As we begin to reflect on the scriptures, I invite you to take a moment with me to consider how and where you have been sheltered. I don’t mean sheltered in the sense of being kept from knowing what is going on around you, but I suppose you could include that if you think of it in a positive light. Just take a moment and consider how and where you have received what you would consider shelter; safekeeping; being cared for, protected, or provided for beyond your own capacity to care for yourself.
To get you in the right place for this I invite you to be aware of your physical self. Uncross anything that is crossed. Sit comfortably, but be grounded with your feet on the floor. Consider the weight and texture of everything you are touching. Take a deep breath and think of it as a gift from God. Let it out with gratitude.
Now let your mind focus on a time you received shelter. Stick with your first thought, and think about how you felt (grateful, joyful, uncomfortable, conflicted). Now think about a time when you offered shelter to someone else and how you felt then (grateful, joyful, uncomfortable, conflicted). Hold onto those feelings as we explore the scriptures together.
Today we have the story of Abraham (as he will come to be known – we’ll just stick with that name rather than calling him who he had been before) leaving his family and systems of support to follow God. Then we have Paul recasting the story of Abraham to remind us that the story is not about what Abraham did, but truly about the grace of God working through him. Not only that but, because of the promises that God fulfilled through Abraham, we get to be part of the ongoing promises of God that have already been fulfilled through Jesus.
Then, in our reading from John, we have the story of Nicodemus, a teacher of the law, who learns that God did not send Jesus into the world to condemn the world, so God certainly must not have sent Nicodemus – or us, or anyone else – to condemn the world either.
There is certainly more to say about each of these passages, and I hope you’ll look more into each of them in your time of reflection this week, but today we are focusing on the connection between these passages and the idea of shelter. More specifically we are focusing on the shelter, nurture, and spiritual fellowship of the children of God.
Last week we talked about the central purpose of the church being the proclamation of the gospel – the good news of love and forgiveness – for the salvation of humankind (all y’all and ya mom and em). That’s still our starting point, and today we move from that like a diver from a platform into the pool of possibility that is the Kingdom of God! In other words, now we are going start looking into ways of proclaiming that good news and how to experience salvation in the here and now, even as we expect it in the there and then.
To get you in the right place for this I invite you to be aware of your physical self. Uncross anything that is crossed. Sit comfortably, but be grounded with your feet on the floor. Consider the weight and texture of everything you are touching. Take a deep breath and think of it as a gift from God. Let it out with gratitude.
Now let your mind focus on a time you received shelter. Stick with your first thought, and think about how you felt (grateful, joyful, uncomfortable, conflicted). Now think about a time when you offered shelter to someone else and how you felt then (grateful, joyful, uncomfortable, conflicted). Hold onto those feelings as we explore the scriptures together.
Today we have the story of Abraham (as he will come to be known – we’ll just stick with that name rather than calling him who he had been before) leaving his family and systems of support to follow God. Then we have Paul recasting the story of Abraham to remind us that the story is not about what Abraham did, but truly about the grace of God working through him. Not only that but, because of the promises that God fulfilled through Abraham, we get to be part of the ongoing promises of God that have already been fulfilled through Jesus.
Then, in our reading from John, we have the story of Nicodemus, a teacher of the law, who learns that God did not send Jesus into the world to condemn the world, so God certainly must not have sent Nicodemus – or us, or anyone else – to condemn the world either.
There is certainly more to say about each of these passages, and I hope you’ll look more into each of them in your time of reflection this week, but today we are focusing on the connection between these passages and the idea of shelter. More specifically we are focusing on the shelter, nurture, and spiritual fellowship of the children of God.
Last week we talked about the central purpose of the church being the proclamation of the gospel – the good news of love and forgiveness – for the salvation of humankind (all y’all and ya mom and em). That’s still our starting point, and today we move from that like a diver from a platform into the pool of possibility that is the Kingdom of God! In other words, now we are going start looking into ways of proclaiming that good news and how to experience salvation in the here and now, even as we expect it in the there and then.
My hope is that at least some of you when I asked you to think about receiving and offering shelter, thought about an experience through the church; and maybe even some of the work that we have done around the Biblical concept of hospitality. We haven’t talked about it in a while – mostly because it’s just what we try to do around here – but Biblical hospitality is not about potlucks, parties, or even cultural niceties and manners. Biblical hospitality is specifically centered around our care for the immigrant, the foreigner, the outsider, the unloved, and the ones who may feel unlovable (even when that’s you and me, but especially when they and them don’t feel like they’re a part of us).
I say all of that as a pretext for reflection on the identity of “the children of God.” Who are these people? Are they the Young Disciples – one of the 18-25 children ranging from K-12 that come through our doors each month? Yes, we have that many, they just don’t all come at once, and that’s ok. Families are busy, and it’s not really their job to meet our needs. It’s our job to meet theirs.
Let’s take it one further. Could it be you? Could these children, when they are here, help to nurture your spiritual growth no matter how old you are? Of course, they can, and not just when they acolyte or dutifully take on the roles of faith as they grow. Sometimes the most encouragement I receive is through their curiosity and wonder.
Let’s take it one further and try to think of someone who is not a child of God. I’ve heard it said that if I can think of someone that God does not love then I have not set a boundary between myself and them, I have set a boundary between myself and God. As we think about that, let’s step back to Abraham.
God calls him to leave his support system and go to a land where God will bless him so that he will become a blessing. I listen to a couple of podcasts on the lectionary, and in the Pulpit Fiction Podcast they noted that, so far, God has been doling out curses. Adam and Eve got painful labor. Noah rode out the flood and still, one of his sons was cursed. Then, just as people started working together (to overthrow God with the Tower of Babel), God scattered everyone and confused their languages. This thing that God began with Abraham was something new.
It reminds me of one of the best camp counselors moves I’ve ever seen. It was an outdoor camp in VA where we prepped, cooked, and cleaned up our own meals over an open pit fire. The good kids were doing chores. The wild kids were being wild. The counselor started praising the “good kids” and asking the “wild kids” to help her encourage them. After a while, the “wild kids” started helping out by drying things and putting them away and helping put out the fire, and making safe spaces so all of them could go wild after all the work was done.
I don’t mean to reduce the promise of God to positive reinforcement, but God’s intention for Abraham was to create an example of the state of blessedness that God intended for the world. The law was a step along the way – and a dispensation of grace – but it was never going to be enough. Paul says that Abraham’s faith – even the faithfulness of leaving behind the security of his tribe – was reckoned as righteousness because God’s grace is not dependent on our faith.
Instead, our faith is made possible because we can trust in the grace and mercy of God. So it is when Nicodemus comes to Jesus under cover of night to see what he is all about. He can’t understand what Jesus has to say because he is too focused on what he thinks he must do to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven.
Jesus tells him to be “born from above.” Nicodemus can’t conceptualize what “being born” means apart from mommas having babies, but Jesus is inviting him into a new way of seeing the world that is as different from the one he knows as a baby from the womb. This new way of seeing will include the crucifixion of Jesus, and Nicodemus will become someone who defends Jesus before the Sanhedrin and even provides for his burial in John’s gospel. Whether he truly followed Jesus and understood the new way of being in the world that Jesus had in mind, we will never know, but we know that he is a child of God who was invited into deeper faith by Jesus.
Another child I want to tell you about is a young girl in a church called A House for All Sinners and Saints. This Lutheran congregation started in the basement of another Lutheran congregation, and they focused on the people that do not normally feel welcome in church – primarily addicts, LGBTQ+, and non-believers. As the church started to grow, something weird happen. Normal people started showing up from the suburbs.
It wasn’t a big congregation, so they had an open forum about what kind of boundaries they needed to set. A teenage girl who had been kicked out of her parent’s house for being gay spoke up. She said, “I say we welcome them because they look like my parents…and my parents don’t love me. They remind me that I can be loved by people like them and that I can still love them, too.” Well. That settled it. Normal people were welcomed, and the congregation flourished.
As we continue to consider who and how God calls us to shelter and nurture and share spiritual fellowship with, let us hope to have the faith of that child. Let us hope to have our faith reckoned as righteous through the love of God in Jesus Christ; around this table; in all those spaces where we might be called to give, and to receive, the sheltering love of God. Amen.
I say all of that as a pretext for reflection on the identity of “the children of God.” Who are these people? Are they the Young Disciples – one of the 18-25 children ranging from K-12 that come through our doors each month? Yes, we have that many, they just don’t all come at once, and that’s ok. Families are busy, and it’s not really their job to meet our needs. It’s our job to meet theirs.
Let’s take it one further. Could it be you? Could these children, when they are here, help to nurture your spiritual growth no matter how old you are? Of course, they can, and not just when they acolyte or dutifully take on the roles of faith as they grow. Sometimes the most encouragement I receive is through their curiosity and wonder.
Let’s take it one further and try to think of someone who is not a child of God. I’ve heard it said that if I can think of someone that God does not love then I have not set a boundary between myself and them, I have set a boundary between myself and God. As we think about that, let’s step back to Abraham.
God calls him to leave his support system and go to a land where God will bless him so that he will become a blessing. I listen to a couple of podcasts on the lectionary, and in the Pulpit Fiction Podcast they noted that, so far, God has been doling out curses. Adam and Eve got painful labor. Noah rode out the flood and still, one of his sons was cursed. Then, just as people started working together (to overthrow God with the Tower of Babel), God scattered everyone and confused their languages. This thing that God began with Abraham was something new.
It reminds me of one of the best camp counselors moves I’ve ever seen. It was an outdoor camp in VA where we prepped, cooked, and cleaned up our own meals over an open pit fire. The good kids were doing chores. The wild kids were being wild. The counselor started praising the “good kids” and asking the “wild kids” to help her encourage them. After a while, the “wild kids” started helping out by drying things and putting them away and helping put out the fire, and making safe spaces so all of them could go wild after all the work was done.
I don’t mean to reduce the promise of God to positive reinforcement, but God’s intention for Abraham was to create an example of the state of blessedness that God intended for the world. The law was a step along the way – and a dispensation of grace – but it was never going to be enough. Paul says that Abraham’s faith – even the faithfulness of leaving behind the security of his tribe – was reckoned as righteousness because God’s grace is not dependent on our faith.
Instead, our faith is made possible because we can trust in the grace and mercy of God. So it is when Nicodemus comes to Jesus under cover of night to see what he is all about. He can’t understand what Jesus has to say because he is too focused on what he thinks he must do to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven.
Jesus tells him to be “born from above.” Nicodemus can’t conceptualize what “being born” means apart from mommas having babies, but Jesus is inviting him into a new way of seeing the world that is as different from the one he knows as a baby from the womb. This new way of seeing will include the crucifixion of Jesus, and Nicodemus will become someone who defends Jesus before the Sanhedrin and even provides for his burial in John’s gospel. Whether he truly followed Jesus and understood the new way of being in the world that Jesus had in mind, we will never know, but we know that he is a child of God who was invited into deeper faith by Jesus.
Another child I want to tell you about is a young girl in a church called A House for All Sinners and Saints. This Lutheran congregation started in the basement of another Lutheran congregation, and they focused on the people that do not normally feel welcome in church – primarily addicts, LGBTQ+, and non-believers. As the church started to grow, something weird happen. Normal people started showing up from the suburbs.
It wasn’t a big congregation, so they had an open forum about what kind of boundaries they needed to set. A teenage girl who had been kicked out of her parent’s house for being gay spoke up. She said, “I say we welcome them because they look like my parents…and my parents don’t love me. They remind me that I can be loved by people like them and that I can still love them, too.” Well. That settled it. Normal people were welcomed, and the congregation flourished.
As we continue to consider who and how God calls us to shelter and nurture and share spiritual fellowship with, let us hope to have the faith of that child. Let us hope to have our faith reckoned as righteous through the love of God in Jesus Christ; around this table; in all those spaces where we might be called to give, and to receive, the sheltering love of God. Amen.
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