There’s
just something about a good mystery novel.
They play into our pride I guess.
We like to think we can solve the mystery before the author ties everything
together in the end to bring the truth to light. A really good mystery writer will play you to
the very end making you think you’ve got it all figured out only to kibosh your
arrogance time and again until at the very last she finally reveals who dun it. Mysteries, we love to try to figure them out,
but we cannot escape the fact that we are at the mercy of the writer for the
final who dun it.
Since
we love mysteries so much, it goes without saying that no one likes a
spoiler. That’s somebody who tells you
how the mystery ends before you get to it.
Well, Paul here in Ephesians is a spoiler. His main concern with the
letter is to be the spoiler of God’s great mystery novel, the mystery of what
he’s up to in history. In fact, Paul is
such a good spoiler he able to say that God is the one who has actually spoiled
his own plot. Through Jesus Christ God
has manifested the Truth that was hidden behind the world we live in…behind
history, behind space and time. In,
through, and as Jesus Christ God has revealed how history comes to its
completion and what it will be like.
Amazingly, with the plot spoiled we keep reading the book.
The
spoiler is the revelation of God’s will, the manifold wisdom of God, indeed the
mystery of Christ, now being revealed, as Paul says, to rulers and authorities
in the heavenly realms by the reality of the church’s existence in this earthly
realm. The Church…us…we’re the spoil. To us and through us God is spoiling his own mystery
by the living grace that he is making evident in us and the church in all times
and places by the presence and working of the Holy Spirit in us who compels us
to live according to the New Creation that God has wrought in Jesus Christ and
will bring to light in the end.
That’s
pretty deep. Our Christian community,
community that forms as we live according to the Holy Spirit’s compelling us to
love God, love each other, and love our neighbour the way God has loved us - unconditionally, unselfishly, and sacrificially - reveals where history is going. The Christian fellowship that we share is the
plot spoiler of God’s great mystery of history and of his Creation.
So,
what is this mystery that God has kept hidden from the beginning? According to Paul back in Ephesians chapter 1
verse 10, it has been God’s plan to gather up all things in heaven and earth in
Christ (Eph. 1:10); to bring all things together, to bring all things to their created
fulfillment under the Lordship of God the Son, Jesus Christ. Simply put, it has been God’s purpose all
along to unite his creation, all things in heaven and earth and indeed heaven
and earth themselves in God’s own self with his Son as the head and the Holy
Spirit as the uniting bond. It was God
the Father’s plan all along for God the Son to become human and in him by the
presence and working of the Holy Spirit all things would share in God, in the
loving communion of the Father Son and Holy Spirit. Indeed, as the prophet Isaiah said,”the earth will be full of the knowledge
of the LORD as the waters cover the sea (11:9).”
That is the “what” of the mystery, now comes the “how”. Through the
Incarnation and Resurrection of God the Son as Jesus Christ God infused himself
to creation and healed it. Now, God is
applying this infusion and healing to each of us and all creation by the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit on us and in us each. The Holy Spirit’s presence in us creates a bond,
an organic union between us and God and us and us. The Holy Spirit’s presence in us and his work
upon us is what we call redemption.
Redemption or “Redeemed” in NT Greek is slave trade language for buying
slaves back from slavery and setting them free.
What that means for us is that we who once were slaves to sin and death
now have freedom to live in the New Creation where heaven and earth are one,
where all things are united to God in Christ, and where God is making himself known
to all things. Jesus Christ/God the Son,
by his birth, life, death, and resurrection, has set us free to enter the end
times New Creation now, indeed, to enter unimpeded into God’s presence and this
freedom is really applied to us by the presence and working of the Holy Spirit
in and among us enabling us to love as God has loved us.
As proof of the mystery Paul presents here in verse six that the Gentiles are heirs together
with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise
in Christ Jesus”. This was a huge deal
for Paul. You see, Paul was a devote Jew
who believed that only the Jewish people, the descendants of Abraham, had
access to God and this was at the Jerusalem Temple. The Temple in Jerusalem was the only place in
their beliefs where heaven and earth coincided and God could be approached. For Paul to see with his own eyes that
Gentiles were receiving the Holy Spirit, the presence of God who was supposed
to be only at the Jerusalem Temple, the same Holy Spirit that he had received
in his own personal encounter with Jesus resurrected on the road to Damascus,
for Paul to see the Gentiles included by God himself into the people of God by
the presence of God’s very self meant that the end time New Creation that God
had promised through prophets such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel had begun. It began when God raised Jesus the Messiah
from the dead.
For Paul, the supreme plot spoiler appears to have been that Jew and
Gentile are now brought together indeed bonded together under the one Lord
Jesus Christ through union with him in the Holy Spirit and more so that the
fellowship in this new humanity is the place on earth where God now dwells, the
New Temple of God, the New Jerusalem.
The early Christians called this bit of New Creation in the midst of old
humanity the Church. In the Church those
who had once been enemies were now worshipping and praying together and
enjoying a communion in fellowship, a love that surpassed anything known before
in history. God has made the fellowship
of the Church, instead of the Jerusalem Temple, the place on earth where his Holy
Spirit will publicly dwell.
This is one ending to a mystery that I bet you never saw coming. In each of you and in us together heaven and
earth are united and we are in the presence of God because God the Father
almighty, Maker of heaven and earth decided from the very beginning to unite
his creation to himself by sending God the Son to become human and that union
is being extended to us and all the creation by the presence and working of the
Holy Spirit until the end when he makes all things to be New Creation. The proof that this is the Truth is each of
us. Once we were strangers who probably never
would have met or become friends. But
since God has called us each to the fellowship of this church we have become
family in Christ, beloved children of the Father and brothers and sisters in
Christ sharing the “DNA” of the Holy Spirit.
So, when you look at the news and all the war, this refugee crisis, and all
the troubles, concerns, and fears and you wonder where this world is
going. Well, have a look at your
Christian fellowship. That’s where it’s
going. In the midst of all this world’s
brokenness there is Christian fellowship of which this congregation is a
part. The Christian love that is evident
among you is the proof that there is reason to hope and God does care and is
involved and will heal his creation. So,
go forth and be plot spoilers. On the
foundation of this hope go forth faithfully and live as New Creation in the
midst of the old. You are God’s evidence
that there is reason to hope. Amen.
