The Beloved of God

Text: Genesis 2:15-23 & 3:1-7 and Matthew 3:17-4:11
Feb. 13, 2005
Aldersgate UMC

To be right with God

a. On Friday afternoon, when I was leaving church to go home and work on this morning’s message, I noticed a Chelmsford police officer sitting in his cruiser in our parking lot. With a little indecisiveness, I approached the officer and asked, "Are you coming into the church or are you checking …?

b. "No, I’m checking the school zone," he responded.

c. Feeling a need to explain, I said "Oh, well, because I’m the pastor and if you were coming in, I’d stay to talk with you."

d. "No, I’m all set." He said

e. And then realizing that he was at a church and I was a pastor, with a little nervous laugh, he said, "Well, I think I’m okay…"

f. I could tell that he, like every one else, was hoping that he was right with God.

Our first lesson from Genesis represents humanity’s first naïve attempt with making a spiritual and moral decision

g. Written by the ancient people, it is an effort to help us understand why there is evil and strife and hardship in the world

h. On a personal level, it tells us that we’ve been having trouble choosing God’s way from the very beginning

i. Like Adam and Eve, we are born in the love of God

    i. This is second creation story

    ii. In the first, over and over we read, God saw it and it was good.

    iii. In this second story, humanity is created, then all the plants and animals

    iv. Instead of being the culmination of creation, humanity in this story is more of a partner with God, naming all of the animals

j. Like Adam and Eve, we too face moral decisions

    i. Do we choose to live in God’s way

    ii. Or do we let our rebelliousness separate us from God

    iii. Adam and Eve let the voice of another lead them away from God

    iv. They didn’t even realize what they had done until too late

    v. then they refused to accept responsibility

        1. Adam blames Eve

        2. Eve blames the serpent

    vi. We might say, they refused to recognize their sin

k. The choices we make are very much like this one

    i. Choosing between serving self

    ii. Or serving a greater purpose

    iii. Adam and Eve chose to serve self rather than follow in God’s way

Gospel lesson from Matthew tells us the story of Jesus’ own struggle with choosing

l. He too had a choose between self and a greater purpose

m. Unlike Adam and Eve, Jesus chose the greater purpose

n. Jesus chooses not to act like a god, instead of a human

    i. Jesus proves who he is not by seizing power, but by turning it down

    ii. He remains human accepting all of the usual risks

o. He chooses that greater purpose all the way to the cross

p. in the traditional language of the church, the second Adam is able to do what the first Adam cannot, remain faithful to God

q. and in doing so he shows us the way, just as we metaphorically inherit original sin from Adam, so also we inherit the potential for original blessing from Jesus

r. blessing comes from picking up your cross and following - Jesus - Luke 9:23 "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me"

s. Life and the season of Lent is really all about walking with God

t. Blessing also comes from Jesus’ willingness to die for you and for me and affirms that when I try to live in God’s way, yet do not get it right, God forgives me

This Lent opportunity to grow in understanding of ourselves as the beloved of God

u. To help with this opportunity, some of us are reading Henri Nouwen’s Life of the Beloved

    i. Style of writing is very personal and from the heart

    ii. Presents God in the first person with various scriptural paraphrases

        1. at first, may seem not to be related to Bible,

        2. but a deeper look will find many references

v. suggests that our deepest truth is that we are the beloved of God and that our greatest joy and peace will come from fully claiming that truth

w. belovedness expressed by the willingness of God to give up self for us

    i. Various words for love in Greek,

    ii. philio, eros, agape

    iii. belovedness comes form the root agape – a kind of love that is willing to give self for the other

x. Story of Moses Mendelshon and his beloved

    i. Grandfather of the composer Felix

    ii. On of 18^th century’s most brilliant thinkers

    iii. Father arranged for this warm and compassionate man to wed Fromet Guggenheim

        1. Rich

        2. Young

        3. Beautiful

    iv. Party arranged for two to meet

        1. All the more remarkable because Mendelshon was a hunchback

        2. When the perspective bride saw her future husband she called the wedding off

    v. Mendelshon informed ask for one conversation

    vi. He told her a story

        1. All marriages arranged in heaven

        2. Before he was born he asked an angel to see the woman God had selected for him to marry

        3. Unusual, but angel agreed

        4. Granted one look and saw that she had an ugly lump on her back

        5. He pleaded with God, not fair for woman, give him the lump

        6. "God heard my prayer, and granted my wish. I am that boy and you are that girl."

    vii. Fromet Guggenheim looked at M.M. and viewed in new light.

    viii. Eventually the couple married

y. Being the beloved means that Christ is willing to take on your sin, your pain

    i. In a sense Christ argues with God

        1. it isn’t fair that they should have to bear their burden alone

        2. let me bear it for them

    ii. Redemption about reuniting each one of us with God

        1. redeeming is the act of making something bear fruit again

        2. Jesus wants us to bear fruit with our lives,

        3. so he accepts whatever is holding us back

        4. separating us from God who is like a gardener

    iii. Whatever it is that separates you from God, keeps you from being right with God

        1. Jesus is willing to take it on

        2. know that each might know they are the beloved of God

z. Being the beloved means, however, that we still have to make difficult choices, even Jesus, the beloved son is led immediately into the desert

    i. Seems incongruent –

        1. 3:12 and 4:1

        2. if beloved, then why led to battle the tempter

    ii. Perhaps we have assumed Jesus was sent alone rather than led by God, but given the intimacy of Jesus’ relationship with God, is he ever alone?

    iii. Isn’t God with him in the wilderness?

    iv. Consistently throughout the scripture it is in the wilderness that the people find God

    v. Footprints Poem

        1. a man, after leading a long life looks back on his walk with God, as if they were footprints in the sand on a beach

        2. notices that during the most difficult time, there is only one set of prints

        3. God’s response, "That’s because I was carrying you at those times."

aa. Being the beloved of God means that God will always go with you no matter how difficult the journey

bb. During Lent we take a long, life changing look at our thinking, desiring, and behaving

    i. this is the work of repentance, turning back to God

    ii. acknowledging that we are the beloved of God and realizing all that being the beloved means

    iii. let us be about this work

    iv. so that the work of Jesus Christ might continue and the world might know God’s love