Sunday, March 22, 2009
Ephesians 2:1-10
Senior Pastor
Last week our passage for the day began by talking about foolishness. This morning we encounter a passage that begins with this strong statement: You were dead… that’s pretty strong talk. You were dead through your trespasses and sins. (v. 1) I would be more comfortable talking about sin as those things that distract us from God or maybe that sin distorts the image of God that was created within us – but not this author. He comes out of the gate with guns blazing: You were dead through your trespasses and sins!
Now he is talking about a spiritual death, not a physical death. Yet by using such language he draws a strong contrast between the trajectories life takes you. And, of course, a trajectory of unchecked sin does lead to death, both spiritually and physically.
In a recent issue of our United Methodist Reporter newspaper there is a story about LuLu Roman. Depending on your age, you may remember her as the heavy set comedian that starred in the long running comedy show Hee-Haw from back in the 70’s and 80’s.
But I didn’t know the rest of her story. She grew up in an orphanage. She was born to an unwed mother. She had a thyroid problem that led to her being “a little bit rounder than anyone else,” she says. She grew up in an orphanage that had anywhere from 800 to 1200 kids in it at a time. Because of her weight, kids would tease her and pick on her and no family ever wanted to adopt her. Even though she was taken to church by the orphanage, she says she never got it. “I thought, ‘If there is a God, He threw me away.’”
At 18 she left the orphanage determined to do things her way, and she confesses she made bad choices in just about every arena of her life – from men to money to drugs. She developed a bad drug habit, she experienced her own unwed pregnancy and she was busted for drug use multiple times. She lost her job on Hee-Haw. The turning point came she says when a friend asked her to go to church.
Notice that… a friend invited her to go to church. She recalls that at first she didn’t want to go but then started attending. Through that relationship she had an experience different from what she remembers as a child. In her words she says, “Jesus gave His heart to me” – and she gave hers to him. Eventually she returned to Hee-Haw and stayed until the show ended in the early ‘90s.
But she says, “God did not throw that little girl away in the orphanage—He chose her. I was not born just to be on Hee-Haw. Hee-Haw was just a vehicle. I was chosen to be a servant of God. And I will serve Him as long as I live.” (UMR 3/13/09 by Larry Stroud, AP)
She was on a trajectory of death was she not? Ephesians says: You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived. It also says all of us once lived in the passions of our flesh. In other words, all of us are physical beings and we focus on our physical desires and senses. Your story may or may not be as dramatic as LuLu Roman’s, and yet we can all see how focusing on fulfilling only our physical desires leads us down the wrong path – we go for what we want despite the needs of others or what God may want for us.
The season of Lent encourages us to do some fearless self-examination, to root out any sin that might be separating us from the fullness God has in mind for us. So even though it is not always comfortable, let’s take a little time to tarry here. Let’s look for our own sin and our own trespasses. None of us are perfect; we all sin and fall short of the glory of God.
Lulu Roman abused drugs. Some of us do that.
Others of us cheat on our taxes. It is fairly common.
Some of us cheat on our spouses. Some of us cheat our employers in one way or another. Some of us lie to our friends or to our family or our employers.
Some of us dishonor our parents. Others of us yell at our kids. It can go either way.
Many of us fail to observe the Sabbath.
A popular one in America is to covet our neighbor’s stuff. Apparently lots of folks signed up for houses and mortgages they could not realistically afford, to show that they had a house as good as the Joneses.
Many of us neglect to pray regularly. Something as simple as talking to God daily, and we fail to do it. I am not just pointing fingers here; I am with you. I let the worldly demands drive out my time with God sometimes. To say it out loud sounds absurd to me, and yet I tell you it happens to me on a more frequent basis than I usually care to admit.
I am not trying to make you feel bad or feel guilty. I am encouraging you to look a little deeper. Be a little more honest. God already knows; but it is good for us to see it too, so that we can consciously offer it up to God and receive pardon, if you will. Open yourself to healing. Ask God for divine help to make changes where you need. It is a healthy step. It is a step toward a more genuine and more abundant life. It is a step in the ongoing salvation process.
In verse 4 and 5, Ephesians describes the change: But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.
Ephesians reminds us that God is rich in mercy and out of God’s great love for us, even while we are lying and cheating and carrying on, that is, even when were dead through our trespasses, God made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved. Just to make sure we hear this, the author says it in verse 5 and then repeats it in verse 8: For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.
Trust your life into God’s hands. Open up; be honest. God is offering you the gift of wholeness, of salvation, of a life better than you can imagine. Are you ready to accept it? Are you ready to trust God with all of who you are – the good and the bad, the best and the worst, the pretty and the ugly?
Recently as a staff, here at First Church, I have had us working some on this introspection piece. I asked the staff to do a personality inventory. It is a self-assessment tool. It has about 30 items where you pick the word that is most like you and least like you. Then it gives you a profile based on four main categories of behavior. Then it also offers a summary of your behavior pattern. Some of us didn’t like all the things it said about our personality pattern. Some us were described us stubborn or sarcastic or impulsive or resistant to change or poor with time management. We didn’t like all the things we read.
Then it got worse because we explored a Conflict Style Assessment, which said that nobody had a healthy conflict style, and in fact it had the audacity to suggest that this is where we sin most often. It suggested we fail to deal in a Biblical way with conflict because we all fall short of the Biblical ideal of being peacemakers. It made many of us uncomfortable.
It is interesting that we happen to be doing this in Lent,
because Lent is like that.
Self-examination, self-reflection, a challenge to change or to deny our
self can surely make us uncomfortable.
But it is important work as a disciple of Christ. It is important because we are not only
saved by grace through faith, but Ephesians reminds us once we recognize that
we are saved by grace, then our life style or the road ahead is mapped
out. In verse 10 we find
this: We are what he has made us,
created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our
way of life.
It is a way of life. Did you know that? It is more than a one-time decision; it is a way of life. John Wesley described this same thing when discussing salvation. He said Biblically, salvation or life in Christ has two parts: justification and sanctification. Justification is that first step of trusting God in Christ for our salvation and then sanctification is cooperating with God from then on so that we might be made perfect in love or be changed evermore into the image of Christ. So, that is an ongoing call to change and growth. Sometimes that means facing our trespasses, sins and shortcomings.
Wesley writes about this and talks about it in the context of self-denial. He writes: “On the whole, then, to deny ourselves, is, to deny our on will, where it does not fall in with the will of God… It is, to deny ourselves any pleasure which does not spring from, and lead to, God.” (from Sermons On Several Occasions)
Lent is an opportunity to do this work. Lent is an opportunity to open ourselves ever more to the outpouring of God’s grace in our lives. As Paul says, “Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more.” (Romans 5:20) You can trust God. I invite you to trust God, during these days leading up to Easter: lay down your sin and receive God’s gift of grace anew!
______ were dead through your trespasses and sins. (v. 1)
…draws a strong contrast between the trajectories
________
takes you.
…a story about LuLu __________.
“God did not throw that little girl away…
I was ____________ to be a servant of God.
The season of Lent encourages us to do some fearless
________-examination…
A popular one in America is to __________ our
neighbor’s stuff.
Many of us neglect to ________ regularly.
Verse 4 and ____
Are you ready to trust God with ______ of who you are—
We are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for
good
works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life. (v. 10)
He said Biblically salvation or life in Christ, has ____
parts:
justification and sanctification.
Wesley: “On the whole, then, to deny ourselves,
is, to deny our
on will, where it does not fall in with the will of
______… It is,
to deny ourselves any pleasure which does not spring
from,
and lead to, God.”
Kid’s Question:
For by grace you have been saved
through __________…(fill in the blank)
But she says, “God did not throw that little girl away in the
orphanage—He chose her. I was not born just to be on Hee-Haw.
Hee-Haw was just a vehicle. I was chosen to be a servant
of God. And I will serve Him as long as I live.”