Romans 11:13-24
I cannot help but think that when Jesus came he had said that he was here for the salvation of Israel, the chosen people. It must have been one crazy day in Jerusalem when the newly formed church argued at that first 'vatican council' about whether gentiles could be saved without having to convert to Judaism first.
We gentles are the ones grafted that this passage speaks of. While the message of Jesus may have been said to be just for the salvation of Israel, his actions and loving words of inclusiveness speak of a much wider audience. The Spirit of God prevailed.
Is God's love limited to just a select few? No. Is the movement and revelation of the Holy Spirit less alive today than it was in Jesus' time? No. Perhaps for this reason alone we realize that we are to learn and grow in knowledge and faith. Those early Christians, who were actually Jews, realized that the message Jesus spoke was not limited to the Jews. The message of salvation and God's love is universal. That is the movement of the Holy Spirit.
With increased knowledge of Scripture, exegesis and of the sciences we know much more now than we did then. I often mention how at one time we thought the sun revolved around the earth. Scripture seems to back that up but we know better. While it took seemingly forever for the church to accept that fact, the world struggled as the church was the predominant source of much of the worlds knowledge back in the day. There was no media, computers or mass communication.
Now the world seems to be spinning faster. The movement of the Spirit is still alive, knowledge has increased both biblically and scientifically. The church is no longer the source of all information and yet sadly, the church changes, adjusts or accepts reality, whatever you with to call it, just as slow as it once did.
The example of how gentiles were grafted into the believers is a simple example of the expansion of knowledge, movement of the spirit and 'grafting' something new into the tree of life, God's beautiful tree. The horizons of God's love expands.
For millennia, Jews and Christians followed the creation accounts as a means to explain and understand God's creation of the world. That has been challenged with knowledge and theories which do not deny the essence of the creation story but certainly turns a literal interpretation on it's end. So what is the true message of the creation story? Certainly for the majority of humanity it explains the biologic desires of procreation. But we now know more. There is a percentage of God's creation that are not heterosexual but homosexual. How can we use the creation story to graft this new information about humanity into God's loving design? It is entirely possible, and I do believe it to be true, that the account is not only geared to an explanation of our natural God given desires but also to explain that God does not wish us to be alone. Now that we know that in God's created world, in humanity and in the entire animal kingdom, there is a definite and recognizable appearance of homosexuality, God wishes ALL of his creations to know the truth of seeking companionship and community. We are not solitary beings. We are meant to be together.
The world is coming around to this revelation. The movement of the Holy Spirit is saying, these people (homosexuals) are not anathema. They are not evil. They are my beloved creations with the same capacity for love. The same capacity for hurt. The same capacity to make mistakes. To sin but also to pay homage to God. To live purpose filled lives of love. We are all the same. If marriage is just for procreation then there are a huge number of straight couples out there flirting if not flaunting their disdain for a procreation only theory by their actions in the bedroom. Should we investigate their bedroom practices? No, not at all. Sex of whatever variety and intimacy is an integral part of who we are and how we relate to each other, how we build a couple, a relationship. It is an expression of God's love.
Two consenting, knowledgeable adults, a gift of God's love, an expression of God's love. a grafting of a committed couple into the 'traditional' definition of marriage. And the movement of the spirit is alive.
I cannot help but think that when Jesus came he had said that he was here for the salvation of Israel, the chosen people. It must have been one crazy day in Jerusalem when the newly formed church argued at that first 'vatican council' about whether gentiles could be saved without having to convert to Judaism first.
We gentles are the ones grafted that this passage speaks of. While the message of Jesus may have been said to be just for the salvation of Israel, his actions and loving words of inclusiveness speak of a much wider audience. The Spirit of God prevailed.
Is God's love limited to just a select few? No. Is the movement and revelation of the Holy Spirit less alive today than it was in Jesus' time? No. Perhaps for this reason alone we realize that we are to learn and grow in knowledge and faith. Those early Christians, who were actually Jews, realized that the message Jesus spoke was not limited to the Jews. The message of salvation and God's love is universal. That is the movement of the Holy Spirit.
With increased knowledge of Scripture, exegesis and of the sciences we know much more now than we did then. I often mention how at one time we thought the sun revolved around the earth. Scripture seems to back that up but we know better. While it took seemingly forever for the church to accept that fact, the world struggled as the church was the predominant source of much of the worlds knowledge back in the day. There was no media, computers or mass communication.
Now the world seems to be spinning faster. The movement of the Spirit is still alive, knowledge has increased both biblically and scientifically. The church is no longer the source of all information and yet sadly, the church changes, adjusts or accepts reality, whatever you with to call it, just as slow as it once did.
The example of how gentiles were grafted into the believers is a simple example of the expansion of knowledge, movement of the spirit and 'grafting' something new into the tree of life, God's beautiful tree. The horizons of God's love expands.
For millennia, Jews and Christians followed the creation accounts as a means to explain and understand God's creation of the world. That has been challenged with knowledge and theories which do not deny the essence of the creation story but certainly turns a literal interpretation on it's end. So what is the true message of the creation story? Certainly for the majority of humanity it explains the biologic desires of procreation. But we now know more. There is a percentage of God's creation that are not heterosexual but homosexual. How can we use the creation story to graft this new information about humanity into God's loving design? It is entirely possible, and I do believe it to be true, that the account is not only geared to an explanation of our natural God given desires but also to explain that God does not wish us to be alone. Now that we know that in God's created world, in humanity and in the entire animal kingdom, there is a definite and recognizable appearance of homosexuality, God wishes ALL of his creations to know the truth of seeking companionship and community. We are not solitary beings. We are meant to be together.
The world is coming around to this revelation. The movement of the Holy Spirit is saying, these people (homosexuals) are not anathema. They are not evil. They are my beloved creations with the same capacity for love. The same capacity for hurt. The same capacity to make mistakes. To sin but also to pay homage to God. To live purpose filled lives of love. We are all the same. If marriage is just for procreation then there are a huge number of straight couples out there flirting if not flaunting their disdain for a procreation only theory by their actions in the bedroom. Should we investigate their bedroom practices? No, not at all. Sex of whatever variety and intimacy is an integral part of who we are and how we relate to each other, how we build a couple, a relationship. It is an expression of God's love.
Two consenting, knowledgeable adults, a gift of God's love, an expression of God's love. a grafting of a committed couple into the 'traditional' definition of marriage. And the movement of the spirit is alive.
Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I glorify my ministry in order to make my own people jealous, and thus save some of them. For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead! If the part of the dough offered as first fruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; and if the root is holy, then the branches also are holy.
But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in their place to share the rich root of the olive tree, do not vaunt yourselves over the branches. If you do vaunt yourselves, remember that it is not you that support the root, but the root that supports you. You will say, ‘Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.’ That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand only through faith. So do not become proud, but stand in awe. For if God did not spare the natural branches, perhaps he will not spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity towards those who have fallen, but God’s kindness towards you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off. And even those of Israel, if they do not persist in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. For if you have been cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree.
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