This is a good passage
for an Annual Meeting
Paul writes
to the Ephesian Christians and he thanks God for their faith and love.
'Ever since I
heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I
have not stopped giving thanks for you' (v15)
This is a
community of people who love God and who love one another. And Paul thinks of
who they have at the very centre of their lives: when I heard about ‘Your faith
in the Lord Jesus’
When I look
at the Christians in Bury St Edmunds and specifically at St Peter's and St
Mary's, I see so much to give thanks
for. Your love for the word of God, your desire that Christ will be preached
and made known, your prayer for each other, for other Christians and for people
in all places; for your love for each other, the care and support that you
show, the small groups, your hospitality and generousity, your willingness to
serve, your welcome of newcomers, your commitment to God’s standards, and your
desire to see our churches grow so that the name of Jesus is exalted.
And I give
thanks for you.
But Paul also
prays for the Christians in Ephesus.
It is, what I
would call, one of the big prayers.
We tend to
pray little prayers: little prayers are usually focused only on this life. We
ask God to help us out, to heal us or those we love, to make our stuff go well,
to give us wisdom in a particular situation. We pray that those we love may be
happy, fulfilled, wealthy, healthy.
Paul's prayer
is a big prayer: because it is not so much a prayer for the Ephesian believers
here and now (Paul does pray for those sorts of prayers: for courage to speak
the message, that God would take away a thorn in his flesh), but a prayer for
them for eternity.
It is a
prayer which begins in verse 17, gets interrupted at 2.1 (where Paul gets
carried away describing the grace of God), is resumed in 3.1, and immediately
broken off again, and completed in 3.14-21.
And as we
rededicate ourselves, this is a good prayer to pray for each other.
1. We pray that we may get to know our Father God
better
“I keep
asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you
the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better”. (v17)
That really
is what we are all about.
We are on a
journey, seeking to get to know God better. If we have received Jesus we
already are sons and daughters of God. But we need to grow in our relationship
with our heavenly Father. We need to grow in our knowledge of God.
It is where the bible language of the difference between justification and sanctification is so helpful. We are justified by faith, forgiven, seated with Christ in heaven. But the Spirit still needs to change us, sanctify us, make us holy, so that we might become what we are.
To grow in
our knowledge of God is not really about growing in our knowledge about God.
This is about growing in knowledge of God - heart knowledge. It is about
growing in faith, learning to trust him more, to love him more.
This is gift – it comes from the Spirit. That is
why Paul prays! It is the Spirit who
shows us our need for God, the love of God, who helps us see God at work
(Nicodemus). it is the Spirit of revelation who helps us to see that all things
come from God and belong to God. It is the Spirit who cries out from within our
spirit to God (Romans 9). It is the Spirit who pours the love of God into our
hearts. It is the Spirit who gives us a love for the word of God, a love for
his people and ultimately love for God.
And so with
Paul we pray that we might get to know our Father better.
That means we
must attend to the inner life, to the heart life (v2 speaks of the eyes of our
heart): spending time in prayer, reading his Word, regular worship, going on
things like retreats, humbling yourself and doing what you don’t want to do,
making ourselves accountable, making ourselves less so that others become more,
costly obedience.
I was struck
by something that I read by Henri Nouwen. He said he thought that as he grew
older he would enjoy deeper intimacy with God. But, he continued, it was the
exact opposite. Prayer became harder. There were new doubts. God seemed more
absent. But he did not despair, because he realised that what God was growing
his faith. He was making him go deeper, stripping him of those things on which
he had relied, bringing him to a place where his faith did not depend on his
feeling, but on simple obedience.
2. We pray that we may know the
hope to which he calls us.
I think that
the next bit of the verse expands on this: ‘the hope to which he has called
you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints’ (v18).
Others do
not. They think that Paul is praying for two things: that we would know the hope,
and that we would know how precious the
saints (all of us – in our uniqueness and difference and rich diversity) are to
God.
So I focus
on the first part. Paul prays that we would know the hope to which God calls
us.
Christians are
now people. But we are also then people. We live in the now in the light of the then.
Paul has
already spoken of our hope in the first few verses of this chapter:
In Christ we
are holy and blameless in his sight, but we long for that day when we really
are holy and blameless in his sight
We long for
the day when we will see him as he is and become like him (1 John 3.2), when we know the
love of God and are filled with all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3.19)
We long for
the day when all things in heaven and earth, natural things – created things –
animals – nature, will be brought together in their rightful place under the
authority of Christ (v22).
I’m going to
be controversial. I can’t help reading the Green manifesto and saying ‘Yes’ to
so much that is there. It really does offer an alternative vision for society. But
it is the same reaction that I had when as a teenager I read the communist
manifesto (with the exception of the anti God-bit). Yes we long for a society
that is fair and equal, where everyone has the same opportunities (wherever
they live – not just in this part of the globe), where there are no nuclear
weapons and human beings live in harmony with nature.
But there is
one major problem: human sinfulness, corruption and greed. It affects even the clearest
of visionaries. And so when they tried to turn the communist vision into
reality, it failed. What was meant to bring liberty to people brought slavery;
what was meant to bring paradise brought the terror of the labour camps and
what was meant to bring equality brought hypocrisy and totalitarianism.
As Christians
we do believe in the vision of a fair and equal world, where there is justice, abundance,
security; where the old and young, black and white, Asian – African – European
– Indo-Chinese – American – Australasian live as a common humanity, and
together we live in harmony with nature. Read Isaiah and his vision for the
coming Kingdom.
And yes, we should
live in the light of that. We should work and struggle because we know that the
Kingdom is coming. Maybe even vote Green. But we must realise that we will not
see that vision of the world fulfilled, that type of society instituted until
the King of the Kingdom comes.
So I pray we
may know our hope. The hope of resurrection and transformation, not just for us
but for all of creation.
It is a hope
which will inspire our work: whether that is, for you, the call to politics;
the call to some work which seeks to put right an injustice – gross inequality,
anti-trafficking, seeking the freedom of those who are slaves (Dalit freedom
network), working with orphans in Zimbabwe or providing support for refugees in
Syria, protecting against environmental abuse, providing a foster home, helping
those in debt, working with those with learning disabilities.
But because that
vision can only be finally fulfilled when the king comes, please do not turn
your work into your god. Do not build your life on it. You will be deeply
frustrated and become disillusioned, or you will become judgemental, puritanical (in the worst sense of the word) and prescriptive.
But if you place
your work under the authority of the coming king, then even if you don’t see
any results, you know that the work that you do is not in vain. One day God
will take that work and use it, I don't know how, to bring about the glorious
transformation on that day when history as we know it ends and Jesus returns as
judge and Lord. And then he will establish his kingdom of justice, rightness,
harmony and peace, where there will be no more sickness, suffering or death.
3. We pray that we may know the power of God
‘And what is
the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe’ (v19).
Paul tells us
about this power.
It is the
power that raised Jesus from the dead and lifted him to the right hand of the Father
in the heavenly places.
It is the
power which will draw all things to Christ.
It is the
power of love.
This is the
power which brings life to spiritually dead people and which raises us so that
we are seated in Christ in the heavenly places.
This is the
power which transforms us so that we become what we already are: holy,
righteous, full of love and peace and joy and patience and kindness.
It is the
power which means that when we seek God he opens the door of the coming kingdom
and gives us glimpses of the future life in healings or even resurrections.
It is the
power that enables us to persevere when the road gets tough (remember that Paul
is writing this letter as a prisoner cf. Ephesians 3.1)
It is the power
which releases us to praise.
It is the
power which emboldens us to speak of Jesus, even when there is hostility.
It is the
power which equips us to serve and give sacrificially.
This is the
power which promises to keep us if or when we suffer for our faith
It is the
power which doesn’t always do wonderful things, but which brings us to our
knees, sometimes even to that place of desolation, but through that to the place of greatest security and joy - ultimate dependence on
God.
I pray for us
as a church that we will know more of this power. I pray this coming year that
we will see people coming to him, being converted; that we will see people
growing in love for him and changing; that we will see people stepping up to
the mark in order to serve in new ways for them.
Of course we
pray the little prayers
But with Paul
we are also invited to pray the big prayers:
That we will
know our God and Father better,
That we will
know the hope that he gives us – together with all the saints (those whom he
has called and those who are yet to respond to his call), and
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