Sermons

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Starting with Jesus
January 5 , 2003
Pastor Dan Baumgartner
Ephesians 1:3-14

First, I want to extend my personal thank you to a number of people here in our community. We’ve just come through a marvelous Advent season here at Bethany, and many people worked very hard to make it so. Our ensembles, Advent choir, special music folks…Gary Talbert, Sylvia Oines…the folks who decorated the sanctuary, and those who “undecorated” it. I just want to say a big “Thank You!,” because we have all been blessed so much by these gifts.

During Advent, we read the entire Christmas story out of the gospel of Matthew. That’s something that we are going to continue to do over much of the next six months, as we look at the life, teaching and ministry of Jesus as related by Matthew…with two exceptions:

1. during Lent, the time leading up to Easter, we’ll use some different texts, and
2. today

On this first Sunday of 2003, we’re going to read something a bit different from the New Testament letter of Paul to the Ephesians. This passage has been called many things:

1. Paul’s great benediction
2. An early hymn to God
3. An early hymn, trinitarian in nature…because it is broken into Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
4. The longest run-on sentence in the history of the world! We don’t totally see it in the English, but there are ten solid verses in the Greek with absolutely no periods (only the Apostle Paul could get away with something like that)

As I read, especially this morning, I want to ask you to follow along with me in Ephesians 1:3-14.

So. It’s the first Sunday of the New Year. Do you like beginnings? I’ve always loved them. I love the feeling of fresh starts, of a clean slate. I love being able to think things like “I’ve worked out every day this year!” But there are also serious moments, when I approach the New Year with a certain sense of awe and wonder. What will happen this year?! A lot goes on in one year…a whole lot. Some of it we can anticipate. Some will be good, some bad, some just unexpected.

What will happen this year, in 2003? Lots of routine things: a thousand meals, 500 cups of coffee (at least), a couple hundred exercise times (hopefully). And more serious things. Some of us will lose a friend or family member. Some will gain one. We’ll mow the lawn, read some books…watch the sunset. There’ll be 100 “chance” encounters with people you know. You might make a new friend. Get a promotion…lose a job. What will go on in this year, 2003?

Being human, and American, we’ll try to find some ways to dictate and control this new year. We often call that “New Year’s Resolutions.” Since it’s already January 5, I think I’m relatively safe to say that some resolutions in this room have already been broken, some discarded, and some probably never should have been made. Resolutions are all fine and good (I enjoy them), but they do tend to deal with external things (weight, cigarettes, exercise)…or unrealistic ones (“This year I will totally change my entire personality). Resolutions aren’t unimportant. I just wonder if we shoot too low.

What if this New Year we thought about things that are going to matter, things that are really important, that will change us or change the world we live in? For that…I think we need to start with Jesus. That’s really what Paul says in Ephesians. Before anything else is said or believed or written or resolved, let’s start with Jesus.

Some of you might even be here this morning because your resolution was to see if there was anything important in this church-stuff. You might be here because you are interested in spiritual things, but aren’t so sure about exactly who God is or how you might know God. It’s a good place to be. Here’s my encouragement: Start with Jesus.

Some of you, and I definitely include myself in this group, you have been looking around at our world, a world in crises: environmental crisis, AIDS crisis, economic crisis, poverty crisis, military crisES, the presence of war in many places and the threat of it in others (and more and more I find myself fervently praying against the threat of more war breaking out)…and the whole picture depresses you. What could God have to do with a world as crazy as this? Sometimes it seems either God is absent, or powerless…or both. Here’s my encouragement: Let’s start with Jesus.

Some of you have been Christians for 20-30 years or more. You’ve heard it all before, you’ve been up and down the spiritual roller coaster so many times you couldn’t count them all. You are looking at a New Year wondering what technique, what adventure, what magic pill might re-invigorate your faith. Here’s my encouragement: Start with Jesus.

No matter where you are, listen to what Paul says about Jesus Christ… and us!:

• We are blessed by God IN CHRIST.
• God has chosen us IN CHRIST…to be holy and blameless, before him in love.
• We are destined for adoption as children…through JESUS CHRIST.
• We have had grace given to us…IN JESUS CHRIST.
• We have been redeemed (bought and paid for) through the sacrifice…OF JESUS CHRIST.
• We have received forgiveness…IN JESUS CHRIST.
• God has lavished grace upon us…IN JESUS CHRIST.
• We can know the mystery of God’s will…IN JESUS CHRIST.
• We have an inheritance from God…IN CHRIST.
• Because of CHRIST, we have been marked with the Spirit as GOD’S OWN PEOPLE.

The Apostle Paul says…contrary to popular opinion, that the great building blocks of history have been moving, NOT just randomly…but over all, over time, with purpose towards an end…the beginning of which came in Jesus Christ. Paul dares to say that God is not absent in the world, but present. That we are not alone, but accompanied.
Now, we might think “Well, Paul lived a long time ago, it was a different day.” But in reality, his world wasn’t all different from our own. Paul lived in a time that had lots of “spirituality” being tossed about, lots of ideas and philosophies and religions being held up as truth. One of these trends was what we now call “gnosticism.” “Gnostic” comes from the word that means “knowledge.” Gnostics believed there was a “secret knowledge” that was open only to a privileged few, a knowledge that would unlock the mysteries of the universe (sounds like a TV commercial around midnight!). Ralph Martin calls it a kind of “first century scientology.” Only these few could access the mystery, the hidden truth of the universe, and they would hoard this secret in their private circle.

That is so very different from Paul. Paul couldn’t keep a secret to save his life! Yes, there’s mystery…and we understand it when God acts IN CHRIST! The forgiveness of sin, the reconciliation of people, entrance into the family of God…all IN CHRIST, and it’s open to everybody! Take out the flashlight, shine it in the corners, the secret’s out, and Paul is going to tell everybody…because it’s FOR everybody…Jews, Greeks, strangers, aliens, men, women. Everybody can live unburdened by the past, without fear of the future (including death), with purpose in the present…because of JESUS. Paul says we are part of God’s family…and the bigger the better! Did you ever know one of those families with 8-10-12 kids? It seemed like there was always a party going on at their house! The door opening and shutting constantly. And the thing about those houses was: there was always room for one or two or three more. That’s it! A picture of God’s family! The Church.

Maybe 2003 is when we’ll believe it just a little more. I talked with one of our senior citizens this week, who has had some health problems and is wondering (legitimately) if she is nearing the end of life. I said, “So…how are you really doing?” You know what she said? “All I know is this…I have nothing to be afraid of.” She’s right…IN CHRIST. If we could say that now, not at the end of life but now…wouldn’t life be different this year?

Once in a while I get a glimpse, or hear a word spoken, and even if I’ve heard it before, it just sinks down into me, and I think: “If we believed what we say we believe about Jesus…would life look different?” It happened to me last week. I was watching a bowl game on TV, and at halftime they did a feature on a former topnotch college football player who graduated 20-25 years ago, and chose NOT to play professional football. He and his wife, even as they started their own family, began slowly to take in kids who weren’t making it in their home situations. First just one or two. Eventually they bought a small farm, and brought in a couple more kids. Then they built a couple buildings to house even more kids. Kids who were falling through cracks, and getting into trouble. They (and then others with them) parented them, loved them, cared for them. That was years ago they started. Over the years, they’ve helped 1500 kids! But what struck me was a simple sentence the man said in the interview: “In the long run, what’s important? Nobody ever remembers if your house was painted, or what kind of a car you drove.” But they remember if you invested in their lives.

When I first heard it, I thought, “Wow, that’s neat, what an incredible calling that is, what a marvelous thing that family has done.” Then I thought: You know, if we really believed what Paul says about Jesus Christ…maybe that’s not so incredible. Paul says, “God has invested everything he has in people…in YOU…in Jesus Christ.” If we know we are loved, forgiven, cared for, part of the family…maybe WE can start investing in other people as well. It starts with Jesus.

It seems to be one of God’s principles: If we look hard and long and lovingly at Jesus…we’ll start looking long and hard and lovingly at the people around us. What would it look like, in 2003…for you to intentionally invest in other kinds of people around you? In your family? Kids, siblings, parents, spouses, friends. Or what would it look like in 2003…to invest in people who are not easy for you to be around?

Over the holiday, I read a novel by Wendell Berry called “Jayber Crow.” Jayber Crow is the name of a barber in a small town, and the story is told by him. There really is just one person Jayber isn’t very fond of, a guy named Troy. Troy was a little too full of himself, a little too arrogant, and one day in that little barbershop, he unleashed a torrent of hateful accusations about anyone protesting the U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Jayber Crow, the barber, listens, and then says,

“I quit cutting hair and said to Troy, ‘Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you.’ Troy jerked his head up and said, ‘Where did you get that crap?’ I said, ‘Jesus Christ.’ And Troy said ‘Oh.’ It would have been a great moment in the history of Christianity except that I did not love Troy.”

But part of the great redemption of the book is how that changes. Eventually Jayber even says

“in the small ways that were possible, (I would be Troy’s) friend. It was a friend, finally, he would need. I would listen to him and talk to him, ignoring his self-pity and his lapses into grandeur and meanness, giving him a good welcome and a pat on the shoulder.”

When we’re around people we don’t like…normally we simply quit being around them. What would happen if we could stick with them? If we believed what Paul says about Jesus, about how God invested in us, maybe we could make an investment like that. It starts with Jesus.

I don’t know what you may anticipate for the year that is stretching out in front of us. But before we get too carried away with resolutions, or before the year gets any further along, while it’s still new and fresh…let’s make sure we’re starting with Jesus. Let’s pray.