The apostle Paul was known for a single-minded enthusiasm. And when he wrote the passage from Ephesians 1:1-14, he was extraordinarily enthusiastic.
If you read the passage today, it is broken down into nice, neat paragraphs with proper punctuation. However, in the original Greek version, it is a 220-word run-on sentence written by a man who was so excited, he did not even stop long enough to throw in a comma. It is an English teacher’s nightmare!
What was St. Paul so excited about? Listen to the extravagant language Paul used in this passage. He wrote that God “has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ,” and that God has “lavished” on us the “riches of God’s grace”. And if that’s not enough, we have been given the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of an even greater inheritance waiting for us in heaven.
Does that excite you? It would seem there is nothing to be excited about in this passage.
Have you experienced flying First Class on an airplane? I have not, but I have been in Business Class by accident. And in the Business Class, the seats are wider with more legroom. The moment you sit down, you are asked by a beautiful stewardess whether you want a drink. And when dinner or lunch is served, you feel that the service is personal.
Flying First Class or Business Class is a metaphor for the kind of life God wants us to live in Christ.
The Apostle Paul talks about how God has “lavished the riches of His grace on us.” And this is a personal gift to us from God. To me, that equates to being upgraded to First Class which we did not expect.
But unlike being upgraded to First Class, God offers this to us for free. And we do not even deserve it.
I read about a preacher who was on an airplane, and was sitting in the first row of the Economy section where he could look into the First Class section. As he was watching the passengers board, he noticed an older couple in First Class. They were all smiles and friendliness. He also noticed a couple of soldiers who were just coming back from overseas. When the couple saw the soldiers, their faces lit up; they stood up, engaged the soldiers in conversation, and exchanged their First Class tickets for the soldiers’ economy class tickets.
The soldiers had the most surprised look on their faces, and when they realized it wasn’t a joke, smiled from ear to ear.
The preacher said the older couple had huge grins on their faces, too, as they went to the economy seats. And as they walked by, the preacher heard the man say to his wife, “I love doing that.”
He couldn’t help himself, so once the flight took off, he went back, excused and introduced himself to the older couple, and asked them why.
Now here’s the cool part: They both acted a little sheepish and shy but had grins on their faces, and said, “Oh, it was nothing. But it sure made those soldiers’ day, didn’t it?” The man explained, “We’re not bragging, but we do that all the time. We have been so blessed. We love to travel, and we love blessing other people. We purposely buy First Class tickets for every trip so we can give them away to Service men and women, a young mother traveling with her child, an elderly couple on their 50th anniversary trip. There was this newlywed whom we heard were counting pennies for lunch one time, trying to go visit her grandmother who was sick. It brings them so much joy. And us, too. But mostly, it honors God because we’ve been blessed to be a blessing, and that’s one of the ways we try to be a blessing.”
This is a good illustration for God’s grace. To Paul, this was an exciting stuff — stuff he was willing to give his life.
Why should it matter to us? It matters because it can help us when you and I are forced to make difficult decisions, ethical decisions that require us to choose a path that is temporarily more painful, but ultimately more rewarding. It’s living a life of integrity, faithfulness, and love — and that’s not always easy.
When Paul wrote this letter, he was writing to people who were being persecuted for their faith. Paul himself was imprisoned twice while preaching in Ephesus. He knew what it meant to choose between conformity and commitment, and he knew how difficult that choice would be for each of us. But ultimately, following Jesus gives us a reason why we need to live for Christ, and with Christ.
We live in a fast-changing world full of temptations. Read the newspapers, watch the news on TV, or simply look around.
We know that drugs are sold even here in Dumaguete; for many, they think it’s a solution to a life full of conflict. We know that some students cheat so they can get a passing grade–a temptation that affects their future. We know that business people are tempted to cheat in their dealings–a temptation that affects their integrity. Or we have some politicians who are tempted to do things to get some votes, or we voters are tempted to sell our votes for a few pesos.
Last week in some Bible study groups for the University Christian Life Emphasis Week at Silliman, participants shared the temptations they face in the places where they work or at home.
At some point in our lives, it would seem that we are losing more than we are gaining. And there are times when we experience the loss of friendships, jobs, health and strength, new ambitions, respect or status when we do the right thing.
Where do we find hope for tomorrow? In this fast-changing world, we have one thing we can count–the realization that we can never lose the grace, and mercy, and love of God. That is God’s promise that is sealed in the life of every believer. And this is ours for the taking. All we have to do is accept it. All we have to do is claim it.
There have been followers of Jesus through the ages who have stood up to injustice, intolerance, violence, oppression, and all they had going for them was the promise of an imperishable inheritance.
I had a pastor friend who stood up for what she believed. One night, a group of armed men went to her house, and shot her with her husband, leaving their children without parents, and traumatized for the rest of their lives. Or that a member of the church where I served before changed to a lower-paying job because the previous company he worked for had some practices that he could not accept as a Christian.
Corrie Ten Boom was a modern-day saint. She spent a very painful time in a Nazi concentration camp and lost her sister in that camp. After World War II, Corrie Ten Boom traveled around the world, and spoke of her war experiences in Holland, and her imprisonment at Ravensbruck. She shared the story of God’s love in her life even through the truly tough times.
Corrie often used simple symbols to illustrate great truths about God. For example, in one of her presentations, she would take with her a piece of cloth with a crown embroidered on it. She would first hold up the cloth with the lovely embroidered side showing all the threads forming a beautiful crown. This she would describe as the plan God has for our lives.
Then she would flip the cloth over to show the tangled, confused underside, illustrating how we view our lives from a human standpoint. There is a pattern to life, she would say, a pattern we may not see.
Corrie Ten Boom believed in God’s grace, and the inheritance that was promised through Jesus Christ.
The life of faith is really all about that. Faith acknowledges that we are going to have hardships, setbacks, failures, heartaches.
Faith contends, however, that in the sum total of things, “Someone up there likes us,” and come what may, if we have faith in God’s grace, life will work out.
And God’s grace is offered to you and to me. It carries with it certain responsibilities. But it can also give us a life that is exciting and fulfilling–an abundant life. Receive it and own it. And you will be blessed. You can do greater things for God.
