Sermon Text: Ephesians 3:14-21
29 Jan 06
Prayer: Gracious and loving God, who is with us always, your word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. Let your word light the way to understanding and enable us to live the truth of your scriptures.
A couple of weeks ago, I attended a Friday evening gathering of Disciple clergywomen in the Atlanta area. As we shared conversation and dinner together, one of the women at my table, a local pastor, talked about her upbringing in the Disciple tradition.
Of course, there was Jesus Christ is Lord. The statement "I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God and proclaim him Lord and savior" is the only confession of faith that we Disciples ever make.
And there was God the Father. "Our Father, who art in heaven" is a foundation for any child brought up in the church. But there was hardly ever a word about the Holy Spirit. It wasn't until she was a teenager and started going to friends' churches that she had an encounter with the Holy Spirit -- an encounter that later proved to empower and guide her own call into ministry.
Maybe we Disciples have sometimes tended to ignore the Holy Spirit. Maybe it's because at least we've got images for God - the Father and Jesus - the Son. But the images we have for the spirit are images like fire and wind. Maybe there's too much mystery for us mortals to get our minds around. But today, we are going to pay some attention to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit as the promise and sign of God's presence and power. The Holy Spirit as the source of superabundant power that accomplishes far more than all we can ask or imagine. The Holy Spirit that empowers us to be the church.
The notion of the Spirit of God appears throughout the Bible. In the very beginning of the Bible -- in the second verse of Genesis 1, it is a wind from God -- ruach -- which sweeps over the waters to begin creation. This is the power of God bringing life to the world.
In John's gospel, in ch. 14, when Jesus promises the disciples, "I will not leave you orphaned," he also tells them that the Father will send the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, in his name. The promise of the power of God to bring life to the early church.
In today's first scripture reading from Acts 1 and 2, we heard the story of the gift of God's spirit to the church. We normally hear this reading on Pentecost. After the resurrection, Jesus had instructed the disciples to gather in Jerusalem and wait for the promise of the Father, the Holy Spirit. The 11 disciples and the women who had followed Jesus had assembled in a room and were waiting. As they waited, they prayed. They probably didn't even know what they were praying for. How can we pray for that power which we can't even ask or imagine?
The power that came on the day of Pentecost was the power of the Holy Spirit. The power to be the church.
That's the power, the spirit, that Paul is praying for in today's scripture reading from Ephesians.
Something to notice about this reading from Ephesians. It is entirely a prayer. Mostly when we think of Paul we associate him with letters. But Paul also prays for the church.
This summer I finished a 2-year spiritual formation course for pastors that I attended at a retreat center up in NC. Four times a year, a dozen of us pastors would gather for several days to read scripture, study, worship, and pray. At one of the sessions, the topic was about the role of the pastor in the church. The participants shared their thoughts on the role -- preacher, worship leader, counselor, teacher, pastor, a presence in times of crisis. All important roles. But then the speaker said something I will never forget. He asked, "What should a pastor do all day?" His answer was simple. "Pray and teach people to pray." He went on. "Pastors think people come to church to hear sermons. They don't. They come to pray. They come to connect with the holy."
Connecting with the holy is just what Paul is praying for in this prayer for the churches in Ephesus. This is no subtle or timid prayer. It's bold. It asks for everything. It asks for power -- a power that is not our own, but that comes from the Spirit of God. The power to know the love of Christ and to be filled with all the fullness of God. Connected to the holy.
And it's a prayer not for individuals, but for the church as a whole. Every occurrence of the word you in this reading is a plural you. This is a prayer that recognizes that the superabundant power of the Spirit of God is an experience of the church -- the gathered people of God.
It's also a prayer of total and complete surrender. "For this reason I bow my knees before the Father" -- a prayer posture that surrenders to God's power as the ultimate source of life. We've lost something in the Protestant tradition by not kneeling in church. We forget who we are and whose we are.
Now for many of us, the idea of surrender to God is tough. It means we have to give up control. You've heard that expression -- Let go and let God. It probably came from the story about the man who fell off a cliff. As he was going down, down, down, he reached out and managed to grab hold of a bush sticking out from the side. So he hung there a while, and then decided to call out to God for help. "God, are you there?" he called. "Help me!" God answered, "Okay, I'm here. Let go."
We don't want to let go. We hear words like "To him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine" -- and we wonder if we can risk giving up our control for God's power.
We have to let go of our own spirits -- and they are very often negative spirits -- of control, anger, selfishness, self-righteousness. Here in this church, over the years, I have seen people taking stands on all kinds of issues. And some of you may not realize this, but I've been around awhile. Dave and I have been members here for 15 years.
And every time -- no matter what the conflict -- I have seen some very negative spirits arise somewhere, somehow, on both sides of the particular issue. Spirits of moral superiority and judgment. Spirits that on occasion demonize others. We start wanting to be right -- wanting to win -- wanting it our way. We end up justifying our position by deciding that the other side just isn't as Christian. We've got to get past the winning-losing game and sort out the truth together -- in prayer and respect for positions of others. Most of all, in prayer.
We have got to let go of these negative spirits. We have got to listen to each other. I pray that you not just talk, but listen to each other, in the dialogue sessions today and this week. Only then can the Holy Spirit get to work on us. Then there is space for Christ to dwell in our hearts and for us to be filled with the fullness of God, as Paul reminds us in this prayer.
If you look back to the story of the coming of the Holy Spirit in Acts, you can see that the Holy Spirit is a gift. But notice too that these earliest followers of Jesus prayed while they waited. The Holy Spirit is a gift. But prayer is a tool that breaks open our hearts to receive that gift.
A good place to start is to pray for any person with whom you are in conflict. Don't pray that God will open their eyes to your point of view. Pray for their health and well-being. Pray for their wisdom and courage. Pray for their hurts and their struggles. Pray that the two of you will be able to love each other in the midst of the conflict. According to Jan Linn, a Disciple minister and writer, "What we discover in praying for people with whom we have conflict is that it is difficult to demonize them and pray for them at the same time. Praying for them often helps us to see the plank in our own eyes when we have been focused on the speck in theirs" (Jan G. Linn, The Jesus Connection St. Louis, MO: Chalice Press, 1997, p. 94-95).
Then while we're praying for each other, we also need to pray for this church. HAVE WE EVER MADE A DIFFICULT DECISION IN THIS CHURCH BY PRAYING TOWARDS IT? Not "Dear God, make it happen my way." But "Dear God, show us your will." A praying church is a mark of a spiritually mature church.
This morning we had a prayer time during the Sunday School hour. Like Paul, we all need to pray for the church. Not for outcomes. But for power through the Holy Spirit -- to hear the whispers and feel the nudges of God's will among us.
I know a number of you have been praying regularly for this church. I am, too. One of the ways I pray for this church is to imagine it on Sunday morning -- I see so many of your faces here -- and then I imagine this cloud of God's presence and power, just flowing through every part of the building, wrapping all of you in love and peace.
That's just one way of praying for this church. We all need too. If you aren't praying, for this church -- if you're just talking and gossiping, you need to start praying.
If you think that prayer is hard, you're right. It's hard for me too.
If you don't think prayer works, just give it a try.
If you are confused about how to pray, come and talk to me or one of the prayer warriors we have around here. We'll sort it out together.
Maybe you're still struggling with giving up control for God's power to work through us. Here is one thing I know about prayer: The essential nature of prayer is surrender. We have to let go and trust God.
There is another story of letting go -- a serious story of a man who was dying of cancer. He was only middle aged and his son -- a young man -- visits him each day. The father is literally wasting away from the disease. Now, long after he should already be dead, he lies in a hospital, still clinging to life. His body is full of tubes and despite the morphine, he is in constant pain.
Each night after work the son comes, sits by the bed, holds his father's hand and watches helplessly while he suffers. This goes on for a number of days. Finally, one night, sitting like this, the son says to the father, "Dad, let go! Trust God, die; anything is better than this." Within a short time, the father grows peaceful and dies and the son realizes that he had just given voice to a very important truth -- a truth about letting go and trusting God. Giving up his spirit -- which was already dead -- and letting God's spirit take its place (Ronald Rolheiser, The Holy Longing (New York: Doubleday, 1999), p. 144-45).
In this congregation, we need to let go and trust God. There is something here that needs to die so that there is space for God's Holy Spirit to take its place. The Holy Spirit will guide us, together, as a church. Prayer will break open our hearts to receive the Holy Spirit. And it's going to feel like nudges and sound like whispers.
Will you pray with me? Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of Your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth and the life of this church. Amen.
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