October 31, 2007
Ephesians 2:11-13
“So then, remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth, called ‘the uncircumcision’ by those who are called ‘the circumcision’—a physical circumstance made in the flesh by human hands—remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”
Imagine a culture of varied influences where people aren’t necessarily atheists but are dedicated to the worship of many gods; where they are influenced by all that is going on around them; where their senses may even be on overload for the varying messages of life that come their way. Sound familiar? This was the world in which great philosophers like Epictetus resided. Epictetus never wrote anything himself (though his student Arrian compiled his works after his death). Epictetus was born in 55 AD and died in 135. He spent the beginning years of his life as a slave and later found his freedom. In that freedom, he became a teacher who observed his world and encouraged those around him. In that encouragement he spoke about the exhortation that we should become the “masters of our lives” and about the fact that the culture had become far too divided and that unity must be achieved.
The apostle Paul was living and working about the same time and maybe he was influenced by the wisdom of Epictetus, but of course, he put his own spin on things. (Be reminded at this point that we do not know for sure who wrote Ephesians, but we do know that it was common to use someone else’s name to communicate a message. So maybe our author was also influenced by Epictetus.)
It is to the aforementioned culture that our author speaks and specifically to Christians who had once been polytheists. The author wants them to understand that there was a time when they were so different from the Jews and in those differences they lacked hope and promise but mainly they lacked a relationship with God, the one and only God. So even though they spent their time searching, they weren’t getting anywhere. They were practicing being the masters of their own lives as Epictetus suggested but such living was drawing them away from a fulfilling life. It was only when they found and made Christ the master of their lives that they came into the very place of unity that was so important. With these verses, the author is setting up a conversation on the importance of unity—unity with each other that comes through a unity experienced in God.
I refused to go the North Carolina Baptist State Convention meeting last year because I was tired of trying to unite myself with people who look at me and perceive that I do not know God. Because I choose to love all people and seek not to cast judgment on homosexuals or ordained women or all manner of other things. It pains me that even though I have tried to accept them in spite of our differences they refuse to honor me in the same way. I would contend that in their failures to honor me and other moderates like us, they fail to practice the unity that is at the heart of Christ’s teachings. They fail to honor God.
It is easy to point fingers at others like the critical North Carolina Baptists but we have to see their criticisms and allow them to wake us up. We have to ask ourselves, in what ways have we failed and do we fail daily to practice unity? I know I’m guilty of seeing others as separate from me. I know that I need to spend a lot more time focused on seeing our oneness. I know that if I am going to be the master of my life, I have to deny myself, take up my cross and make Jesus Christ the master of that life. In that DAILY practice, I begin to find inklings of the unity the Ephesians author is acknowledging and therein rests hope.
This week, may we dedicate ourselves to the practice of unity and may that unity grant us much hope for the living of these days! Amen.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Finding Grace in Self Care
October 24, 2007
Ephesians 2:7-10
“ . . .so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.”
Last week, I spent the week in a training class with ministers from all over the continent. While there, I happened upon a book about clergy self-care. I like to live the delusion that I am taking care of myself but when I am honest, for the last three months I have not been setting my boundaries. I am exhausted! I know all of the right things to do but I wind up not doing them because I am a pleaser. I want to make all of you happy and take care of your expectations. When I live that way, I become very self-reliant and in so doing I make very little room for God, family, friends, exercise or good nutrition, etc. Instead, I eat, sleep (not so well) and breathe St. John’s. Frankly, that is not healthy. So when I read in this book that I owe it to you to take care of myself, I suddenly felt a freedom to give you the gift of my good self-care. By taking the time to be with God, family, friends, exercise, eat well, etc., I offer you the best of myself. In those words, I found the freedom to redirect my life. In those words, I found the opportunity to stop making other people my authority and to allow God to be the authority for me that I should allow God to be. In those words I found God’s grace.
The author of Ephesians, spoke to us last week about the gift of grace that comes in the gift of Christ and this week he looks at what it means in the context of being a Christian. There is nothing that we can do to earn God’s grace. It is a gift and no matter how hard you and I may work at being servants to others, it is not that out-pouring of self that earns us God’s grace. If it were then we would hear each other professing that we spent 15 hours in the office and are further ahead in gaining grace that Joe who only spent 10! We would compete with each other over our level of earnings related to God’s grace and we would pride ourselves on being better than others. If we did that, we would miss the entire point of grace. Grace comes in understanding that God created us just as we were intended to be and if we root ourselves in relationship with God then the overflow are good works for others that don’t lead to competition, pride, boasting or even the pleasing of others. If we root ourselves in God, we find that God’s grace is really all we need and that grace leads us to peace—profound peace.
I’ve made my confession. What about you? Where are you rooted? Do you pour yourself into expecting from others or trying to live up to perceived expectations? Or do you just love—purely? Do you overwork yourself and wind up being prideful, boastful and competitive or do you live in peace and in God’s grace? How much of your life is lived in self-reliance?
We think of life as being hard but when lived in the posture of being rooted in God’s grace, life actually can seem easy! As I reach for that ease of living, I make that my prayer for you as well this day. May we release our self-reliance and find God’s grace to trust God fully!
Grace and Peace! Amen.
Ephesians 2:7-10
“ . . .so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.”
Last week, I spent the week in a training class with ministers from all over the continent. While there, I happened upon a book about clergy self-care. I like to live the delusion that I am taking care of myself but when I am honest, for the last three months I have not been setting my boundaries. I am exhausted! I know all of the right things to do but I wind up not doing them because I am a pleaser. I want to make all of you happy and take care of your expectations. When I live that way, I become very self-reliant and in so doing I make very little room for God, family, friends, exercise or good nutrition, etc. Instead, I eat, sleep (not so well) and breathe St. John’s. Frankly, that is not healthy. So when I read in this book that I owe it to you to take care of myself, I suddenly felt a freedom to give you the gift of my good self-care. By taking the time to be with God, family, friends, exercise, eat well, etc., I offer you the best of myself. In those words, I found the freedom to redirect my life. In those words, I found the opportunity to stop making other people my authority and to allow God to be the authority for me that I should allow God to be. In those words I found God’s grace.
The author of Ephesians, spoke to us last week about the gift of grace that comes in the gift of Christ and this week he looks at what it means in the context of being a Christian. There is nothing that we can do to earn God’s grace. It is a gift and no matter how hard you and I may work at being servants to others, it is not that out-pouring of self that earns us God’s grace. If it were then we would hear each other professing that we spent 15 hours in the office and are further ahead in gaining grace that Joe who only spent 10! We would compete with each other over our level of earnings related to God’s grace and we would pride ourselves on being better than others. If we did that, we would miss the entire point of grace. Grace comes in understanding that God created us just as we were intended to be and if we root ourselves in relationship with God then the overflow are good works for others that don’t lead to competition, pride, boasting or even the pleasing of others. If we root ourselves in God, we find that God’s grace is really all we need and that grace leads us to peace—profound peace.
I’ve made my confession. What about you? Where are you rooted? Do you pour yourself into expecting from others or trying to live up to perceived expectations? Or do you just love—purely? Do you overwork yourself and wind up being prideful, boastful and competitive or do you live in peace and in God’s grace? How much of your life is lived in self-reliance?
We think of life as being hard but when lived in the posture of being rooted in God’s grace, life actually can seem easy! As I reach for that ease of living, I make that my prayer for you as well this day. May we release our self-reliance and find God’s grace to trust God fully!
Grace and Peace! Amen.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
love and harmony
October 17, 2007
Ephesians 2:4-6
“But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus . . .”
This past weekend, together with one of my sisters, my mother and my grandmother, we set off for Edenton, North Carolina to spend just a little time with my great grandmother who has been diagnosed with colon, lung and liver cancers. She is not expected to make through the end of this year but she doesn’t know that and she refuses to be slowed by cancer. She is inspiring to us. Nonetheless, as we traveled, we prayed for our trip, because all four of us knew that when we all get together we can push each other’s buttons like nobody’s business! We so wanted this last time together to be one of love and harmony.
The author of Ephesians, as we mentioned last week is focused on taking us through the journey of the church. Last week he noted our bent for sinning and this week he offers us the very gift that binds sinners together. Grace in the form of Christ Jesus. It was the gift of Christ to our world that enables us to find grace and thus to be able to open our eyes, hearts, minds and our whole beings to God’s mercy.
I think I’ve shared this with you before but every time I use that word mercy I think of its interpretation in sign language. It consists of using your middle finger to essentially trace your sternum from bottom to almost top and then placing your hand upright in front of you and using the middle finger to trace an imaginary person’s sternum from top to bottom. It is to suggest that mercy involves my feeling what you feel and vice versa. It suggests an effort to understand each other. Such mercy can only produce love in its most sincere form. The Ephesians author wants the hearers not to miss the fact that they can look back at who they were but the great gift that came to us in Christ comes as God’s mercy to us and as something we can offer to each other.
Our time with my great grandmother was delightful. As we journeyed home, we talked about all of the issues that her dying will most certainly create within our family and we talked about the fact that the answer to those problems is our praying for ourselves and for each other that we can embrace God’s mercy as we deal with each other and that by so doing, we can practice love and experience the gift of harmony.
I do not know what issues you face in your family or what struggles may be yours but I do know that God’s mercy is available to you and often in faces that live very near. I encourage you to seek God’s mercy for the aching and difficult places of your lives and to offer God’s mercy to those you know are in need. May we be faces of love and harmony this week and always! Amen.
Ephesians 2:4-6
“But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus . . .”
This past weekend, together with one of my sisters, my mother and my grandmother, we set off for Edenton, North Carolina to spend just a little time with my great grandmother who has been diagnosed with colon, lung and liver cancers. She is not expected to make through the end of this year but she doesn’t know that and she refuses to be slowed by cancer. She is inspiring to us. Nonetheless, as we traveled, we prayed for our trip, because all four of us knew that when we all get together we can push each other’s buttons like nobody’s business! We so wanted this last time together to be one of love and harmony.
The author of Ephesians, as we mentioned last week is focused on taking us through the journey of the church. Last week he noted our bent for sinning and this week he offers us the very gift that binds sinners together. Grace in the form of Christ Jesus. It was the gift of Christ to our world that enables us to find grace and thus to be able to open our eyes, hearts, minds and our whole beings to God’s mercy.
I think I’ve shared this with you before but every time I use that word mercy I think of its interpretation in sign language. It consists of using your middle finger to essentially trace your sternum from bottom to almost top and then placing your hand upright in front of you and using the middle finger to trace an imaginary person’s sternum from top to bottom. It is to suggest that mercy involves my feeling what you feel and vice versa. It suggests an effort to understand each other. Such mercy can only produce love in its most sincere form. The Ephesians author wants the hearers not to miss the fact that they can look back at who they were but the great gift that came to us in Christ comes as God’s mercy to us and as something we can offer to each other.
Our time with my great grandmother was delightful. As we journeyed home, we talked about all of the issues that her dying will most certainly create within our family and we talked about the fact that the answer to those problems is our praying for ourselves and for each other that we can embrace God’s mercy as we deal with each other and that by so doing, we can practice love and experience the gift of harmony.
I do not know what issues you face in your family or what struggles may be yours but I do know that God’s mercy is available to you and often in faces that live very near. I encourage you to seek God’s mercy for the aching and difficult places of your lives and to offer God’s mercy to those you know are in need. May we be faces of love and harmony this week and always! Amen.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Challenging Spiritual Questions
October 10, 2007
Ephesians 2:1-3
“You were dead through trespasses and sins in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else.”
While I am most comfortable with silence, being single, I can only stand silence in my home for a certain period of time and so I remedy that by leaving the television on as I scurry about the house performing tasks. This morning, as I scurried I listened to an interview on CNN with Anderson Cooper and a woman whose father was murdered by the DC Snipers some years ago. Remember those frightening days when people around Northern Virginia and Maryland were paralyzed by the fear of these random shootings that somehow also seemed so intentional? The woman talked about those days and about how the young boy, Lee Boyd Malvo, had called her to say that he wanted to talk with her but he didn’t know what to say. She made it clear that she thought John Muhammad had brainwashed this then 17 year old into doing what he had done. She apparently heard the remorse in him and at least at some level was moved by it.
As the author of Ephesians writes to the church in this second chapter, he begins in the first 10 verses to talk about the journey of the church. He looks at how we were in the past, how we are now and how we will be in the future. It is these first three verses that look backward. The author wants the folks to understand that their behavior in the past, prior to knowing Christ was one of willful disobedience and of missing the mark that was destined to lead them to spiritual death. It was a natural state of being and everyone else was the same way. He makes it clear that there are still those who live in that disposition.
Lee Boyd Malvo was living in that sort of disposition. As I heard the woman on CNN recount her conversation, I could feel a great pain for him. We all know how impressionable we were when we were 17 and to think that we could have placed our trust in a person who would lead us so astray and damage our lives so significantly is a humbling thought. My heart aches for that young man that his life has taken the path that it has.
The Ephesians author would suggest that the root cause for such spiritual death exists in alienation. Malvo was alienated from true love and nurture and deprived of the chance to be transformed by love. People all over our world find themselves in such a state. As we watch such alienation occur through our television screens, I think we have to stop and take account of our own lives by asking some serious questions that take courage to answer. To what degree do I alienate others (family, friends and strangers) and to what degree do I stand aside and watch alienation happen? Am I robbing others of true spiritual life by my silence? What is our role, especially as Christians, to be in the midst of a world where spiritual death runs rampant and alienation is hard at work? I leave you with these questions and hope that this week our honest wrestling with them might inspire us toward some greatness! Amen.
Ephesians 2:1-3
“You were dead through trespasses and sins in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else.”
While I am most comfortable with silence, being single, I can only stand silence in my home for a certain period of time and so I remedy that by leaving the television on as I scurry about the house performing tasks. This morning, as I scurried I listened to an interview on CNN with Anderson Cooper and a woman whose father was murdered by the DC Snipers some years ago. Remember those frightening days when people around Northern Virginia and Maryland were paralyzed by the fear of these random shootings that somehow also seemed so intentional? The woman talked about those days and about how the young boy, Lee Boyd Malvo, had called her to say that he wanted to talk with her but he didn’t know what to say. She made it clear that she thought John Muhammad had brainwashed this then 17 year old into doing what he had done. She apparently heard the remorse in him and at least at some level was moved by it.
As the author of Ephesians writes to the church in this second chapter, he begins in the first 10 verses to talk about the journey of the church. He looks at how we were in the past, how we are now and how we will be in the future. It is these first three verses that look backward. The author wants the folks to understand that their behavior in the past, prior to knowing Christ was one of willful disobedience and of missing the mark that was destined to lead them to spiritual death. It was a natural state of being and everyone else was the same way. He makes it clear that there are still those who live in that disposition.
Lee Boyd Malvo was living in that sort of disposition. As I heard the woman on CNN recount her conversation, I could feel a great pain for him. We all know how impressionable we were when we were 17 and to think that we could have placed our trust in a person who would lead us so astray and damage our lives so significantly is a humbling thought. My heart aches for that young man that his life has taken the path that it has.
The Ephesians author would suggest that the root cause for such spiritual death exists in alienation. Malvo was alienated from true love and nurture and deprived of the chance to be transformed by love. People all over our world find themselves in such a state. As we watch such alienation occur through our television screens, I think we have to stop and take account of our own lives by asking some serious questions that take courage to answer. To what degree do I alienate others (family, friends and strangers) and to what degree do I stand aside and watch alienation happen? Am I robbing others of true spiritual life by my silence? What is our role, especially as Christians, to be in the midst of a world where spiritual death runs rampant and alienation is hard at work? I leave you with these questions and hope that this week our honest wrestling with them might inspire us toward some greatness! Amen.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Claiming Hope
October 3, 2007
Ephesians 1:15-23
“I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.”
Bertha Taylor’s son once told me a story about his days growing up on McAlway Road here in Charlotte. He said that he and his brothers would head out and play their hearts out and as the dinner hour neared their mother would put out the call—a sharp whistle—that meant they’d better get to the table immediately or they would miss out on the most mouthwatering of morsels not to mention nourishment for more playing!
When I read this passage, (which by the way, is in Greek, yet another run-on sentence) I couldn’t help but think about that story. That is what this is about. It is as if God has issued a call to us. For each of us that call may look different, it may play out differently in the practice of our lives but ultimately God grants us each a call to hope. That hope comes in our dedication to relationship with God and when we grasp that hope to which God has called us, what we find on the other side is a remarkable inheritance—not unlike those mouthwatering morsels from Bertha’s table. When we embrace that inheritance, we find that God is suddenly able to work within us in as powerful a way as he worked in Christ to raise him from the dead.
That’s a pretty amazing promise! So why don’t we live at those same powerful levels of Christ? Because we don’t let ourselves! We cling to our hopes instead of God’s because they’re safer! But if we really want to know the magnificence of relationship with God, we have to have the courage to claim God’s hope for our lives and then sit back and watch marvels unfold.
When I have let go of the decisions that seem best in mind, when I have listened to God and then followed, that is when I have found life to be . . . would you believe . . . easy! But I am a sinner and I also make life harder on myself than I need to make it, so today this scripture is for me but I have to hope that you will find value in the admonition to claim or reclaim God’s hope for you too! May we all be full of hope and consequently full of God’s power! Amen.
Ephesians 1:15-23
“I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.”
Bertha Taylor’s son once told me a story about his days growing up on McAlway Road here in Charlotte. He said that he and his brothers would head out and play their hearts out and as the dinner hour neared their mother would put out the call—a sharp whistle—that meant they’d better get to the table immediately or they would miss out on the most mouthwatering of morsels not to mention nourishment for more playing!
When I read this passage, (which by the way, is in Greek, yet another run-on sentence) I couldn’t help but think about that story. That is what this is about. It is as if God has issued a call to us. For each of us that call may look different, it may play out differently in the practice of our lives but ultimately God grants us each a call to hope. That hope comes in our dedication to relationship with God and when we grasp that hope to which God has called us, what we find on the other side is a remarkable inheritance—not unlike those mouthwatering morsels from Bertha’s table. When we embrace that inheritance, we find that God is suddenly able to work within us in as powerful a way as he worked in Christ to raise him from the dead.
That’s a pretty amazing promise! So why don’t we live at those same powerful levels of Christ? Because we don’t let ourselves! We cling to our hopes instead of God’s because they’re safer! But if we really want to know the magnificence of relationship with God, we have to have the courage to claim God’s hope for our lives and then sit back and watch marvels unfold.
When I have let go of the decisions that seem best in mind, when I have listened to God and then followed, that is when I have found life to be . . . would you believe . . . easy! But I am a sinner and I also make life harder on myself than I need to make it, so today this scripture is for me but I have to hope that you will find value in the admonition to claim or reclaim God’s hope for you too! May we all be full of hope and consequently full of God’s power! Amen.
Anchored in the Spirit
September 26, 2007
Ephesians 1:3-14
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In 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, so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live of the praise of his glory. In 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; this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.”
Have you ever seen a preacher get in the pulpit and say “I have a sermon prepared but the Spirit has moved me to talk about something else”? I feel like I am about to do that to you now simply because what I have to say about this passage seems to have little resemblance to the words themselves. Maybe in reading this passage you feel like you are reading one seriously long run-on sentence. If you do, this could be your lucky day! You may be qualified to be a Greek scholar! For you see, you would have hit on the fact that in Greek this is actually one sentence over 12 verses! It is broken up into three sections that each end with the phrase, “to the praise of his glory.” Each of the sections can be broken down into three sections that speak to a journey of sorts.
The journey begins even before we can render any kind of praise. It begins with God choosing us to be a holy and blameless people who are connected to God in love. God has called to us first!
The journey continues with Christ. Because of what Christ has done for us, we are free to choose God. We can know ourselves as sinners and our lives as unmanageable, but we can also know God’s grace and forgiveness and we have the right to claim that thanks to Christ.
The final phase of the journey exists with the Holy Spirit. It is the gift of the Spirit that allows us to live out this relationship with God in love through grace on a day to day basis. It is this gift that empowers us to be the church.
These are nice Sunday School sort of thoughts. Do you know what I mean? At the outset, they seem like the thoughts you would get in Sunday School that, at least as children and maybe as adults, you could leave at the door when you left. The language used in this scripture is lofty and filled with theological terms but what does it really mean for your life and for mine?
I’ve always wanted to learn to sail and in sailing you have learn every part of the boat but you also have to learn about anchors. An anchor works by resisting the forces of the thing to which it is attached. In other words, no matter how the waves may force a boat, the anchor resists those forces to hold the boat in place. Ultimately, that is what this scripture is about in my view. God has chosen us. We, as the church (as Christians), claim to have chosen God and the Holy Spirit has been given to us as our anchor. The spirit is that thing that when we invest in it, when we attach ourselves to it, enables us to remain stationary when the waves and winds of life want to force us in other directions.
I have had so many people tell me through the years that they appreciate the intellectual more than the spiritual; that they aren’t touchy feely people but are thinkers. Often it is a point of pride for them and that makes me sad because I know that they are failing to understand what it is to be spiritual.
A spiritual person is an intellectual person. They are not mutually exclusive things. A spiritual person is a thinker and may also be a feeler. A spiritual person is one who is seeking to be holy and blameless before God. This is, according to the writer of Ephesians is what God intended for us all to be. All we need to do to be holy and blameless before God is to anchor ourselves in the Spirit of God.
The writer of Ephesians has mapped out a simple path to living a spiritual life—a life that God intended for each of us. So are we doing it? Are we living holy and blameless lives before God? Are we anchored in the Spirit? These are questions we must answer for ourselves. Nonetheless, may we be found—anchored! Amen.
Ephesians 1:3-14
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In 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, so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live of the praise of his glory. In 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; this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.”
Have you ever seen a preacher get in the pulpit and say “I have a sermon prepared but the Spirit has moved me to talk about something else”? I feel like I am about to do that to you now simply because what I have to say about this passage seems to have little resemblance to the words themselves. Maybe in reading this passage you feel like you are reading one seriously long run-on sentence. If you do, this could be your lucky day! You may be qualified to be a Greek scholar! For you see, you would have hit on the fact that in Greek this is actually one sentence over 12 verses! It is broken up into three sections that each end with the phrase, “to the praise of his glory.” Each of the sections can be broken down into three sections that speak to a journey of sorts.
The journey begins even before we can render any kind of praise. It begins with God choosing us to be a holy and blameless people who are connected to God in love. God has called to us first!
The journey continues with Christ. Because of what Christ has done for us, we are free to choose God. We can know ourselves as sinners and our lives as unmanageable, but we can also know God’s grace and forgiveness and we have the right to claim that thanks to Christ.
The final phase of the journey exists with the Holy Spirit. It is the gift of the Spirit that allows us to live out this relationship with God in love through grace on a day to day basis. It is this gift that empowers us to be the church.
These are nice Sunday School sort of thoughts. Do you know what I mean? At the outset, they seem like the thoughts you would get in Sunday School that, at least as children and maybe as adults, you could leave at the door when you left. The language used in this scripture is lofty and filled with theological terms but what does it really mean for your life and for mine?
I’ve always wanted to learn to sail and in sailing you have learn every part of the boat but you also have to learn about anchors. An anchor works by resisting the forces of the thing to which it is attached. In other words, no matter how the waves may force a boat, the anchor resists those forces to hold the boat in place. Ultimately, that is what this scripture is about in my view. God has chosen us. We, as the church (as Christians), claim to have chosen God and the Holy Spirit has been given to us as our anchor. The spirit is that thing that when we invest in it, when we attach ourselves to it, enables us to remain stationary when the waves and winds of life want to force us in other directions.
I have had so many people tell me through the years that they appreciate the intellectual more than the spiritual; that they aren’t touchy feely people but are thinkers. Often it is a point of pride for them and that makes me sad because I know that they are failing to understand what it is to be spiritual.
A spiritual person is an intellectual person. They are not mutually exclusive things. A spiritual person is a thinker and may also be a feeler. A spiritual person is one who is seeking to be holy and blameless before God. This is, according to the writer of Ephesians is what God intended for us all to be. All we need to do to be holy and blameless before God is to anchor ourselves in the Spirit of God.
The writer of Ephesians has mapped out a simple path to living a spiritual life—a life that God intended for each of us. So are we doing it? Are we living holy and blameless lives before God? Are we anchored in the Spirit? These are questions we must answer for ourselves. Nonetheless, may we be found—anchored! Amen.
saints and sinners
September 19, 2007
Ephesians 1:1-2
“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
By now, the majority of you know that Sunday a terrible thing happened here at St. John’s. That terrible thing was the disappearance of the offering. Such a situation at best causes heartache for the leadership of our church and frustration for each of you who contributed. I received an email this morning from one of you who said, “do we know who it was that needed the money more than St. John’s?” I don’t know the answer to that question but what I do know is that the question spurred me to think about my reaction to the person and to the situation. It is easy to cast blame on others but the blame fixes nothing really and such focus leaves us stirring in and toward fury at the failure of others instead of taking responsibility.
Today, we begin a new book of study—Ephesians. This is what we call one of the disputed letters of Paul—meaning that most likely he didn’t write it. What is more likely is that someone, a follower of his, used his name, sometime during the first century, to write a message to a number of churches. This message was probably intended to be read in a worship format and circulated through the churches. The fact that the words “in Ephesus” are included, actually indicate to scholarly types that these words were inserted later. The original forms of the text do not include these words. This is also a sign that Paul probably didn’t write this as he would have indicated the specific church to whom he was writing. All of that said, the motivation behind the letter appears to be that of reconciling the beliefs of the people with their behaviors. Many were becoming lax in their practicing of what was integral to their faith. We will uncover those issues as we traverse the pages of the letter in the weeks ahead.
For now, we take a look at the first two verses. The letter begins as a traditional letter would, with the declaration of the name and a status indication. I am Paul and I am a Christian! The audience intended is identified and a salutation offered.
I am struck by four words in these verses—saints, faithful, grace and peace. We often do not want to think of ourselves as saints. To us, in this day and age saints are the likes of Mother Teresa. But the truth is, as my friend Kyle Matthews says, “the saints are just the sinners who fall down” and get up again. It is to the sinners who fall down and get up again, to those who are daily trying to be faithful in living out the gospel in their lives to whom this message goes. And as it goes, it goes with the first gift. Grace. Scholar Ralph Martin has said, (and I love this!) that grace is that thing that enables us to see how God’s original purpose has gone awry and then enables us to strive toward righting it. And the second gift is peace. Peace is the gift that enables us to work toward harmony in all things.
So, whoever that person—(hopefully that faithful saint- one who falls down and gets up again like all of us)—was that needed the offering of St. John’s worse than we needed it, maybe the lesson for us this day is the practice of those gifts of grace and peace. This day, may we be challenged in our living of the gospel to look for ways to right that which has gone awry with the grace of God and to find harmony in all things as we offer God’s peace. May grace and peace be yours this day! Amen and amen.
Ephesians 1:1-2
“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
By now, the majority of you know that Sunday a terrible thing happened here at St. John’s. That terrible thing was the disappearance of the offering. Such a situation at best causes heartache for the leadership of our church and frustration for each of you who contributed. I received an email this morning from one of you who said, “do we know who it was that needed the money more than St. John’s?” I don’t know the answer to that question but what I do know is that the question spurred me to think about my reaction to the person and to the situation. It is easy to cast blame on others but the blame fixes nothing really and such focus leaves us stirring in and toward fury at the failure of others instead of taking responsibility.
Today, we begin a new book of study—Ephesians. This is what we call one of the disputed letters of Paul—meaning that most likely he didn’t write it. What is more likely is that someone, a follower of his, used his name, sometime during the first century, to write a message to a number of churches. This message was probably intended to be read in a worship format and circulated through the churches. The fact that the words “in Ephesus” are included, actually indicate to scholarly types that these words were inserted later. The original forms of the text do not include these words. This is also a sign that Paul probably didn’t write this as he would have indicated the specific church to whom he was writing. All of that said, the motivation behind the letter appears to be that of reconciling the beliefs of the people with their behaviors. Many were becoming lax in their practicing of what was integral to their faith. We will uncover those issues as we traverse the pages of the letter in the weeks ahead.
For now, we take a look at the first two verses. The letter begins as a traditional letter would, with the declaration of the name and a status indication. I am Paul and I am a Christian! The audience intended is identified and a salutation offered.
I am struck by four words in these verses—saints, faithful, grace and peace. We often do not want to think of ourselves as saints. To us, in this day and age saints are the likes of Mother Teresa. But the truth is, as my friend Kyle Matthews says, “the saints are just the sinners who fall down” and get up again. It is to the sinners who fall down and get up again, to those who are daily trying to be faithful in living out the gospel in their lives to whom this message goes. And as it goes, it goes with the first gift. Grace. Scholar Ralph Martin has said, (and I love this!) that grace is that thing that enables us to see how God’s original purpose has gone awry and then enables us to strive toward righting it. And the second gift is peace. Peace is the gift that enables us to work toward harmony in all things.
So, whoever that person—(hopefully that faithful saint- one who falls down and gets up again like all of us)—was that needed the offering of St. John’s worse than we needed it, maybe the lesson for us this day is the practice of those gifts of grace and peace. This day, may we be challenged in our living of the gospel to look for ways to right that which has gone awry with the grace of God and to find harmony in all things as we offer God’s peace. May grace and peace be yours this day! Amen and amen.
Monday, October 8, 2007
sermons and community
Hillary Clinton's phrase from her book It Takes a Village has become a part of our lingo. As it has I find myself using it in a lot of contexts, most recently that of my sermon. I preached yesterday on an epistle text and I always find epistle's difficult. It has become my habit to include family and congregants in the preparation process, so yesterday was particularly interesting. I had such difficulty with that sermon that I had to rewrite the thing three times! If it hadn't been for one church member sharing a quote of Aristotle with me, "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act, but a habit" and if it weren't for the advice and direction of my parents, I don't think I would have had a sermon. That said, there was a really fabulous moment for me during presentation when I saw my friend who shared the quote realize that I was using what she said for the theme of the sermon. Such excitement came over her expression and it was for me a connection--a holy moment. It was the village at work in my sermon. My sermon--this thing that is usually presented by a preacher without a whole lot of input from others--became a communal event that taught me even as the words wafted from my lips! I hope the sermon will soon be posted on video format at the church website. If you'd like to view it, please do so. You can checkhttp://www.stjohnsbaptistchurch.org/"> this out at the website listed here!
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