Servants of the Mystery

2014/01/05
Christ Church, Mountain Top, Epiphany

      Covenant Prayer, Holy Communion

Prayer,
Psalm 72

Children,
Matthew 2.1-12

Message,
Isaiah 7.10-16

Announcing
a pregnancy — Baby brain

      Paul’s brain: Jesus

      Paul’s trigger word: “Gentiles”

In
Greek, 2 very long run-on sentences!

      Verses 2-6

      Verses 7-12

Abolished the dividing wall of hostility

Made both groups into one (2.14-15)

      The Berlin
Wall

      Race in America

      Gentile & Jew forming a new community!

      Wise Men

The Dynamics of Hostility (2) & Grace (3, indented):

Scarcity : Surplus

      Scarcity of resources – musical chairs

      “There can be only one”

      Winners & losers

      Fellow
heirs of “the riches of his grace” (1.7, 1.18, 2.7)

            Connected
to Jesus

      The more who share, the more it grows
(mission)

      Inclusion for Jesus’ sake

Exclusion (Rejection) : Embrace
(Miroslav Volf)

      Differences > Similarities

      Ignore the image of God in one another

      Rejection (race, class, gender, party)

      Fellow
members of the same body (1.23, 2.14-16, 4.4, 4.16, 5.32)

            Connected
to one another through Jesus

      Organ transplant and rejection – DNA

      Jesus’ disciples: Matthew the tax
collector, Simon the Zealot

      Fellow
sharers of the promise (1.12-13, 2.12)

            Connected
to a common future through Jesus

      Hope

      Bob Goff & family, 9/11 follow up

            Book, Love Does

            Have them over for dinner

Holy
Communion – Jesus invites us over to dinner

      Old social structures are lost

            hate father, mother, sister, brother
(Luke 14.26)

      All relationships defined by our
connection with Jesus

            (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, chapter 5)

Paul’s
trigger word: Gentiles

Paul’s
brain: all about Jesus