Sermon: Spiritual Blessings
First Congregational Church of Wauwatosa
Rev. Dr. Barry W. Szymanski
December 29, 2013

Ephesians 1:3-14

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; this is the pledge of our inheritance towards redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.

SERMON: WE ARE BLESSED

Psalm 148 is one of the happiest prayers!

The author of that psalm is convinced that every part of creation praises God: from angels, to the sun and the moon, everything that swims, fire and hail, snow and frost, stormy winds, mountains, trees, animals, birds, and even creeping things….

… maybe the author meant creepy things! young and old men and women,
everything created is to praise the Lord!

We are singing a number of Christmas hymns this morning – all in praise of God, and Jesus, the Son. We have come this Sunday to adore the Lord.
As the psalmist wrote:
everything praises the Lord for he alone is exalted,
and his glory is above earth and heaven,
and he has done wonderful things for us.

Paul, when he wrote to the Ephesians, was of the same mind: Paul’s question, between the lines, is: ‘How BIG is God?’ Paul’s answer is that God is big enough to adopt us, to redeem us, to forgive us, and to reveal more and more of himself to us, and, with the birth and teachings of His Son, to give us the greatest of revelations.

In his letter, Paul also lists the benefits that we, members of Jesus church, have received. The church at Ephesus was located in a port city. There was a lot of commercial trade into and out of the harbor. For that reason, the church was at the center of introducing many people to Christianity.

In addition there was a huge temple, called the Temple Artemis, which was one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Ephesus was ‘the place to be’. And Paul congregation was there! So imagine when the members of the church received Paul’s letter.

Put yourself in the same mode, for what Paul wrote applies 100% to us this morning. The God of Jesus has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. He has chosen us to be a holy people, a blameless people, a people to be before God and Jesus IN LOVE! We are not to fear God, we are not to be slaves of law, or to be slaves of our own actions, but are to be blameless in love.

The reason, as Paul states, is because we have been adopted by God, the same as children are adopted, and receive all of the rights of natural born children. We have full rights before God! And Paul states that this is freely given to us by our God.

Paul, like the psalmist, talks of the richness of God’s grace, which has been lavished on us. We are a people smothered in God’s love. Paul sees, in Christ, God’s wisdom and insight, as revealed in a plan. The plan, as Paul sees, is that we are destined for unity. In Jesus all things are gathered together. Just as the psalmist see all things praising God, so Paul sees all things given meaning, and direction, and a blueprint of a structure being built, year after year, according to God’s design. We are part of bringing unity to the world.

Now, we are aware that concrete reality looks much different that what blueprints call for. We live in a real world. A world of sin: anger, envy, pride, greed, gluttony, lust, and laziness. But we are ‘employees’ of God, if you will. Paul tells us that we have an inheritance from God. To inherit in a probate means that we are receiving money and things from a person what we did not work for. To inherit is a gift. Paul says that we inherited a destiny. The destiny is not that we can sit back. God’s destiny is that we are ‘employees’ to bring about God’s plan. We don’t live for our plan, nor for our purposes, but for God’s.

God is in charge. God will give us his counsel, and his guidance, by his direction. God accomplishes all things God wants to. If we, individually, cannot, or choose not, to carry out his will, then he will find another person to do so. If we refuse to carry out God’s will, then we are not fulfilling our destiny. But, for those people who do live in God, and set their hope in Christ, the reward is to live for the praise of God’s glory. Paul reminds us that we have heard the truth from Jesus, and are now marked with a seal. Good jewelry has a seal. Good watches have a sealed name. Courts and notaries have seals. We are a marked people.

Paul is clear that the Holy Spirit is promised to us, God is with us, and this is the pledge, the guarantee, of what we have inherited: to be God’s redeemed people. And as God’s free people, to praise him.

We come back to Psalm 148 over and over again. Christmas trees are going to the curb, King Eddie and Princess Opal have tired of some of their new toys, so . . . what remains of Christmas? Our calling remains: the calling of Jesus: to heal, to mend, to forgive, to visit, to care for, to support. That is why we are church: the community of Jesus the Christ to praise, to worship, and to carry out God’s will as shown us in Jesus. Therefore, let us return to Paul’s question, as written between the lines, ‘How BIG is God?’

God is big enough to adopt us, to redeem us, to forgive us, and to reveal more and more of himself to us, and, with the birth and teachings of His Son, to give us the greatest of revelations. This is the God who each of ministers on behalf of, and witness, and live for. This is the God who gave us His Son. This is the Joy of the World.

Amen.