Memorize & Ponder for Sunday May 17-24, 2015
The Gift of Life in Jesus Christ
Galatians 2: 20 (Full Reading – Galatians 2: 15-21) (NRSV)
… and it is no longer I who live,
but it is Christ who lives in me.
And the life I now live in the flesh
I live by faith in the Son of God,
who loved me and gave himself for me.
Being the Church in Christ: Wisdom from Pastor Paul
(The Brentwood Sermon Series for 2015)
Throughout 2015, the Christian community at Brentwood Presbyterian Church will be considering how to be the church in Jesus Christ, guided by the wisdom of Pastor Paul. We invite you to listen for what the Spirit is saying in the text, then question how those insights might change the ways you see things and act in the world. Share your thoughts during the week on the meaning the Spirit creates for you in this text by posting a comment on our website – brentwoodpc.ca.
A Provocative Pondering
Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. And let us provoke one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together … (Hebrews 10:23-25a)
We normally don’t think it is good to have things living in us!
We’ve been conditioned by scientistic medicine to remove these things as soon as possible by any means possible – death-dealing drugs, cutting it out, burning it away, or some other technique of ridding ourselves of such foreign life forms.
So, it’s hard to conceive of welcoming another living being in our body. But that is exactly what Paul does in our Memorize and Ponder text this week.
And it is not just any living being. It is Jesus Christ, the One from whom all of life flows, from whom all of life is created, is transformed, and is sustained in constant growth.
This powerful image shifts our attention to all the life forms in our bodies that are helpful and beneficial – and there are millions.
But none are more important to our flourishing than the presence within us of Jesus, God’s Christ, the One in whom all of God’s desires for and promises to his creation are fulfilled in a way that launches a new age, a new way of being in the world, a ‘new creation,’ really, to revive God’s vision for the original one.
This energy of transformation and renewal, Paul came to believe, chose to live within us and thereby enabled us to live within him. Such intimacy between God and humanity is unique to Christianity. Such intimacy between God and humanity is the fulfillment of all that humanity seeks. Such intimacy between God and humanity is how God chose to resolve all the hopes and fears of humanity into the final gift of life in Jesus Christ for the whole creation.