Rooted and Grounded in Love

This is my sermon from St. Mark Lutheran Church on Sunday, July 28, 2018.
The main lesson was Ephesians 3:14-21, with reference to the Gospel lesson, John 6:1-21, and a quote from Psalm 145:10-18.

An audio version is available here.
The Preaching Preview is available here.

The 60 Second Sermon Summary is/will be available here.

I open with words of prayer from our Psalm: All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord, and all your faithful shall bless you. They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom, and tell of your power, to make known to all people your mighty deeds, and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. AMEN.

Grace to you & peace from God our Creator & the Lord Jesus Christ.  AMEN.

We use examples all of the time. We use examples to describe what if situations. We use examples to describe results of various behaviors.

As an example, if you eat a slice of pizza right after it comes out of the oven, you may burn the roof of your mouth. If you don’t clean your room, you will get yelled at. If you keep making that face, your face is going to get stuck that way.

Jesus used examples to describe the Kingdom of Heaven and what God’s love is like. I’ll be discussing some of those examples, called parables, for each of the next five Wednesdays at 7 p.m. This Wednesday, we are at Redeemer.

In the first three chapters of the letter to the church and to the saints in Ephesus, the author writes of examples of the blessings from God that these new believers are receiving due to their faith. He explains the blessing that they were chosen and claimed as children of God before the world was created. He tells them that although they were dead in their sin, through the great love God has, has forgiven and saved them through grace. He shares with them that, just as Christ was raised from the dead, they too shall be raised to a new life after this one fades away. He makes it clear that they had nothing to do with this.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life. (Ephesians 2:8-10)

And, just to be clear, these benefits belong to all who believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Messiah, the Long-Promised One. That includes you, me, and all who have believed or will come to believe.

He explains that these gifts come whether the believer was of the Jewish faith, or a Gentile non-believer. The division of Jew and Gentile that threatened to fracture the Early Church does not matter in God’s eyes. There is no difference as God beholds us. And there should be no difference within the Church of today over whatever things make us different; we were all destined … for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will. (Ephesians 1:5) All of us are heirs with Christ, no matter the things that make us unique or cause us to separate from one another.

The author says that his mission is to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 3:9-10)

The author closes this section of the letter in prayer, that all of the believers, those then in Ephesus, and we here now, may know that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:17-19)

To me, the key passage in this prayer, in today’s lesson, is the phrase rooted and grounded in love. I think that is key for what the author writes beginning with the first word of chapter 4, as he explains and gives examples of what we are to do in response to all of the benefits we have, and are receiving, how we are to live being rooted and grounded in love.

I believe that if we are rooted and grounded in love, we can reach out in any direction, to any one, sharing the love of God and proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ. We will be, to quote Casey Kasum, “Keep your feet on the ground, and keep reaching for the stars.”

If we are rooted and grounded in love, we can see the possibilities, and not get defeated before we begin by the obstacles.

I want to draw your attention to the beginning of today’s Gospel lesson. Jesus sees the crowd that is following him, and he asks his disciples what should they do. Phillip says that if they had the money someone would earn in six month’s work, that wouldn’t provide enough food. Andrew, says there is a boy with five barley loves and two fish. They had no idea what Jesus was about to do. Nor would anyone else. A barley loaf is about the size of a hot dog bun; the young man had a good sized lunch for himself.

But Jesus, rooted and grounded in love, was able to feed five thousand with that lunch, and there were still twelve baskets of leftovers.

If the work we do, if the love we share, if the people we reach out to, if the ways we share the Good News are rooted and grounded in love, then anything is possible.

If we look through the lens of our human concerns, the limits we have and the limits we place on ourselves, then what is possible becomes a small group. But if we look through the lens of God, there are not limits. We are not even limited by our imagination, because through God, all things are possible.

I know that you have been fighting and struggling just to keep the doors of this church open. And I come along with these big ideas. I appreciate and understand your work. I’ve been there, and I’ve done that. But in working to keep the church open, your focus has become internal. You are looking inside. There is so much to be done outside of our doors, and so many people who need to hear the Good News outside of our doors.

If we are rooted and grounded in love, what can we do and who can we help? Or to misappropriate a quote from Martin Luther, “Dream boldly, but believe even more boldly in Christ, and rejoice.”

I end in prayer with words from the letter to the Ephesians: Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

 
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