What's in a name?

 

Luke 2:15-21

 Yeshua, Jesus (ihsous) in Greek, is Salvation for us, what His name means in Hebrew. 

 According to Hoyle and Levitical Law, Jesus was circumcised.  He is called Rabbi.  He is Jewish to the day that He dies.  But His way of being Jewish is different from the traditional way.  His mission is to be salvation for all people.  He is Messiah.

 And it is the night shift of shepherds who get the announcement, like lowly Elizabeth and Mary before, and like ordinary Joseph.  Jesus is born in human form with a very huge mission for humanity.  Jesus comes into our existence to give us HIS existence.

 Philippians is beautiful in telling us that Jesus left His glory to give us hope.

Jesus lowered Himself to our level and even died our death to give us HIS Glory.

Jesus reached into our lives to give us life, life abundant and life forever.

 And we are called, even commanded to have that same mind in ourselves that was in Christ Jesus.

We are called and commanded to live that same agaph with one another, in emptying ourselves for the sake of the other, in order that all might be elevated.

 We are given child-ship, according to Galatians, even made heirs of the promise because of Jesus and His love.

We are important enough for God to reach into these lowly, mundane lives to elevate us to that child-ship.

 I believe that all of any faithful following of Jesus is in the living of agaph in the world.

I believe that any hope that we have in this world is in the living of that love to transform the world in it.

I believe that when we live that love as Jesus lived it in the world, we will see the repair of the world.

I believe that when we submit our wills to Jesus’ Will, we will know sustainable life.

I believe that when we live our lives in Jesus’ Way of agaph, we will know the beloved community and the peaceable Kingdom of God.

I believe with all my heart that this is possible, if those who claim Jesus’ name would only live as Jesus taught,commanded and modeled for us to live, as we have witness in the Gospels.

I believe with all my heart that Tikkun Olam, world repair, can happen if we show others a better way, Jesus’ Way of living in the world together.

And when the church sees itself as the movement of agaph in the world, instead of an institution to be served and preserved in the world, then it will be realized.

When the church sees its mission as the discipling in agaph of all in the world, rather than the indoctrination of people into OUR WAY of identifying with Jesus, we will see the Glory of God.

When the church sees beyond itself to the living of agaph in order to transform individuals, societies and the world, then we will now Justice and we will know Peace, because we will truly know Jesus.

When the church gets its nose out of “personal salvation” and “prosperity” and “growth in numbers, wealth and power”, and follows Jesus’ Way, we will find our faithfulness in having the same mind in ourselves as our Lord did in sacrificing for the sake of humanity.

Jesus’ name, Yeshua, means SALVATION – the salvation of the world, not only for eternal life, but for life here and now, in this part of God’s Kingdom.

Jesus’ name means saving the world and its hope for life here and now, out of the living of agaph.

The Word

 

John 1:1-14

 What is the essence of God being with us?  Is it not that God is with us in heart and mind, being and substance?  Is it not that God is with us regardless of our differences from God and differences with God?  Is it not that God is with us by choice, out of Love, to be the Grace that we need and show us the truth of life?

 Is the logos not life?  Is it not agaph?  Is the Word Grace?  Yes, and more.  The Word is the force of life that courses through our veins and the universe, connecting all lives with one life.  The Word is the light that shines in and through all people to counter the darkness of lies in truth.  The Word overcomes falsehood, destruction, despair and death.  The Word overcomes the world and its ways that are lived out of the falsehoods of empire that lead to destruction, despair and death.  The Word endures in the universe and in these lives to enlighten everyone.  The Word is life, life abundant and life forever.

 The Word is the Word, whether received or not, acknowledged or not, accepted or not, known or not.  It is, nonetheless, the Word, and it gives the power of those who live within it to be children of God, born of Spirit and happening to live in flesh.

 The Word became flesh for a time to dwell among us and identify with us, so that we could identify with the Word in the world, address the world with the Word and transform the world through the Word.  The Word became flesh and dwelt among us to give us example of how to live within God in the world, applying the perfect love originated by God to the world, and thus transforming the world.  The Word became flesh so that we, the flesh, might become Word in the world – Love in the world, Grace in the world, Truth in the world and Life in the world.  As the Word made flesh is full of Grace and Truth, so are we who know, love and follow the Word to be Grace and Truth, and thus the flesh made Word in the world.

 So, the essence of God being with us, is the essence of us being with God – in how we live and move and have our being within God, in how we live as flesh made Word, knowing that the Kingdom of God is within and among us.  Jesus’ prayer in this same Gospel is that we would be one as He and the Father are one, in them as one.  The Word, who was with God and is God, desires to be one with us.  Transcend and Transform my sisters and brothers.  Transcend the values of this world in empire and embrace the values of the Kingdom of God.  Transform a world that is full of the darkness created by empire with Love, perfect Agape Love, so that we may live within God and know life, life abundant and life forever.  Transcend the ways of darkness and lies, the ways of destruction and despair and death.  Transform into sustainable light and life in joy and peace and hope.  Transcendence and Transformation only come through the Word – the Power of Agape Love.

 Be people of the Word made flesh.  Be the flesh made Word in the world.  The logos is agaph.

God is with us in this Mess

 

Matthew 1:18-25 on Advent III

 Matthew’s Gospel emphasizes that Jesus was of the line of David, the son of Mary but not of Joseph.  He was of the Holy Spirit of God.  Stressing that Mary was engaged to Joseph but had not lived with him, she was in trouble.

 Was Joseph contemplating her dismissal for her sake?  She would be found with a child and no husband, which could have put her in danger of the extremes of the Law of Moses if Joseph did not claim her.    Again, perhaps it was his own reputation that he was afraid of if he stayed with her.  But the Angel intervened on her behalf. 

 Isaiah’s prophecy would be fulfilled in Jesus, according to Matthew.  This young maiden did conceive and bore a son.  He would represent God being with humanity.  They named him Yeshua.

 Scandal.  Matthew claims the right lineage, the right pedigree, impregnation by the Holy Spirit of God and the right purpose for it all.  But everyone knows what a scandal it must have been for this young girl.  She had no options in her world, and her pregnancy could have meant marginalization or worse.  Joseph was not sure that he wanted to endure the scandal.  Mary had no choice.  Joseph was prompted to do the right thing by a messenger of God.  Jesus is born in scandal on earth.

 Jesus is born of woman, as any human child is born.  As current prophets have said, Jesus was born “between feces and urine” in blood, pain, and fear.  He was born in scandal and poverty.  He was born in a stable and laid in a feeding trough for animals.

 It seems like a strange way for God to come to be with us, or is it?  God comes to identify with “the least,” to minister to them and give them Good News.  Jesus comes as one of us to identify with us, so that we can identify with Him.  He comes to take on our frailty, lack and even scandal.  Jesus identifies with the imperfect and the most vulnerable among us.  Jesus is us.  Jesus was intimate with humanity.  Our plight is personal to Jesus.  As we do to “the least of these,” we do to Jesus. 

 He was born in scandal and died in scandal.  He took on the dirt and grime, the homelessness and poverty, the marginalization and scandal, and lived subject to the injustice and inhumanity of the world.  He was lynched for daring to question the powers that be and the values of empire. 

 Hey, if God is with us, God is with us in it all.  So, whenever we ask about where God is when we suffer the worst of what the world has to offer us, we must see that God is with us.  Jesus did not shy away from experiencing the worst of the world.  Jesus did not avoid its worst pain, even its death.  Jesus is with us and has been since his other-than majestic and serene birth in a stable.  God is with us in it all.

 I know this picture is not the beautiful, peaceful, and pristine picture painted by so many over the centuries, but neither is the life that Jesus willingly took on in order to identify with us in this world.  It is real.

 The fear in scandal of an unwed mother, the inability to pay for a room and the very human birth in a stable are not suitable circumstances around the birth of the Messiah of the line of David or Abraham.  But God is with us, as we are, and in that is Grace and Love, perfect love.

 Be with one another as an expression of such Grace and Love, unconditional and perfect love.  It will be messy and dirty, but God is in it.