ALL the Saints
This is the sermon I preached on All Saints' Sunday, 11/3/19 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church. The text was Ephesians 1:11-23.
On All Saints’ [Sun]day, it is
not just the saints of the church that we remember in our prayers, but all the
foolish ones and wise ones, the shy ones and overbearing ones, the broken ones
and whole ones, the despots and tosspots and crackpots of our lives who, one
way or another, have been our particular fathers and mothers and saints, and
whom we loved without knowing we loved them and by whom we were helped to
whatever little we may have, or ever hope to have, of some kind of seedy
sainthood of our own [says Frederick Buechner in The Sacred Journey].
Today’s second reading is telling us that all we need to know to be a saint we find in Christ.
The fabulous, flowing language sweeps us away as we hear
about all the wonderful things Paul asks God to do for the saints of Ephesus. This
letter was meant to be circulated to other churches as well as the church at
Ephesus. This message is meant for us today as well.
The phrase "in Christ" begins this reading and
runs throughout it. That relationship of the believer to our Lord is the foundation
of our faith and the glue that holds it together. Everything for us begins and
ends in Christ.
In this relationship, there are four things Paul wanted the
churches to know and God wants us to know:
First, in Christ we
have hope (vv. 17-18).
Second, in Christ, we
have power (vv. 19-20).
Third, in Christ, we
have victory (vv. 21-22) and
Fourth in Christ, we
have fullness (v. 23)
God wants us to know that in Christ we have hope (vv. 17-18).This
hope is rooted in the knowledge of God; coming from the "spirit of wisdom
and revelation" for which Paul prayed.
Revelation was not Paul’s main concern here. All kinds of
people will tell us crazy things that are contrary to scripture and good
judgment, things that God supposedly told them to do out of some revelation
that they received of so-called truth. Notice that the prayer for revelation is
coupled with prayer for wisdom. They belong together. Revelation without the
wisdom of discernment will lead us into all kinds of trouble.
God wants all of us to have a personal, experiential
relationship with him. We are underestimating God when we think knowledge about
God is all that there is to the Christian life.
Before I was a parent, I thought I knew everything I needed
to about raising children. Seeing how other people's children behaved, I knew
that MY children would never do that!
It wasn't until I became a parent that I could fully understand the joy and angst of raising children.
God wants us to know that in Christ, we have power (vv.
19-20). And what kind of power is Paul
talking about? This is a power of “immeasurable or extraordinary greatness” for
us. It is the power that raised Jesus from the dead. It is the power that
brings life to death and strength to the weak.
Power is so important for God's people that it is mentioned
four times, in one single verse. How great is that power? It is immeasurably
great.
We get our word dynamite from the first word for power,
which is also used later concerning Christ’s reign “far above all rule and
authority and power” (v. 21). The second is power at work, harnessed energy,
resurrection power. The presence of significant power—manifest power regards
the third occurrence of power. Strength, whether physical or moral is the
fourth appearance of the Greek for power. Basically, Paul is talking a lot
about lots of kinds of power.
Have we ever been in situations that make us feel powerless
as if we had no choice in what was happening around us? There was a time in my
life when I felt I had no power concerning my health, my finances or my family.
Everything was falling apart and it seemed there was nothing I could do. I felt
like a victim. However, it is not in our own strength and determination, but in
Christ that we have the power that raises us above the issues we're dealing
with.
We can only understand what the real intent of faith is
when we come together as a church in God's power to carry out our mission in
the world around us. Our call to be salt and light, to bear witness to God's
mighty power to bring justice, hope and love to a broken world is beyond our
own strength. In Christ's power, we can be and do all God has called us to.
God wants us to know that in Christ we have victory (vv.
21-22). Although circumstances around us may seem to declare the opposite, we
live under the promise that no matter how bad things get, God's ultimate
victory is certain. As author John Jewell wrote, "We live under the
promise of the resurrection, the power of God within the community of faith and
the affirmation that 'all things' [not some things] have been put under the
feet of Christ who is, 'head over all {things} to the church'" (John
Jewell, lectionarysermons.com). The certainty of God's victory in the long term
empowers our life of faith in the short term.
While working on this sermon, in the background the song
“The Voice of Truth,” sung by Casting Crowns was being played. It speaks to the
struggles we experience and then goes to this refrain:
But the voice of truth
tells me a different story.
The voice of truth
says, “Do not be afraid!”
The voice of truth
says, “This is for My glory”
Out of all the voices
calling out to me
I will choose to listen
and believe the voice of truth.
(Songwriters: Steven
Curtis Chapman/Mark Hall, recorded by Casting Crowns)
Finally, God wants us to know that in Christ we have
fullness (v. 23). What is meant by this word? Jesus brings completeness and
maturity to our lives as we abide in Him. This is not any old relationship. It
is not a “Jesus and me” fullness for us individually, but one we experience as
part of the body of Christ. In the church, the body of Christ is "the [completion]
of him who fills all in all" (v. 23b).
The Apostle Paul's prayer in Ephesians shows us God's
design for his church. In Christ, we have hope, power, victory and fullness. However, we live in the now/not yet
of the kingdom of God. We possess the Holy Spirit now, a guarantee that God
will give us the balance of the promised blessings in the future, the not yet.
We live in a broken world. Many Christians throughout the
ages have found themselves opposing kings, rulers and governments. We sometimes
forget that confessing Christ as “Lord” was a political statement in Paul’s
day. We tend to spiritualize scripture and miss the political messages. In the
first century, to say that Christ was Lord meant that Caesar was not Lord. That
was dangerous, seditious talk and could lead to prison or death.
Today as people of God, we need to decide with whom we are
aligned. Is it with the government whether right or wrong? Yes, we are Americans
and we love and appreciate our country, but it doesn’t mean that everything
that Washington declares is right. Our ultimate allegiance needs to be to the
Lord Jesus and his church, which doesn’t make us un-American. If it’s a matter of
faithfulness to the country or Christ, we better choose Christ. That was the
problem in Nazi Germany. Most of the churches caved into becoming tools of the
Third Reich, with the exception of a group of faithful churches, called the
Confessing Church, which included such people as Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Living as God's church, with Christ as our head demonstrates
our openness to God, to each other and to the cries of a broken world. Others
will enter into this reality by experiencing our life together. Do people see
the fullness of Christ in our worship and in our lives? If not, why not?
We have this amazing treasure in Christ. Right here, right
now, we are all living this life as God’s
saints, doing God’s work with our hands and feet because God has freed
us and gifted us to do so. Let's not keep God’s gifts in a box all to
ourselves. Let God loose in our lives,
our church and our world, just as the saints who came before us did. What a
difference that will make!
Amen.
Resources
Richard
Niell Donovan, sermonwriter.com
John
Jewell, lectionarysermons.com
Norma
Malfatti, Midweek Musings, Upstate NY Synod
New English Translation, notes
Mark
Tranvik, workingpreacher.org
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