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Dr. George A. Purnell
January 3, 2010
“Reading the Will”
Ephesians 1:3-14
I confess that I rarely think about what a gift it is to be alive. I take for granted that I was born…that I was born into my family…that I was born into the United States…that I was born with innate abilities and intelligence…that I was born with particular physical features and without certain physical limitations…that I was born a Caucasian male in a specific time and place in history…that I was born of Christian parents, who passed that faith on to me...
So, I was born with an inheritance. I inherited a name from my father. I inherited genetic characteristics from my parents and their families. I inherited rights of citizenship in the United States at birth. I inherited advantages by accidents of birth; because I was born male and Caucasian and Christian in a nation and time period when white men had easier access to educational and employment and economic opportunities, and when being Christian offered acceptance because being Christianity was the “national religion.”
(Our constitution, of course, does not permit a national religion, as religious freedom and tolerance is built into the fabric of our foundation as an emerging nation. But from its beginnings, Christian faith has been normative in the United States. Indeed, being Christian – and even more specifically, Protestant Christian – hastened social acceptance and career progress, during my lifetime and before in America. Jews, Muslims and persons from other faith traditions – or persons who claimed no religious conviction of any sort – have been suspect in the U.S.)
Maybe it is because I recently turned 60, but the turning of the calendar to 2010 has found me grateful to be alive in new ways…
Being a task driven person, in the past I have often decided to get the New Year off to a good start by eating more vegetables and fewer deserts… by exercising more and watching television less…by not procrastinating doing the hard things and by prioritizing the really important things…In short, by listing ways I could better control my destiny.
And I am not alone. Our achievement oriented culture conditions us to believe that by the power of our resolve we can make life better in the New Year ahead.
But the turn of the calendar this year has found me thinking differently about where I should begin in looking to the year ahead…
Our scripture lesson begins with praise. Listen again to the majesty of this opening verse: “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.”
Saint Augustine wrote a prayer that has been among the two or three most often recited prayers throughout Christian history. “Great art thou, O Lord,and greatly to be praised; great is thy power, and infinite is thy wisdom. We desire to praise thee, for we are a part of thy creation…Thou hast prompted us, that we should delight to praise thee, for thou hast made us for thyself and restless are our hearts until they find rest in thee.”
Praise is where we begin, because praising God is instinctive in us. Jeremiah found that even when he did not want to speak for God, he had to, because “within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones. I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot…Sing to the Lord; praise the Lord!” (Jer. 20:9, 13) And so it was with Augustine in the late fourth century and with us in the year 2010. If we deny our need to praise God, we do not know joy or peace.
If I believe that God is the creator of the universe and everything within it…and that I owe my birth and life to God…then I believe that God is my parent and I am a member of the family of God.
Now there are people who believe that only others of their faith are God’s children. Some Christians believe that the Christian way is the one way to a place in heaven. And some Muslims believe that their God is God, and their way is the way. The same is true of some Jews, who believe that they are the chosen; God’s own people.
And if we believe we are outside the family of God, think what a joy it would be to be adopted into God’s family.
Imagine if you will someone who longs to be part of a family. Then think about what a wonderful gift it would be for that person to be adopted into a family. I can’t imagine how it must have felt for children in orphanages, during an earlier period in history, to wait to find out which one of them was going to be adopted and taken home by a family that had come to select a child. (The longstanding Broadway play, Annie, is the story of such an adoption.) I can’t imagine the joy at being selected.
The heart of our scripture today is that we have been adopted into the family of God. Chosen not because of our worthiness, but because of God’s grace, freely given: “He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us.”
Paul was a very learned Jew, so he understood the radical nature of the claim he was making here. He knew of the election tradition found in Hebrew scripture. In Deuteronomy, God reminds Israel that God chose them, not because they were worthy, but, instead, because God decided to choose them.
“For you are a people holy to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you of all the peoples on earth to be his people. It was not because you were more numerous than any other people that the Lord chose you – for you were fewest of all peoples. It was because the Lord loved you…” (Deuteronomy 7:7-8)
Paul writes here that the children of Israel could no longer lay exclusive claim to being God’s children, because in Christ we have now been included too.
“In 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, so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you 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; this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.”
We did nothing to deserve this status. We have this inheritance by birth, just as a child born a Rockefeller receives an inheritance of wealth by birth; or one born of royalty becomes a monarch by birth.
Our inheritance in Christ trumps wealth or power, however.
“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace…With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time…”
What shall we do with this gift? Some people squander their inheritance (prodigal son) and some invest it and get returns into perpetuity. As we begin this New Year, let’s pause to consider what we will do with the gift of life.
Paul writes today saying that our sins are forgiven and our relationship with God is restored because of what Jesus freely did for us. Maybe the place we begin in 2010 is to forgive someone we feel aggrieved by. Forgive them, freely, expecting nothing in return.
Forgive them, today, because resentments are heavy to carry. Forgive them, because unless you do, your relationship with God will remain strained. Forgive them, so they can feel your forgiveness, and be free to move ahead in their life without the burden of guilt.
Another thing we can do with the gift of life as we begin this New Year is to find a way to give ourselves away to others. Maybe there is someone you can adopt. Maybe there is an aged and lonely person in your neighborhood, or in our church, or in a facility where an elderly relative of yours lives…someone whose children have lives of their own, perhaps in another city or state…someone who feels alone and sometimes forgotten…someone to whom you could be a friend.
Or maybe the place to begin is by becoming a big brother or big sister to a young person in need of someone to whom they can turn for advice and support; a friend they can count on to be there, even when times get tough...
We can resolve to pay forward what we have received freely, remembering that God chose us…that God adopted us…that God lavished upon us the riches of God’s grace…
And we can, we must resolve to set aside time to worship God, because worship is instinctive. Worship is where we join in the unending song of the ages, and praise God in the courts of all the people.
I will guarantee you that if you forgive others…if you find ways to give yourself away…and if you make worship a priority in your life… 2010 will be a rich year for you.
Now, let us ready ourselves to come to the table, and remember the one whose life was given so that we could receive the glorious inheritance of the saints of light. Amen.
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