7-30 Sermon

This is from my return to the Pulpit, doing some guest preaching in Sioux City, Iowa based on Ephesians 1:3-14

Good Morning, Before I start speaking this morning I wish to extend thanks to the Worship Committee of Saint Luke’s Lutheran Church for inviting me down here this morning, and also to extend a very special thanks for John, and Lorene Glant for hosting me last evening. I look forward to having a chance to meet all of you after the service.

I know a guy at Luther Seminary where I go to school named Brian. Brian is different than the other students at Luther Seminary in the amount of obstacles he has had to overcome in his life. For Brian has Cerebal Palsy a disability that affects movement throughout one’s life. Cerebal Palsy effects Brian’s movement for example he carries himself with a very noticeable akward posture.

When Brian had first came to Luther, he went to a Minnesota Twins game with a group of guys with the Seminary. I noticed great difficulty walking for him at a normal pace due to the challenges with lifting his legs when he walked.

Besides having these difficulties with movement, Brian also has a speech impediment that can make his words difficult to understand. So Brian goes through challenges in his late twenty’s a lot of people can’t comprehend.

But yet when it comes to his faith Brian realizes perhaps as well as anybody I have ever met what means to be blessed by God. When Brian starts talking about what Christ’s love, salvation, and forgiveness means to him, you can just see the joy that comes over him.

He worked in the Kitchen at the Seminary, and a few times I would here him just belt out his favorite songs of praise. He might not have won on American Idol, but he wasn’t for one second going to hold back his praise for God.

When some people see Brian they might say this guy has reason to be angry at God for his hardships. But when you talk to Brian you hear a young man speak who knows what it means to blessed by God.

For today’s scripture reading from Ephesians 1 deals with blessing. It addresses the question what does it mean to be blessed?

Now before I talk about what I mean to be blessed I better talk about what blessing doesn’t mean.

You can turn on the TV on Sunday Morning and hear a preacher talk about how people because they are such dedicated Christians, God has given them more money. You can go to some churches and hear people talk about how someone was so faithful, God restored them to perfect health. You might hear someone telling you that since they became a Christian, they’re life became much easier. This message is what some would call the Health, Wealth, and Prosperity Gospel. This is the idea that God blesses Christians only to make our life easier.

But this message is quite different from what the Apostle Paul is talking about when he speaks of “ be blessed “in today’s text from Ephesians. For when Paul and others became a Christian- they never encountered any of this health, wealth, or prosperity. For when Paul and others in the Early Church became Christians they were stoned, whipped, nearly murdered, thrown in prison and eventually beheaded. So the last thing, Paul was ever blessed with was health, wealth or prosperity. For Paul being a Christian made his life much harder. And in our own lives our we and our loved ones have had our own personal, financial, and health difficulties even though we are Christian people

But yet, Paul still spoke of himself and us as being blessed . For Paul being blessed was about more than lots of money, lots of admiration, or easy living. Rather Paul was blessed because he had a God who loved him greatly. A God that inspite of Paul’s sins went to the cross so may be forgiven. Paul spoke of being blessed as being more than just earthly comfort. Paul spoke of being blessed as knowing that inspite of what you have done wrong God will forgive you, Paul spoke of being blessed as knowing whatever hardships you will endure in this world, Christ died on the cross so you may be in paradise with God for all eternity. It is this blessing that makes all the difference in our life and death.

This is the first time in my 26 years, I have ever been to Sioux City, Iowa. I am not even sure if I had seen a picture of Sioux City before yesterday. There are very few of you in the audience I have met. And the ones I have met I don’t know too well. But there are a few things I am sure of.

First - We are all sinners, everyone hear has done things that we know that not only are we not proud of, but we know God doesn’t approve it. We have sinned against God in word and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not always loved our neighbors as ourselves. We rebel against God every day by our very nature.

Because of this there are people out there today that may be asking “ I have not always been the best Christian can God still accept me? “ or “ “What I have done is so bad an could God possibly forgive me?”

But second thing I am sure of is that no matter how bad a sinner you are or have been?

God can forgive you. For Paul in I Timothy 1 describes himself as the worst of all sinners. Yet as he says in verse 7 of this text, he is forgiven and blessed by God’s endless and infinite grace.

Paul in this text says we know we are blessed because Christ came inspite of being sinners, and died so we may be forgiven of our sins.

Paul says we are blessed because Christ came so we may united with God for all of eternity.

The Ephesians text speaks of Blessing in such a way that even if you have had hardship in your life like Brian. Even if you might not be the richest, the best-looking, the best athlete, the greatest talker, the healthiest, or have the best life. God has provided you with blessings much greater than all these things: Endless Love, Forgiveness, and Salvation.

If someone were to ask me after the service how I would define God’s blessing: “I would say receiving what we do not deserve, yet God provides for us “

For God has blessed us by giving us so much we don’t deserve, of which we reap wonderful benefits. For God has blessed you by coming to die, so we may be forgiven of our sins and spend eternity with God. God has blessed us so we may receive the wonderful gift of salvation. This is how God blessed Paul in much greater ways than just health, wealth, or prosperity.

The second part of the Ephesians text speaks of blessing in a different sort of context. It says God works all things for good. This text states that all the bad things that happen to us, God uses them to bless us.

These words in verse 11 seem quite scary to hear. You are probably saying I have had all these problems in my life, how can God be possibly working them for good?

How could my bad times end up be a blessing. How can all these bad things lead to salvation?

In fact I believe that it can be the very bad things in our life that can bring us the blessing of salvation.

Let me explain, Imagine a world, where as soon as you just get up you are no longer tired, then you make breakfast and nothing is ever dry or burnt, then you have a nice-relaxing drive to work, then you love every second of your work day, then you come home and there is never any conflict of any sort.

Imagine a world which you live in day after day, and there is never sort of tears, pain, or hardship. Now, if we lived in such a perfect, ideal world.

How would one ever have any sort of need for God’s salvation, since life is perfect what would you be saved from. If life was always ideal how could one realize their sin and their need for Christ.

For example, I was talking to a friend of mine who told about when she lost very suddenly lost her mother to an aneyrsum. It was in this experience that was probably that her faith was all that she could trust and take comfort in.

It was in this time of great personal sadness and turmoil that all her hope for this world and beyond, lied in not what she or her mom had done, nor could she take hope in how wonderful her life was always going to be , but rather she could take hope only in the wonderful blessing of salvation, forgiveness and eternal life that springs forth from Christ’s cross.

Some people think about blessing they might only think it terms of how rich, how athletic, how powerful, or how good of health one might be in.

But how God blesses us goes beyond these things. God blesses us with his love, grace, forgiveness, and salvation. It is these blessings that comfort us and provide us strength in our most difficult times.

When thinking of those who understand blessing, I think of Brian. Brian who could very easily be mad at God for all the hardship in his life. Yet, Brian still just lives his life praising God for the great blessing of his salvation. Brian knows that he has received the wonderful blessing of being forgiven for his sins, Brian knows the blessing of having a God who brings us hope on our most difficult of days, and Brian takes comfort in our blessing of having a God who will take us away one day from the struggles of this world into his kingdom and loving arms for all of eternity.

Amen.