Sharers in the Promise
Sunday, January 6th, 2008
Epiphany
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Ephesians 3:1-12
Theme: The Church is teaching Heaven
Welcome to a whole set of new opportunities, challenges, problems, and vexations. And we’re not even a full week into the year yet!
If you are like me, you might welcome the New Year in with an odd mixture of anticipation and dread.
There is much to anticipate for the coming year. There always is. We are a people of hope, born of the promise that God will continue to be with us and guide us as we seek to do God’s will.
As a people of faith, we are invited to live the future into the present, and it is an essentially hopeful act. We are charged with being part of the in-breaking of the Kingdom of God. You’ve heard me say that before, and that hasn’t changed. It hasn’t changed since last year, or the last four and a half years, or in the last 175 years, or in the centuries since Paul wrote this to the Christians in Ephesus. In fact, it hasn’t changed since God made the covenant with the people of Israel long before Paul dictated those words.
But as a people living in a broken world, we experience everything living in this world throws our way. We suffer illness, we experience death as a loss, we age, we slow down, we can’t think as clearly or as rapidly as we once could, we miss friends and loved ones, we have disagreements and arguments, we get our feelings hurt, we suffer broken relationships. We face the unknown and it wears on us. As much as we’d like it not to, it does.
So we put our faith into practice. We engage with a community – a family – of fellow believers and hope to find in that congregation a place to call home. As Reverend Espy shared Wednesday evening, we find a welcoming spirit – even when the people don’t know us from Adam.
It is that hopeful openness – that welcoming spirit – that is worth noting and worth celebrating, worth encouraging, worth GROWING, because it is one of the purest expressions of what God is about the business of doing – which is reconciling the world to God’s self.
You know which phrase jumped out at me when I read the passage to prepare this message? From the title, you can tell the first part that caught my attention – that of the mystery of Christ being that the gentiles – that is US, folks – have become fellow heirs, sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel. That means the covenant that God made with the people of Israel was extended to the rest of the world through Christ’s coming.
But what STOPPED me on my second reading of the passage was further in – beginning in verse 8, but picking up in verse 9: “to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.”
My first reaction was ‘did I read that right?’
“To the Rulers and authorities” is a phrase I’m used to reading in the Bible, but usually it is followed either by the phrase ‘here on earth’, or something to that effect.
THIS time it says ‘heavenly places’. Which is okay, but then you have to go back and look at the first part of the sentence: “so that through THE CHURCH the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known”.
Does that say what I THINK it says? That WE are teaching HEAVEN what God is about?
I guess it’s as appropriate a time to stop here as anywhere for a bit and try to imagine the unimaginable.
Picture yourself as a heavenly being. Go ahead. Wings if you want, twenty feet tall if you want. Whatever color hair you want – the FACT of hair BEING PRESENT if you want – if you even want to PICTURE yourself with a body – the details aren’t important. Here’s what is: you are eternal. You have spent eternity in the presence of God, along with the host of beings that surround God. There is a timeless quality to that presence that makes the concept of eternity irrelevant. You don’t get tired, you don’t get bored, don’t hurt, or weaken, or cry.
What do you know of reconciliation, if you’ve never suffered separation, or loss, or the pain of absence?
That’s what Paul is saying. We are the embodiment of what God was doing when God came into the world in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. We are the body of Christ. The revelation – the EPIPHANY, if you will – of God in Christ was for the express purpose of bringing about the reconciliation of the World to God’s self.
And we, as his living body are charged with that task. That is what WE are teaching HEAVEN insofar as we remain faithful to it. So the question is first, how in the world can we EVER hope, as frail children of dust, as imperfect, selfish, proud, ignorant, arrogant, appallingly shortsighted humans EVER teach anything to ANYONE, much less HEAVENLY RULERS AND AUTHORITIES?
The fact of the matter is, we can, and we DO. One way or the other.
We can also shoot ourselves in the foot in the process, defeat our own purpose; we can negate any good we’ve done with a passing remark. I don’t need to spell that out for us. Most if not all of us have been in situations or lived through circumstances where church people acted like anything BUT the body of Christ.
But we CAN teach, we CAN model, we CAN BE the presence of Christ in this world. And you know why? Because we are not doing this under our own strength. We are not depending on our own insights – though that comes into play in our applying our faith to our lives – we, like Paul, would do good to consider ourselves “the very least of all the saints”, and get on with the task of sharing that mystery, that gospel, the good news that God loves us and wants to be in relationship with us all.
And we do that through the power of the Holy Spirit. When we surrender our lives to the life of Christ, we invite the Holy Spirit to continue working in us on an ongoing basis. We enter, in an elemental sense, into a covenant with the Holy Spirit to mold us, change us. To make us more like Jesus and less prone to all those things I mentioned earlier – selfishness, ignorance, insensitivity, shortsightedness, arrogance, pride.
So the invitation on this, the first Sunday of the CALENDAR year, is to reaffirm that covenant – not just with Christ, but with the Christ in each other – that in this year we would SO be like Christ TO each other that the world – and that means our neighbors, our friends, our relatives, people we meet at Food Lion or in the doctor’s office, or walking in the mall, and those rulers and authorities in HEAVEN – the ones we tried to imagine ourselves to BE a few minutes ago – will begin to understand what reconciliation TRULY means – what God is REALLY doing in a world that, generally speaking, has forgotten what it even looks like, and a heavenly host that has never seen that aspect of God until the coming of Christ will know God that much better through OUR living into that reconciliation.
Let’s pray.
Sunday, January 6th, 2008
Epiphany
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Ephesians 3:1-12
Theme: The Church is teaching Heaven
1 This is the reason that I Paul am a prisoner for Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles— 2for surely you have already heard of the commission of God’s grace that was given me for you, 3and how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I wrote above in a few words, 4a reading of which will enable you to perceive my understanding of the mystery of Christ. 5In former generations this mystery was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: 6that is, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. 7Of this gospel I have become a servant according to the gift of God’s grace that was given me by the working of his power. 8Although I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ, 9and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; 10so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. 11This was in accordance with the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12in whom we have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him.Welcome to the New Year.
Welcome to a whole set of new opportunities, challenges, problems, and vexations. And we’re not even a full week into the year yet!
If you are like me, you might welcome the New Year in with an odd mixture of anticipation and dread.
There is much to anticipate for the coming year. There always is. We are a people of hope, born of the promise that God will continue to be with us and guide us as we seek to do God’s will.
As a people of faith, we are invited to live the future into the present, and it is an essentially hopeful act. We are charged with being part of the in-breaking of the Kingdom of God. You’ve heard me say that before, and that hasn’t changed. It hasn’t changed since last year, or the last four and a half years, or in the last 175 years, or in the centuries since Paul wrote this to the Christians in Ephesus. In fact, it hasn’t changed since God made the covenant with the people of Israel long before Paul dictated those words.
But as a people living in a broken world, we experience everything living in this world throws our way. We suffer illness, we experience death as a loss, we age, we slow down, we can’t think as clearly or as rapidly as we once could, we miss friends and loved ones, we have disagreements and arguments, we get our feelings hurt, we suffer broken relationships. We face the unknown and it wears on us. As much as we’d like it not to, it does.
So we put our faith into practice. We engage with a community – a family – of fellow believers and hope to find in that congregation a place to call home. As Reverend Espy shared Wednesday evening, we find a welcoming spirit – even when the people don’t know us from Adam.
It is that hopeful openness – that welcoming spirit – that is worth noting and worth celebrating, worth encouraging, worth GROWING, because it is one of the purest expressions of what God is about the business of doing – which is reconciling the world to God’s self.
You know which phrase jumped out at me when I read the passage to prepare this message? From the title, you can tell the first part that caught my attention – that of the mystery of Christ being that the gentiles – that is US, folks – have become fellow heirs, sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel. That means the covenant that God made with the people of Israel was extended to the rest of the world through Christ’s coming.
But what STOPPED me on my second reading of the passage was further in – beginning in verse 8, but picking up in verse 9: “to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.”
My first reaction was ‘did I read that right?’
“To the Rulers and authorities” is a phrase I’m used to reading in the Bible, but usually it is followed either by the phrase ‘here on earth’, or something to that effect.
THIS time it says ‘heavenly places’. Which is okay, but then you have to go back and look at the first part of the sentence: “so that through THE CHURCH the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known”.
Does that say what I THINK it says? That WE are teaching HEAVEN what God is about?
I guess it’s as appropriate a time to stop here as anywhere for a bit and try to imagine the unimaginable.
Picture yourself as a heavenly being. Go ahead. Wings if you want, twenty feet tall if you want. Whatever color hair you want – the FACT of hair BEING PRESENT if you want – if you even want to PICTURE yourself with a body – the details aren’t important. Here’s what is: you are eternal. You have spent eternity in the presence of God, along with the host of beings that surround God. There is a timeless quality to that presence that makes the concept of eternity irrelevant. You don’t get tired, you don’t get bored, don’t hurt, or weaken, or cry.
What do you know of reconciliation, if you’ve never suffered separation, or loss, or the pain of absence?
That’s what Paul is saying. We are the embodiment of what God was doing when God came into the world in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. We are the body of Christ. The revelation – the EPIPHANY, if you will – of God in Christ was for the express purpose of bringing about the reconciliation of the World to God’s self.
And we, as his living body are charged with that task. That is what WE are teaching HEAVEN insofar as we remain faithful to it. So the question is first, how in the world can we EVER hope, as frail children of dust, as imperfect, selfish, proud, ignorant, arrogant, appallingly shortsighted humans EVER teach anything to ANYONE, much less HEAVENLY RULERS AND AUTHORITIES?
The fact of the matter is, we can, and we DO. One way or the other.
We can also shoot ourselves in the foot in the process, defeat our own purpose; we can negate any good we’ve done with a passing remark. I don’t need to spell that out for us. Most if not all of us have been in situations or lived through circumstances where church people acted like anything BUT the body of Christ.
But we CAN teach, we CAN model, we CAN BE the presence of Christ in this world. And you know why? Because we are not doing this under our own strength. We are not depending on our own insights – though that comes into play in our applying our faith to our lives – we, like Paul, would do good to consider ourselves “the very least of all the saints”, and get on with the task of sharing that mystery, that gospel, the good news that God loves us and wants to be in relationship with us all.
And we do that through the power of the Holy Spirit. When we surrender our lives to the life of Christ, we invite the Holy Spirit to continue working in us on an ongoing basis. We enter, in an elemental sense, into a covenant with the Holy Spirit to mold us, change us. To make us more like Jesus and less prone to all those things I mentioned earlier – selfishness, ignorance, insensitivity, shortsightedness, arrogance, pride.
So the invitation on this, the first Sunday of the CALENDAR year, is to reaffirm that covenant – not just with Christ, but with the Christ in each other – that in this year we would SO be like Christ TO each other that the world – and that means our neighbors, our friends, our relatives, people we meet at Food Lion or in the doctor’s office, or walking in the mall, and those rulers and authorities in HEAVEN – the ones we tried to imagine ourselves to BE a few minutes ago – will begin to understand what reconciliation TRULY means – what God is REALLY doing in a world that, generally speaking, has forgotten what it even looks like, and a heavenly host that has never seen that aspect of God until the coming of Christ will know God that much better through OUR living into that reconciliation.
Let’s pray.
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