12-17-2021

 Good Morning All!

Exodus 6:7; “I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.” 

    We are having a wedding at Trinity a couple of weeks ago. Of the “extra” duties that I get to do; weddings are my second favorite. My absolute favorite thing is doing a Baptism. There is nothing quite like it. Yet weddings are a close second; when people choose to involve you in their special times and events it is very exciting and rewarding. So, as I was reading this passage this morning, I was struck by how much it sounds like a wedding.

    The wedding is: I take you to be my wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer for poorer… until death us do part…I pledge my faithfulness. Doesn’t that sound a lot like what God is saying here? You see that one of the most important parts of the Bible that we do not often talk about is that of forming relationships.

     When God created everything, man was to live in a perfect relationship with everything. God would walk with man in the cool of the morning, a perfect relationship. Man and woman loved each other completely and perfectly.  Even man’s relationship was perfect with no thorns or thistles to cause a man’s labor to be hard. This all blew up when man sinned. We walked away from God and the perfect relationship. Soon, creation was no longer in a perfect relationship with man either as thorns and thistles and labor that was long and hard.  Plus, the anger and the failure of man’s relationship to man and woman erupted quickly.

    So, God did what only God could do. He formed a new relationship with man. He did it with his grace. Notice that it was God who took man to be his people not the other way around. God came and rescued his people and then made them his own. He formed the relationship to bring us back to him.

    God does that with us as well. He rebuilds this relationship every day with his forgiveness. He rebuilds this relationship out of his love and for the sake of Jesus. He rebuilds this relationship for us; to heal us, to restore us and to make us whole. We move into the “there- but not yet” We are in his kingdom, the kingdom of grace (church) waiting to move into the kingdom of glory (heaven). While we are “there- but not yet” we live in his gracious love guiding us and leading us while we face the travails and trials of this world.

    God takes you as you are, but he doesn’t leave you that way.  He cleans us up and feeds us with his body and blood and gives you hope. He gives you hope for tomorrow and comfort for today. He is a God of love who desires that you return to being the child that he created you to be.

 Dearest Father, through Jesus, you make us your own and we are your people. Lead us in the path of your grace and righteousness and keep us yours until life eternal. In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen

 God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret