Text: Eph. 1:3-14
3 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, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.
11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.
Life seems to be as bad right now as it has ever been. Maybe you feel it and maybe you know it too?
A year or so ago I got a text from my brother asking me to give him a call and if I had a moment to talk. It wasn’t uncommon and I quickly returned the call.
“Hi Ron, how are you?” I asked.
“Not good,” was the reply.
My brother sounded spent. His voice was soft and lost. It was not our normal conversation. He told me that he had got a call from his son and that Vince’s childhood friend had committed suicide. His parents went away for the weekend and he was staying at their house to watch the dog. They called and talked to him as they were leaving to make the trip back home from Grand Rapids. Two and a half hours later they found him in their home dead from a gunshot wound.
They didn’t know he owned a gun.
They didn’t know there was a problem.
They didn’t expect this … and even though my brother and nephew had lost touch with this young man after high school nobody expected this – family or friends - from a college educated 25 year old with no history of family or life problems … nobody expected this.
Stories like this have become all too familiar in our day. I can’t remember a story like this growing up. Sure there were deaths and some tragic when I was growing up. A classmate died in a fire, another of cancer, a younger brother of the guy who sat behind me in homeroom was murdered by a family friend. Tragic for sure but all three would have been here had not the fire, the sickness, or the evil deed of another prevailed.
We end one year and begin another with joy and sorrow. I received a picture of my brother, Ron’s new grandson Henry, born the day after Christmas. Joy and smiles abound! He even looks to me like my brother as a baby. What a joy to their family.
I read online also with sadness the story of a small plane crash in Lafayette, La. that killed Carly McCord, a 30 year old sports reporter and daughter–n-law of LSU coach Steve Ensminger, along with four others. Tears and sadness abound. What a tragic family outcome just after Christmas.
At times like these, God’s blessings can seem distant or small in comparison to the weight of life trials that comes upon us - at times in our lives - that we didn’t anticipate or expect.
When joy or sorrow comes we need to be reminded of hope. Not just hope for a better tomorrow but hope that surpasses all human understanding. And that is what Paul puts to scroll in the opening of his letter to the Ephesians.
3 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,
Our blessings are not in the joys or sorrows of our earthly lives but in Christ and in him we have every spiritual blessing promised in Christ and delivered to us through God’s work. No matter the joy or sorrow we face.
Each New Year we have the promise of a better day ahead and that the sorrows of the year just ended can be better as we look to our future and what tomorrow might bring. Often times as we look back we see all that this life didn’t deliver and the hope for tomorrow became much the same as before or simply a life of ups and downs.
Despite the ups and downs though Paul reminds us of God’s calling:
4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.
You stand … not marked in sin but marked in him … as holy and blameless!
Think about that! You are set apart and marked without fault.
In this life you stumble and fall. You miss the mark and are overlooked. You argue and fight and feel at times hopeless but in Christ you are holy and blameless.
Why? Well, its God’s love!
In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
It is God’s will that you be his child.
It is God’s will that this happen in Christ.
It is God’s will that no matter your success or failure in this life …
… that in Christ, God’s grace and favor come to you.
We were brought forth in sin, conceived in sin, and in sin death comes – we are filthy and whether through sickness or tragic circumstances like my classmate Sylvia dying in a house fire at 14, or Marc dying from cancer as the Allen Park Jaguar football team won the league championship, or Kevin -brother of Kent and Keith who was killed at the hand of a family friend, tragically and senselessly.
In the world life becomes death.
In Christ death becomes life.
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
Temporal and heavenly realities are ours.
Tears in this life will come. Will you lose a job or get one? Will a loved one die or will life be added to your family? Will yours be tears of sorrow or joy?
Only God and the future know for sure but I’m sure it will be some of each as we continue in this life both with our families and our church family and our community and national families as well.
The reality of need and of promise, of blessing and curse don’t always come at the proper or desired time in this life. At times our need often remains while the hoped for blessing seems to be to those Ephesian readers and then to us as well.
11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.
It’s all ours because of Christ.
It is all ours according to his will and purpose.
It is all ours to the praise of his glory!
Where?
13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him,
The word proclaimed and the word connected to the water in Holy Baptism.
When?
When you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,
When we were marked in Christ as forgiven, through the gospel proclaimed and sealed in the sacrament of Holy Baptism by God’s working.
Who?
14 who is [God’s] guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it.
God the Holy Spirit in you.
Why?
Simply to the praise of his glory.
It is simply his love and grace and favor on account of Christ that God has marked you as his. No work and no merit. No sorrow or joy. No right or wrong.
Just Christ, for you
Why?
Simply to the praise of his glory.
It is simply his love and grace and favor on account of Christ that God has marked you as his. No work and no merit. No sorrow or joy. No right or wrong.
Just Christ, for you
Just Christ, in you
Just Christ, with you
In times of life that have no explanation.
3 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,
In Christ!
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen
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