Generating family

Sermon for the second Sunday in Advent

We worship the One True God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and yet most of us are not Jewish. We have a priesthood but it is not of the priesthood of Levi. We have a Passover but we hold it every week, not just once a year. There are things we do that look Jewish, but few of us are actually descendants from Abraham. If the first Christians are Jews then shouldn't all Christians be Jewish?

[PAUSE]

You know the answer to this already, don't you? The very first Council - the Council of Jerusalem settled this right at the beginning of the Church's mission to the world. You can read that in the fifteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. St James calls the council and St Peter gives God's word on it. Gentiles can become Christian but they must not eat food sacrificed to idols and they must not commit fornication.

It is, however, St Paul, a Jew of the best pedigree, the most Jewish of Jews who says that Gentiles are not second class Christians but full members of the body of Christ. There are no second class citizens in the Body of Christ. 

God reveals Himself in the covenants with Noah, Abraham, the Hebrews in the desert and with David. He makes a nation of them but they fall away. And now God gives the New Covenant with us all. Jesus has to be born a man, and this is why God gives the world the Jewish people to prepare the world for the birth in time of God Incarnate. The Jews are chosen to be the family of God before He is born. After He has come, He redeems us all. We are all now one family. 

[PAUSE]

This is why racism would be laughable if it weren't so serious. After all, a race is formed from a few families living together and growing and prospering in the land. And yet, right from the beginning, God sees us all as being one family in Adam and Eve. There is only the human race, really. We are all brothers and sisters together. 

[PAUSE]

It is in Advent that we remember this fact. We cannot undo the sins of the past because God doesn't give us that power. We cannot apologise for the sins of those long dead because God holds us guilty of our own sins, not the sins of our fathers. We can learn to see Christ in the person of everyone we meet. We can learn to behave like brothers and sisters. We can learn to hear the hurt of our family and bear it with them. But we are the people of God and we can bring everyone to the manger to gaze upon our new baby brother and Lord.