Ephesians 1:1-14; John 14:25-27
Today begins a four-part series on the book of Ephesians with verses selected by the Narrative Lectionary, a resource which is developed by Luther Seminary to be a little more comprehensive than the three-year Revised Common Lectionary. While this may take us off the common path of those who are guided by the Revised Common Lectionary, there are a few other congregations in our presbytery – and many others in various flavors of the Reformed tradition of followers of the way of Jesus – that use the Narrative Lectionary as well.Given that we are using selected verses of Ephesians over the next few weeks, I would like to encourage you to consider reading the book of Ephesians and any kind of commentary or study Bible notes that you have access to along the way. It’s only about six chapters, and it may give you greater insight than I can give you just to read your Bible and see what the Spirit encourages in you through it.
That said, I do want to call your attention to Ephesians 2:8-10, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what God has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” That passage is not one of the prescribed readings, but it is a great summary of the whole book and a verse that is well worth reflecting on as we study this book, which is really a letter, which is really a treatise on the basics of Christian faith.
One of the first things you are likely to learn is that the Letter to the Ephesians is not considered by many scholars to have been written by Paul, but rather in the style of Paul, which was not an uncommon practice for that time. It’s also unclear if this letter was written to the church in Ephesus or if it was more of a general letter advising communities of the basics of the Christian faith. Mostly that’s because the letter does not address a particular conflict like in Corinthians or that letter to those “silly Galatians,” and so it’s not a stretch to think that this is more like a collection of faith statements to encourage young congregations as they shared it and read it aloud in their assemblies.
Now, before we dive in, I want you to cast your memory back to some time in the past when you jumped in a pool or a lake or somewhere that made you hold your breath. I’m betting that it was a time and a place that you felt safe because holding your breath and going underwater is actually kind of risky. I also want you to feel that same feeling here and now because we’re jumping into some pretty heavy doctrine today and I want you to feel safe enough to ask questions of the text as you think on these things in the days to come.
That may sound a bit odd to you, especially if you are someone who has not really questioned some of the basic doctrines of faith in the past. Maybe you don’t feel the need to do that, but there are many people in the world who find the doctrines of the Christian faith to be disconnected from – and irrelevant in the face of – the experience of pain and suffering in the world. Meanwhile, the loudest voices in Christianity are shouting more about the preservation of their way of life than they are about the proclamation of the one who came to show us how to live.
It’s really no wonder that so many people are confused and angry and wondering why the church seems to care more about personal salvation than about faithful living. Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to browbeat this congregation. We do a lot of great stuff in our community and around the world through our mission partners and our denomination. The Presbyterian Church (USA) is very committed to social advocacy and stewardship of the earth. If you can think of an issue, we probably have a committee for it and some of them are even effectively working for change.
What I am talking about is a more general perspective on the church. I’m talking about conversations I have with people who are not members of the church. I’m talking about posts on Tik Tok that get thousands of likes by making a pretty good case for the fact that modern Christianity, as it is generally understood, assumes historical inaccuracies as facts and ignores empirically proven data when it comes in conflict with scripture.
I’m not going to try to solve that today, but I think we need to hear those concerns as we reflect on our faith and how we communicate it with others. As people of the Reformed faith, the first thing we do is to look to scripture as our guide. I should probably note here that what we tend to say about scripture is that it is the story of faith written by people and guided by the Holy Spirit of God. The Bible helps us understand who God is, who we are as God’s creatures, and what our relationships should be about; and so we say that it is God’s authoritative and sufficient word for us and for our salvation.
Hmm. Take a deep breath. Let it out slow. Salvation from what? This is one of those places that we need to take the whole message of the Bible into consideration, but the simple answer is sin. An archaic perspective would say that we are saved from the wrath of God, but a broad view of human history says that we need more saving from ourselves than we do from the God who loves us. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.”
Ok, let’s talk about that gift and the work of God’s Spirit in the words that we have read and shared today in the book of Ephesians:
Verse 1 starts off with a greeting that reminds them who they are as the “saints” or “sanctified ones” and the authority of the person greeting them.
Verses 2-3 tell them the source of forgiveness. Grace and peace are from God, so blessing and honor are given to God.
Verses 4-5 remind them that not only is their salvation God’s choice, but it was a choice God made before the choice to form the formless void of creation.
Verses 6-8 assure them that this choice means that through Christ they have been adopted into the household and family of God.
Verses 9-10 tells them that because they are in this family of choice they now see behind the curtain and have been assured that salvation is not just for them but for all of creation!
Verses 11-14 assure them that this adoption includes a share in the family inheritance. They can expect to be included in God’s invitation to all of creation, and that promise is sealed by the active presence of God in their midst.
Wow. That’s a lot to take in. That’s a lot to wonder about and question, but it starts with a basic assumption that we are not alone in the universe and that the universe itself was built with the expectation that we silly humans would need God’s involvement to figure out how to get along.
I used to wonder about that as a child. In fact, one of the earliest questions of faith I can remember was wondering why God no longer performed miracles the way that God did in the Old Testament. As an adult, I hear people asking the same questions, but also asking what it might mean if God never did any of those miracles in the first place.
The simple answer is that it’s a matter of faith and belief. A more complex answer is to say that stories always point to greater truths. The greater truth is that we did not get here on our own. The greater truth is that there are patterns throughout creation that speak of God’s intention and God’s whimsy and God’s willingness to fail through trial and error, but the biggest risk God took was in creating us and trusting us to care for the earth and for one another.
Somehow we decided that we were all alone, or that God only wants to bless our good deeds and punish our failures. Somehow we decided that salvation was in our hands and that it was up to each of us to save ourselves. Somehow we forgot that God is as close as our breath and even dancing to the rhythms of our beating hearts. Somehow we keep forgetting this, yet somehow our faith in God and our experience of God’s active presence in the Christian community reminds us again and again and again that we are not alone.
I’ll close by saying that it is only the experience of God’s active presence that confirms what the scriptures reveal to us today – salvation is found when we come to understand that love and forgiveness are for us, but only in so much as they open us to the work of God to “gather all things into God.” Where this work becomes too much to bear, we can trust in God’s active presence and the peace promised through our faith in Christ.
We’ll pick up on the expectation of peace next week, as we continue to work through some of these basic articles of faith. I look forward to hearing from you about the work of the Holy Spirit in your life in the days and weeks to come...and all to the glory of God. Now and always. Amen!
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