Reminders of Home

 May 23 2021

Galatians 3:29, 4:1-11

         Over the past few months, Jennifer and I have had fun being the hosts of our AirBnb. Now, the fun, of course wasn’t in the vacuuming and cleaning of our rental space sometimes two and three times a week nor was it found in the mountains of laundry that needed attended to anytime a guest departs but the fun and joy of being a host lies in our interaction with our guests. There was the guest who locked his keys in his car one evening which we helped out by calling AAA. And there was the Korean guests who showed us how to wrap our toilet paper to make it more attractive and there was another guest who left us a sun catcher as a parting gift. Just recently we had a couple show up with their dog which was a surprise because we put on our preference list that we did not want pets. So, we had to make an exception which they appreciated. A week ago we had some people stay with us who had an unusual request, as they asked if we could bring them down some milk because they saw that we had provided instant oatmeal and at home they always had milk with their oatmeal. It was this idea that they wanted their morning experience to be as much like their experience they were used to at their own home that got me thinking that this is probably what every guest wants. One of our guests said she loved how fresh our linens smelled which we explained was because they had been hung out on the line. This surprised them because they didn’t know anyone still did that. Out of that experience I learned that the way things smell is also a way that makes people feel at home. This ability to have something that gives people an experience even in a small way that gives them a sense of home when they are far away from it is something I have found is pretty important to our guests.

         It is this insight as to what gives our guests comfort in our space when they are far from home that has surprisingly helped me understand what Paul is getting at in our scripture for today which comes from his letter to the church at Galatia. I say its surprising because at first glance Paul doesn’t even seem to write at all about our being at home. No, what Paul does speak a great deal about is being an heir. I have to admit that I struggled with this concept that Paul writes about, that as Abrahams offspring by faith then we are heirs according to the promise. And then a little later he says that we are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, than an heir through God. The reason I have trouble with this is that the way I think about being an heir is that one becomes an heir only after someone dies. It’s a pretty common way of life that after the death of a loved one their property and possessions are divided up to those specified as that person’s heirs. If this is true then just how does this fit with what Paul is saying? I mean, after all if God is our Father in this scenario and God is eternally alive then how can we as his children be his heir? So, I meditated about this idea a bit and what came to me is that in this setting of the people of God that Paul was from, a son would know that what his Father had, the land promised to him by God, this land was, in effect, his because he was an heir. We see the truth of this in the common parable of Jesus called the Prodigal Son. There the youngest son asked his Father for his inheritance and the Father fulfilled his request because the thought was that the inheritance was his even if his Father was not dead. Now, I think Paul is using this idea to convey to us something very profound which was that God our Father is giving what is his to us. This is a difficult idea perhaps to wrap our minds around but I think that this is why Paul uses this idea of being an heir. It is also this idea of being an heir which is behind this thought of being a son. Paul’s use of being a son, not just a child of God when just a few sentences before he tells us that there is no difference between male or female might seem contradictory until we remember that only son’s could be heirs. So, Paul’s use of the word ‘son’ is shorthand for being an heir.

         So, if we understand that when Paul declares that we are an heir and that as an heir we share in what the Father has, then we have to figure out just what does that mean? Our discovery of what Paul is saying here in Galatians is helped by what he wrote to the church at Ephesus where in the first chapter we read, “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 even us he chose us in him before the foundation of the world  that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption of sons through Jesus Christ according to his will…” Here we must stop for a moment and figure out what Paul has just said. We have to remember that verses such as these have been used by great teachers and theologians to bring about beliefs that make God to be a cruel God who chooses some to end up in heaven and some to end up in hell and we are never quite sure just what category we are in until its too late. What they did not stop and consider is that Paul says that we have been blessed and this does not sound like much of a blessing, not knowing ones destiny with certainty.  You see, the problem is that Paul is not writing this from God’s vantage point but from our vantage point.  What Paul is saying is that if you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ as being the guilt offering for your sins, accepting the forgiveness he has provided us through the shedding of his blood then the correct way to think about your salvation is that this is not some random event but is instead your salvation has been known by God before the foundation of the world. That’s kind of mind -blowing isn’t it?  Paul wants us to remove as much of our human work out of our salvation as possible so that we understand that us being in right relationship has been the work of God not just from our birth but before even the birth of the world.  God chose you, Paul says, even before there was a “you”. How can God say that he knew that we would be here standing before him holy and blameless? He can say this only because here we are people made righteous by the blood of Christ. In much the same manner God had a destination for us before he even created us and how is this possible? We can be certain this is real because again we have been given the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit, Paul tells us later in this first chapter of Ephesians, is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it. The inheritance we have obtained is this destination God has planned for us before the foundation of the world. Now, even knowing all of this it is difficult to figure out just what Paul has in mind until we read again from this first chapter of Ephesians, in the middle heart of Paul’s opening declaration where we read, that through Christ and what he has accomplished on the cross he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and on earth. You see, the cross of Christ is the bridge which at last has connected God and the humanity he loves, bringing about a long sought out unity. The inheritance then, this destination God has planned for us is none other than his very life.  What our Father is and has is life. Jesus in the fifth chapter of John tells us that his Father is the very origin of life. This then is what we inherit, this life of which the Holy Spirit is the guarantee that what we experience in the here and now is just a part of the greatness we will possess in eternity.

         This passage in Ephesians clarifies much of what Paul is writing about in his letter to Galatians. Paul explains that all of us at one time were as he puts it, enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.  Here again it is hard to figure out just what Paul is talking about but thankfully for us he speaks about these elementary principles in his other letters. In the book of Colossians, the second chapter, Paul writes, “If with Christ you died to the elemental principles of the world, why, as if  you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations?” So, from this we can understand that these elementary principles are the ways are order is brought to our world. They are the man made rules and regulations that keep life from dissolving into chaos.Now, what is interesting is that Paul says all these man made rules and laws and regulations are nothing more than a means of keeping us a slave. We have to wonder just why this is?  The answer as to why this is, is as I believe, found in the second chapter of the book of Hebrews where we are told that Christ when he destroyed the power of death delivered all of those who through fear of death  were subject to lifelong slavery. What puts power behind all these rules and laws we are under is fear, fear that at its root is grounded in death. I mean think about it, you’re driving down the road, it’s a beautiful day and you are enjoying the bright sunshine and the fluffy clouds and all of a sudden it hits you that those clouds are flying by really fast and suddenly you are jolted back to reality and you first look down at your speedometer and secondly, you look in your rear view mirror. Why? You look behind you to see if there are any blue shiny lights behind you and as you do that you notice your heart is racing and your hands are sweaty. You see that’s what fear does to you because you don’t want to get caught or you will have to pay a hefty fine, money that affects your livelihood. You see, fear can’t give you life it only tries real hard to keep you from dying which really is a far cry from living. Living a life corralled by fear, worry and anxiety really is as Paul describes it, is nothing but enslavement.

         The whole world lived in that enslavement right up and until our heavenly Father’s plan which he had from before the foundation of the world was at last revealed to us in the one called Jesus, the one as Paul tells us was, one born of a woman, one born under the Law and therefore one who redeemed us who were under the Law. Now, we have to understand just what Paul is saying here in this thumbnail sketch of the birth, life and death of Jesus and how it all pertains to a life no longer enslaved to fear. When we think of Jesus being born of a woman, we first must remember his resurrection, strange as that might seem. It was the resurrection of Jesus that Paul tells us in the first chapter of Romans, “declared Jesus to be the Son of God in power.” So, what Paul was speaking of when he says that Jesus was born of a woman is that he is none other than the Son of God. The very Son of God took on our flesh, corruptible, mortal flesh yet he was still without sin otherwise he would not have been the first fruits of the resurrection. The reason that Jesus could be without sin while still being born in fallen corrupt flesh is that from his birth the Holy Spirit was always present. As the Son of God, part of the Holy Trinity, when one of the Trinity is present they are in fact all present. So, it is the Holy Spirit whose holy presence which kept Jesus holy.This doesn’t mean that Jesus was never tempted; the gospel accounts tell us different. In those times when the desires of Jesus demanded his obedience , it was the Holy Spirit that revealed to Jesus the heart of his Heavenly Father, the great love that had always been his, and because Jesus treasured the one in heaven more than anything else he never desired the treasures of his earthly home. This is why even though Jesus lived under the Law, the Law was not a curse for him because he alone was able to love his Heavenly Father with all of his heart, with all of his life and with all that his Heavenly Father had given to him. Out of this union of love flowed a holy love which touched every person Jesus met even those who despised him. In his time on earth, Jesus was never consumed by anxiety, or worry because he knew that his Heavenly Father would provide all that he needed; his Heavenly Father was indeed his source of life. This is why the life of Jesus was solely concerned with one thing and that was  declaring that the kingdom of God had at last arrived. This meant that now the Holy Spirit was present in him empowering Jesus to give his life to the glory of his Heavenly Father. And as Jesus lived, he died, as one under the Law , the sinless Lamb of God offered up through the Holy Spirit. There upon the cross, Jesus took the humanity of the first Adam, the humanity that was subject to disease, decay, deterioration, disintegration and death and there on Calvary, the Son of God crucified it once for all. This is why Paul writing in the fifth chapter of Second Corinthians could write, that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all  that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. You see, it was not enough that the death of Jesus might be the means for our forgiveness because this would not have addressed our enslavement to sin. There is a reason that Paul speaks of Jesus being the one who has redeemed or bought those who were under the curse of the Law. This is what Jesus has done, he has paid the price that we owed when he took upon himself the sins and the sorrows that were our very own in order that through his death they might be destroyed once and for all. Jesus took upon himself our corrupt and mortal flesh, this which is our life so that by his death and destruction of this flesh we might at last experience his life, the life and the love that have always been his from before the foundation of the world.

         Paul gives us here in the fourth chapter of Galatians a glimpse of the life that has been the life of God from eternity. In the fullness of time, the Eternal Father gave his Son, the Son gives his life so that the Holy Spirit might be given to us and the Holy Spirit gives to us the heart of the Heavenly Father.Here it is easy to see that the life of God is a life of three persons bound together in self-giving love. As bearers of the image of God, this holy life of God is the reason that humanity has been redeemed by the blood of Christ. As there is one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the holy three in one, so too we as God’s people though many and different are to be united as one, as a  community of self-giving love because this is the very life of God. This is what ultimately we are to understand when Paul states that because God has now adopted us as his sons, those who are able to inherit what is the Father’s, we now have the Holy Spirit, the Spirit that was always present in the life of the Son, Jesus Christ. This is the Spirit which reveals to us what God, our Father has prepared for those who love him; these Paul tells us are the very things that are on the mind of our Heavenly Father. What God is preparing for us, what God is preparing us for, is the greater life that is to come, a life where the life of God is and always has been our destiny.This is our eternal home that we must never lose sight of while we journey through this life here on earth.

         So, at last I come back to my thoughts I had about how Jennifer and I do what we can to make our AirBnb a little more like home for our guests who are far from home. We live here in this broken world, a world where, yes, the kingdom of God has come but admittedly is not in its fullness here yet. So, the question is just how can we make our time here have those touches of the home we are headed for? The answer Paul tells us is that we let our faith work through our love. If we have faith that our God is going to share his life with us then what we must do now is to live like we are already home. We know that God is one God in three persons who loves with a self-giving love, so this means that if this is our eternity then this should also be the mark of our present stay here today. As Paul says through love serve one another. Love your neighbor whoever that might be, love them in the same way that you love yourself. Bear one another’s burdens for this is the the way Christ lived his life. And when you do these things it will be like pouring a little milk on your oatmeal or the smell of sunshine upon the sheets, a small reminder of home, God’s eternal destination for those who believe. Amen!