ASHBURNHAM SESSION 2a - PHILIP MOUNSTEPHEN
Ashburnham Session 2a : Revelation & Power
Ephesians 1: 3-14
I guess if I started my sermon with the words 'Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin' you'd either feel I was treating you like children, or you'd be pleased because I was going to tell you a story. For myself, if I heard a preacher start like that then I'd be glad, because I love stories. I love reading them, and I love listening to them. Stories can excite us, grip us, move us, shape us and change us in a way few other things can..
Stories can be very powerful things. Let me give you an example: take the case of Israel where in recent years there has been such terrible blood shed between Jew and Arab. Why should there be such tension between people who live side by side in the same country? It's because both sides see themselves as part of totally different stories. A Jew in Israel would say to you, 'My people have suffered terrible prejudice and hatred, and we have finally come back to where we belong, to the land that is ours by right. But even here we still suffer at the hands of terrorists, and we cannot give in to them or they will push us off this land into the sea.' That's the story they tell, but a Palestinian will say to you, 'My father, and my grandfather, and my great grandfather have always lived in this land, they built houses here, and farmed land here, but then these Jews came and took our land away from us, and made us refugees, and treated us as second class citizens within our own land'.'
Those are stories that Jew and Arab see themselves as a part of, those are the stories that have powerfully shaped the way they see themselves. And you find the same kind of thing in every place of conflict - in Darfur, in Iraq, in Ulster. But it doesn't just go on in places of conflict. Most of the ideologies that at different times people have followed - all those words that end in -ism like fascism, and feminism, and communism - all of them in one sense are stories that people use to explain how things are in the world. Communism told a story about a world-wide class struggle that was going to bring in a universal workers' proletariat. In the days of imperialism in this country we told ourselves a story about how Britannia rules the waves, and how through our own national -and racial superiority we were able to bring stability and civilisation to the savages. Different – but similar story in France....
Now it's easy to be critical of many of those stories, but the truth is we all see ourselves to some extent as having a part in a story. We may not feel they're very exciting, but these stories we see ourselves in are important to us because they help us understand ourselves and our situation, and the world we live in.'
But it's vitally important that we get a right understanding of ourselves our situation and the world we live in. We can see all too clearly in Israel and Ulster and Rwanda what happens when people come up with the wrong answers. No, we need to see things as they really are - which means we need to listen to the right story, to the true story.
And that is what God's Good News, the gospel, claims to be - the right story, the true story, the only story that will give us a right understanding of ourselves our situation and the world we live in. And it's that story that we see sketched out for us in our passage from Ephesians that we're going to be looking at together this morning. And this story is important for us because it's this story – and no other that defines the Church as the people of God. It's our story.
It's a story with three major characters in it. And it's a story that Paul gets very excited about. In Gk. Vv 3-13 are just one long sentence - and words just tumble out of Paul in his passionate enthusiasm for the story of God's good news.
To says it's passionate, however, is not to say that it's disorganised or incoherent. There's a clear pattern in what Paul says. He deals with each of our three main characters in turn, describing what part God the Father, Jesus the Son and his Holy Spirit have had to play in this unfolding story. And he concludes each part with what is in Gk. an identical call to us to praise God who is Father Son and Spirit - to praise them for their part in the story, & you can see those three calls to praise in vv. 6, 12 & 14.
So let's look at each character in turn. We start with God the Father: let's hear his part in the story again in vv. 3 - 6a [ ]. We're to praise the Father for two reasons. First he has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. We'll see what those blessings are as we work through the passage - but just note how lavish our God is in his generosity: he has blessed us... with every spiritual blessing in Christ. He doesn't hold back, he's extravagant in what he gives. It's in his nature to go over the top - not just a few spiritual blessings - but every one in the heavenly realms has been given to us.
Secondly we're to praise the Father for one very significant blessing: vv. 4 & 5 [ ]. This story starts with God the Father. It's not just that he's the first character to set foot on the stage - he's the one who built the stage in the first place. He's the one who sets the story in motion, he initiated it, he made the first move by choosing us to be his even before the creation of the world. Isn't that an amazing thought? That you and I have been in God's plan, his story, since before the creation of the world. He's always had it mind to make you and me his children. We've not stepped into the story when it's already been running for few millennia - no, because the Father loves us, he chose us to be his from the very beginning. Doesn't that make you feel good - knowing you've been personally chosen to be his child? I hope it does. It should make us together feel good that together we've been chosen to be his children, his church.
It should also make us humble. We've been chosen to be his children not because we're special, but because (v. 4) he loves us. And it should also make us holy - that's why we've been chosen (v. 4 again) - he chose us to be holy and blameless in his sight. And he chose us finally so that he should be praised (v. 6). The story that starts in the love of the Father, who reaches out to us in love and chooses us and makes us his own, ends in our response of praise and thanks to the Father. And those are key markers of the church: humility, holiness and worship.
So God the Father starts the story by choosing us and blessing us. And the person through whom he chooses and blesses us is of course his Son Jesus: vv 7 -10 [ ]. When we think about Jesus' place in this story - the story that the Father has started, we're not to think so much of the beginning, but of two different points. One point is the key point right in the centre of the story, the climax up to which all the story so far has been leading. And the second point is the very end of the story, when there's no more story to tell.
Let's look at each point in turn. That key point in the middle of the story is of course the Cross. It's on the cross that we find (v. 7) redemption through his blood and forgiveness of our sins. Behind the word redemption there's the idea of setting slaves free by paying a price for them. And that of course is exactly what Christ did on the cross. He set us free from the slavery of sin and death: the slavery to every evil force which enchained us, paying the price with his own blood. And because the price is paid, we can enjoy the Father's forgiveness.
And what do we find at the end of the story? There we find a mystery revealed (v.9) Something once secret has been made public. To us who believe has been revealed the secret of what will happen at the very end of time (v. 10): 'all things in heaven and on earth' will be brought together 'under one head, even Christ.' One day every knee shall bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. That's how the story ends. In this story we know the ending before it's happened – and that's the revelation in the title of this session.
And in between the cross and that moment when Christ will be fully known as Lord stands Paul and his fellow Jewish believers: v. 11 [ ]. Paul could have seen himself in a different story - a story that took him from his prison, possibly to death in Rome. But that's not the story that matters - all that's put in the shade by the fact that he has a part in the only story that counts: he's been chosen, hand picked by the Lord. And he's been chosen for a reason: v. 12 [ ].
So just as what the Father has done should lead to his praise, so what the Son has done should lead to his praise too. It's quickly becoming clear to us that our part, our role in the story is not only to be on the receiving end of these great things the Lord has done and is doing for us. Our specific part, our specific role, is to praise him for them – and that's the only response we can really make.
I said a moment ago that Paul and his fellow Jewish believers stand between the cross and that moment when Christ will be fully known as Lord - but they don't stand there alone. We stand there too, with them: vv. 13 - 14 [ ]. We too stand between the climax of the story - at the cross - and the culmination of the story when all things are put under Jesus' feet. We stand in between. You see remarkably we have a place in this story. I said earlier that there are three main characters in the story: the Father, the Son and the Spirit And there are – but the remarkable things is that these three characters invite to participate i the story as well. [Mary Poppins pavement pictures....]
We're invited into the story. We have a place in it. But sometimes the climax of the story can seem a long way in the past, and sometimes the culmination of the story can seem a long way in the future, and sometimes may be we doubt whether it's a true story at all, or was it just a beautiful dream?
Well because life can be like that we've been give the third of the three main characters - the Holy Spirit. As the Father has blessed us and chosen us, and as, in the Son, he has redeemed us and revealed the future to us, so he given us the Spirit both to seal us and to reassure us, as we read just now. God has given his Spirit to us both to tell us that we belong to him, and to assure us about what the future holds.
The Spirit is God's seal on us - that's to say, the Spirit is God's mark of ownership on us. In ancient times cattle and even slaves were branded with a seal to show who they belonged to. Well the Holy Spirit is God's brand, his stamp of ownership on each one of us. To have God's spirit within us is to be assured that we belong to him. Through the cross we've been set free, and by the Spirit we're marked as God's own. The Spirit guarantees us that we have a place in God's story.
And the Spirit is also a guarantee of what's to come. The Spirit if you like is a downpayment - a deposit - assuring us that the full package of God's blessings will be given to us at the end of time. But more than that God's Holy Spirit is a foretaste of what's to come. The blessings of heaven will be beyond our wildest dreams - but they will be recognisable to us, because through the gift of the Spirit we have already had a foretaste of them. Standing as we are in the middle of the story, the Spirit assures us that the end will come - & that we have a part in that end.
It's a great story isn't it? But you might be wondering why I told it to you. 'We know that already,' you might say, 'we don't need you to come in and preach it to us.' Well no you don't. But whether or not you know it, it's always worth hearing it again, because there's always more to discover in it.
But the particular reason I've sketched out this story again for us, is that we need to ensure that this story continues to shape us: to mould our thinking, our believing and our behaving. That's why it's at the beginning of Ephesians - it sets the agenda for all that's to follow. And I want to issue three brief challenges to us, as to how this story should shape us, and set our agenda for us as well.
First it must shape us individually. We need to see ourselves as having a place within this story. We're not just readers of it, but, astonishingly characters in it. We need to know that the blessings that God has given, the things God has done - he has given to us individually, he has done for us personally. There's is nothing more important for us to know than that we have been adopted as a child of God, and nothing will give us a greater sense of identity, of assurance, of security and of purpose than knowing that we are individually loved and cherished by our Father, redeemed through the Son, and sealed with the Spirit. So if you're a Christian see yourself as part of that story, delight to have a part in it - and then praise God for it.
Secondly this story should shape our Churches. We need to ensure that this story really is the story of the church we belong to. In Paris we've recently been through Ephesians – and we did that because I think we'd lost sight of what our true story is. We were starting to tell ourselves a different kind of story – one that went like this: we've been through a rough time in the last couple of years. Relationships have been damaged, trust has been strained, we've struggled to get by. And you know all those things were true. But they were in danger of becoming the dominating truth in the church's life, the dominating story, that was in danger of making us forget this story: this story that truly defines us. So we needed reminding of the true story that truly defines us. We needed to bring it back into centre stage of our life and thinking and believing and praying – and we've needed to rediscover our central calling – to be people of thankfulness and praise who worship God for this story.
And finally we must ensure that this story shapes our world. The story of God's good news is not a story just for individuals, it's not just a narrow thing for Churches, it's for communities, it's for society, it's for nations, it's for the universe. God's story is a universal story, that enfolds everything and everyone. To be the Church is to be caught up already into the story that will one day be the story of the whole universe. And our job is to work to see the universe - or at least our little part of it - our place of work, our home, our school, our community - shaped by this story, incorporated into this story, our job is to see Christ given his rightful place, with all things - work, home, school, community, nations continents - all things in heaven and on earth under him as head. Our job is to see him exalted - and then to join together to praise him. Let's pray
Wnat to give you space as individuals to reflect on this story together. Find space. Ask self three questions:
● What story do you tell about yourself?
● Do you see this story as your story?
● If not, what are the barriers to you doing so?
Ephesians 1: 3-14
I guess if I started my sermon with the words 'Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin' you'd either feel I was treating you like children, or you'd be pleased because I was going to tell you a story. For myself, if I heard a preacher start like that then I'd be glad, because I love stories. I love reading them, and I love listening to them. Stories can excite us, grip us, move us, shape us and change us in a way few other things can..
Stories can be very powerful things. Let me give you an example: take the case of Israel where in recent years there has been such terrible blood shed between Jew and Arab. Why should there be such tension between people who live side by side in the same country? It's because both sides see themselves as part of totally different stories. A Jew in Israel would say to you, 'My people have suffered terrible prejudice and hatred, and we have finally come back to where we belong, to the land that is ours by right. But even here we still suffer at the hands of terrorists, and we cannot give in to them or they will push us off this land into the sea.' That's the story they tell, but a Palestinian will say to you, 'My father, and my grandfather, and my great grandfather have always lived in this land, they built houses here, and farmed land here, but then these Jews came and took our land away from us, and made us refugees, and treated us as second class citizens within our own land'.'
Those are stories that Jew and Arab see themselves as a part of, those are the stories that have powerfully shaped the way they see themselves. And you find the same kind of thing in every place of conflict - in Darfur, in Iraq, in Ulster. But it doesn't just go on in places of conflict. Most of the ideologies that at different times people have followed - all those words that end in -ism like fascism, and feminism, and communism - all of them in one sense are stories that people use to explain how things are in the world. Communism told a story about a world-wide class struggle that was going to bring in a universal workers' proletariat. In the days of imperialism in this country we told ourselves a story about how Britannia rules the waves, and how through our own national -and racial superiority we were able to bring stability and civilisation to the savages. Different – but similar story in France....
Now it's easy to be critical of many of those stories, but the truth is we all see ourselves to some extent as having a part in a story. We may not feel they're very exciting, but these stories we see ourselves in are important to us because they help us understand ourselves and our situation, and the world we live in.'
But it's vitally important that we get a right understanding of ourselves our situation and the world we live in. We can see all too clearly in Israel and Ulster and Rwanda what happens when people come up with the wrong answers. No, we need to see things as they really are - which means we need to listen to the right story, to the true story.
And that is what God's Good News, the gospel, claims to be - the right story, the true story, the only story that will give us a right understanding of ourselves our situation and the world we live in. And it's that story that we see sketched out for us in our passage from Ephesians that we're going to be looking at together this morning. And this story is important for us because it's this story – and no other that defines the Church as the people of God. It's our story.
It's a story with three major characters in it. And it's a story that Paul gets very excited about. In Gk. Vv 3-13 are just one long sentence - and words just tumble out of Paul in his passionate enthusiasm for the story of God's good news.
To says it's passionate, however, is not to say that it's disorganised or incoherent. There's a clear pattern in what Paul says. He deals with each of our three main characters in turn, describing what part God the Father, Jesus the Son and his Holy Spirit have had to play in this unfolding story. And he concludes each part with what is in Gk. an identical call to us to praise God who is Father Son and Spirit - to praise them for their part in the story, & you can see those three calls to praise in vv. 6, 12 & 14.
So let's look at each character in turn. We start with God the Father: let's hear his part in the story again in vv. 3 - 6a [ ]. We're to praise the Father for two reasons. First he has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. We'll see what those blessings are as we work through the passage - but just note how lavish our God is in his generosity: he has blessed us... with every spiritual blessing in Christ. He doesn't hold back, he's extravagant in what he gives. It's in his nature to go over the top - not just a few spiritual blessings - but every one in the heavenly realms has been given to us.
Secondly we're to praise the Father for one very significant blessing: vv. 4 & 5 [ ]. This story starts with God the Father. It's not just that he's the first character to set foot on the stage - he's the one who built the stage in the first place. He's the one who sets the story in motion, he initiated it, he made the first move by choosing us to be his even before the creation of the world. Isn't that an amazing thought? That you and I have been in God's plan, his story, since before the creation of the world. He's always had it mind to make you and me his children. We've not stepped into the story when it's already been running for few millennia - no, because the Father loves us, he chose us to be his from the very beginning. Doesn't that make you feel good - knowing you've been personally chosen to be his child? I hope it does. It should make us together feel good that together we've been chosen to be his children, his church.
It should also make us humble. We've been chosen to be his children not because we're special, but because (v. 4) he loves us. And it should also make us holy - that's why we've been chosen (v. 4 again) - he chose us to be holy and blameless in his sight. And he chose us finally so that he should be praised (v. 6). The story that starts in the love of the Father, who reaches out to us in love and chooses us and makes us his own, ends in our response of praise and thanks to the Father. And those are key markers of the church: humility, holiness and worship.
So God the Father starts the story by choosing us and blessing us. And the person through whom he chooses and blesses us is of course his Son Jesus: vv 7 -10 [ ]. When we think about Jesus' place in this story - the story that the Father has started, we're not to think so much of the beginning, but of two different points. One point is the key point right in the centre of the story, the climax up to which all the story so far has been leading. And the second point is the very end of the story, when there's no more story to tell.
Let's look at each point in turn. That key point in the middle of the story is of course the Cross. It's on the cross that we find (v. 7) redemption through his blood and forgiveness of our sins. Behind the word redemption there's the idea of setting slaves free by paying a price for them. And that of course is exactly what Christ did on the cross. He set us free from the slavery of sin and death: the slavery to every evil force which enchained us, paying the price with his own blood. And because the price is paid, we can enjoy the Father's forgiveness.
And what do we find at the end of the story? There we find a mystery revealed (v.9) Something once secret has been made public. To us who believe has been revealed the secret of what will happen at the very end of time (v. 10): 'all things in heaven and on earth' will be brought together 'under one head, even Christ.' One day every knee shall bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. That's how the story ends. In this story we know the ending before it's happened – and that's the revelation in the title of this session.
And in between the cross and that moment when Christ will be fully known as Lord stands Paul and his fellow Jewish believers: v. 11 [ ]. Paul could have seen himself in a different story - a story that took him from his prison, possibly to death in Rome. But that's not the story that matters - all that's put in the shade by the fact that he has a part in the only story that counts: he's been chosen, hand picked by the Lord. And he's been chosen for a reason: v. 12 [ ].
So just as what the Father has done should lead to his praise, so what the Son has done should lead to his praise too. It's quickly becoming clear to us that our part, our role in the story is not only to be on the receiving end of these great things the Lord has done and is doing for us. Our specific part, our specific role, is to praise him for them – and that's the only response we can really make.
I said a moment ago that Paul and his fellow Jewish believers stand between the cross and that moment when Christ will be fully known as Lord - but they don't stand there alone. We stand there too, with them: vv. 13 - 14 [ ]. We too stand between the climax of the story - at the cross - and the culmination of the story when all things are put under Jesus' feet. We stand in between. You see remarkably we have a place in this story. I said earlier that there are three main characters in the story: the Father, the Son and the Spirit And there are – but the remarkable things is that these three characters invite to participate i the story as well. [Mary Poppins pavement pictures....]
We're invited into the story. We have a place in it. But sometimes the climax of the story can seem a long way in the past, and sometimes the culmination of the story can seem a long way in the future, and sometimes may be we doubt whether it's a true story at all, or was it just a beautiful dream?
Well because life can be like that we've been give the third of the three main characters - the Holy Spirit. As the Father has blessed us and chosen us, and as, in the Son, he has redeemed us and revealed the future to us, so he given us the Spirit both to seal us and to reassure us, as we read just now. God has given his Spirit to us both to tell us that we belong to him, and to assure us about what the future holds.
The Spirit is God's seal on us - that's to say, the Spirit is God's mark of ownership on us. In ancient times cattle and even slaves were branded with a seal to show who they belonged to. Well the Holy Spirit is God's brand, his stamp of ownership on each one of us. To have God's spirit within us is to be assured that we belong to him. Through the cross we've been set free, and by the Spirit we're marked as God's own. The Spirit guarantees us that we have a place in God's story.
And the Spirit is also a guarantee of what's to come. The Spirit if you like is a downpayment - a deposit - assuring us that the full package of God's blessings will be given to us at the end of time. But more than that God's Holy Spirit is a foretaste of what's to come. The blessings of heaven will be beyond our wildest dreams - but they will be recognisable to us, because through the gift of the Spirit we have already had a foretaste of them. Standing as we are in the middle of the story, the Spirit assures us that the end will come - & that we have a part in that end.
It's a great story isn't it? But you might be wondering why I told it to you. 'We know that already,' you might say, 'we don't need you to come in and preach it to us.' Well no you don't. But whether or not you know it, it's always worth hearing it again, because there's always more to discover in it.
But the particular reason I've sketched out this story again for us, is that we need to ensure that this story continues to shape us: to mould our thinking, our believing and our behaving. That's why it's at the beginning of Ephesians - it sets the agenda for all that's to follow. And I want to issue three brief challenges to us, as to how this story should shape us, and set our agenda for us as well.
First it must shape us individually. We need to see ourselves as having a place within this story. We're not just readers of it, but, astonishingly characters in it. We need to know that the blessings that God has given, the things God has done - he has given to us individually, he has done for us personally. There's is nothing more important for us to know than that we have been adopted as a child of God, and nothing will give us a greater sense of identity, of assurance, of security and of purpose than knowing that we are individually loved and cherished by our Father, redeemed through the Son, and sealed with the Spirit. So if you're a Christian see yourself as part of that story, delight to have a part in it - and then praise God for it.
Secondly this story should shape our Churches. We need to ensure that this story really is the story of the church we belong to. In Paris we've recently been through Ephesians – and we did that because I think we'd lost sight of what our true story is. We were starting to tell ourselves a different kind of story – one that went like this: we've been through a rough time in the last couple of years. Relationships have been damaged, trust has been strained, we've struggled to get by. And you know all those things were true. But they were in danger of becoming the dominating truth in the church's life, the dominating story, that was in danger of making us forget this story: this story that truly defines us. So we needed reminding of the true story that truly defines us. We needed to bring it back into centre stage of our life and thinking and believing and praying – and we've needed to rediscover our central calling – to be people of thankfulness and praise who worship God for this story.
And finally we must ensure that this story shapes our world. The story of God's good news is not a story just for individuals, it's not just a narrow thing for Churches, it's for communities, it's for society, it's for nations, it's for the universe. God's story is a universal story, that enfolds everything and everyone. To be the Church is to be caught up already into the story that will one day be the story of the whole universe. And our job is to work to see the universe - or at least our little part of it - our place of work, our home, our school, our community - shaped by this story, incorporated into this story, our job is to see Christ given his rightful place, with all things - work, home, school, community, nations continents - all things in heaven and on earth under him as head. Our job is to see him exalted - and then to join together to praise him. Let's pray
Wnat to give you space as individuals to reflect on this story together. Find space. Ask self three questions:
● What story do you tell about yourself?
● Do you see this story as your story?
● If not, what are the barriers to you doing so?
posted by Parish Administrator at 12:21 pm
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