Geared Up for Life: Setting our Hope, Sermon July 11, 2021

 Foothills UMC, Cameron Park/Rescue

“Geared Up for Life: Setting Our Hope”

Ephesians 1: 3-14

Rev. Andrew Davis

July 11, 2021

 

         What a wonderful weekend last weekend was as we celebrated Independence Day and our new beginning together.  I cannot begin to say thank you enough to everyone who has made Trevor and I feel welcome here at Foothills UMC.  This first full week together has been no exception.  It has been nice getting a chance to know many of you via email, phone, or in joining me for coffee at Cameron Park Coffee & Deli on Tuesday (which I will be doing every Tuesday) or swinging by the office to say hi.  I continue to thank all of you who have made recommendations of places to eat or have coffee at, as going out to these places is one of the ways I do ministry and go into the world, and witness to the community around us.  

         As we talked about going into the world in the same way Jesus sent the disciples out last week, today and throughout the rest of the summer, we will be thinking about what it means to actively live our faith in the world and community as we start a new series, “Geared up for Life.” In “Geared up for Life, we will be working through the Book of Ephesians between now and mid-August by looking at the “why,” then the “how” of living our faith, especially as we continue relaunching our in-person ministries, creating new ministries of belonging, making new spaces to honor each person’s journey, and seeking ways to serve the greater good within the community we live.[i]  As we explore Ephesians and its themes of unity, community, and God’s saving grace, we can explore how our faith is meant to be lived out in community and how community makes a difference on our faith journey.  More importantly, we need each other regardless of whether we think alike or differently, or regardless of where we are at in life which is reflected on in the welcome statement on the church website.  After hearing the opening statement in Ephesians, there is so much to praise, as we are all part of the family, we all belong, we are offered grace from God and forgiven by God, and even better, God chose us in Christ!!  That alone is enough to praise!!

         We get some good tidbits in Ephesians about what it means to actively live our faith.  As we read on, Ephesians serves as “a deep grounding into the nature of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ and a desire to help others find their way into this relationship.”[ii] That means welcoming everyone into this beautiful family in Christ here at Foothills UMC, just as each of us is part of the family of Christ when the author calls us God’s “children through Jesus Christ” (Eph. 1: 5, NRSV).  It’s a message of how “God, according to God’s loving purpose, destined us to be children through Jesus Christ” which is where we can set our hope on today.[iii]

         As the early church was beginning to grow around the time Ephesians was written, there was a significant amount of division and disunity.  The author, or Paul, is trying to convey a message of coming together by encouraging the early followers of Christ to realize how much God loves them and to set their hope in Christ amidst the division and disunity.  Today, divisions can leave us feeling a little hopeless, discouraged, or cynical.  The thing is that it’s easy to feel hopeless, discouraged, or cynical when things aren’t going well, even though we have Jesus Christ who we can set our hope by knowing we aren’t alone.  When we read through the letter of Ephesians,

Ephesians reminds us of God’s love for us and the flowing words of [this morning’s] passage envelop us with that kind of love: excessive, tender, richly abundant.

 

Yet the language of Ephesians is not individualistic.  As beloved as we are, we are lifted up into something far greater than ourselves…the constant plural pronouns remind us that this gift is not an individual blessing, but always for the community of Christ.[iv]

 

         It is especially important to know how much God loves us and how each of us can extend that same love to everyone we encounter here in the church, in our neighborhoods, or in the greater community.  It’s our job as the hands and feet of Jesus today to us to set our hope in Christ, then share that same hope with everyone we encounter, as we already deal with enough hatred, anger, exclusion, tensions, and the like in the world today.  As we mentioned last week, people DO pay attention to what we do as followers of Christ in our world and will notice when we display those not so good values or attitudes and could leave us feeling a little less than hopeful or when people don’t want to engage with us because of what they’ve seen or heard.  Even though being a community of faith takes a lot of grace and patience, along with love, the connection does make a difference when we offer a message of hope, grace, and belonging instead of a message of judgment and exclusion.  Setting our hope in Christ as a community can make a difference in people’s lives, as I have had that experience and realization about the importance of community. 

         In some seasons of my life, when life or struggles in life felt like it was too much to handle, setting my hope in Christ has kept me alive.  There were a few moments in those seasons where I questioned whether life is worth living.  We might not see hope right away, but need to set our hope in Christ as followers of Christ anyway, and allow the community of faith we have around us to encourage and sustain each other in that hope.  In another season, when I found myself experience spiritual bankruptcy in my mid-20’s, it was setting my hope in Christ that led me back to God and the community, but took some time to do so.  During that time, I became very disillusioned with church and God stemming from a number of events in prior years that led me to question my faith in God and my beliefs. Likewise, I became disillusioned with the church and Christianity, as I saw a lot of behavior, anger, and exclusion happening around me (more from the church universal, although the UMC is far from perfect too).  Instead of asking questions, meeting with my pastor at the time, or trying to seek answers to the many questions I had, I just walked away, figuring that would be easy.  It seemed easy for awhile, as I enjoyed being agnostic, living kind of carefree, and not dealing with anything at church, or worrying about pleasing God.  Except, I would realize that was a temporary feeling, as I began to sense something was missing.  

After a back injury that resulted in severe sciatica, I had enough pain that I finally prayed for the first time in several months and felt God’s presence, almost like John Wesley’s Aldersgate Experience where it was as if my heart was strangely warmed.  It was ultimately music and hearing the word through music that brought me back to the faith, realize that God still loved me, accepted God’s forgiveness and since then, I have set my hope in Christ.  When I moved to another church in 2010, I got involved in some of the small groups before saying yes to God’s call into ministry, even though I am far from perfect, and life still gets messy but found out how we really do need that connection with each other and need the community. 

 The good news is that we can set our hope in Christ, AND, we have the community of faith we can lean into and support each other, even when life gets messy and difficult, when things feel like they aren’t going right, or the whole system is on the blink.  We need the community and the connection, differences, and each of us are unique in our own ways yet chosen and loved by God.  Setting our hope can be transforming.  As we reflect on this morning’s lesson from Ephesians and how we set our hope in Christ and go out into the greater community,

it becomes revealed that this good news is not to be contained within the walls of the community of faith. The hope and the will of God, the beloved, is that the whole world will be gathered up into the blessing that is covenant with God into the beloved community. And our job, it appears from these verses, is not to draw lines of exclusion, but to open wide the arms of graced-filled faith and to welcome, to bless, to adopt into our family all the sons and daughters of God. This is the “purpose of him who accomplishes all things” and therefore our purpose as well. We who have been adopted are now the adopters. We who have been blessed are now the ones who bless. We who have been included are now the includers. The circle enlarges; the ripples work out to bring transformation to a world sorely in need of the influence of the kin- dom. 

As a sign of that presence, there is a community that surrounds you – a community that is a part of you. As the letter continues to unfold, we discover that the purpose of this blessing and this inclusion is to bring unity and to offer praise to God. The praise is evident here, clearly, but the unity is yet to come. And yet it is woven through this text in the consistent use of the second person plural. You all are blessed; we are adopted; all y’all give praise to God. To individualize the faith is to misuse the essence of what is offered here: presence, community, relationship. Yes, of course, the individual matters; yes, each is called and valued and lifted up. But the true impact of the faith is when we participate in the life of the community, when we offer to God even our relationships as the means of witness and praise, as we engage with a hurting world with the balm of blessing and bring healing and wholeness and peace.[v]

         As we go into a new week, how are you setting your hope in Christ and encouraging others to set their hope in Christ?  How has setting your hope in Christ led to transformation for yourself or someone you know?  How will you use the hope you have in Christ to bring healing and wholeness into our world?  In the name of our Creator, Christ, and the Holy Spirit, let the church say, Amen!  

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[i] Derek Weber, “Planning Notes” in Geared Up for Life Worship Series (Nashville: Discipleship Ministries of The United Methodist Church, 2021), Accessed 7 July 2021, https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/worship-planning/geared-up-for-life/seventh-sunday-after-pentecost-year-b-lectionary-planning-notes

[ii] Derek Weber, “Preaching Notes” in Geared Up for Life Worship Series (Nashville: Discipleship Ministries of The United Methodist Church, 2021), Accessed 7 July 2021, https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/worship-planning/geared-up-for-life/seventh-sunday-after-pentecost-year-b-lectionary-planning-notes/seventh-sunday-after-pentecost-year-b-preaching-notes

[iii] Paul J. Achtmeier, “Ephesians 1: 3-14: Exegetical Perspective,” in Feasting on the Word, Year B, Vol. 3, Edited by David L. Bartlett & Barbara Brown Taylor (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), 233.  

[iv] Karen Chakoian, ““Ephesians 1: 3-14: Pastoral Perspective,” in Feasting on the Word, Year B, Vol. 3, Edited by David L. Bartlett & Barbara Brown Taylor (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), 234.  

[v] Derek Weber, “Preaching Notes” in Geared Up for Life Worship Series