Sunday, January 6, 2013
Good Morning, it is December 25, 2013 and it is Christmas. Are there certain movies you never tire to watch? My all time favorite is the diddy, “the Last Starfighter”. Christmas is like such movies, over and over again, regardless of the changing number of family members around the Christmas tree, regardless of the number of presents under the tree, Christmas will always be celebrated by you and I! As we celebrate, we may become so involved that we lose sight of the fact that we are celebrating the existence of the Supreme Being. We are celebrating the God of the galaxies who has a long term plan for the union of all life into his world.
This Christmas, please allow me to make a statement that I hope is worth chewing on throughout the coming year. The Supreme Being, the God of the galaxies, cares with loving concern equally for each and every life form that has ever existed or ever will exist….. or there is no Supreme Being. There can be no half way God, he or she is or they are not! If they are not, Christmas becomes a collection of convenient wives tales that really matter to no one in the long term.
The Christian church has a grand affection for this half way God. A theology that divides people into good and bad, chosen or unworthy, saved or the unsaved, the heaven bound or the hell bound, practicing churchmen or the uninterested, tends to make the God of the galaxies into a self involved exclusive possession of the few. Again, this God is no God at all. The God of the galaxies is a God who is for all or he is another deity on a totem pole. Despite the church’s juvenile understanding of God, the God of the galaxies still chooses to set his plan in motion through the church, go figure!
The Church’s quest toward division is intended to rally the troops. In that effort there is a, perhaps unconscious, effort to dumb down the scriptures to support a limited redemption plan. One of this Sunday’s passages is from St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. Let me illustrate the differences by using three more modern versions, the New International Version, the Living Bible and my own, amateurish and possibly at times overstated attempt to communicate the heart of the God of the galaxies.
St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, chapter 3: 1-12
(1.) For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles--- (NIV)
I, Paul, the servant of Christ, am here in jail because of you-- for preaching that you Gentiles are a part of God’s house. (Living Bible)
God through faith in Jesus Christ is constructing a bigger and bigger community of souls within which the Spirit of God can live and bring into actuality the forever normal of love, peace, gentleness and concern for one another. I, Paul, as you know, have been imprisoned because I have carried that message to you, all of you beyond the Jewish world. (gg)
(2.) Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, (NIV)
No doubt you already know that God has given me this special work of showing God’s favor to you Gentiles, as I briefly mentioned in one of my letters. (Living Bible)
You have heard from me that the message I bring is an invitation for all to join together with God to form this new community, one searching heart after another. God wants me to tell all the peoples of the world that now is your time. (gg)
(3.) that is, the mystery made know to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. (NIV)
God himself has shown me this secret plan that the Gentiles, too, are included in his kindness. (Living Bible)
God revealed to me his heart of concern for all. I do not know why God has waited until this moment to share this inclusive appeal for all to join the community of souls for it is a bit of a mystery. (gg)
(4.) In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, (NIV)
I say this to explain to you how I know about these things. (Living Bible)
My hope is that God will light up your understanding so that you will want to share in this new and better community of souls. The invitation is addressed to all humankind, illustrated and empowered by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. (gg)
(5.) which was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets. (NIV)
In olden times God did not share this plan with his people, but now he has revealed it by the Holy Spirit to his apostles and prophets. (Living Bible)
In past generations, this invitation was not given to the peoples who worshiped other Gods. It was addressed only to the Jew, to be acted upon or ignored. Now, the leaders of the community of believing souls agree that the invitation is addressed to all peoples. (gg)
(6.) This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus. (NIV)
And this is the secret: that the Gentiles will have their full share with the Jews in all the riches inherited by God’s sons; and all God’s promises of mighty blessings through Christ apply to them both when they accept the Good News about Christ and what he has done for them. (Living Bible)
The greater mystery is the seemingly senseless desire of God to mix together into one community of souls the morally and ethically inferior, who have worshiped idols, with the historically blessed people of the true God of Israel. Even more confusing is that together they all, saint and heathen, are mutual heirs to the corporate destiny God has planned for all his children. (gg)
(7.) I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power. (NIV)
God has given me the wonderful privilege of telling everyone about this plan of his; and he has given his power and special ability to do it well. (Living Bible)
My life is a living testimony to the love and concern of the one true God, who is empowering me to speak out about the new community of all peoples whom God has made alive into eternity. The message and invitation is because God cares. (gg)
(8.) Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ, (NIV)
Just think! Though I did nothing to deserve it, and though I am the most useless Christian there is, yet I was the one chosen for the special joy of telling the Gentiles the Glad News of the endless treasures available to them in Christ; (Living Bible)
The mystery is even more confusing that I was chosen by God to be his spokesman. I am nothing special to be given such a grand calling, to tell the world of this great confluence of all peoples into the plans of God. The limitless gathering together of all peoples, regardless of religious, national or ethical backgrounds. (gg)
(9.) and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. (NIV)
And to explain to everyone that God is the Savior of the Gentiles too, just as he who made all things had secretly planned from the beginning. (Living Bible)
Please let me shout, let me yell out the news that much of God’s confusing ways may only appear to be so for the short time they are hidden from us. It took Jesus to pull back the curtain of confusion to show us the heart of God for all men, the heart of God that is at the center of his created order. Why it should have to be so, I am without an answer? (gg)
(10.) His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, (NIV)
And his reason! To show to all the rulers in heaven how perfectly wise he is when all of his family, Jews and Gentiles alike--- are seen to be joined together in his church. (Living Bible)
God has orchestrated the great confluence of peoples into one faith community of souls so that all persons in the heavens and on earth will have the opportunity to experience true divine wisdom. Wisdom not of this world’s learning but gifted of God, a shared concern for all of life that is beyond all other authority. (gg)
(11.) according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. (NIV)
in just the way he had always planned it through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Living Bible)
The tipping point of the planned community of believer in God is the person and work of Christ Jesus our Lord, who is the beginning and the end. The beginning of the new order of his newly dispensed concern for all men and the end of the time of apparent concern for just the few. Jesus made it happen and we must trust his judgment. (gg)
(12.) In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence. (NIV)
Now we can come fearlessly right into God’s presence, assured of his glad welcome when we come with Christ and trust in him. (Living Bible)
Jesus illuminated the limitless love of God so that by faith we all can now inch closer to Him without the fear of death and with confidence in the gift of His eternal security. We all, peoples from the past, present and future, need only to ask of Him. No one will eventually be left out of this community! We may have a choice in man’s timing but we all shall surrender in God’s timing.
G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca
