When I grew up in Champaign, Illinois for the first 10 years of my life, I had this incredible sense of being home and of being at peace. Though I’ve lived away from Champaign for more than 30 years now, there is a sense in which it is still the measure of what life could be.
I’m convinced that one of the main reasons this is true is that my family, consisting of my Dad and Mom, two brothers, a sister, and myself, were incredibly close. There was this great unity there, so that you could say – “There goes the Erlandson family!” (complete with 4 kids in a 2 ½ year span.)
Though now my parents are grandparents and the 4 kids have gone their separate ways – one brother is in Michigan - there is still a unity that lies underneath our separation. When we get together, we still manage to have several conversations going at the same time; we still tend to talk about intellectual things and analyze things to death. One of my sister’s boyfriends politely likened our family conversation to an orchestra.
Regardless of how far away you removed us, even in death, there would still be this underlying unity. In the same way, St. Paul talks this morning about the unity of the Church – a unity that already exists, but one that must also be maintained by the Church.
Just as in many sermons, in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians there are 2 main parts of the letter: theological explanation and application to our lives.
In Chapters 1-3 Paul deals more theologically with God’s election and Great Plan of Reconciliation, the call to life in Christ, union with Christ, and fullness of Christ in the Church. In Chapters 4-6 he turns to God’s command to walk worthy of His calling.
I mentioned that often theology must go before application - well, here goes a little theology. Paul’s theology in Ephesians is based on the Trinity in many, sometimes not obvious, ways. Remember how Paul’s glorious sentence in Chapter 1 was based on the work of each person of the Trinity? The Trinity, the one God and 3 persons who created all things, is the basis for all reality. For this reason, there is both diversity in the world and also an underlying unity in this diversity.
Look at your loose change or a One dollar bill, and you’ll find the esoteric Latin phrase E. pluribus unum, which means “out of one many.” This political ideal is nothing less than an application of the ultimate reality of the Holy Trinity.
Paul is especially concerned in Ephesians 4 about unity, and he refers to the unity of the Trinity, for there is one Father (verse 6), one Lord (verse 5), and one Spirit (verse 4.)
But wouldn’t you expect that in the Body of Jesus Christ, the New Man that God has created, there would also be diversity in unity? Just as there is unity in God, there is unity in His Church. God is one, and therefore His Church is one. Not may be one but is one. Episcopalians and Reformed Episcopalians, Roman Catholics and Baptists – there is only one Body of Christ, although, of course, not everyone who claims to be a Christian is truly a part of the Body.
There is only 1 Jesus Christ, and he’s not a polygamist. He has only 1 wife, the Church – whether we believe it or not. All of this exists, for, example the one true faith, regardless of what we believe. People may choose to think that all religions are the same or that it doesn’t matter what you believe. But regardless of what people believe, there is only 1 true faith, only 1 Lord, and only 1 Body of Christ.
So unity in the Church is a fact, but we must make it visible, to the world and to the angels, and we must maintain this unity and incarnate it.
It is all the work of God; but God gives us a role to play in His mystery of salvation, and part of that role is to maintain and make visible the unity that God has created through the precious blood of His Son, Jesus Christ.
Paul tells us that we are to work to keep the unity of the Spirit, in the bond of peace (verse 3.) There are things each of us must do to keep the bond of peace that God has created. Paul tells the Corinthians (2 Cor. 3:2) that they are his epistle, his letter.
You also are God’s epistle: you are his living, visible theology that others see. It is through each of you, through all Christians this morning, that God makes this unity visible and known to all.
St. Paul gives us 3 main ways you can make visible the unity of God that He expresses in His one, holy, catholic Church, and these are having one faith (verse 5), one body (verse 4), and one Lord (verse 5.)
Our one faith, as we’ve talked about in other Daily Breads includes both aspects of faith: belief + behavior, faith + faithfulness. To maintain and express the unity of God in His Church you must have proper belief or theology on your lips. There are certain things you must believe to be a Christian, things which are summarized in the Creeds.
To maintain and express the unity of God’s Church you must also have proper behavior in your life. Paul commands you in verse 1 to walk worthy of your calling. Remember the high calling you have as: a steward of the mysteries of God; an apostle; a martyr; an evangelist; a disciple of Jesus Christ; and an adopted child of God. This is the calling you are to walk worthy of.
How you live as a Christian makes a difference: it makes every difference in the world. You have been called to a God who is Light and have been called a child of Light. To choose therefore to walk in darkness is to break unity with God and His life. To make matters worse, when we disbelieve or sin, and therefore break the unity of the one faith, then we are leading others astray as well.
You can often hide your beliefs [not from God!], but you can’t hide your behavior for long.
When I taught school and talked to students who had doubts about Christianity or had left the Church, the number one reason they gave for giving up the one faith was the hypocrisy of Christians who said they believed one thing but lived as if they believed something else.
We can also make visible the unity of God in His Church by acting as one body. The mystical body of Jesus Christ on earth – the Church – is one. Jesus Christ came and died to make us one with God and one with each other.
How can we, who are sinful and selfish and prone to wars and divisions, show the world the one faith and the one body that we say we believe in? How can we, who are too often hypocrites, teach the angels the mystery of unity? By living in unity with one another, and that means to live in love.
How sad are the divisions in the Church! They are as sad – no, sadder – than divisions in earthly families. What part have you played in breaking the unity of the Church? In what ways are you not living at peace with your brother or sister? In what ways have you broken the unity of the Body by being a consumer of churches and of God, by believing that you can worship God however you want, whenever you want, with however much of your body, mind, soul, energy, time, money, gifts and talents you desire to give Him?
Finally, before we can have one faith and one Church and one life together we must all serve the one true Lord. It is only through the blood of Jesus Christ, shed on the Cross for the reconciliation and unity of the world, that we can ever have the other forms of unity. There is only 1 Lord Jesus Christ, and there is no other name in heaven or on earth by which men may be saved, that is, made one with God and with each other.
Like St. Paul, I am begging you this morning to walk in a manner worthy of your calling: your calling to believe in one, holy God; your calling to act like one body; and your calling to serve your one Lord God by being like Him in all things.
Prayer: Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, who lives in perfect unity and love, I pray that You would help me to walk worthy of the calling with which You have called me. Help me to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace and to guard the unity of Your Church by pursuing one faith, one body, and one Lord in whatever way You are calling me. Above all, give me Your love by which I may bear with others in the bond of peace and by which You are reconciling the world to Yourself. Amen.
Point for Meditation:
1. Relate one of your previous resolutions or meditations to today’s meditation. If there is one thing in particular to which God has been constantly calling you, renew your dedication to serve Him in this way, in light of His call to unity.
2. Meditate on the glorious calling to which God has called you as a steward of His mysteries and His love letter to the world.
Resolution: I resolve to meditate on my calling to unity in God through unity in Christ and the Church, resolving to reflect on one way in which I have been called to help make the unity of God in His Church visible.
© 2009 Fr. Charles Erlandson
Friday, January 16, 2009
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Thursday of Epiphany 1 - Ephesians 3:1-13
"Wonder what mystery Dad's working on now?" Joe asked.
His brother Frank looked eagerly down the platform of the Bayport railroad station. "It must be a very important case, the way Dad dashed off to Detroit. We'll know in a few minutes."
Both boys were wondering about a certain surprise their father had hinted might be ready for them upon their return.
Waiting with Frank and Joe was their best friend Chet Morton. "Your dad's cases are always exciting--and dangerous," the plump, ruddy-faced boy remarked. "Do you think he'll give you a chance to help out on this one?"
"We sure hope so," Joe replied eagerly.
"Well, if I know you fellows," Chet went on, "you'll get mixed up in the mystery, somehow--and so will I, sooner or later. There goes my peaceful summer vacation!"
I'm quoting, of course, from the beginning of a Hardy Boys mystery, The Secret of the Old Mill, to be exact. I spent many hours reading them when younger. At the center of every Hardy Boys book is a mystery, or something hidden that needed to be revealed.
St. Paul speaks here in Ephesians 3 of the Greatest Mystery known to man and one that has the greatest power to change our lives. Mystery in the New Testament is not a riddle to be solved but something once concealed that is now openly revealed.
What is the mystery? In verse 4 Paul speaks of the mystery of Christ. In verse 6, he qualifies it with "that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel."
The greatest mystery that lies behind the one mentioned here in Ephesians 3:6 is the mystery of Christ, who has made union with God, and thereby salvation, possible for man.
Maybe Paul has in mind his own teaching of I Timothy 3:16 - "Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory." It is the whole work of Christ, therefore, that is the mystery of God that has been revealed. It is God made man; it is God preached to us and believed by us; it is God's eternal plan of salvation made manifest in His Son.
And it’s Christ in us.
This is the Mystery of the Ages of which Paul speaks. As Paul makes clear in Ephesians 5:30-32, the mystery is that God and man are made one in Christ, that Jesus Christ and His Bride the Church are one flesh and that on this basis man may be saved.
Men have looked for this Greatest Mystery for millennia. They have desperately sought to unlock the Secret of Life, to find salvation, in many places. Some seek this mystery in false religions, of which there are many. Today, in the Western world, at least, the most common way for man to seek the Mystery, to find the Meaning of Life, is to look in himself. One of Shirley MacLaine's books is titled: "Going Within: A Guide for Inner Transformation." A book search online reveals many books about how man is divine without God - including one audaciously called The Lost Teachings of Jesus: Finding the God Within.
But the only place to find the Greatest Mystery of salvation is in God, as He has revealed
Himself through His Son, through the Church, and through the Scriptures.
We love to unlock the mysteries of the universe. But God's great mystery - His plan of redemption through His Son - is one mystery man cannot discover for himself.
God had to reveal it to us. As Paul writes in I Cor. 2:9 (quoting Isaiah 64:4) "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him . . . . But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit."
In verse 3 Paul reminds us that even the great apostle himself had to have this Great Mystery of salvation in Christ revealed to him. Paul is keenly aware of God’s gracious revelation in his life in all His letters and mentions in verses 7 and 8 that he was made a special minister of God's grace (especially to the Gentiles.)
It was not only to St. Paul but also to the entire Church that God's mystery was revealed; not only St. Paul but the entire Church was made a steward of the mysteries of God. It’s a good thing because St. Paul was only one man, and he’s no longer here with us.
Paul writes in verse 5 that the mystery of God was revealed now to apostles and prophets, just as he wrote in 2:20 that the apostles and prophets are the foundation of the Church and the foundation of God's mystery in the world.
Therefore, it is the Church as a whole who is the steward of the mysteries of God.
But how does God's mystery get propagated throughout the whole world? God does not offer new revelation to men, and they cannot find it by themselves. The Church is God's means of speaking to the world because it is the Body of Christ here on earth. It incarnates the mystery of God with us, of Christ and His Body.
There is a kind of divine respiration at work, then, in the world: God breathes His mystery, His gospel, out into us, His Church. Then we are to breathe it out again into the world. God breathes life into us by His Spirit, and then He breathes out life through us, to the world.
In other words, the mystery of God - His eternal plan of salvation - is first revealed to the Church, and then it is revealed to the world through the Church.
There was a TV commercial years ago: "When E.F. Hutton talks . . . (and everyone in room got instantly quiet.)
But when God talks, the Mystery of mysteries is revealed.
When God talks, people are saved and lives are transformed.
God spoke once, and the world was created; He spoke again - through His Son and now through His Church - and the world is re-created.
So important is the Church's part in revealing God's mystery to the entire cosmos that Paul says in verse 10 that even the angels are taught about God by the Church.
This is one of those absolutely astounding verses of Scripture to me, and unless Paul had revealed it, I wouldn't have known it or believed it. Through us the angels, the principalities and powers in heavenly places, come to know the wisdom of God. Incredible!
This makes each of you and all of us together stewards of the mystery of God. A steward is someone who has been given the responsibility to watch over and administer something valuable, such as a house or the wine.
We have a sacred treasure entrusted to us: the mysteries of God, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are heirs of a long line of faithful stewards of the mystery, and we must prove just as faithful. We cannot let this unbroken chain of revelation - from Jesus Christ to Paul to the
Church to us to the world - be broken by our negligence.
The mysteries of God are like a great treasure that has been entrusted to us, and our job is to pass it along to as many as we possibly can. God's mystery of salvation is like hidden treasure, except that He has shown us exactly where it lies. Unlike earthly treasure, which everyone wants to keep to himself and because of which everyone is figuring out a way to
cut others out, God’s mystery of Christ in us is one that you want to share, because the more you share the treasure the greater it will be.
By the way you live, by your holiness, the mystery of God is revealed to the world.
By the way you manifest the peace and joy and love of God in your lives, the gospel of Jesus Christ is proclaimed.
By your daily worship of God and your desire for Him, the angels are instructed.
Guard this treasure, this mystery with your life and by your life. God has put His treasure into these earthen vessels, these old, frail bodies and sinful souls that we might speak it and perform it before the world.
Remember: the world, and even the angels, are watching and learning - from you.
For you are a minister of the mysteries of God.
Prayer: Father, I thank You that You have revealed Yourself and Your salvation to Your people through Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank You for choosing me as a minister of Your great mysteries and for making me an heir of Your great salvation. Remind me today that I have a holy obligation to help reveal this mystery to others, as much as is in my power. For the salvation of the world and the enlightenment of the angels, make me Your minister today. Amen.
Point for Meditation:
1. Meditate on some of the ways that God has revealed Himself and His salvation to You. Rejoice in and give thanks for each one.
2. Meditate on one way that God has been calling You to be a more faithful steward of His mystery. It might be by more faithfully revealing Him to others through evangelism or discipleship, or it might be by being a more faithful minister in your own holiness. If you have been working on other resolutions recently, continue them with today’s meditation in mind.
Resolution: I resolve to meditate today on the fact that I am a minister and steward of God’s mystery of salvation.
© 2008 Fr. Charles Erlandson
His brother Frank looked eagerly down the platform of the Bayport railroad station. "It must be a very important case, the way Dad dashed off to Detroit. We'll know in a few minutes."
Both boys were wondering about a certain surprise their father had hinted might be ready for them upon their return.
Waiting with Frank and Joe was their best friend Chet Morton. "Your dad's cases are always exciting--and dangerous," the plump, ruddy-faced boy remarked. "Do you think he'll give you a chance to help out on this one?"
"We sure hope so," Joe replied eagerly.
"Well, if I know you fellows," Chet went on, "you'll get mixed up in the mystery, somehow--and so will I, sooner or later. There goes my peaceful summer vacation!"
I'm quoting, of course, from the beginning of a Hardy Boys mystery, The Secret of the Old Mill, to be exact. I spent many hours reading them when younger. At the center of every Hardy Boys book is a mystery, or something hidden that needed to be revealed.
St. Paul speaks here in Ephesians 3 of the Greatest Mystery known to man and one that has the greatest power to change our lives. Mystery in the New Testament is not a riddle to be solved but something once concealed that is now openly revealed.
What is the mystery? In verse 4 Paul speaks of the mystery of Christ. In verse 6, he qualifies it with "that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel."
The greatest mystery that lies behind the one mentioned here in Ephesians 3:6 is the mystery of Christ, who has made union with God, and thereby salvation, possible for man.
Maybe Paul has in mind his own teaching of I Timothy 3:16 - "Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory." It is the whole work of Christ, therefore, that is the mystery of God that has been revealed. It is God made man; it is God preached to us and believed by us; it is God's eternal plan of salvation made manifest in His Son.
And it’s Christ in us.
This is the Mystery of the Ages of which Paul speaks. As Paul makes clear in Ephesians 5:30-32, the mystery is that God and man are made one in Christ, that Jesus Christ and His Bride the Church are one flesh and that on this basis man may be saved.
Men have looked for this Greatest Mystery for millennia. They have desperately sought to unlock the Secret of Life, to find salvation, in many places. Some seek this mystery in false religions, of which there are many. Today, in the Western world, at least, the most common way for man to seek the Mystery, to find the Meaning of Life, is to look in himself. One of Shirley MacLaine's books is titled: "Going Within: A Guide for Inner Transformation." A book search online reveals many books about how man is divine without God - including one audaciously called The Lost Teachings of Jesus: Finding the God Within.
But the only place to find the Greatest Mystery of salvation is in God, as He has revealed
Himself through His Son, through the Church, and through the Scriptures.
We love to unlock the mysteries of the universe. But God's great mystery - His plan of redemption through His Son - is one mystery man cannot discover for himself.
God had to reveal it to us. As Paul writes in I Cor. 2:9 (quoting Isaiah 64:4) "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him . . . . But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit."
In verse 3 Paul reminds us that even the great apostle himself had to have this Great Mystery of salvation in Christ revealed to him. Paul is keenly aware of God’s gracious revelation in his life in all His letters and mentions in verses 7 and 8 that he was made a special minister of God's grace (especially to the Gentiles.)
It was not only to St. Paul but also to the entire Church that God's mystery was revealed; not only St. Paul but the entire Church was made a steward of the mysteries of God. It’s a good thing because St. Paul was only one man, and he’s no longer here with us.
Paul writes in verse 5 that the mystery of God was revealed now to apostles and prophets, just as he wrote in 2:20 that the apostles and prophets are the foundation of the Church and the foundation of God's mystery in the world.
Therefore, it is the Church as a whole who is the steward of the mysteries of God.
But how does God's mystery get propagated throughout the whole world? God does not offer new revelation to men, and they cannot find it by themselves. The Church is God's means of speaking to the world because it is the Body of Christ here on earth. It incarnates the mystery of God with us, of Christ and His Body.
There is a kind of divine respiration at work, then, in the world: God breathes His mystery, His gospel, out into us, His Church. Then we are to breathe it out again into the world. God breathes life into us by His Spirit, and then He breathes out life through us, to the world.
In other words, the mystery of God - His eternal plan of salvation - is first revealed to the Church, and then it is revealed to the world through the Church.
There was a TV commercial years ago: "When E.F. Hutton talks . . . (and everyone in room got instantly quiet.)
But when God talks, the Mystery of mysteries is revealed.
When God talks, people are saved and lives are transformed.
God spoke once, and the world was created; He spoke again - through His Son and now through His Church - and the world is re-created.
So important is the Church's part in revealing God's mystery to the entire cosmos that Paul says in verse 10 that even the angels are taught about God by the Church.
This is one of those absolutely astounding verses of Scripture to me, and unless Paul had revealed it, I wouldn't have known it or believed it. Through us the angels, the principalities and powers in heavenly places, come to know the wisdom of God. Incredible!
This makes each of you and all of us together stewards of the mystery of God. A steward is someone who has been given the responsibility to watch over and administer something valuable, such as a house or the wine.
We have a sacred treasure entrusted to us: the mysteries of God, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are heirs of a long line of faithful stewards of the mystery, and we must prove just as faithful. We cannot let this unbroken chain of revelation - from Jesus Christ to Paul to the
Church to us to the world - be broken by our negligence.
The mysteries of God are like a great treasure that has been entrusted to us, and our job is to pass it along to as many as we possibly can. God's mystery of salvation is like hidden treasure, except that He has shown us exactly where it lies. Unlike earthly treasure, which everyone wants to keep to himself and because of which everyone is figuring out a way to
cut others out, God’s mystery of Christ in us is one that you want to share, because the more you share the treasure the greater it will be.
By the way you live, by your holiness, the mystery of God is revealed to the world.
By the way you manifest the peace and joy and love of God in your lives, the gospel of Jesus Christ is proclaimed.
By your daily worship of God and your desire for Him, the angels are instructed.
Guard this treasure, this mystery with your life and by your life. God has put His treasure into these earthen vessels, these old, frail bodies and sinful souls that we might speak it and perform it before the world.
Remember: the world, and even the angels, are watching and learning - from you.
For you are a minister of the mysteries of God.
Prayer: Father, I thank You that You have revealed Yourself and Your salvation to Your people through Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank You for choosing me as a minister of Your great mysteries and for making me an heir of Your great salvation. Remind me today that I have a holy obligation to help reveal this mystery to others, as much as is in my power. For the salvation of the world and the enlightenment of the angels, make me Your minister today. Amen.
Point for Meditation:
1. Meditate on some of the ways that God has revealed Himself and His salvation to You. Rejoice in and give thanks for each one.
2. Meditate on one way that God has been calling You to be a more faithful steward of His mystery. It might be by more faithfully revealing Him to others through evangelism or discipleship, or it might be by being a more faithful minister in your own holiness. If you have been working on other resolutions recently, continue them with today’s meditation in mind.
Resolution: I resolve to meditate today on the fact that I am a minister and steward of God’s mystery of salvation.
© 2008 Fr. Charles Erlandson
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Wednesday of Epiphany 1 - Ephesians 2:11-22
Open almost any page of almost any newspaper and you can't help but be struck by the fact that the world is in chaos.
We sent 1000s of our troops to Iraq because Saddam Hussein threatened the peace of the region and of the entire world. We have 1000s more troops in many places around the world - all to keep the peace. In our own neighborhoods, we read of robberies and murders, and in the Episcopal Church USA and the Anglican Communion worldwide we hear of divisions and a lack of peace.
If there is one thing we all want and need it is peace in our time and peace in our lives. And yet the average person in the world has about as much idea of how to achieve peace on earth as does Miss America.
In the 60s, hippies began flashing each other the sign for peace. They wanted peace with their fellow man without peace with God. But I don't believe many of those saying “Peace” found true peace.
As St. Paul teaches in Ephesians chapter 2, man is not at peace in the world, and he is not at peace with himself or others because he is not at peace with God. He is by nature a child of wrath, born in sin, and alienated from God by this sin. In verse 12 Paul reminds us that by nature and by birth we were without Christ and strangers from the covenant of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. O.K., Paul, but what’s the bad news?!
Our enmity with God has devastating consequences, for the wages of sin is death. And sin is war with God. But this enmity with God always has consequences for our other relationships as well: for enmity with God leads directly to enmity with our fellow man. Just as love of God makes it possible for us to love our neighbors, so a hatred and enmity towards God make it possible for us to hate and be at war with our neighbors.
In families, where there is especially to be love and peace, we find husbands in conflict with wives; parents and children fighting, and children at each other’s throats. There is often so little peace in the family that some people spend all their time at work so they don't have to be at home for very long. And it wasn’t long after Adam and Eve’s sin that one of their sons, Cain, killed another son, Abel.
In Ephesians 2:11-20, Paul speaks of one of the greatest sources of enmity and hatred in the ancient world (and one which hasn't completely ended today) - enmity between Jews and Gentiles. Though the Temple was constructed to worship God so that man could find peace with God, the Temple was a symbol of the division between Jew and Gentile. Herod's temple, the one that Paul would have known, was a magnificent and beautiful structure. It was a massive structure built on a mountain and must have looked like an island rising up around a sea of walls, houses, and streets. It measured almost 1000 feet on each side and so encompassed nearly 1,000,000 square feet. By some estimates it could contain within its circumference more than 200,000 people. The temple was crowned by a mass of snowy marble and glittering gold and must have been a spectacle for all to behold.
Yet it was a symbol of intense enmity. All throughout Ephesians 2:11-22 Paul alludes to the division between Jews and Gentiles, nowhere more clearly than in verse 14, where he speaks of a "dividing wall of hostility" between Jews and Gentiles. This enmity between Jew and Gentile, both made in the image of God, was a type or picture of all enmity. Though God up until that time made distinctions between Jew and Gentile in His plan of salvation, both Jews and Gentiles used it as an occasion to despise the other. Gentiles despised Jews and persecuted them; Jews considered Gentiles dogs and unworthy or incapable of salvation, saying that Gentiles were created by God to be fuel for the flames of hell.
This "dividing wall of hostility," to which Paul refers, is an allusion to Herod's Temple and its literal dividing wall. Outside the Temple was a spacious court called the Court of the Gentiles, from which Gentiles could see the Temple but not enter into it. The Temple was encompassed by a great stone wall that had a sign saying, in effect, not "Trespassers will be prosecuted," but "Trespassers will be executed." The sign forbade any foreigner from entering, under penalty of death.
The irony of Jerusalem today is that it is a city which means "possession of peace" and yet is perhaps the place of greatest enmity and strife in the world.
Thanks be to God, that through His Son, He has done for us what we could not do it for ourselves! Now we who were far from God and far from peace are brought near to God (verse 13.)
In the first half of Ephesians, St. Paul describes the painful war with God which we call sin, the wages of which are death. But as St. Paul yesterday offered us the grace of God to save us, today he offers us peace. By Jesus Christ, we have access to the Father (verse 18.)
The veil of the Temple, separating Holy of Holies from Holy Place, symbolized that man could not enter into God's presence. This veil was an enormous 60 x 30 foot curtain that was four inches thick and took 100 men to move. This veil was literally torn when Christ died. But much more impressively, God tore the veil that separated man from God and made it possible for man to live in peace with God once again. And now we have access to the Father.
This then, the work of Jesus Christ, is the secret of peace. Through the Cross, God has reconciled us to Himself and reconciled Jews and Gentiles into one body - the Church.
For this was God's plan of peace, that only by entering the true Temple - Jesus Christ Himself - can we have peace. Husbands and wives, parents and children, Jews and Gentiles can now have peace through Jesus Christ who is our peace.
God doesn't promise that magically all of your problems with people will be solved when you become a Christian - but He does promise that if you make peace with Him, that He will transform you.
If you do not have peace this morning - if you know in your heart, that you are always angry and unfulfilled; if you know that there is a relationship with those close to you in which there is no peace; whether you are in conflict with God, with someone else, or with yourself; there is one thing you need to know: Jesus Christ has done everything necessary for you to find peace in your soul. The peace which the world cannot give, God freely offers to you through His grace.
But you must accept the terms of peace with God that He offers, and those terms are that you surrender yourself to Him completely. If you want true peace, lasting peace, then first find peace with God - a peace which comes only through a faithful relationship with His Son Jesus Christ.
You are now members of the household of God (verse 19.) You are fellow citizens with the saints! You were once foreigners to God and His household, but now you are His children and His saints (verse 19.)
In fact, you, and all the saints, are now God’s holy Temple where He dwells (verse 21)! Herod's temple was magnificent and beautiful, but it was ultimately a symbol of our separation from God and from each other. Herod's temple was full of glory and grandeur, but by A.D. 70 it was reduced to rubble and never seen again.
But now the true temple of God has been revealed - and it is you - it is us, the Body of Christ. We are where God dwells with man and where the reconciling work of Christ is made real. You. Me. Us. The Church.
Are you waging a secret war with those around you?
Do you want peace as you've never known it before?
Then seek first peace with God, and the peace of God, which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ.
Prayer: Thanks be to You, my loving Father, because You sent Your Son to make peace between You and me, when I was by nature Your enemy. Thank you for tearing down the wall of separation between us. I pray that I might not rebuild the wall and separate myself from You by sin. Where I am not at peace with my brother or sister, help me to seek peace, remembering the Cross of Christ by which I may find peace again. Amen.
Point for Meditation:
1. Consider carefully the places in your life where there is no peace. Prayerfully, present each of these before Jesus Christ who is your peace. Pray for peace, and ask God what steps you should take in one of these situations to restore peace, as much as it lies in your power.
2. Remember situations in your life where God has brought peace. Give thanks to God for His salvation, and be encouraged by His promise of peace in other situations.
3. Are you at peace with God? If not, look back at the resolutions you have made in the past to discover the source of enmity. What steps is God asking you to take to find peace with Him?
Resolution: I resolve to seek peace in one situation in my life where there is not peace. It may be with God Himself (best remedied through repentance – confession and penitence), or it may be with another person.
© 2008 Fr. Charles Erlandson
We sent 1000s of our troops to Iraq because Saddam Hussein threatened the peace of the region and of the entire world. We have 1000s more troops in many places around the world - all to keep the peace. In our own neighborhoods, we read of robberies and murders, and in the Episcopal Church USA and the Anglican Communion worldwide we hear of divisions and a lack of peace.
If there is one thing we all want and need it is peace in our time and peace in our lives. And yet the average person in the world has about as much idea of how to achieve peace on earth as does Miss America.
In the 60s, hippies began flashing each other the sign for peace. They wanted peace with their fellow man without peace with God. But I don't believe many of those saying “Peace” found true peace.
As St. Paul teaches in Ephesians chapter 2, man is not at peace in the world, and he is not at peace with himself or others because he is not at peace with God. He is by nature a child of wrath, born in sin, and alienated from God by this sin. In verse 12 Paul reminds us that by nature and by birth we were without Christ and strangers from the covenant of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. O.K., Paul, but what’s the bad news?!
Our enmity with God has devastating consequences, for the wages of sin is death. And sin is war with God. But this enmity with God always has consequences for our other relationships as well: for enmity with God leads directly to enmity with our fellow man. Just as love of God makes it possible for us to love our neighbors, so a hatred and enmity towards God make it possible for us to hate and be at war with our neighbors.
In families, where there is especially to be love and peace, we find husbands in conflict with wives; parents and children fighting, and children at each other’s throats. There is often so little peace in the family that some people spend all their time at work so they don't have to be at home for very long. And it wasn’t long after Adam and Eve’s sin that one of their sons, Cain, killed another son, Abel.
In Ephesians 2:11-20, Paul speaks of one of the greatest sources of enmity and hatred in the ancient world (and one which hasn't completely ended today) - enmity between Jews and Gentiles. Though the Temple was constructed to worship God so that man could find peace with God, the Temple was a symbol of the division between Jew and Gentile. Herod's temple, the one that Paul would have known, was a magnificent and beautiful structure. It was a massive structure built on a mountain and must have looked like an island rising up around a sea of walls, houses, and streets. It measured almost 1000 feet on each side and so encompassed nearly 1,000,000 square feet. By some estimates it could contain within its circumference more than 200,000 people. The temple was crowned by a mass of snowy marble and glittering gold and must have been a spectacle for all to behold.
Yet it was a symbol of intense enmity. All throughout Ephesians 2:11-22 Paul alludes to the division between Jews and Gentiles, nowhere more clearly than in verse 14, where he speaks of a "dividing wall of hostility" between Jews and Gentiles. This enmity between Jew and Gentile, both made in the image of God, was a type or picture of all enmity. Though God up until that time made distinctions between Jew and Gentile in His plan of salvation, both Jews and Gentiles used it as an occasion to despise the other. Gentiles despised Jews and persecuted them; Jews considered Gentiles dogs and unworthy or incapable of salvation, saying that Gentiles were created by God to be fuel for the flames of hell.
This "dividing wall of hostility," to which Paul refers, is an allusion to Herod's Temple and its literal dividing wall. Outside the Temple was a spacious court called the Court of the Gentiles, from which Gentiles could see the Temple but not enter into it. The Temple was encompassed by a great stone wall that had a sign saying, in effect, not "Trespassers will be prosecuted," but "Trespassers will be executed." The sign forbade any foreigner from entering, under penalty of death.
The irony of Jerusalem today is that it is a city which means "possession of peace" and yet is perhaps the place of greatest enmity and strife in the world.
Thanks be to God, that through His Son, He has done for us what we could not do it for ourselves! Now we who were far from God and far from peace are brought near to God (verse 13.)
In the first half of Ephesians, St. Paul describes the painful war with God which we call sin, the wages of which are death. But as St. Paul yesterday offered us the grace of God to save us, today he offers us peace. By Jesus Christ, we have access to the Father (verse 18.)
The veil of the Temple, separating Holy of Holies from Holy Place, symbolized that man could not enter into God's presence. This veil was an enormous 60 x 30 foot curtain that was four inches thick and took 100 men to move. This veil was literally torn when Christ died. But much more impressively, God tore the veil that separated man from God and made it possible for man to live in peace with God once again. And now we have access to the Father.
This then, the work of Jesus Christ, is the secret of peace. Through the Cross, God has reconciled us to Himself and reconciled Jews and Gentiles into one body - the Church.
For this was God's plan of peace, that only by entering the true Temple - Jesus Christ Himself - can we have peace. Husbands and wives, parents and children, Jews and Gentiles can now have peace through Jesus Christ who is our peace.
God doesn't promise that magically all of your problems with people will be solved when you become a Christian - but He does promise that if you make peace with Him, that He will transform you.
If you do not have peace this morning - if you know in your heart, that you are always angry and unfulfilled; if you know that there is a relationship with those close to you in which there is no peace; whether you are in conflict with God, with someone else, or with yourself; there is one thing you need to know: Jesus Christ has done everything necessary for you to find peace in your soul. The peace which the world cannot give, God freely offers to you through His grace.
But you must accept the terms of peace with God that He offers, and those terms are that you surrender yourself to Him completely. If you want true peace, lasting peace, then first find peace with God - a peace which comes only through a faithful relationship with His Son Jesus Christ.
You are now members of the household of God (verse 19.) You are fellow citizens with the saints! You were once foreigners to God and His household, but now you are His children and His saints (verse 19.)
In fact, you, and all the saints, are now God’s holy Temple where He dwells (verse 21)! Herod's temple was magnificent and beautiful, but it was ultimately a symbol of our separation from God and from each other. Herod's temple was full of glory and grandeur, but by A.D. 70 it was reduced to rubble and never seen again.
But now the true temple of God has been revealed - and it is you - it is us, the Body of Christ. We are where God dwells with man and where the reconciling work of Christ is made real. You. Me. Us. The Church.
Are you waging a secret war with those around you?
Do you want peace as you've never known it before?
Then seek first peace with God, and the peace of God, which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ.
Prayer: Thanks be to You, my loving Father, because You sent Your Son to make peace between You and me, when I was by nature Your enemy. Thank you for tearing down the wall of separation between us. I pray that I might not rebuild the wall and separate myself from You by sin. Where I am not at peace with my brother or sister, help me to seek peace, remembering the Cross of Christ by which I may find peace again. Amen.
Point for Meditation:
1. Consider carefully the places in your life where there is no peace. Prayerfully, present each of these before Jesus Christ who is your peace. Pray for peace, and ask God what steps you should take in one of these situations to restore peace, as much as it lies in your power.
2. Remember situations in your life where God has brought peace. Give thanks to God for His salvation, and be encouraged by His promise of peace in other situations.
3. Are you at peace with God? If not, look back at the resolutions you have made in the past to discover the source of enmity. What steps is God asking you to take to find peace with Him?
Resolution: I resolve to seek peace in one situation in my life where there is not peace. It may be with God Himself (best remedied through repentance – confession and penitence), or it may be with another person.
© 2008 Fr. Charles Erlandson
Monday, January 12, 2009
Tuesday of First Sunday after Epiphany - Ephesians 2:1-10
What would you give to a doctor who told you, when someone you love is at the point of death, that he could cure him? That he would give him back his life - and not just for a few months hooked up to a roomful of machines and monitors - but that he would give back life in all its fullness?
Of course, our first thought is not to wonder how we would reward or think about such a doctor: our first thought is to disbelieve that such miracles can happen.
And yet I say to you that I know a physician who can restore the life of every one who has ever been dead or who has ever been at the point of death. I know someone who has the power over life and death - not like any earthly doctor. I know someone who can raise the dead and give them eternal life.
That someone, of course, is God.
In Ephesians Chapter 2, Paul is not only concerned with the resurrection of our bodies after they have died while on earth: he’s concerned with the eternal condition of our souls. Paul's powerful prescription for the cure of death is indeed a miraculous and strong medicine; but first, he must make a very serious and deadly prognosis on every one who has ever been born into this world.
It is the oldest and deadliest disease known to man that Paul has in mind, and the prescription he makes is the most powerful and most famous in history: for his message in Ephesians 2:1-10 is very simple: you were dead in your sins, but God has made you alive through Jesus Christ.
Many people have attempted to explain the mystery of mankind - how he can act so nobly sometimes and create the most beautiful works of art and yet is capable of the greatest evil and harm. Most people today would say that men do wicked things because of their environment. Rousseau believed that man was born free but everywhere we see him in chains. He believed that man was basically good but that society corrupted him.
The problem with this and all similar arguments is that what is society but a collection of humans in community. How can each one be good but together they are corrupt and wicked? It makes no sense.
The apostle Paul - indeed the Scriptures in their entirety - have a vastly different belief about man and his natural condition. For St. Paul preaches that we were dead in our trespasses and sins. Let me say it again: you were dead in your sins (verse 5).
Apart from the grace of God, we live for ourselves and not God; we love ourselves and not God; every day we break God's commandments, each of which carries the penalty of death, because we have violated a holy and perfect God.
There’s simply no way to sugar coat this. God's Word is completely clear on this matter. You - meaning you, I, and everyone who's ever lived (with one exception) - were born in sin, and the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).
Paul doesn't tell you that you were a little sick but went into spontaneous remission: he plainly says that you were dead because of your trespasses and sins. He refers to 3 things that we have followed into sin and death, 3 things that the Church has traditionally categorized as "the world, the flesh, and the devil." In verse 2 he mentions both the world and the prince of this world, and in verse 3 he mentions the desires of the flesh. All 3 of these lead us into temptation, into sin, and ultimately into death. And this was our natural condition, before God reaches down to save us.
St. Paul is hardcore. As if this weren’t bad enough, he says in verse 3 that we were "by nature children of wrath."
You were dead in your sins and were by nature children of wrath BUT GOD. These are two of the shortest words in the Bible, but also two of the most dramatic: BUT GOD.
But God what? BUT GOD who is rich in mercy made us alive in Christ (verses 4-5.) By the grace of God - and entirely by the grace of God - we find relief, deliverance and salvation from the miserable condition that I just discussed.
How has God done this?
In 3 simple words, all of our life's problems are answered by God: union with Christ.
It’s by being united with Jesus Christ that you’re set free from enslavement to the world, the flesh, and the devil; it’s by being united to Jesus Christ that you’re justified before a holy God; and it’s by being united with Jesus Christ that you’re made alive to God.
If you’re a disciple of Jesus Christ, then you’re truly united with Christ - made one with Him. In this passage Paul tells us that God saves us by uniting us with His Son in 3 real ways. In verse 5, we learn that God "made us alive together with Christ,” that is, we are united with Him in His Resurrection. In the first part of verse 6 we hear that we are raised up with Him in the heavenly places or united with Him in His Ascension. And in the second part of verse 6 we are taught that He "made us to sit in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,” that is, that we are united with Jesus Christ in His Session, his sitting and ruling at the right hand of the Father (I could do a whole meditation just on this one verse!)
Truly, God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, for He has made us one with His Son, and this has delivered us from death, bondage to sin, and damnation.
But why? Why would God offer to take away the sins of the world?
Because He is "rich in mercy" (verse 4) and love.
Given our being dead in sin and being by nature children of wrath, the only possible source of salvation is God and His grace. Grace, by its nature, is a gift. It’s God’s Christmas present to you, through His Son made flesh.
You were saved by God's grace because you were dead to God and could not save yourself.
The world is filled with pictures of people into whose life God has poured His grace.
One such picture is the life of John Newton, who was born in 1725 in England. He spent his early life turning to religion, only to fall back from it again. He read a work which taught that you could believe anything about God you wanted to. Slowly, this acted like a poison in his soul, and he gradually became a very corrupt man, tempting and seducing others into evil. Newton's later testimony was that he was "big with mischief, and, like one infected with a pestilence, was capable of spreading a taint wherever I went."
He became a slave trader, and in March 1748, while on ship, he awoke suddenly to the force of an extremely violent storm. Adrift at sea for four weeks, he read parts of the New Testament and began to cry to the Lord, understanding that only He could relieve his plight.
By the time they reached land, Newton had recovered his belief in God and his grace. John Newton is, of course, most famous today for having written the following words,
surely thinking of how God had saved him in both the storm at sea and in the storm of his life:
"Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
that saved a wretch like me,
I once was lost, but now am found
was blind, but now I see."
It may not be that any of you has had God work so dramatically in your life - I
know He hasn't in mine. And yet this is a picture of the grace that has already operated in the life of every true believer in Jesus Christ.
What would you give to a God who gave you back your life when you didn’t deserve it?
The answer should be obvious: you give Him back your entire life: body, mind, and soul!
Prayer: Thanks be to You, O Lord, because when I was dead in my sins You showed me mercy and saved me by Your grace. Remind me today and every day of Your amazing grace that I may return to Your holy Temple and give thanks. Give me the grace to do the good works for which I was redeemed in Jesus Christ. Amen.
Resolution and Point for Meditation: I resolve to meditate today on God’s grace in my life and to find one specific way to respond to His grace. Some possible options are:
1. Singing a hymn, such as “Amazing Grace”
2. Continuing in one good work you have begun in a prior resolution, remembering that you were “created in Christ Jesus for good works” (verse 10).
3. Remembering your former life or what your life would be without the grace of God. Try to find things in your life today that remind you of this. Each time you are reminded of God’s grace, offer up a brief prayer of thanksgiving.
© 2008 Fr. Charles Erlandson
Of course, our first thought is not to wonder how we would reward or think about such a doctor: our first thought is to disbelieve that such miracles can happen.
And yet I say to you that I know a physician who can restore the life of every one who has ever been dead or who has ever been at the point of death. I know someone who has the power over life and death - not like any earthly doctor. I know someone who can raise the dead and give them eternal life.
That someone, of course, is God.
In Ephesians Chapter 2, Paul is not only concerned with the resurrection of our bodies after they have died while on earth: he’s concerned with the eternal condition of our souls. Paul's powerful prescription for the cure of death is indeed a miraculous and strong medicine; but first, he must make a very serious and deadly prognosis on every one who has ever been born into this world.
It is the oldest and deadliest disease known to man that Paul has in mind, and the prescription he makes is the most powerful and most famous in history: for his message in Ephesians 2:1-10 is very simple: you were dead in your sins, but God has made you alive through Jesus Christ.
Many people have attempted to explain the mystery of mankind - how he can act so nobly sometimes and create the most beautiful works of art and yet is capable of the greatest evil and harm. Most people today would say that men do wicked things because of their environment. Rousseau believed that man was born free but everywhere we see him in chains. He believed that man was basically good but that society corrupted him.
The problem with this and all similar arguments is that what is society but a collection of humans in community. How can each one be good but together they are corrupt and wicked? It makes no sense.
The apostle Paul - indeed the Scriptures in their entirety - have a vastly different belief about man and his natural condition. For St. Paul preaches that we were dead in our trespasses and sins. Let me say it again: you were dead in your sins (verse 5).
Apart from the grace of God, we live for ourselves and not God; we love ourselves and not God; every day we break God's commandments, each of which carries the penalty of death, because we have violated a holy and perfect God.
There’s simply no way to sugar coat this. God's Word is completely clear on this matter. You - meaning you, I, and everyone who's ever lived (with one exception) - were born in sin, and the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).
Paul doesn't tell you that you were a little sick but went into spontaneous remission: he plainly says that you were dead because of your trespasses and sins. He refers to 3 things that we have followed into sin and death, 3 things that the Church has traditionally categorized as "the world, the flesh, and the devil." In verse 2 he mentions both the world and the prince of this world, and in verse 3 he mentions the desires of the flesh. All 3 of these lead us into temptation, into sin, and ultimately into death. And this was our natural condition, before God reaches down to save us.
St. Paul is hardcore. As if this weren’t bad enough, he says in verse 3 that we were "by nature children of wrath."
You were dead in your sins and were by nature children of wrath BUT GOD. These are two of the shortest words in the Bible, but also two of the most dramatic: BUT GOD.
But God what? BUT GOD who is rich in mercy made us alive in Christ (verses 4-5.) By the grace of God - and entirely by the grace of God - we find relief, deliverance and salvation from the miserable condition that I just discussed.
How has God done this?
In 3 simple words, all of our life's problems are answered by God: union with Christ.
It’s by being united with Jesus Christ that you’re set free from enslavement to the world, the flesh, and the devil; it’s by being united to Jesus Christ that you’re justified before a holy God; and it’s by being united with Jesus Christ that you’re made alive to God.
If you’re a disciple of Jesus Christ, then you’re truly united with Christ - made one with Him. In this passage Paul tells us that God saves us by uniting us with His Son in 3 real ways. In verse 5, we learn that God "made us alive together with Christ,” that is, we are united with Him in His Resurrection. In the first part of verse 6 we hear that we are raised up with Him in the heavenly places or united with Him in His Ascension. And in the second part of verse 6 we are taught that He "made us to sit in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,” that is, that we are united with Jesus Christ in His Session, his sitting and ruling at the right hand of the Father (I could do a whole meditation just on this one verse!)
Truly, God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, for He has made us one with His Son, and this has delivered us from death, bondage to sin, and damnation.
But why? Why would God offer to take away the sins of the world?
Because He is "rich in mercy" (verse 4) and love.
Given our being dead in sin and being by nature children of wrath, the only possible source of salvation is God and His grace. Grace, by its nature, is a gift. It’s God’s Christmas present to you, through His Son made flesh.
You were saved by God's grace because you were dead to God and could not save yourself.
The world is filled with pictures of people into whose life God has poured His grace.
One such picture is the life of John Newton, who was born in 1725 in England. He spent his early life turning to religion, only to fall back from it again. He read a work which taught that you could believe anything about God you wanted to. Slowly, this acted like a poison in his soul, and he gradually became a very corrupt man, tempting and seducing others into evil. Newton's later testimony was that he was "big with mischief, and, like one infected with a pestilence, was capable of spreading a taint wherever I went."
He became a slave trader, and in March 1748, while on ship, he awoke suddenly to the force of an extremely violent storm. Adrift at sea for four weeks, he read parts of the New Testament and began to cry to the Lord, understanding that only He could relieve his plight.
By the time they reached land, Newton had recovered his belief in God and his grace. John Newton is, of course, most famous today for having written the following words,
surely thinking of how God had saved him in both the storm at sea and in the storm of his life:
"Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
that saved a wretch like me,
I once was lost, but now am found
was blind, but now I see."
It may not be that any of you has had God work so dramatically in your life - I
know He hasn't in mine. And yet this is a picture of the grace that has already operated in the life of every true believer in Jesus Christ.
What would you give to a God who gave you back your life when you didn’t deserve it?
The answer should be obvious: you give Him back your entire life: body, mind, and soul!
Prayer: Thanks be to You, O Lord, because when I was dead in my sins You showed me mercy and saved me by Your grace. Remind me today and every day of Your amazing grace that I may return to Your holy Temple and give thanks. Give me the grace to do the good works for which I was redeemed in Jesus Christ. Amen.
Resolution and Point for Meditation: I resolve to meditate today on God’s grace in my life and to find one specific way to respond to His grace. Some possible options are:
1. Singing a hymn, such as “Amazing Grace”
2. Continuing in one good work you have begun in a prior resolution, remembering that you were “created in Christ Jesus for good works” (verse 10).
3. Remembering your former life or what your life would be without the grace of God. Try to find things in your life today that remind you of this. Each time you are reminded of God’s grace, offer up a brief prayer of thanksgiving.
© 2008 Fr. Charles Erlandson
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Monday of First Sunday after Epiphany - Ephesians 1
Have you ever been excited to be a part of something bigger than yourself? To be in on a very important goal whose greatness brings you glory?
In the book of Ephesians, we find that God has let us in on the Greatest Goal of All - to bring blessing to mankind, who does not deserve it. St. Paul’s message is that as a result of God's blessing us, we live in a new cosmos, a new world. We are part of a new reality, a new humanity, and a new society because we are seated in the heavenlies with Christ – all because of God's plan of blessing.
What's the best sentence you’ve ever read in your life?
For me, it would have to be Ephesians 1:3-14. In one single sentence (it looks like in the Greek it’s only one sentence!), Paul reveals God's mysterious plan, planned from before the world was created, a plan of such rapturous delight that Paul forgets to take a breath and use any periods! Paul’s writings are always concentrated, but Ephesians 1:3-14 is so concentrated that it’s as dense as a neutron star!
He chants a sevenfold benediction, punctuated by the threefold refrain: "to the praise of the glory of God's grace"- which is a key phrase in Chapter 1. In verse 3 Paul begins with blessing God because He has blessed us. In fact, the whole book of Ephesians is about how God shares Himself with us and how we are to respond to this.
If God is the one who acted first in creating us; if God is the one who acted first to save us, then our every thought, word, and deed ought to begin with God. Yet in so many churches when you hear someone preach or see them on TV they begin with us. I’ve seen commercials on TV for a local church that doesn’t even mention God: it simply says, in effect, “Come to our church because it’s filled with people just like you.”
Verses 3, 6, 12, 14 all mention "to the praise of His glory” because the new cosmos all centers on the glory of God, from beginning to end.
This God who is worthy of all praise has blessed us with "every spiritual blessing" (verse 3). I can scarcely imagine all of the blessings that God has in store for those who know Him, but I do know some of them: true forgiveness for the many ways I have failed Him; comfort in all my trials in this life; unimaginable bliss in the world to come; a life that is more and more conformed to His will, that seeks to please Him and bless Him, and in the process returns blessing to me; and perhaps most of all – His presence with me.
Paul seems to believe that you already have all these gifts, if you are a Christian, for God “has blessed us” with every spiritual blessing.
But if you want to see what Paul saw - God's glorious plan to bless and exalt mankind - though he is sinful and deserves nothing but death - then you must go where St. Paul went. St. Paul did not see this dazzling vision of God's purposes, which are His glory, by standing here on earth. No, he ascended into heaven with Christ and from the heavenly places he saw what I want to see. These divine mysteries can only be gazed at if you recognize with Paul that as Christians, as those upon God has bestowed His name and His inheritance of treasure, you are seated with Christ in the heavenly places.
Let’s go: the vision of God and His eternal plan of salvation is waiting for us.
Ephesians 1:3-14 is one of the best places to learn about the Holy Trinity, for Paul teaches something about the role of each person in God’s incredible plan.
Paul begins with the work of the Father. In verse 1, Paul says that he himself is called by the will of God: it is the will of the Father that is done in God's plan to bless mankind. In verse 2, Paul tells us that it is the Father who has especially blessed us through His Son. And in verse 4 we learn that it was the Father who chose us in him before the foundation of the world. How incredible that God would choose me to be part of His glorious plan for a new world!
It is the Father who destined us in love to be His sons, according to the purpose of His will. Sometimes we think that only the Son or Spirit is love, but it is especially the love of the Father that has made us His sons. Our response, in verse 6, is to praise Him for His glorious grace.
Already, Paul has left me breathless – and there’s more to come!
The eternal will of the Father reaches down to us in history, in our lives, through the Son. We have been adopted as the sons of God (verse 5) only because of the work of God’s only-begotten Son. None of us were born into the family of God: God had to adopt us, which He did through the work of His only natural Son.
It is through the Son that this loving Father has made known to us the mystery of His will (verse 9), and it is in this Son, Jesus Christ, that God is gathering all things into one. This is the work of the New Creation, of making a new world in which God’s creation is able to live with Him again.
God's plan to unite heaven and earth will be done finally in the future, and it comes through the work of the Spirit (verse 10). We must never forget the plan of salvation that is unfolding day by day before our very eyes. Pentecost is past, and the Spirit has already been given; we are in presently in the process of moving closer and closer to the time when all will be done; and one day in the future, earth and heaven will be forever married.
We know that the Father’s loving plan will be fulfilled because we are sealed with the promised Holy Spirit (verse 13). The Father has made many promises to His adopted children – a promise of forgiveness of sins, a promise of eternal life with Him, a promise of a time of heavenly bliss. All of these future realities - which we are in the midst of receiving even now - are sealed by the work of the Spirit in your life. It is the Spirit who guarantees to us that the Father’s loving will is a reality (verse 14).
As a human father, sometimes I make promises I’m unable to keep or that I forget to keep. But through the seal of the Holy Spirit, we can be 100% certain that what the Father has promised will come to pass - that if we have faith and live a life of faith, we will see God's plan of blessing to the end.
How could such a certain promise - of such magnanimous blessing - not result in the praise of the glory of the grace of God?
But all of this incredible plan of God's blessing - salvation - requires something from you. Though it is all the work of God and planned from eternity past and executed by His will through His Son and by His Spirit, you are required to do something.
What could that something be? What could you possibly give God in return for His magnificent, mind-blowing blessings?
In one sense – nothing. You could never repay such an expensive gift. But you can give what God has enabled you to give - you can truly please God by giving Him yourself: body, mind, and soul; thought, word, and deed.
Some people are destined for greatness. I think of Mozart who composed his first symphony when he was 4. But you were destined and appointed - by God - for something much more glorious. You are destined and appointed to live forever for the praise of God's glory.
What can you give God? You can give back the glory He lovingly shared with you. You can live for the praise of His glory. Remember: this is the eternal, ultimate purpose of all things - to bring God glory.
And there is no higher honor in life, no greater purpose, than to participate in God's glory by giving Him glory and praise.
Prayer: Father, I praise You for Your love that planned all things according to Your holy will; Jesus, I praise You that through Your life I have been made a child of God; Spirit, I praise You because You have guaranteed the wonderful promises of the Father to me. Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, I praise You because You have blessed me with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Amen.
Points for Meditation:
1. Go back and read Ephesians 1:3-14, slowly meditating on each phrase and praising God for His blessings to you.
2. Plan to praise God throughout the day today. Find a number of different ways and times to be able to praise Him.
3. Praise the Holy Trinity in slow motion throughout the day. Praise the Father in the morning, the Son in the afternoon, and the Holy Spirit in the evening.
Resolution: I resolve to find ways to praise God throughout the day because of His glorious plan of salvation through which He has blessed me.
© 2008 Fr. Charles Erlandson
In the book of Ephesians, we find that God has let us in on the Greatest Goal of All - to bring blessing to mankind, who does not deserve it. St. Paul’s message is that as a result of God's blessing us, we live in a new cosmos, a new world. We are part of a new reality, a new humanity, and a new society because we are seated in the heavenlies with Christ – all because of God's plan of blessing.
What's the best sentence you’ve ever read in your life?
For me, it would have to be Ephesians 1:3-14. In one single sentence (it looks like in the Greek it’s only one sentence!), Paul reveals God's mysterious plan, planned from before the world was created, a plan of such rapturous delight that Paul forgets to take a breath and use any periods! Paul’s writings are always concentrated, but Ephesians 1:3-14 is so concentrated that it’s as dense as a neutron star!
He chants a sevenfold benediction, punctuated by the threefold refrain: "to the praise of the glory of God's grace"- which is a key phrase in Chapter 1. In verse 3 Paul begins with blessing God because He has blessed us. In fact, the whole book of Ephesians is about how God shares Himself with us and how we are to respond to this.
If God is the one who acted first in creating us; if God is the one who acted first to save us, then our every thought, word, and deed ought to begin with God. Yet in so many churches when you hear someone preach or see them on TV they begin with us. I’ve seen commercials on TV for a local church that doesn’t even mention God: it simply says, in effect, “Come to our church because it’s filled with people just like you.”
Verses 3, 6, 12, 14 all mention "to the praise of His glory” because the new cosmos all centers on the glory of God, from beginning to end.
This God who is worthy of all praise has blessed us with "every spiritual blessing" (verse 3). I can scarcely imagine all of the blessings that God has in store for those who know Him, but I do know some of them: true forgiveness for the many ways I have failed Him; comfort in all my trials in this life; unimaginable bliss in the world to come; a life that is more and more conformed to His will, that seeks to please Him and bless Him, and in the process returns blessing to me; and perhaps most of all – His presence with me.
Paul seems to believe that you already have all these gifts, if you are a Christian, for God “has blessed us” with every spiritual blessing.
But if you want to see what Paul saw - God's glorious plan to bless and exalt mankind - though he is sinful and deserves nothing but death - then you must go where St. Paul went. St. Paul did not see this dazzling vision of God's purposes, which are His glory, by standing here on earth. No, he ascended into heaven with Christ and from the heavenly places he saw what I want to see. These divine mysteries can only be gazed at if you recognize with Paul that as Christians, as those upon God has bestowed His name and His inheritance of treasure, you are seated with Christ in the heavenly places.
Let’s go: the vision of God and His eternal plan of salvation is waiting for us.
Ephesians 1:3-14 is one of the best places to learn about the Holy Trinity, for Paul teaches something about the role of each person in God’s incredible plan.
Paul begins with the work of the Father. In verse 1, Paul says that he himself is called by the will of God: it is the will of the Father that is done in God's plan to bless mankind. In verse 2, Paul tells us that it is the Father who has especially blessed us through His Son. And in verse 4 we learn that it was the Father who chose us in him before the foundation of the world. How incredible that God would choose me to be part of His glorious plan for a new world!
It is the Father who destined us in love to be His sons, according to the purpose of His will. Sometimes we think that only the Son or Spirit is love, but it is especially the love of the Father that has made us His sons. Our response, in verse 6, is to praise Him for His glorious grace.
Already, Paul has left me breathless – and there’s more to come!
The eternal will of the Father reaches down to us in history, in our lives, through the Son. We have been adopted as the sons of God (verse 5) only because of the work of God’s only-begotten Son. None of us were born into the family of God: God had to adopt us, which He did through the work of His only natural Son.
It is through the Son that this loving Father has made known to us the mystery of His will (verse 9), and it is in this Son, Jesus Christ, that God is gathering all things into one. This is the work of the New Creation, of making a new world in which God’s creation is able to live with Him again.
God's plan to unite heaven and earth will be done finally in the future, and it comes through the work of the Spirit (verse 10). We must never forget the plan of salvation that is unfolding day by day before our very eyes. Pentecost is past, and the Spirit has already been given; we are in presently in the process of moving closer and closer to the time when all will be done; and one day in the future, earth and heaven will be forever married.
We know that the Father’s loving plan will be fulfilled because we are sealed with the promised Holy Spirit (verse 13). The Father has made many promises to His adopted children – a promise of forgiveness of sins, a promise of eternal life with Him, a promise of a time of heavenly bliss. All of these future realities - which we are in the midst of receiving even now - are sealed by the work of the Spirit in your life. It is the Spirit who guarantees to us that the Father’s loving will is a reality (verse 14).
As a human father, sometimes I make promises I’m unable to keep or that I forget to keep. But through the seal of the Holy Spirit, we can be 100% certain that what the Father has promised will come to pass - that if we have faith and live a life of faith, we will see God's plan of blessing to the end.
How could such a certain promise - of such magnanimous blessing - not result in the praise of the glory of the grace of God?
But all of this incredible plan of God's blessing - salvation - requires something from you. Though it is all the work of God and planned from eternity past and executed by His will through His Son and by His Spirit, you are required to do something.
What could that something be? What could you possibly give God in return for His magnificent, mind-blowing blessings?
In one sense – nothing. You could never repay such an expensive gift. But you can give what God has enabled you to give - you can truly please God by giving Him yourself: body, mind, and soul; thought, word, and deed.
Some people are destined for greatness. I think of Mozart who composed his first symphony when he was 4. But you were destined and appointed - by God - for something much more glorious. You are destined and appointed to live forever for the praise of God's glory.
What can you give God? You can give back the glory He lovingly shared with you. You can live for the praise of His glory. Remember: this is the eternal, ultimate purpose of all things - to bring God glory.
And there is no higher honor in life, no greater purpose, than to participate in God's glory by giving Him glory and praise.
Prayer: Father, I praise You for Your love that planned all things according to Your holy will; Jesus, I praise You that through Your life I have been made a child of God; Spirit, I praise You because You have guaranteed the wonderful promises of the Father to me. Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, I praise You because You have blessed me with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Amen.
Points for Meditation:
1. Go back and read Ephesians 1:3-14, slowly meditating on each phrase and praising God for His blessings to you.
2. Plan to praise God throughout the day today. Find a number of different ways and times to be able to praise Him.
3. Praise the Holy Trinity in slow motion throughout the day. Praise the Father in the morning, the Son in the afternoon, and the Holy Spirit in the evening.
Resolution: I resolve to find ways to praise God throughout the day because of His glorious plan of salvation through which He has blessed me.
© 2008 Fr. Charles Erlandson
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)