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.