Sermon 5th November 2017

Today, Ben Hughes, Assistant Minister, preaches. The reading is from: Ephesians 3:14-21

A Prayer for the Ephesians

¹⁴ For this reason I kneel before the Father, ¹⁵ from whom every family^[a] in heaven and on earth derives its name. ¹⁶ I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸ may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

²⁰ Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

When I was a kid at church we used to sing the chorus – Jesus love is very wonderful – for myself and brothers and friends it was one of our favorites and the only song we really bothered to do the actions for – This Jesus love was very wonderful song was great because during the bit where you sang so wide you can’t get round it – the action was to suddenly through both arms out really wide – if you got the timing right you could land a good smack on face the person standing next to you – many a Sunday school or church service would then dissolve into chaos.  It became a banned song looking back – I don’t think it’s what St Paul meant in this prayerful letter to the Ephesians as he describes Jesus love being so wide and broad and big and tall.

 What he might meanthough and is making very clear in this letter is that to  be a Christian means to have Christ dwell in our hearts; and when the law of Christ is written in our hearts then there the love of Christ dwells there too. So Christ becomes the inhabitant in the soul of every Christian so uniting hearts and minds across the world and universe in the common bond of the love of God.

In other words the distinguishing mark that identifies the Christian faith is the ‘sparkling facet of Jesus love’.

And that love shining and radiating out from within us then joins with God’s love for his all creation makes us whole and one with him and he in us. And this slow transformation and redemption of God’s begins to shape us into the people that we are meant to be leaving the old behind and the new to come. The means by which this happens St Paul teaches us is through  God’s love expressed in his perfect son Jesus Christ who as we know and believe died a on the cross to save sinners like you and me. That is the perfect expression of that love and the means and only means by which we are saved. And that is the principle  message of all Paul’s letters and writings – including this morning’s - you’re not saved by anything you do or say Paul constantly reminds us – you are saved by the love of God made possible by his son Jesus. And that simple truth he adds is free for all nations - it has no conditions attached! None at all – a complete free deal. Bound, sealed and delivered and made possible by love

This is the message of St Paul to his church in Ephesus – is that ‘ you know and learn how deep, high and broad Christ’s love is and Yes – may you come to know that love so much so that you become completely filled with the very nature of God’.

So God’s love sounds easy – a simple reminder for us this morning and a  – straightforward message  so why does it all go so terribly wrong!

Joni Eareckson was beautiful fit and young – she was athletic and active and had everything to live for. Church was a massive part in her life - she was on the up - loved and liked by everyone. It wasn’t until she broke her neck diving into a Chesapeake Bay and ending up paralyzed that she began to experience rejection, exclusion and serious and understandable depression. Not only because was she in a wheelchair and couldn’t physically get into Church buildings but also people said things like that did not happen to good Christians – she must have been doing something wrong somewhere etc – As a result of this rejection she branded the church - A shining light social club on top of a hill – she said that’s not the beacon of the love of God – her message was clear that you cannot have love without action.

Through her painful and slow recovery she began to realise more and better understand the love of God and the relationship between love and suffering and suffering and grace. She subsequently has not just helped reform her own church but  challenged the whole of the US Episcopal church in rethinking their attitude to the broken and the disabled, marginalized and the weak. Through her work and the work of others – people realised that the Love of God is not necessarily found in Godliness and a veneer of righteousness expressed in flattery and coded behaviour but in self denial, bringing the honest message of love alive through meeting the needs of others, challenging stereotypes and being surprised in faith.

Her advice is Repentance, love, praise; repentance love praise repeated being the root of her message. The love of God central  in the way in which we live our Christian  lives, how we cope with suffering and the inspiration for hope for the future

And like both Jesus and St Paul teach , Joni Eareckson  reminds us that the  love of God has to expressed in practical ways  - changing the physical environment to meet people’s needs, using whatever means necessary to get the Gospel message across, shaping a building  in such a way so that the disabled and elderly can participate fully in the life of the worship , meeting the needs of children and young people and including them in heart of  worship and decision making of the church, listening to people and having an open door policy to the marginalized and poor. Using wealth and power to enable people and to teach and support mission outside the church, challenging stereotypes and positively discriminating towards those that feel marginalized or have little voice. Breaking taboos around sexism and racism and being surprised by what God can do. She advises churches to regularly take a ‘love audit’ of themselves to make sure the emphasis of the love of God in all things is at the core of the life of the church.

Love as the key lubricant in the work of the church as it works through us and in us – without it the mechanism and engine of the church runs dry and will seize in a loud bang.

So how do we as individuals show love?

St Paul often approaches that question asking us to imagine what things might be without love – he says everything is hollow sounding and empty without love – like a crashing cymbal

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

What Paul says in this letter to the Ephesians is – we must be desirous of love –

In other words all we have to do is desire God’s love – simple – we must be expectant and be open. We must long for it, like a deer panting for water – the psalmist in psalm 142 describes it – we ask and God fills – we ask again and God fills us again and again and again -  God’s love is never ending -

And this is qhy the passage today is a prayer rather than a chunk of prose – it is a request by Paul for God’s love – it is full of desire for God’s love for the church and it echoes and parallels the structure of the Lord ’s Prayer – so similarly begins with respect, reverence and awe

Placing God first, Paul demonstrates that we must be reverent– For this reason I kneel before the father

About posture and reverence

He then moves on, acknowledging himself before God – exclaiming that it is from God that faith and love proceed - he ask that his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit

And Straight away we notice his prayer is for others and not for himself

The instructions are simple and wrapped in praise –

Be rooted and established in his love, make love your core.

May you have the power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, love is power for change – the power that transforms is made through the office and agent of the Holy Spirit.

and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – knowledge without love is an empty city.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine – God’s vision for our lives far exceeds what we can imagine – and we msut be prepared for good times as well as more difficult times ahead.

These  words emphasize the scale and the size of God’s love and the transforming power of it –

And the love of God unites us -

Love requires hard work and perseverance. It is busy work and can only be completed with team work.

Love does not mean – everyone do it my way – St Paul is not saying that – love means enabling others to do it their way perhaps– that is true love. He also later reminds us that God will chastise the child he loves. God’s Love can be uncomfortable and might mean not always getting your own way – and probably for your own good.

The love that is in Christ is the love that transforms us both as individuals and as communities. God’s Love enabled through and by and in Christ Jesus is what really changes people.  The love of God brings about lasting change that is when you get real and lasting change that we all so desperately need– change that lives and last forever and is ongoing – St Paul grasps the ongoing past/future participating tense of Jesus message of love - to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen.

And in this way the love of God expressed in the sacrifice of Christ sometimes described as the ship that has been untied and it remains on its way and the action of untying continues and is continuing.  It is these wonderful indescribable facts of God and his lovethat can really excite us– this weird continuous present of Jesus saying to the Pharisees -  before Abraham I am –when Paul writes his letters of love he was playing around in a similar way with irregular verbs and tenses – the event has happened but the event still has not happened yet for you and or remains alive today if you desire it. Christ love has been explode from the cross like a pebble thrown into space and time and the ripples of his love moving outwards in multidimensional directions through the past present and future into everyone’s lives now and beyond. The magnitude and scale of the love of God is hard to get your head around and we have to accept the mystery as it is perhaps – the love that passes all understanding keeping our hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God!

John Newton the former slave trader – said it is Grace of God that has brought me thus far. And then he says -  I am still not the person that I would like to be, I still do wrong and sin and hurt others and know that God is working his purposes out – but I thank him from the deepest roots of my soul that I am not the person that I was and his transforming love sets me free. 

Love in Christ is the bond of peace it is the jointing force that holds the matrix of people and creation together – the church only works as a diverse group of people if the Love of Christ is allowed to freely flow – without love everything we do is but a crashing cymbal.   

  As Alex the Lion from Madagascar 2 says to his friends when they are in trouble on the plains of Africa

“When you’re in trouble it is Love that will hold us together and see us through”