2022-11-27 Walk in the Light of the Lord

Isaiah 2 v1-5

• First Sunday of Advent: the Incarnation
  • John 1
  • God has precedent for meeting us here on Earth - wrestling w/ Jacob, Joshua & Jericho, Meeting Abraham and Sarah, Moses on Sinai & the burning bush.
  • But the incarnation is different.
• Platonic dualism -> gnosticism -> docetism - essentially, the material world is evil or inferior to a conceptual world of spirituality, ideas, or knowledge. They would claim that God therefore could not have become material.
  • These seem like ancient heresies, but they have echoes in our lives today:
    • Do we believe our Sunday mornings and spiritual disicplines are more sacred than our daily lives?
    • Do we define our salvation as an "escape" from a world in Satan's hands?
    • Do we view the world as only fallen and hopeless?
  • As Christians we can disproportionally focus on the relationship between God and our soul as an attempt to escape or disembody ourselves.
    • Genesis 2 v7 - We should not inappropriately separate body and soul - soul is the whole creature
• Jesus became flesh to show us what God's originally intended life is like: Including dependence on others, love through relational fellowship, OK to be sad or joyful or despairing
  • Life itself is a gift from God
  • We should see how we are loved by God and love ourselves as He loves us
  • Remember the holiness of everyday life.