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Ephesians 2:1-10 Have you ever seen someone sleeping so soundly that you weren't sure if they were alive? Sometimes we say that someone is sleeping so soundly that they're dead to the world. A few years ago, Karen and I were driving down La Cholla Boulevard and we saw a car pulled over along the side of the road. Inside the car, the driver was slumped forward in his seat. There was no movement, even though his window was down and the whir of traffic was passing by him. I recognized the driver as a reporter from the Arizona Daily Star, and Karen urged me to turn around and make sure that he was okay. After negotiating a u-turn, we eased up next to his car expecting the worst. We rolled the window down and called out to him, "Are you all right?" His reaction was startling as he jerked awake and tried to get his bearings. He assured us that he was all right, he was just catching a short nap between assignments. And then he began to come back to his normal self. Today's scripture passage talks about being dead, but not dead to the world. Instead it describes how being caught up in the world can make us dead to God. By focusing on the things that the world says are important, we can become dead to the presence of God. But, the author of Ephesians says, it's possible to come back to life! Do you ever feel so burdened down by the world that it seems hard to get in touch with God? You've just spent a long week at work or school, you've gone to weeknight activities, and it all seems to become a blur. On top of all your busyness, you're struggling to cope with the mistakes you've made. Whether you call them sins, or simply blunders, your actions have consequences that make your life difficult. In the middle of all of this, God seems nowhere in sight. When Paul wrote the letter to the church at Ephesus, he was probably in prison in Rome, about 60 A.D. He had worked hard for three years to make Ephesus a strong church. It was an important city, at the intersection of two major roads, and it was the home of a pagan temple to the Roman goddess Diana. The church thrived in Ephesus for some time. There wasn't any major problem in the church when Paul wrote this letter. He apparently wrote it to expand the church's spiritual horizons. He was hoping that the church members would come to understand the high goals that God had for the church. All of that means that the words of Ephesians have a lot to say to us today. Echoing down across the ages, Paul's words provide encouragement, hope, and a challenge to grow spiritually. What can we draw from this passage that's nearly 2,000 years old as we prepare to move out into a new week that's sure to be full of temptation, challenges, and blessings? I. IT'S POSSIBLE TO BE DEAD AND STILL WALKING AROUND "What?" you say. "How can that be possible?" Paul is telling us that we can be spiritually dead and still very much alive physically. When we read that first verse of the scripture passage, it's easy to pass over it lightly. "Dead in our transgressions and sins?", we might say. "That applied to the ancient heathen of Ephesus. It probably just means that were pretty miserable people who needed to straighten up and fly right." But the Bible takes the subject of death very seriously, as seriously as it takes sin. Sin and death go together. When we hear the message of scripture, we hear an issue of desperate, ultimate decision. All is a matter of life or death. The central problem is that of settling things between a holy God and humans who have missed the mark. In Ephesians, Paul talks about resurrection - coming back to life - as an escape from death. But he also talks about resurrection - coming back to life from our ways of sin and desperation. That means that resurrection can be a present reality - something that we can experience today. By being released from the grip of our mistakes and transgressions, we are brought back to life. Not too long ago I talked with a man who had recently been released from prison. He had served a 12 year sentence and was trying to get adjusted to life on the outside. He began telling me his story - a story of bad decisions and their consequences. He described his way of life and his jail time as a time of death. A time when he was taken away from everything that really mattered. But we don't have to be convicts to understand the feeling of deadness in our lives. And Paul is reminding us that God offers us new life as a gift. What else does the letter to the church at Ephesus have to say to us today? It also teaches us that: II. WE CAN COME BACK TO LIFE BY CLAIMING A FREE GIFT We've come to be suspicious of free gifts in our society. It seems that there's always a string attached. I once attended one of those sales pitches where they promise to give you a free trip. In this case, it was a trip to San Diego. But, after I got the gift, I read the fine print. You had to travel on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. And there was a long list of dates you couldn't travel on. You had to mail in a $200 deposit to hold the trip, which would be refunded after you took the trip. On and on, the gift came with a lot of restrictions. God offers us a free gift that comes without those kinds of restrictions. God offers us a full, abundant, meaningful life through his gift of love. As the scripture says, "Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions - it is by grace you have been saved." God has already extended this wonderful gift to us. A gift that brings us a fresh outlook on life. A gift that brings forgiveness and love. A gift that helps us to grow in new ways. But we need to accept that gift. We can continue to life in denial, to be dead to God. Or we can awaken to this wonderful opportunity. Elizabeth Von Arnim wrote a book about four women who take a vacation at a beautiful villa in Italy. The time is 1922, right after World War I. Two of the women - Rose and Lottie, are married but choose not to bring their husbands on the vacation. The third, Lady Caroline, has lost her husband in the war and is growing tired of the constant attention of men. And the fourth, Mrs. Fisher, is a long time widow. Mrs. Fisher leads a very sedate life and keeps herself going with memories of literary figures she has known. She's very set in her ways, often grumpy, and prefers to talk about people who are dead, rather than live in the present. The book, Enchanted April, was made into a movie and shows the beginnings of new life for each of the characters. Even old Mrs. Fisher, who was content to sit in her room and pass the time in the past, is not immune to the stirrings of new life. Let's take a look_.[VIDEOTAPE] Mrs. Fisher began to accept the gift of resurrection. Later in the story, she turns from her "dead friends" and picks up a palette of watercolors to pain the beautiful scenery around her. Paul says that "God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms." Just as Mrs. Fisher turned from death to the beauty of the present life, we can experience resurrection through the free gift of God's love and forgiveness. Finally, the letter to the Ephesians teaches us that: III. WE LIVE TO DO GOOD, WE DON'T DO GOOD TO LIVE Since this gift of resurrection - of waking up to the beauty of life - is free, we can't earn it by doing good things. In today's scripture, Paul warns us that we shouldn't brag about our life in Christ as if we earned it by doing good things. Have you ever seen a Christian who was complimented on their faith - and then proceeded to take credit for it? "Well, yes, I am a committed a Christian, and I've been going to church for 30 years, and I serve on three committees, and I worked on two mission projects last year." All important things in the life of the church. But not one of those activities can earn us forgiveness, or mercy, or God's love. But Paul reminds us - good works don't earn God's favor. It's a free gift. Nevertheless, we were created to do good works. As Christians, we are empowered to care for others, to build up the church, to nurture families, to build community. And we do these things because of who we are. Not because we're trying to earn something. One of my professors told the story of an elderly man in Nashville who had worked to serve others for his entire life. He was open about his faith in Christ and he was outspoken about the need to do good in the community. Because he had labored for so long in the community, he was listened to wherever he went. In his last years, in his mid-80s, he hobbled into the mayor's office on his cane. Taking a seat in a chair, he swiftly brought the cane to rest across the mayor's desk. "Mayor," he said, "your decision to cut funding for the homeless is wrong." Now, he knew that he didn't have to take a stand like that to earn his way into God's favor. But he couldn't do anything else. It was a part of him to stand up for what was right, to bring balance to the community. Paul teaches us that we can relax in God's love. We can celebrate our new life, our resurrection from walking death. And that newness gives us the freedom to be caring, serving, nurturing persons in our families, our churches, and our communities.
It really is the "good news," isn't it? God offers to wake us up, to forgive us and to nurture us, and to equip us to do good in the world around us. All it takes is our openness to God's presence in our lives. May we all open ourselves to that wonderful gift this morning.
Amen. |