SERMON ON THE EPISTLE FOR SUNDAY 15TH JULY

Ephesians 1:3-14 NRSV

Spiritual Blessings in Christ

3 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, ⁴just as he chose us in Christ^* before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. ⁵He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, ⁶to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. ⁷In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace ⁸that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight ⁹he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, ¹⁰as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. ¹¹In 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, ¹²so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. ¹³In 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; ¹⁴this^* is the pledge of our inheritance towards redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.

Barclay points out that the whole of this reading (verses 3-14) – in the original – is one single long sentence. It is not so much reasoned statement and ‘… a lyrical song of praise …’ He is not thinking in logical stages, but ‘… because gift after gift and wonder after wonder from God pass before his eyes and enter into his mind …’

We make sense of it by breaking it up into manageable pieces:

(i) At the core of the Christian life is God’s choice: Paul did not choose God – God chose him! Jesus made this point strongly as recorded in John 15:16. To Paul, everything was of God and this caused him to give thanks. It would not be that great if man chose God, it is wonderful that God chose man.

(ii) Paul thinks of the bounty of God’s choice: God chose us to bless us with those things that are only available from heaven. There are many things that we can achieve for ourselves: skills, position, material goods; but what we can never achieve for ourselves is ‘goodness’ or ‘peace of mind’. Barclay comments: “God chose us to give us those things which he alone can give.”

A moment’s reflection takes this further. There remains today the important question of what is meant by ‘good’. Many say that it is that which provides happiness for the majority; but what about sizable minorities? Are they to be utterly miserable because only the majority count? Society has unquestioningly accepted this as just the way it is in a democracy, i.e. that misery is the lot of all too many. Because 51 % are happy it is just illogical that the wishes of 49% should not be considered!

Others suggest that ‘goodness’ like ‘yellow’ cannot be defined at all – you know it when you experience it intuitively. But people’s intuition does not always agree (even though on the basics they have a point). But this is not the place for a detailed philosophical discussion of ‘goodness’, what matters here is that it is not something earned or deserved – like faith – it is a gift from God and is linked with Barclay’s last point and that is that we are chosen for a purpose.

(iii) We are chosen to be holy and blameless. The Greek word for ‘holy’ is ‘hagios’ which means difference and separation. A church is holy because its purpose is different; ministers’ are holy because they are meant to be different to others; God is supremely holy because God is so completely different.

In the early Church (and it is my experience in Britain today) that being Christian, and this means being different, means that the people of the world sometimes even hate you because they cannot understand why you are so different. I know this is your experience as well. Barclay suggests that the Church has got things wrong in the sense that some have tried to erase this difference between being a Christian and being worldly; some are reluctant to make a stand, reluctant to challenge sin, reluctant to impose standards, because they want to attract people and become popular. Barclay concludes: “In point of fact a Christian should be identifiable in the world … Our being different ought not to take us out of the world; it should make us different within the world.”

It should be easy to identify the Christian within the school, the shop, the factory, the office, the hospital ward, the law court – anywhere. And this is the difference: we ought not merely to behave as human law requires but rather within the laws of Christ. This meant disobeying the apartheid laws because they contravened the laws of Christ!

Sadly, the world we inhabit is so conditioned to its own ways, that, being a Christian can mean getting into trouble, as was the case with the nurse who offered to pray for a patient; people being expelled from their union. But, if enough Christians became ‘hagios’ – holy – answerable to Christ, they would revolutionize society – for the good! And in the midst of our present circumstances, don’t we need a revolution in our way of thinking, because our economy, education, morals are rightly being questioned?

But we are not only expected to be holy we are also meant to be blameless – ‘amomos’ – we need to offer ourselves as a sacrifice, giving every part of our lives to God. Barclay explains: “… it is to challenge man to make his whole life so perfect that it is a fit offering to God …”

We Christians ought to be different – good people – because we have been made good – sanctified - by the grace of God. This should be obvious to all and be as transparent as the goodness of Mother Teresa, St Francis and all the great saints. Impossible! No because it is not our doing it is what God does in us – the reason why he has chosen us. When we are good and holy and blameless we do not become arrogant or proud because we know this is God’s doing for with us because such virtues are impossible for us to achieve. Barclay concludes:

“… the Christian sets no value on the judgements of human standards, but thinks only of how to satisfy the scrutiny of Christ …’

Ephesians 1:5-6:

⁵He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, ⁶to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

These verses include the lovely image of adoption and it is worth a brief re-visit.

It gives God pleasure to adopt us into his family. This is a lovely thought and is increasingly so for me as I have now spent so many years contemplating the greatness of God with my philosophy students. To think of St Anslem’s profound definition of God as “… that, than which, nothing greater can be conceived …” This creator of everything that exists – universe after universe – and that which is beyond human understanding – so great – yet cares for Mark Andrew Smith and David Rhys Owen enough as to adopt us into his family – is a wonderful thought.

A reminder of the process of adoption …

In the Roman Law that was operational at the time of St Paul, family law was based on the principle of ‘patria potestas’ – the father’s power – which was absolute: a father could sell a child into slavery and even kill his own child! A child could not possess anything even inheritances or gifts unless the father allowed it and he could take these things back if he so willed. So it was a serious step to move from one ‘patria potestas’ to another.

It was carried out in the form of a symbolic sale in which copper and scales were used. Twice the real father sold the child and twice he bought the child back, but on the third occasion the sale went through. After this the adopting father went to the principal Roman Magistrate – the Praetor – and pleaded the case for the adoption. Once this was completed the adopted child had all the rights of a legitimate child in the new family and lost all the rights to the old family.

Barclay applies all this to the experience of the Christian. We were members of the family of the world and absolutely in the power of sin. God, through Jesus, has taken us out of that power into His power. Our adoption into God’s family ‘… cancels and wipes out the past and we are made new. We have passed from the family of the world and of evil into the family of God …’

Ephesians 1:7-8:

⁷In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace ⁸that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight …

In this section we encounter three of the great ideas of the Christian faith: (i) redemption, (ii) forgiveness and (iii) wisdom and insight:

(i) Redemption: Here the word used is ‘apolutrosis’ which literally means ‘to ransom’. It was commonly used to refer to ransoming a prisoner of war or a slave or freeing a person from the death penalty for a crime. It was used for God’s ransoming of the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt. Barclay comments:

“In every case the conception is the delivering or the setting free of a person from a situation from which they themselves were powerless to liberate themselves, or from the penalty which they themselves could never have paid.”

This is precisely what Jesus does for us, in that we are powerless without God’s grace, and fall under the domination of sin. We know the wrongness of things in our lives, but we are powerless to do anything about it.

(ii) Forgiveness: The ancient world was haunted by the sense of sin. This was the theme of the whole of the Old Testament. Barclay comments:

“It might well be said that the whole of the Old Testament is an expansion of the saying, ‘The soul that sins, it shall die.’ (Ezekiel 18:4)”

Deep down, all people are conscious of their guilt and stand in terror at the thought of God. Barclay illustrates this by suggesting that all the plays of Aeschylus can be seen to be founded on but one text: “The doer shall suffer.” He adds:

“Once a man had done an evil thing Nemesis was on his heels; soon or late Nemesis would catch up on him; and punishment followed sin as certainly as night followed day.”

Jesus changed all this because he opened the way to God; he teaches us not of God’s anger, but of his love and forgiveness.

(iii) Wisdom and insight: The two words used in Greek are ‘sophia’ and ‘phronesis’ and the Greeks believed that if a person possessed these things, they had everything they needed for life.

Once more Barclay comes into his own by explaining the cultural context. He explains that Aristotle defined ‘sophia’ as the thing of the searching intellect and the questioning mind and it is ‘sophia’ that is the answer to the eternal problems of life and death, God and humankind and time and eternity.

‘Phronesis’ (in English – prudence) is the knowledge of human affairs where planning is necessary, or as Plutarch explained – the practical knowledge of the things which concern us. Cicero was of the view that ‘phronesis’ was the knowledge of the things which are to be sought and which are to be avoided; Plato spoke of the disposition of the mind which enables us to judge what things are to be done and which things are not to be done. Barclay concludes:

“In other words, ‘phronesis’ is the most practical thing in the world. It is the sound sense which enables men to meet and to solve the practical problems of everyday life and living.”

Here, St Paul is saying that what Jesus brings is ‘sophia’ – the knowledge of eternal things, the intellectual knowledge that satisfies the mind; and ‘phronesis’ – the practical knowledge - which equips us for everyday living.

What a lovely balance. With Jesus – and his living presence within our lives today and every day – we are given the tools to deal with the problems of both eternity and time – or as Barclay concludes:

“Christ gives to us the ability to see the great ultimate truths of eternity and to solve the problems of each moment of time.”

Redemption, forgiveness, wisdom and insight – what lovely gifts – all free and unconditional to those who would receive them.