03-24-24

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
March 24, 2024
In today’s sermon, an idea I originally planned to use but time constraints required that it be left on the floor of my editing room had to do with Roman Citizenship. If someone was not a citizen of Rome, there were ways of gaining citizenship, but it was something that had to be earned. Keeping that in mind, as the Apostle Paul (a Roman citizen himself) talked about our citizenship in heaven or how we have had a change in our status before God and been brought into the Kingdom of God, And, of course, Paul also talks about adoption into the family of God. All these metaphors for our relationship to God and our place in God’s holy welcome have nothing to do with us earning it. We are in a relationship with God simply because God is love, and the very nature of that essential essence does not know how to exclude. It only seeks to embrace, heal, make whole, and create a life-giving relationship.

You are who you are, O Generous One, and we continue to strive toward a life that embraces, enjoys, and lives forth from the premise that we are loved and members of your holy realm of grace. Amen.