Geared up for Life: Rooted & Grounded in Love

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 Foothills UMC, Rescue

“Geared up for Life: Rooted & Grounded in Love”

Rev. Andrew Davis

July 25, 2021

Ephesians 3: 14-21

 

         A lesson I always learn in life is how nothing ever stays the same which has been the case not only last year, but this last week.  One of the possibilities that the COVID-19 pandemic showed us is how to be flexible and adaptable is being able to work remotely, which I have learned to make the most of.  My parents took a trip to Santa Barbara earlier in the week to visit my sister and her family and have some time with their grandson/my nephew, while Trevor and I watched the cats, garden, and house.  Instead of commuting both ways, we were able to work from my parent’s house which was nice to be at again.  It’s always interesting returning to where you grew up, as nothing is ever the same and am happy that my parents now have air conditioning, making these long, hot days more bearable, considering I didn’t have air conditioning for 18 years of my life and still survived.  Then on Friday, the family got to celebrate my dad and his younger brother’s birthdays and it was nice seeing family and friends, getting reconnected, and it reminded me of being rooted and grounded in love, just as Trevor and I will get to do this afternoon in Ripon for a family party with Trevor’s family.

         As we continue exploring parts of the letter to the Ephesians this morning, we encounter a prayer by Paul, for all of us who are reading.  This week’s text is an act of praise and a reminder of being rooted and grounded in love with Christ and with the community the same way we can be rooted and grounded in love with our families.  We conclude the first part of our series, “Geared Up for Life” considering some of the theological aspects of our faith, as we think about setting our hope in Christ, allowing Christ to break down walls that keep us from living in peace, and being rooted and grounded in love.  The community aspect of living our faith cannot be stressed enough, as our faith is meant to be lived out together in community like we are through worship and small groups, as being in community is how we support each other, and encourage each other in faith.  These first three chapters serve as instructional in nature, then the next chapters will be geared toward how we respond.[i]

         When we set our hope in Christ and let Christ break down walls that divide us, we can allow Christ to enter our hearts out of his deep love for us, that like Paul in our lesson, we can become so consumed with that love that we fall on our knees and praise God!  In Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of Ephesians 3: 14-19 from The Message, we hear the words

My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love (Ephesians 3: 14-19, MSG). 

 

         Just before this passage, Paul (or whoever the author is) talks/humbly brags about the grace and love he received as being revealed by God through Christ and how the gospel message is available to all, which leads to this prayer and song of praise.  Yet to live out that love and be rooted and grounded in love, we need to let Christ into our hearts and work through us, rooting and grounding us in love after we have allowed Christ to break down the walls we might put up around our heart at one time or another.  It’s a love we can all experience through the grace of God in Jesus Christ and can lead to transformation in our hearts and lives.[ii]  We can be changed for the better when we are rooted and grounded in love that stems from Christ.  When we let Christ into our hearts, it’s “not merely tweaking old patterns: everything changes.”[iii]

         Even when change is not easy, it’s necessary and that includes being rooted and grounded in love.  Last week when I shared about serving breakfast at CHUMC’s “Our Daily Bread,” or when I left the church and walked away from God, coming back to the faith was when I made the intentional effort to let Christ in and let myself be rooted and grounded in love, even more so than I ever had been even when that love gets tested more times than I wish to confess.  Being rooted and grounded in love has opened new doors, allows for new perspectives apart from my own, and helps me to learn to love myself, which I’m still working on and learning to have more grace for myself, as God’s grace is given to us all.  I don’t know about you, but for me, it leads me to praise God each day, letting each new morning be a new beginning.  The first thing I think in the morning is “thank you, God for this new day!”

Letting Christ into our hearts and being rooted and grounded in love can open up new doors, allow us to hear different perspectives, and have tough conversations a time or two as wll.  I know whenever we have to engage in touch conversations, I’d rather run from them and sweep them under the rug, but when we allow Christ in and when we are rooted and grounded in love, it opens us up to loving ourselves and others in a whole new way and opens us up to hearing sometimes hard truths when we watch over one another in love.  The same goes for in the church, whenever we may need to have a difficult conversation, or when we have to talk about things we don’t want to talk about.   Still, knowing we are loved by God, setting our hope in Christ, allowing Christ to break down any barriers, and knowing we are loved by one another leads us to praise God together!!

As we go into a new week, how are you going to share the love and grace of Christ with someone around you?  We have been a loving family here at Foothills for many years and I love it that we are a loving, warm family here and it shows because we are rooted and grounded in love.  And, I encourage us to keep that going, while always look towards taking our love and grace to the next level, whatever that might be.  Part of this journey of faith means going to a next level, as following Christ and being rooted and grounded in love means

A new way of living, of being, of loving. Paul calls it being filled with all the fullness of God – blessing and possibility and suffering and hurt too. God doesn’t call us to an easy life, but a full life, a deep life – a life that struggles with how to love but driven by the certainty that loving is a better way to live. Even if we don’t always know how, it is going to work out.[iv]

 

Let us all be rooted and grounded in love as we set our hope on Christ, allow Christ to break down the walls around our hearts, and live fully and deeply with the same love that God has for us, the same love that Christ showed in coming to earth to show us how to live and love.  Let us take our love to the next level as we go out and about this week in both our words and actions.  In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, let the church say, Amen!!  


[i] Geroge W. Stroup, “Ephesians 3: 14-21: Theological Perspective” in Feasting on the Word, Year B, Volume 3, Edited by David L. Bartlett & Barbara Brown Taylor (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), 280.

[ii] Derek Weber, “Planning Notes” in Geared Up for Life Worship Series (Nashville: Discipleship Ministries of The United Methodist Church, 2021), Accessed 22 July 2021, https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/worship-planning/geared-up-for-life/ninth-sunday-after-pentecost-year-b-lectionary-planning-notes

[iii] Karen Chakoian, “Ephesians 3: 14-21: Pastoral Perspective” in Feasting on the Word, Year B, Volume 3, Edited by David L. Bartlett & Barbara Brown Taylor (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), 280.

[iv] Derek Weber, “Preaching Notes” in Geared Up for Life Worship Series (Nashville: Discipleship Ministries of The United Methodist Church, 2021), Accessed 24 July 2021, https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/worship-planning/geared-up-for-life/ninth-sunday-after-pentecost-year-b-lectionary-planning-notes.

 

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