Morning Prayer: Tom Lyda Hymn of Faith *Jesus, Thou Joy of Loving Hearts* Witness of Scripture: Ephesians 1: 3-14 Anthem *Adagio* Beethoven. Jenifer Buyten, piano Sermon *Graced, Lavished, and Other Superlatives!* David Spain
Recorded on July 14, 2024
If you are an English teacher, you would probably give Paul an ‘F’ for how he wrote what he wrote. Ephesians 1: 3 – 14 is one whopping long sentence—it is the run on of all run on sentences—“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, and destined us for adoption as …” and on and on it runs. Our English translation has tidied up the Greek version of Paul’s letter, making 5 run on sentences out of Paul’s one sentence. However, whereas Paul might fail in syntax, he more than makes good in theology for in the letter called Ephesians Paul is at his grace-filled, expansive, loving best. To be sure, Paul at times can be tedious; but one long sentence notwithstanding, Paul unpacks his best theology. So, sentence structure ‘F’, theology ‘A.’
We may recall this letter called Ephesians was one of Paul’s circulating letters. While in prison, he wrote several such letters that were passed from one church to another.Circulating letters did not address specific issues in specific churches; instead, they were broad statements of how Paul viewed God, Christ, and the life of faith. It is a letter, a sermon, that could be preached in any pulpit—even 2,000 years later. When Paul’s letters were gathered into one collection, it is likely this letter was in the possession of the church in Ephesus, the capital of the Roman province in Asia Minor, what is now the western coast of Turkey, on the Aegean Sea.Today, thanks be to God, Paul’s letter has been forwarded all the way to the churches in Norman.
The core question Paul addresses in this letter is “Who is God?” That is our core question as well—“Who is God and how does God relate to us?” Worship, at some level is an expression, or an inquiry, or a wondering, or an opening to who God is. We listen for the ways Paul’s letter addresses the age-old question for anyone who proclaims faith—"Who is God and how does God relate to us?” Paul gives us an answer, in one very long sentence, which may be a clue in and of itself that perhaps all our words can never say everything to be said of God. It is probably good to remember that, for it encourages humility when we speak of God.
Is God high and lofty, too holy to associate with such imperfect creatures, an austere and distant God unapproachable and unmoved by life? Is God unhappy, angry, needing to be placated, cajoled, feared, parsing love with an eye dropper only to those who measure up to an almost impossible standard? Is God particular, preferential, predisposed to love and relate to some but rejecting and rebuffing of others? Who is God and how does God relate?
That people from a variety of religions and a variety of life stages may answer these questions differently is to be expected. We know in our own life of faith that our sense of who God is may have changed over time. It was some years ago that a friend—mid to late 20’s—made the comment that her sense of God was of One who set a bar so high she could never attain it, never please, never satisfy, never be well. Is that who God is, and if so, why beat up ourselves striving for unattainable perfectionism? Most people struggle, in varying degrees at some point in life, with some notion of a severe and demanding god.
So, Paul—who from time to time had his own struggles with a sense of God because as human beings we all see in a mirror dimly—wrote a letter to say as best he could what he had come to know, to believe, and to live. “Dear Saints,” he starts out optimistically enough—a much more friendly salutation than, “Dear Sinners in the hands of an angry God.”“Grace and peace,” which again is more inviting than, “Watch out and be afraid.” And then he starts the meat of his letter—the first few lines including ‘blessed, blessed, blessing.” Blessed be God who has given us every blessing, he wrote. It could be that Paul’s words became an early hymn, or an early liturgy meant to remind the church of who God is. Maybe Paul’s opening sounds familiar—we sing doxology each Sunday, we sing the Doxology most Sundays. “Praise God from whom all blessings flow, praise God all creatures here below…” We are not just filling space while offering plates are being brought to the Table.We are proclaiming who God is and what God does as we offer our responses of thanksgiving and praise.
Who is God? Paul writes God is the One who from before the beginning has always been for us, the One who created us in love to be in loving partnership with God and for one another. God didn’t do an about face at some point along history’s way and say—“Whereas before I was your enemy now I will be your advocate.” No, from the start God has always offered God’s self in covenant love to the world. Paul uses intimate language—chosen, adopted, pleasure, forgiven, redeemed, promised, inheritance, glory. One sentence, so many superlatives of who God is and how God graces life—not just some chosen, elected few, but all of life. It is as expansive as it can be, for no one is outside the realm of God’s covenant.
We note there is a stunning lack of human activity in this affirmation from Paul.Humanity does not have to do anything to earn this grace. There is no moral exhortation for people to be worthy of what God is doing. Our place, our role is to receive this grace, is to as Paul Tillich once entitled a sermon “Accept Your Acceptance.” This is sacred, wondrous, divine largesse, and all we are asked to do is receive it, recognize it, be embraced by it, live in the image of it. Our lives belong to God before they are coopted by any other project that might want us to forget who and whose we are. Will Willimon says it this way—“Our choices matter, but the first thing that matters is God’s choice of us to be for God. We are not lone, individual choosers, we are those who are blessed by having been chosen by God. Our choices are made in the light of that prior choice of God to be our God, no matter what.” (Pulpit Resource, July – Sept. 2024, p. 7)
It is helpful to remember the church in Ephesus was mostly a gentile congregation. We recall Paul thought his religion had the inside track on God; but now understands that God is broader than the measure of his mind—that God’s ancient covenant is not only for Jesus and Paul and their ancestors but also includes all those who do not claim that ancient lineage.Paul’s inclusivity is echoed years later by poet Carl Sandburg who said the ugliest word in the English language is ‘exclusive.’ “According to the riches of his grace lavished upon us, with all wisdom and insight Jesus has made known to us the mystery of God’s will, according to his good pleasure set forth in Christ…to gather up all things in heaven and things on earth.”
What is Paul saying of God, and therefore of us? God is love, therefore we are beloved; God is One who claims, therefore we are embraced; God is One who abides, therefore we are not alone. In a world of contingency and conditionality we are covenanted and claimed in God, in Christ. God cannot unlove us—be broken-hearted, grieving, saddened, advocating for those who are ignored or oppressed—yes of course, but that is all an expression of the covenant love God has for us, a love that will not let us go, a love that stands against anything that stands in the way of God’s love, a love that seeks to refine and transform wherever love has gone astray—the God who invites and keeps on inviting but does not coerce consent and cooperation.This is who God is, writes Paul; and at the end of this very long run-on sentence, he concludes where he begins, singing praise to God.
‘What then, are we to say about these things,’ Paul once asked, and we would ask similarly? It was said of Shakespeare’s King Lear, “He hath ever but slenderly known himself,” and that “lack of knowing surely contributed to his pride, insecurity, narcissism, self-delusion, and tragic downfall,” observed Marilyn McEntyre (newsletter@christiancentury.org7/14/24, p.3) We would listen to Lear and listen to Paul because they remind us of what can too often ail us. You may have read a guest column in last Saturday’s Norman Transcript in which the writer, citing extensive research on teens and cell phone usage, encouraged school systems to limit access to cell phones during the school day.He cited mental health, attention span, and simply basic human interaction skills as reasons to limit screen time. Sophisticated algorithms can be toxic to developing minds deeply shaped by images, impressions, bullying. To be sure there is an upside to technology, but we would do well to be mindful of the ways that various messages seek to displace Paul’s message of God’s claim on all of us, not just the lives of our most impressionable.
And then there is this. Isn’t it interesting that we are now in an era focusing on “Name, Image, Likeness,” which seems to be driving the meta-forces and meta-narratives of modern-day sports—name, image, likeness that is self-promoting and self-oriented, that relies on human ingenuity to generate worth and value that will always be temporary and always be fickle. Yes, there are important issues to be discussed here, but can we at least interject a theological question into the mix, because Paul has something to say about name, image, likeness.
What then are we to say about these things? If we, like the apostle Paul, took the opportunity to proclaim the essence of our faith, what would we include? Frederick Buechner said it this way—“There are some things I would be willing to bet my life on—that life is grace, for instance—the givenness of it, the fathomlessness of it, the endless possibilities of its becoming transparent to something extraordinary beyond itself…that bidden or not God is present…that anyone who does not love remains in death.” What might we say? “That God is love and anyone who loves is born of God and knows God…that God so loved the world…do to others as you would have them do to you…that God’s steadfast love endures forever, God’s faithfulness to every generation.” Those are given…not a bad place to start.Whatever we say, in the spirit of Paul’s letter, it might well include being graced, lavished, and other superlatives.And, if our statement ends up being a wondrous run-on sentence, well we aren’t the first to have written doxology that way.