First Reading: 1 Kings 3:4-15
4The king {Solomon} went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place. Solomon used to offer a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. 5At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, “Ask what I shall give you.” 6And Solomon said, “You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant David my father, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you. And you have kept for him this great and steadfast love and have given him a son to sit on his throne this day. 7And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of David my father, although I am but a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in. 8And your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people, too many to be numbered or counted for multitude. 9Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?” 10It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. 11And God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, 12behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you. 13I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with you, all your days. 14And if you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days.” 15And Solomon awoke, and behold, it was a dream. Then he came to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and offered up burnt offerings and peace offerings, and made a feast for all his servants.
Psalm 119:97-104
97Oh, how I love your law! all the day long it is in my mind. 98Your commandment has made me wiser than my enemies, and it is always with me. 99I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your decrees are my study. 100I am wiser than the elders, because I observe your commandments. 101I restrain my feet from every evil way, that I may keep your word. 102I do not shrink from your judgments, because you yourself have taught me. 103How sweet are your words to my taste! they are sweeter than honey to my mouth. 104Through your commandments I gain understanding; therefore I hate every lying way.
Second Reading: Ephesians 1:3-14
3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. 11In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
Gospel: Luke 2:40-52
40The child {Jesus} grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him. 41Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. 42And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom. 43And when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it, 44but supposing him to be in the group they went a day’s journey, but then they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances, 45and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, searching for him. 46After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. 48And when his parents saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.” 49And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” 50And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them. 51And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart. 52And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.
The Vastness of Relationships
First, I’d like to wish each of you a very blessed New Year! We’ve come to the end of the Christmas season and next week begins the season of Epiphany. If you were to look at the various theologians’ and Bible teachers’ commentaries, they remind us that we sometimes overdo things in our Christmas pageants and Christmas cards by mixing distinct Bible stories together into one great mishmash. We have the angel choir and shepherds from Luke’s Christmas story. Then we have the kings of the Orient from Matthew 2, which we’ll celebrate this week on the 6th, The Feast of the Epiphany. And depending on the liturgical year, these seekers will either gathered at the stable, (Luke) or at a house (Matthew).
The point these scholars make is a good one: By jumbling the various passages together, we may very well obscure or even lose important distinct teachings each story has for us. However, as we consider the epistle lesson for today, might I suggest that we really can’t overdo the mental imagery. So let’s go ahead and have the angel choir, and the star that led the Magi, crowding each other in the night sky; bring on the shepherds along with the three kings. For that matter, we might as well include Jeanette Isabella with her torch, and the talking animals and the little drummer boy for good measure. I say this because today’s epistle reading from Saint Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is unimaginably expansive and reminds us that the incomprehensible graciousness of God’s act in Jesus Christ cannot be limited by time or space.
Perhaps one indication of the complexity of our epistle lesson is that verses 3-14 are actually one long sentence in the original manuscripts; translators thankfully later added punctuation to help us out. Apparently, St. Paul had so much to say about the triune God and the relationship of the Trinity to one another, and of our relationship to God and the vastness of the Creator’s work, that all Paul has to say just spills out. But in reality, this passage is even bigger, it’s about the vastness of relationships in general.
It’s sometimes pointed out that this passage falls into three convenient sections, and it may even be divided up this way in some of your study Bibles: verses 3-6 focus is on the Father, verses 7-11 on the Son, and verses 12-14 on the work of the Holy Spirit. Now while there is a kernel of truth in this, it’s far too neat a package to try to overlay a neatly thought-out idea of the nature of God on a much more dynamic and relational passage. So as difficult as it may be for us, let’s not do that. Let’s instead begin at the beginning and see where it takes us.
St. Paul writes: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.” First, we’re called to bless God, to give God the honor and glory due His name, not only here in this passage, but throughout scripture and for a variety of reasons. God is the creator, we are His creatures, and so we are to bless and praise God for the gift of life.
God has given us the great gift of the law, of revelation, so that we, as people of faith, are not left to our own devices to stumble around in a dark world seeking out the light, rather, we’re able to learn what God desires for us and obey. In fact, one of the Hebrew terms often used to denote praise and worship shares its root with the description of a shepherd using the crook of their staff to reign in and guide the flock. And as God’s sheep, we’re grateful for His guidance and protection.
But perhaps most striking in the Old Testament is the teaching that praise and blessing are the appropriate human responses to God’s acts of salvation in history. Take, for example, Psalm 96: “O sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples. For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; he is to be revered above all gods” (Vs. 1-4).
Or Psalm 118: “O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his steadfast love endures forever! … Out of my distress I called on the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me in a broad place. With the Lord on my side I do not fear. What can mortals do to me? … It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to put confidence in mortals. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to put confidence in princes. O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his steadfast love endures forever! (vs. 1, 5-6).
Today we bless God because of the work of salvation He has continued and brought to completion in Jesus Christ, a work that began before the foundations of the world and extends across time to the heavenly places. Think about it, as amazing as the deliverance at the Red Sea may have been, as awe-inspiring as David’s mighty conquests extending the boundaries of Israel to their greatest extent may have been, the cosmic work in Jesus is truly mind-blowing. God’s love shown to us in Jesus expands the notion of God working in history — the Old Testament narratives, the miracles of Jesus, and the missionary journeys of Paul, God reaching out to you or me in a moment of particular need — to an infinite scale.
Paul’s theme here in this passage is clearly about the purpose of God through Christ in the church. And yet, Paul also stresses that the scope of God’s purpose extends beyond the church, it stretches beyond what most of us can imagine. Because most Christians are what the British would call “professional religionists,” we tend to see things through the lens of the local church. For example, I might preach a sermon about serving God through Jesus Christ more fully and, quite naturally, choose examples from a church list: singing in the choir, teaching Sunday school, helping with the youth program.
Or, I might broaden it a bit beyond this congregation perhaps by mentioning a short-term mission team being organized by the Mission District. All well and good. Then, at the conclusion of the service someone might shake my hand and say, “You know, pastor, I am a physical therapist. I work one day a month at the free clinic downtown treating people with inadequate insurance. I do this because of my commitment as a Christian. It may not be at the church, but I see it as part of my service to Christ.” So, who’s right in this case? Both of us are according to St. Paul.
Paul says that God’s electing purpose began “before the foundation of the world,” as a “plan for the fullness of time” that will conclude with gathering all things in heaven and earth in “the beloved” Jesus. This, of course, includes the work of the church, but it goes well beyond it as well. Scriptures teach us that God has a plan and has predestined us for adoption. But we need to be careful about what Paul is saying here. We need to be cautious about the flippant use of the phrase, “God has a plan for your life.”
There are two tendencies here. The first is to understand the phrase, “God has a plan for your life,” almost like the ancient Greeks understood the words of an oracle; a mysterious prediction to be pursued. Nicky Gumbel, of the Alpha Course, tells the story of the man who couldn’t decide to which of his two girlfriends to propose, Sally or Maria. He was attracted to both. Although not a religious person, he stopped into a church one day and decided to pray. “‘Help me God,” he prayed, “to choose the right woman. Whom shall I marry Lord, Sally or Maria?” He got his answer as he looked up at the stained-glass window and saw the words, “Ave Maria.” Such people become preoccupied with figuring out what God’s plan is for them, as if it was some secret, rather than living by faith into God’s plan for them.
Others fall into the trap of what John Wesley called “Quietism,” the attitude that “if God indeed has a plan for me, then I might as well just lean back and go along for the ride.” This view diminishes our responsibility as believers to expect too much of either God or ourselves. After all, God has a plan. Recall if you will the sermons or lessons on the parables of the good steward and the dishonest steward (Luke 12 and 16), that the biblical term we translate as “steward” (oi-kon-o-mos), is a term that derived its meaning from the word (oi-kos), house or dwelling.
Steward (oi-kon-o-mos)refers to an individual, often a high-ranking slave, who had oversight of the affairs of a house, organization, or town. The steward was in charge of income and expenses, as well as overseeing whatever farming or cottage industries existed, and the general well-being of the house or town by assigning servants and employees to their various duties. They were in charge of the economy (e-con-o-mia) of things. Because we tend to use the word “economy” almost exclusively with money, we must remind ourselves that we’re called to be stewards of everything we control, our time, our talent, all our resources and relationships including, of course, our money.
It’s this word, stewardship (oi-kon-o-mia), that is rendered “plan” in today’s, and similar texts, that describe God’s plan. It tells of God’s providential direction of all things in the cosmos and, as we’re taught, it is a plan for the fullness of time. Does this include that gentleman’s proposal of marriage to the right woman? Of course it does. Is it to be reduced to fortune-telling, like reading a Tarot card? Never! God’s plan, as St. Paul tells us, is “set forth inChrist …“for the fullness of time to gather up all things in [Christ], things in heaven and things on earth” (Ephesians 1:9-10). Fortunately, we have other documents from Paul to help clarify what is meant here.
In Galatians, Paul compared the role of the law God had given the Hebrew people to the role a guardian plays in the life of a child. Up to a certain point, it’s appropriate for the legal guardian to make decisions for and tutor the young person. But when the time of maturity arrives, when the person is an adult, they are no longer in need of such assistance. In the same way, the law played an appropriate role for people of faith, up to a point. “But when the fullness of time had come,” Paul wrote to the Galatians, “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” (Galatians 4:4-7).
The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus represents the fullness of time, the decisive time when all the promises God made through the ages became available. And unlike events like the giving of the law or the crossing of the Red Sea, which are recalled in memory and thereby shape us, the work of Christ in gathering all things to Himself continues.
It’s interesting that in his letters to the Galatians, the Ephesians, and the Romans, Paul uses the metaphor of “adoption.” While the legal moment of adoption has significance, it’s the continuing status that really matters. When a family adopts a child, that adoption doesn’t end when the child matures and moves out on their own. The adoption never ends. So the new covenant of Christ gathering all things to Himself is ongoing. Our adoption by God is an ongoing process of maturing, growing, and deepening in relationship. Additionally, Scripture makes it clear that we’re expected to grow and bear fruit. Jesus spoke about it in His parables.
Paul, in Romans 12, calls us to undergo a process of transformation, or the renewing, of our minds. This is where the Holy Spirit enters today’s lesson: When we were baptized into Christ, Paul says, we were “marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit”; this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people. You don’t pledge something that is paid off; a pledge entails future work. Baptism began the process of adoption, of relationship, of being drawn to Christ with all things. Baptism is the beginning of a vast web of relationships, not the end.
This vastness of relationships, Paul says, is all good. “He predestined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will.” When scripture describes God’s plan for individuals, it’s in this context of goodness and growth. We have been adopted so that we might “be conformed to the image of his son” (Romans 8:29), and enjoy “the things God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:7). But there is also a caution here. Anytime we allow our thinking to become disconnected from the biblical witness of God’s mercy and love made known in the fullness of time, odd things can happen.
For example, we might begin to think that if God has planned good for some, then God must have planned ill for others; in other words, if some are (pre)destined for life and joy, then others must be (pre)destined for death and defeat. Perhaps what God desires for us isn’t always good. St. Peter addressed this feeling of discouragement among believers very clearly: “[The Lord] is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).
Some of you may have heard Philip Yancey’s story from What’s So Amazing About Grace? A friend involved in urban ministry told Yancey of a particularly harrowing meeting with a drug-addicted prostitute who had reached such depths of despair that she was pimping out her two-year-old daughter to clients. Yancey describes what his friend tried next: “I could hardly bear hearing her sordid story. For one thing, it made me legally liable. I’m required to report cases of child abuse.
Yancy’s friend had no idea what to say to this woman. At last, he asked if she had ever thought of going to a church for help. He said he will never forget the look of pure, naive shock that crossed her face. “Church!” she cried. “Why would I ever go there? I already feel terrible about myself. They’d just make me feel worse.”
Yancey goes on to point out what should be obvious: in scripture women much like this prostitute fled toward Jesus, not away from him. The worse a person felt about themselves, the more likely they were to see Jesus as a refuge. Could it be true that the down-and-out, those who flocked to Jesus when He lived on earth, sadly, would not feel welcome among His followers today?
As God’s evangelists sent into this broken world, we really do need to expand the Christmas scene, not to water down God’s laws, but to extend God’s mercy to those in need of His saving grace. Maybe we should look to share the true Christmas story with not just Jeannette Isabella and the little drummer boy, but the prostitute, the social outcasts, the blind, and opposing political party. God’s gracious act in Jesus Christ cannot be limited by time or space, by our self-focused attitudes, or our hard-heartedness.
God’s message of saving grace should never be limited to the walls of the church, or the fences of social custom. You and I have been called to go out into all the world, remembering that Jesus was constantly reaching out and loving those on the margins of society. In baptism, we were adopted as children of God and received the pledge of inheritance through the Holy Spirit. And as baptized believers, we are called to share God’s love in Jesus Christ and to invite others into this vast relationship with the triune God and with all creation.
Amen.
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