Text: Ephesians 1:3-14
There once was a
high school science teacher who wanted to teach her class the difference
between apples and oranges. So, she
divided the class into two groups and gave each group a bag of apples and a bag of
oranges and told them to take some time and figure out the difference between
them. Group One took their “specimens”
and measured and weighed them noting differences in the colours and textures
and especially that the orange had a strikingly stronger fragrance particularly
if you scratched the skin. They even
sliced one of each open to observe the innards.
They wrote it all down having thoroughly observed everything they could
possibly know about the differences between apples and oranges. Group Two, well, with it being nearly
lunchtime simply ate their apples and oranges.
So, at the end of the class the teacher called them back together and
asked them to tell her the difference between apples and oranges. Group One dutifully reported the details of
their most scientific investigation.
Group two, well, not seeing anything wrong with what they had done in a
collaborative effort said, “Some of us liked the oranges. Some of us liked the apples. But, they both were quite good. Thank you.”
So, which of these two groups would you give the
higher mark and why? I presume Group One
and here's why. Years ago when I was
coming through school I was taught the scientific method given to us by the
scientists of Modernity who believed that reality and meaning exist outside of
oneself so that through proper investigative techniques we can know everything
about anything. Truth, therefore, was
the sum total of what could be determined by investigation and it must to be
repeatable; so you don't eat the specimens.
Things are different now. We live in the post-Modern world in which we
have come to realize that we all have preconceived ideas of the truth that we
bring to our investigations of reality and which bias our methods and
interpretations of the data so that the truth which we determine is nothing
more than the truth according to me and you may see it differently. Therefore, we need to be aware of our biases.
This change in
world-views is having a profound effect on matters of faith. No longer is it enough simply to say that we
believe something because it is "the Truth". We can only claim something as true for me realizing that it may
not be true for you. Oddly and based on
conversations that I have had (and this is truth according to me so take it for
what its worth), people outside the church are having valid religious
experiences. Yet, instead of coming to
church to sort it out and find the truth they are ploughing through the beliefs
of the religions out there to build their own belief systems and thus shielding
themselves from the Truth as it is in Jesus Christ and attested to in the
church. Similarly and this is to the
church's bad, I've conversed with people who said they came to church seeking
answers for their experiences, "did their time", and moved on to something else more
“spiritual”. The churches they went to
were dealing in the religion of how to keep a culture Christian rather than the living faith and faithfulness of Jesus
Christ, who was crucified and raised from the dead that we may live in
him.
So, here is some truth that we the church need to
hear about our truth. God the Holy Spirit is at work out
there in the world. People out there are
having experiences of our living God.
We, the church, are then the ones whom the Triune God of grace has
chosen and called to go into the world to disciple them, to teach them what is
true about their experiences. Yet, to do this credibly we must
ourselves be living not just faithful lives which entails simple duty, but more so faith-filled lives before
them so that by our lifestyles we teach the cruciform way of Jesus the risen
one. His living Truth can only be found
in following him in the way of the cross, the way of unconditional,
self-giving, and so often self-wasting love that brings forth healing in the
world. it is at the cross of Christ that any religious experience must bow if it is indeed of the truth. Therefore, it is important we not
be those dealing in religion other than the living faith of Jesus Christ.
So, to communicate the faith of Jesus Christ in this
post-Modern world we must be able to say it in a post-Modern way. When the opportunity presents, and it will,
we must be able to say “this is how I have experienced the living Lord Jesus Christ and
therefore have come to faith in him as my Lord and Saviour” all the while
respecting that others may and will see it differently. This entails that we Christians have to know
our Lord, not just have opinions about him. We must know him and we must live authentically in
his image. The role of authenticity in lifestyle
cannot be emphasized enough in communicating the faith of Jesus Christ to the
post-Modern world. So having said all
that, allow me to take a moment and try to say who we Christians believe
God to be and reflect a bit about our experience of God using Paul's
expressions of it in Ephesians 1.
We Christians know something unique about God. First, we say that God is Trinity, the loving
communion of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Next, we say that as Jesus, a first century
Jew of Nazareth, whom we call the Christ, God the Son became human, lived,
died, was raised, ascended, and will
return to put his world to rights. In
the early days of the church this belief was blasphemy to the Jews and
ridiculous to most everybody else. The
only proof they had was that the Holy Spirit was making people able to hear and
actually believe the proclamation of the Gospel that as Jesus Christ the
Trinity is reconciling the world to himself.
This reconciliation entails that in, with, through,
and as Jesus the Trinity has given humans access to his very self. Since as Jesus God the Son became human,
humanity can now be partakers of the life of the Trinity, no conditions to be
met, no contracts to keep, no bargains to be made. That's that way things are now. In union
with Jesus by the gift of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit God has chosen us
to experience the loving communion of God the Father and God the Son and this relationship transforms everything about us. This
blessing or inheritance is the love of God the Father for the Son and the love
of God the Son for the Father extended to us through the Holy Spirit so as to
include us in their relationship, their communion of love, which is the very
life of God. Saying this less abstractly, because of the gift of the
Holy Spirit we indeed do experience in the actual events of our lives the same
steadfast love and unyielding faithfulness that God the Father has for
Jesus the Son. We are God's children now,
brothers and sisters with Jesus.
Moreover, we share with Jesus his own adoration and desire to be faithful
to His Father. God the Father’s pleasure
in and good will towards Jesus his Son, which is his blessing/inheritance, is
our blessing, our inheritance with Jesus in the power and presence of the Holy
Spirit. The indwelling gift of the Holy
Spirit confirms that we are adopted into the relationship of the God the Father
and Jesus the Son. Adoption into the
family life of the Trinity is at the core of Christian experience.
Add to this now a sense of chosenness. We feel uniquely chosen by the Trinity to be
part of something he’s had planned since before anything existed. Over 13.7 billion years ago the Trinity chose
us each to come into his presence to receive his favour, which is the blessing of the
inheritance of the Holy Spirit. We also
have a sense of being in the Trinity's will for history, a part in his plan to
unite everything in Jesus. To play our
part, the Holy Spirit renews us in the very deepest parts of ourselves making
us to want to and be able to live so that others see God's grace flowing forth from
us and want to experience what we have.
Moving on, the Holy Spirit is the personable presence
of the relationship building love of the Trinity. He is the power of God's self by which the
Father in love raised Jesus his Son from the dead and he is the same power at
work in us now changing us, making real the saving, healing change that God has
wrought in all humanity simply by becoming human as Jesus of Nazareth. Thus, as Paul says we experience redemption. Redemption is a word from the slave
trade. It means bought back from some form of
slavery. Jesus in the power of the Holy
Spirit to the glory of his Father by the giving of his life over to death by
which death is defeated sets us free from everything that oppresses us,
everything that enslaves us. Follow him
and see if this does indeed become your truth.
Boiling it all down.
This means that God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit really loves us
each from since forever ago. For no
reason of anything we have done or could ever do to gain it, the Trinity simply
loves us all and acts accordingly towards us.
He watches over our lives working his good pleasure in us to free us and
to heal us. It may feel like Hell
sometimes but when the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit has done saving work in us
we find we’ve been healed of pains that have been with us all our lives and set
free to be a part of his ministry of healing to others. Through this working of the Holy Spirit we
learn to trust that love of the Father for the Son is what we have and are also
enabled to live accordingly and that is the truth of the faith of Jesus
Christ. Follow him and see if this does indeed become your truth. Amen.
