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The Spiritual Proclamation: the Word Made Flesh Our Holy Bible Begins in Genesis 1: 1 with This Proclamation About God and You and Me

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The Spiritual Proclamation: the Word Made Flesh Our Holy Bible Begins in Genesis 1: 1 with This Proclamation About God and You and Me Sunday December 01,2019 The Spiritual Proclamation: The Word made Flesh Our Holy Bible begins in Genesis 1: 1 with this proclamation about God and you and me. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. Now the earth was formless void, a darkness was over the face of the deep. (Genesis 1:1 NRSV) I want to share a small epiphany with you this morning, regarding this verse and the light that God created. Light What we have to remember is that God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit already existed in that void, in that darkness that filled the cosmos. Our Creator God wanted to share his great love and so said “Let it be.” Cosmos is a Greek word that translated into English as “Ornament”. This “Ornament” reveals divine power that is endlessly creative, endlessly loving as it shows us the path to divine love. A love made real by Our Creator God, his Son and the Holy Spirit each day of our lives. And so, the cosmos was created. In that flash of light, in that great explosion, science calls it the” Big Bang Theory”, the light as vibration began its journey to fill the cosmos with love. P a g e 1 | 8 This light became matter and created the sun, the moon, our solar system and our earth. The Light that was generated at the moment of creation vibrated out from its core and fills the cosmos and you with a wonderful, mysterious presence. God fashioned man and woman from the earth and the Holy Spirit gave them life. We can trace back our genealogy to Adam and Eve. Both were formed and created by God from the earth. We are born from the light that became matter, the desire of God to share his love with us. Mary the Mother of Jesus Mary was a fourteen-year-old girl who rose each day at dawn and helped her mother handle the work to keep their home functioning with food and love for all. As part of this work, Mary also worked in the small vegetable garden and spent time with her favorite lamb. At night, when the work was done, she went up to the roof of the house to relax and pray. This one night, upon the roof with her eyes closed she prayed to God. She felt a warm comforting presence surround her, a sense of wonder, a sense of great wisdom, a great calm filled her body and her mind. P a g e 2 | 8 Opening up her eyes she saw Gabriel, an angel standing in front of her. Gabriel proclaimed “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you. Do not be afraid Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son and you will call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, his kingdom will never end.” (Luke 1:29-33NRSV). Yet Mary had a decision to make, do I accept his proclamation or not. If I say no, the angel will go away and this will not happen to me. If I say yes: my family, my synagogue, my community will shun me. I am a young woman pledged to married to Joseph. We are not to have sex before marriage. And I would be pregnant!! Also, this son born to me will be a prophet, and I know that the life of a prophet is hard, many will hate him, despise him and he will be killed at a young age in Jerusalem. Mary filled with God’s peace and wisdom poured out by Gabriel proclaims these words “I am the Lords servant, let it be as you have said. And the angel Gabriel left her.” (Luke 1: 38 NRSV) P a g e 3 | 8 The Circumcision of Jesus in the Temple in Jerusalem On the eighth day Joseph and Mary bring this baby, Emmanuel, to the temple to be circumcised. Why this belief? God had told Moses that all males from eight days old were to be circumcised as a sign of the covenant between God and his beloved faith community. In the temple mount are two prophets of a great old age, who have lived long and faithful lives, and yet want to live long enough to see the Messiah as proclaimed in the Old Testament. Anna and Simeon met Joseph and Mary and blessed them all and said to his mother Mary, “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.” (Luke 2:33-35 NRSV) The Word Became Flesh The Gospel of John begins with these earth shattering words, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. ) John 1:1 NRSV) P a g e 4 | 8 The “Word” means the “Word of God”, his holiness, his strength, his ability to heal, to uplift, to teach, to love and to provide grace upon grace as a free gift to all. God’s Great Love for you and me This Word, this God, this Jesus Christ and this Holy Spirit existed before the cosmos was created. Creation began with God and fills everything in the cosmos, our earth, our bodies with this mysterious, this vibration, this wonderful Light. The gift of the Holy Spirit I am sharing with you today is a deeper understanding of Light. This is the “Light of Creation”, God’s desire to share his love with you. His words “Let it Be” brought light and vibration that made the cosmos, the earth and you and me. You can read John 1:1 this way as well: Jesus Became Flesh In the beginning was Jesus, and Jesus was with God, and Jesus was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Jesus, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in Jesus was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. Jesus ministry was as vibrant and vital then as it is today 2,000 plus years later. P a g e 5 | 8 Jesus, The Word made Flesh Jesus ministry brought to you and me, a path that leads the heart to healing and directs the footsteps back to God. Through Jesus ministry the Advent Message is heard loud and clear. In the New Testament, the New Covenant, the Personal Covenant we have with Jesus we find the Power and the Mystery to Hope, Faith, Joy and Love. Jesus heals. All those in his day who came to him were healed of their physical disability. We come to Jesus in prayer each day and find our prayers are answered in humbling ways. Jesus feeds. We have two examples of the feeding of the thousands which proclaimed that God cares for us. Jesus feeds our hearts today with care, love and understanding. Jesus protects. He healed those persons filled with demons. Jesus protects us today from the evil one. Jesus teaches. The Parables are beautiful, spiritual ways to understand how to live your life here on earth and how the next life is filled with the glory of God. Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies. Those proclamations made by Isaiah and others have now come to completion. P a g e 6 | 8 Jesus life is a model we follow in our own living. We here at Adolphustown Conway Community of Faith share our hope, our faith, our joy and our love to the wider community. We are living the message of the Word and the Deeds that show our Christian faith to all who interact with us. Jesus hears our prayers and supports us on our life’s journey. We know, as a faith community, this year the power of our prayers and our Blessing of the Quilts that we are supported on our life’s journey by Jesus, and the darkness will never over come our journey. Jesus is the Light that leads us on our journey. Jesus Descends to Earth Jesus could easily have stayed in heaven. With nothing to gain from this human adventure, and nothing to prove because he was already in heaven, he came anyway. Jesus, the vision of God’s divinity, living fully in this earth bound and often cruel world, remained sinless, the Son of God. John 3: 16 (NRSV) “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” P a g e 7 | 8 At its best and fullest meaning, Christianity vibrates with the warmth of this assurance: the creation of the world is good, that God is for us and loves us unconditionally, and that what ultimately gets worked out in this passage of “Light”, in this universe we call the “Ornament”, that this sacred mystery, the testament of Love shines through because the darkness cannot overcome it.
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