already know and what God makes possible. What kind of world do we live in? What’s possible? Luke: Mary’s faith. Matthew: Joseph. “With child of the Holy Spirit” – “just man,” “end betrothal.” In few words Mt. encapsulates the disruption and challenge of Jesus’ birth. Joseph could withdraw – fear. Like Mary he had to be open to having his own life marked in ways he couldn’t control. He believes, acts. He doesn’t get to name this child. The name is common – Joshua, Yehoshua, “Yahweh saves.” Jesus fills the meaning: He saves his people, deals with sin, the brokenness of humanity – all shown in the, deceit, violence, injustice. In Jesus, Joseph is shares in what God’s doing – his salvation!

Mt takes us deeper pointing to Isaiah 7 and the sign God gives through a maiden giving birth. Not a prediction but a parallel / resonance. In both, kingdoms clash. God acts. Birth is sign. Ahaz’ faith fails; he sells out. God’s challenge & grace continue. Can faith now be different?

One Change: Lifting Up the Meaning of “With”

Matthew emphasizes “God with Us.” He wants us to think about Jesus filling that meaning. God had been “with” his people. But now the “with” becomes direct, incarnation, God’s face.

It reaches back to God’s loving choice to create, to plant something of himself in us, his Image. God chooses to interact with us in time and history with its changes, shares with us. God chooses to deal with us in love rather than perfection, immutability. He acts in grace. So God come in flesh, human, us. So vulnerable. So beautifully God. Impossibles unite.

Human is not enough. Teaching & morality won’t save. God must intervene. As God, what Jesus does for us transforms who we are, to bring us to truly be children of God.

Jesus brings God’s transforming reality of holiness, self-giving love, & grace into the middle of human self-focus, self-deception. On Sinai God appeared in thunder, fire, trumpets, earthquake – as needed. Only in Jesus can the face of God be seen. The complex oneness of God who makes us for relationship, trust, and love, who wants our maturity, wholeness.

God with Us ... Us with God!

Jesus brings our ordinary life into God. The day by day existence he teaches in the Sermon on the Mount: anger, truth-telling, desires, honesty, anxiety, judgment of others, serving money & stuff, being peacemakers, etc. This narrow way of love is the excellent way!
God risks to be with us. Jesus is Lord, creator, judge. He serves but isn’t our servant. He loves, transforms, challenges, changes us, saves us. We want control, but he won’t be controlled. He wants to be with us, not at a distance. Go into the adventure. Into our true identity.

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