All Gathered Up

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January 4, 2015

Jeremiah 31:7-14

⁷   For thus says the LORD: 
     

Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob, 
          

and raise shouts for the chief of the nations; 
     

proclaim, give praise, and say, 
          

“Save, O LORD, your people, 
          

the remnant of Israel.” 


⁸   See, I am going to bring them from the land of the north, 
          

and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, 
     

among them the blind and the lame, 
          

those with child and those in labor, together; 
          

a great company, they shall return here.


⁹   With weeping they shall come, 
          

and with consolations I will lead them back, 
     

I will let them walk by brooks of water, 
          

in a straight path in which they shall not stumble; 
     

for I have become a father to Israel, 
          

and Ephraim is my firstborn.

¹⁰  Hear the word of the LORD, O nations, 
          

and declare it in the coastlands far away; 
     

say, “He who scattered Israel will gather him, 
        

  and will keep him as a shepherd a flock.” 


¹¹  For the LORD has ransomed Jacob, 
          

and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him. 


¹²  They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion, 
         

 and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the LORD, 
   

  over the grain, the wine, and the oil, 
        

  and over the young of the flock and the herd;


     their life shall become like a watered garden, 
     

     and they shall never languish again.

 
¹³  Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance, 
          

and the young men and the old shall be merry. 
    

 I will turn their mourning into joy, 
          

I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.


¹⁴  I will give the priests their fill of fatness, 
          

and my people shall be satisfied with my bounty, 
          

               says the LORD.

Ephesians 1:3-14

³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, ⁴just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. ⁵He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, ⁶to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. ⁷In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace ⁸that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight ⁹he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, ¹⁰as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. ¹¹In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, ¹²so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. ¹³In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; ¹⁴this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.

Sermon: “All Gathered Up”

When I was in college, I once went on a mission trip to Mexico.  It was a beautiful time of exploration, in which I mostly discovered myself, with a team of people I’d never met before that trip.  We worked at a local Presbyterian school in Saltillo, worshipped with clapping (!) and connected with how God was at work in that place.  I came home inspired, hopeful, and utterly exhausted.  When I finished my trip, my family was all gathering at my cousin’s house in the scrubby country outside of Brady, Texas.  And so I went to meet them. 

I drove up the dirt driveway, got out and, as I looked through the doorway, I saw them all gathered there: my hobbit-sized parents, my Grandmother with the smiling eyes, my cowboy Uncle Jack, my sassy Aunt Madelynn, my ridiculously tall cousins…

I was so excited to see them, to finally be home (because home is of course about the people you’re with and not the place).  I rushed in waving and smiling…and slammed right into the glass door.  I had, of course, been watching them through it, but was so eager to be gathered into that community, I didn’t even see what was between me and them.  Naturally, they mocked me mercilessly.  That’s what family’s for, isn’t it??

When I read Jeremiah speaking about people being gathered back home from the farthest parts of the earth, I thought of that experience of mine.  What a promise God makes to those scattered, battered exiles.  Home.  Home for the blind and the lame, home for the child and laborer, home for the weeping ones, who will have their sorrow swapped for gladness.  Home means that their life together will become like a watered garden, where the bounties of God’s grace are never-ending.

And then I read Ephesians, about this Christ child in whom, as part of God’s plan all along, all things are gathered together, heavenly and earthly things alike.  But “things” isn’t really specific enough, now is it?  Actually, it’s not even meant to be there.  “Things” was added in by the English translators.  The text says in the Greek (my rough translation): “In stewardship of the fullness of time, the Anointed One gathered up in oneness, all, heaven and earth.”

All has been gathered up.  We say “things” because we can’t really wrap our minds around that sort of “all.”  But we should be hesitant to limit the bounds of the gathering grace of the one we call Christ. Unfortunately, though, we human beings can become rather avid about putting limits on this gathering work of God.

Sometimes, we like to say that we are gathered up because we are in church on a Sunday, as we’ve been raised, worshipping God in the “right” way.  The Ephesians liked to say that sort of thing, too.  They were in the habit of saying that only Jews got it right in following Jesus, and what resulted was this letter we’ve read this morning, what Luis Rivera called,  “a manifesto that proclaims full membership, equal status, and the honorable place for Gentile [non-Jewish] Christians in the people of God, the household of God, the temple of the Lord, and in the heavenly places with Christ.” 

Sometimes, we like to say that we are beyond being gathered together by Christ because the things that divide – money, education, race, gender, theology and politics – are just too great.  But then this letter reminds us that this gathering up was not just a spontaneous idea that popped into God’s head at the incarnation, but instead a plan for the fullness of time, something God was always intent on doing.  And so, if this was planned so very long before we were even a thought in our parents’ minds, surely this plan for being gathered together can withstand whatever glass doors we might slam into on the way to unity.

Sometimes, we say that we don’t deserve to be called God’s children, to be gathered up, because our past weighs too heavy with guilt, or perhaps not heavy enough as we feel we’ve lived too safe and insignificant a life.  And then this letter says those powerful words we remember with each Assurance of Pardon we say every Sunday: "in Christ we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace he lavished on us."

So you see, “all” really does mean all.   Though some may be gathered to their Creator weeping and wandering, and some rejoicing and singing, what matters is that we are all gathered up in oneness in the end.  Because that is the Gospel: God has found us in a Christ-child.  God has gathered us home by making this tiny planet God’s home. 

Do you know you’ve been found?  Oh, what a difference that knowledge makes.  The difference between living a life desperately crammed with the things money can buy and a life lavishly full of the things of God: hope, peace, joy and love.

The difference between expecting God to slam the door in your face and realizing that whatever door there might have been has long-since been broken in God’s ancient plan of salvation. 

The difference between wearing your faith like a green Master’s jacket and letting it seep into the bones of your doubts and fears like a soothing balm. 

The difference between a church intent on convincing people of our perfection and a church boldly claiming our need for God’s grace, like anyone else. 

The Gospel all comes down to being found by God – gathered up into a home not of our own making, but one destined from long ago. 

You are a child of God.  You’ve been adopted into this rag-tag family of humanity, who might mock you when you do something silly (like walk into a door), but who will love you beautifully, if you’ll let them.  And being found means you can love beautifully, too, because you don’t have to prove your significance or chain yourself to a fixed point in fear of being left behind.  You will never be left behind.  “In stewardship of the fullness of time, the Anointed One gathered up in oneness, all, heaven and earth.”

Thanks be to our gathering God.

Amen.