Scripture Reading Ephesians
1:3-14 (From the Message)
3-6 How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He’s the
Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing
in him. Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had
settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love.
Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ.
(What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the
celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.
7-10 Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured
out on the altar of the Cross, we’re a free people—free of penalties and
punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free,
either. Abundantly free! He thought of everything, provided for
everything we could possibly need, letting us in on the plans he took such
delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in
which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in
deepest heaven, everything on planet earth.
11-12 It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we
are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he
had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall
purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.
13-14 It’s in Christ that you, once you heard the truth and
believed it (this Message of your salvation), found yourselves home
free—signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit. This down payment from
God is the first installment on what’s coming, a reminder that we’ll get
everything God has planned for us, a praising and glorious life.
Here ends this reading of the Word of God for the People of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.
The
Letter to the churches in Ephesus was written to be passed around. During the
days of the early church, each letter received by fledgling Christian
communities was copied several times and then shared with other church
communities. In the letters, individuals were greeted, local church conflicts
were addressed, and more general teachings were shared that applied to all
Christians.
The
letter we read from today was not written just for the churches at Ephesus, but
was intended to be instructive for all of the newly minted Christian churches.
In this letter, Paul writes about how all Christians (not just those who used
to be Jewish or used to be Gentiles) are the benefactors of the blessings of
God.
The
letters sent to the early churches were written to encourage new Christians who
chose to follow Christ. Many of these
new Christians had to reject their prior faith, reject their family traditions,
and reject their cultural traditions to follow God. Christians were at risk of getting arrested
or imprisoned at the whim of the government.
Many of the first churches were in areas controlled by the Roman Empire,
a government that was threatened by unpredictable new faiths. And, the Roman government was suspicious of
their Jewish residents – they knew Christianity was an offshoot of Judaism, so
Christians were suppressed at various times alongside their Jewish brothers and
sisters.
In
our letter this morning, we are called to recognize that our lives have been
transformed by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. We are transformed by
our faith in how we understand ourselves and how we live our lives. Through Jesus’ life and ministry, we have
been brought spiritual blessings and forgiveness of sins. All people who become Christians are adopted
as God’s people. And we are especially
“marked” as God’s special people – in a version of the scripture we heard at
Tuesday’s Bible study, we heard we are now “stamped’ with God’s mark. All people of faith are God’s chosen people
and we are stamped with a seal of approval by God’s Holy Spirit.
I
love this image. We are “stamped’ with a mark of the approval of God. And, we
are all adopted as children of God. We don’t have to be born into a Christian
family. We don’t have to be born on the right side of the tracks. We don’t have
to be any particular ethnicity or racial group or sexual orientation. We don’t
have to go do the right schools or have a zillion degrees or have the Bible
memorized or pray eight times a day. We
are stamped with the mark of the approval of God. We are all adopted into the
family of Christ. And, together with other Christians, we are working together
to implement God’s purpose for the world.
Even
though the letters we read in our New Testament were written to offer hope to
Christians who lived almost Two-thousand years ago, the words penned in this
letter are good news for us today.
We
are the beneficiaries of a special relationship with God. God loves us and
forgives us when we fall short. God sent God’s son Jesus to teach us how to
more closely follow God’s teachings. God shares God’s Holy Spirit with us here
and now. The Holy Spirit encourages us,
supports us and sustains us when we need an extra nudge and when we are feeling
afraid. Though our faith, we are guaranteed salvation after we live life on
earth. God will welcome us home with open arms. People need to know that
nothing we can do is so awful that God will not forgive us and love us. And,
God’s Holy Spirit advocates for us and keeps us going when times are tough.
We
are stamped with God’s seal of approval.
Let’s
live like we believe it. Thanks be to God. Amen.
** Our artwork comes from the "Adoption panel - Nob Hill, Grace Cathedral - Old Testament Children's Doors" The metal sculture was made by Bruce Moore and completed in 1964. **
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