We Are Family!

Reflection:  Yesterday Paul gave the clear message that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, who died for us and reconciled us back to God.  Today then Paul moves toward how then this makes us one family as God’s household.  The Greek word is “oikos” which is translated “household”, was an important word for Middle Eastern society.  Unlike today where our households are made up of primary our nuclear family, back then households or “oikoses” were made up of several families.  Uncles, Aunts, Cousins, Grandparents all grew up in a familial atmosphere. Paul takes this social construct, and then points to the fact that in Christ we have become God’s “oikos”, God’s new family.

And what is completely radical about this is that both Jews and Gentiles were a part of this new family with Jesus as the cornerstone.  For centuries Jews had looked on those who were Gentiles, as apart from God’s kingdom and family. They were taught to avoid them and see them as “unclean”.  But Paul states that Jesus died for all people Jew and Gentile, and so starts this new family where there is no ethnic divisions but we are all one in Christ.   Paul says:

¹⁹ Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, ²⁰ built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. ²¹ In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. ²² And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

Before God dwelt in temples built by human hands, as the Jewish people had followed all of regulations of the Old Testament in the temple. But, in Jesus, we have become the temple of God.  That’s right Christ is living in us, as we are filled with God’s Spirit.  This is very significant for our idea of what Church is. The Church is not a building, but a living organism made up of those who have been reconciled back to God in Christ.  Notice the phrase Paul uses that we are “fellow citizens” and members of God’s “household”.  And the cornerstone is Jesus, from which this living temple grows up to maturity.   Paul will talk more about this in chapter 4. 

How can this help us today?  We live busy lives and church can be just another 1 hour a week on our calendars, if there is not something else in the way.  But what Paul is proposing is that we are a “new community in Christ”.  Some churches are taking this call to be “oikos” seriously, and creating community for extended family members in their local body of Christ.  As these families meet together and enjoy fellowship in their neighborhoods, they also sense God moving them out into their neighborhood to share the love of Christ in tangible ways.   Many people believe if the church is going to be relevant with the Good News going into the future it will be less of a “build it and they will come” mentality, but more the people of God as an extended family on mission together in their community. 

Who might God being calling you and your family to start building relationships with Christ in the center? 

Psalm 81:1-5

For the director of music. According to gittith. Of Asaph.

¹ Sing for joy to God our strength;
    shout aloud to the God of Jacob!
² Begin the music, strike the timbrel,
    play the melodious harp and lyre.

³ Sound the ram’s horn at the New Moon,
    and when the moon is full, on the day of our festival;
⁴ this is a decree for Israel,
    an ordinance of the God of Jacob.
⁵ When God went out against Egypt,
    he established it as a statute for Joseph.

I heard an unknown voice say:

Isaiah 19:18-22:14

¹⁸ In that day five cities in Egypt will speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the Lord Almighty. One of them will be called the City of the Sun.

¹⁹ In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the heart of Egypt, and a monument to the Lord at its border. ²⁰ It will be a sign and witness to the Lord Almighty in the land of Egypt. When they cry out to the Lord because of their oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender, and he will rescue them. ²¹ So the Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians, and in that day they will acknowledge the Lord. They will worship with sacrifices and grain offerings; they will make vows to the Lord and keep them. ²² The Lord will strike Egypt with a plague; he will strike them and heal them. They will turn to the Lord, and he will respond to their pleas and heal them.

²³ In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. ²⁴ In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the earth. ²⁵ The Lord Almighty will bless them, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance.”

A Prophecy Against Egypt and Cush

20 In the year that the supreme commander, sent by Sargon king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and attacked and captured it— ² at that time the Lord spoke through Isaiah son of Amoz. He said to him, “Take off the sackcloth from your body and the sandals from your feet.” And he did so, going around stripped and barefoot.

³ Then the Lord said, “Just as my servant Isaiah has gone stripped and barefoot for three years, as a sign and portent against Egypt and Cush, ⁴ so the king of Assyria will lead away stripped and barefoot the Egyptian captives and Cushite exiles, young and old, with buttocks bared—to Egypt’s shame. ⁵ Those who trusted in Cush and boasted in Egypt will be dismayed and put to shame. ⁶ In that day the people who live on this coast will say, ‘See what has happened to those we relied on, those we fled to for help and deliverance from the king of Assyria! How then can we escape?’”

A Prophecy Against Babylon

21 A prophecy against the Desert by the Sea:

Like whirlwinds sweeping through the southland,
    an invader comes from the desert,
    from a land of terror.

² A dire vision has been shown to me:
    The traitor betrays, the looter takes loot.
Elam, attack! Media, lay siege!
    I will bring to an end all the groaning she caused.

³ At this my body is racked with pain,
    pangs seize me, like those of a woman in labor;
I am staggered by what I hear,
    I am bewildered by what I see.
⁴ My heart falters,
    fear makes me tremble;
the twilight I longed for
    has become a horror to me.

⁵ They set the tables,
    they spread the rugs,
    they eat, they drink!
Get up, you officers,
    oil the shields!

⁶ This is what the Lord says to me:

“Go, post a lookout
    and have him report what he sees.
⁷ When he sees chariots
    with teams of horses,
riders on donkeys
    or riders on camels,
let him be alert,
    fully alert.”

⁸ And the lookout shouted,

“Day after day, my lord, I stand on the watchtower;
    every night I stay at my post.
⁹ Look, here comes a man in a chariot
    with a team of horses.
And he gives back the answer:
    ‘Babylon has fallen, has fallen!
All the images of its gods
    lie shattered on the ground!’”

¹⁰ My people who are crushed on the threshing floor,
    I tell you what I have heard
from the Lord Almighty,
    from the God of Israel.

A Prophecy Against Edom

¹¹ A prophecy against Dumah:

Someone calls to me from Seir,
    “Watchman, what is left of the night?
    Watchman, what is left of the night?”
¹² The watchman replies,
    “Morning is coming, but also the night.
If you would ask, then ask;
    and come back yet again.”

A Prophecy Against Arabia

¹³ A prophecy against Arabia:

You caravans of Dedanites,
    who camp in the thickets of Arabia,
¹⁴     bring water for the thirsty;
you who live in Tema,
    bring food for the fugitives.
¹⁵ They flee from the sword,
    from the drawn sword,
from the bent bow
    and from the heat of battle.

¹⁶ This is what the Lord says to me: “Within one year, as a servant bound by contract would count it, all the splendor of Kedar will come to an end. ¹⁷ The survivors of the archers, the warriors of Kedar, will be few.” The Lord, the God of Israel, has spoken.

A Prophecy About Jerusalem

22 A prophecy against the Valley of Vision:

What troubles you now,
    that you have all gone up on the roofs,
² you town so full of commotion,
    you city of tumult and revelry?
Your slain were not killed by the sword,
    nor did they die in battle.
³ All your leaders have fled together;
    they have been captured without using the bow.
All you who were caught were taken prisoner together,
    having fled while the enemy was still far away.
⁴ Therefore I said, “Turn away from me;
    let me weep bitterly.
Do not try to console me
    over the destruction of my people.”

⁵ The Lord, the Lord Almighty, has a day
    of tumult and trampling and terror
    in the Valley of Vision,
a day of battering down walls
    and of crying out to the mountains.
⁶ Elam takes up the quiver,
    with her charioteers and horses;
    Kir uncovers the shield.
⁷ Your choicest valleys are full of chariots,
    and horsemen are posted at the city gates.

⁸ The Lord stripped away the defenses of Judah,
    and you looked in that day
    to the weapons in the Palace of the Forest.
⁹ You saw that the walls of the City of David
    were broken through in many places;
you stored up water
    in the Lower Pool.
¹⁰ You counted the buildings in Jerusalem
    and tore down houses to strengthen the wall.
¹¹ You built a reservoir between the two walls
    for the water of the Old Pool,
but you did not look to the One who made it,
    or have regard for the One who planned it long ago.

¹² The Lord, the Lord Almighty,
    called you on that day
to weep and to wail,
    to tear out your hair and put on sackcloth.
¹³ But see, there is joy and revelry,
    slaughtering of cattle and killing of sheep,
    eating of meat and drinking of wine!
“Let us eat and drink,” you say,
    “for tomorrow we die!”

¹⁴ The Lord Almighty has revealed this in my hearing: “Till your dying day this sin will not be atoned for,” says the Lord, the Lord Almighty.

Ephesians 2:11-22

Jew and Gentile Reconciled Through Christ

¹¹ Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)— ¹² remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. ¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

¹⁴ For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, ¹⁵ by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, ¹⁶ and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. ¹⁷ He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. ¹⁸ For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

¹⁹ Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, ²⁰ built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. ²¹ In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. ²² And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? Malachi 3:2

The angel said, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people.” Luke 2:10

Child of Bethlehem, Child of our Unity, Savior of the world, help us to let down our guard and our cynicism long enough to let you roam freely in our hearts and minds. We ask for our childlike faith to embrace your manger’s light and grow forth. Amen.