Holy Name of Jesus (Mary, Mother of God)
Happy New Year!
Quote for the Day: “Will not the very moment of great disillusionment with my brother or sister be incomparably wholesome for me becuase it so thoroughly teaches me that both of us can never live by our own words and deeds, but only by that one Word and deed that really binds us together, the forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ? The bright day of Christian community dawns wherever the early morning mists of dreamy visions are lifting”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Texts:
Reading the texts this morning, I must admit, I am a bit sad to not be preaching today. The blessing in Numbers and the promise in Galatians preach all by themselves. If the Luke text included the Nunc Dimittis (Luke 2:22-39), I think all I would do is read the texts, say Amen, and sit down.
It doesn't get any better than this. Today we celebrate the Name of Jesus and the dawn of the new year. How appropriate, then, that the Galatians text revolves around identity (this was a final paper topic for me last spring). Paul's concern with the Galatians is that they will identify themselves by something other than Christ: circumcision, the Law, another Gospel. To do so, to identify by anything other than Christ, is to shun the promises offered freely in him. Reading Galatians 4:1-7, there are several key vocabulary woods: slaves, children, time, and adoption. Paul indicates that a child is no better than a slave in 4:1, but, as he proceed with the argument, he leads the reto see that, in Christ, we have reeived adoption. We are no longer slaves to anyone or anything - we live under Christ. Living under Christ, we are no longer slves, but "rather [children], and if [children], then also [heirs] through God." It is by Christ's name that our names our identified, for it is in Christ we find our true identities.
To make anything into another Gospel, to create anything that stands between us and our reception of the promises of Christ, is to trade the true Gospel for another gospel. In doing so, we make the free gift into something that is no longer free and attach our own devices, our own legalism, and our own judgment to the promise. As indicated by Paul, doing this causes us to lose the entire promise, and we enslave ourselves to that which, finally, will not and cannot save us.
As Paul says in Galatians 5:1, "For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery."
In Christ's name, we have been made free: free from our desire for judgment and penchant for legalism, free from our notions of whom God will love, and free from anything that will bind us to anything other than Christ.
Happy New Year!
Quote for the Day: “Will not the very moment of great disillusionment with my brother or sister be incomparably wholesome for me becuase it so thoroughly teaches me that both of us can never live by our own words and deeds, but only by that one Word and deed that really binds us together, the forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ? The bright day of Christian community dawns wherever the early morning mists of dreamy visions are lifting”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Texts:
Numbers 6:22-27
Psalm 8
Galatians 4:4-7 or Philippians 2:5-11
Luke 2:15-21
Reading the texts this morning, I must admit, I am a bit sad to not be preaching today. The blessing in Numbers and the promise in Galatians preach all by themselves. If the Luke text included the Nunc Dimittis (Luke 2:22-39), I think all I would do is read the texts, say Amen, and sit down.
It doesn't get any better than this. Today we celebrate the Name of Jesus and the dawn of the new year. How appropriate, then, that the Galatians text revolves around identity (this was a final paper topic for me last spring). Paul's concern with the Galatians is that they will identify themselves by something other than Christ: circumcision, the Law, another Gospel. To do so, to identify by anything other than Christ, is to shun the promises offered freely in him. Reading Galatians 4:1-7, there are several key vocabulary woods: slaves, children, time, and adoption. Paul indicates that a child is no better than a slave in 4:1, but, as he proceed with the argument, he leads the reto see that, in Christ, we have reeived adoption. We are no longer slaves to anyone or anything - we live under Christ. Living under Christ, we are no longer slves, but "rather [children], and if [children], then also [heirs] through God." It is by Christ's name that our names our identified, for it is in Christ we find our true identities.
To make anything into another Gospel, to create anything that stands between us and our reception of the promises of Christ, is to trade the true Gospel for another gospel. In doing so, we make the free gift into something that is no longer free and attach our own devices, our own legalism, and our own judgment to the promise. As indicated by Paul, doing this causes us to lose the entire promise, and we enslave ourselves to that which, finally, will not and cannot save us.
As Paul says in Galatians 5:1, "For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery."
In Christ's name, we have been made free: free from our desire for judgment and penchant for legalism, free from our notions of whom God will love, and free from anything that will bind us to anything other than Christ.
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