Abundant Accomplishments and Bountiful Blessings

Psalm 116

I love the LORD, because he has heard

                  my voice and my supplications.

         Because he inclined his ear to me,

                  therefore I will call on him as long as I live.

         The snares of death encompassed me;

                  the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;

                  I suffered distress and anguish.

         Then I called on the name of the LORD:

                  “O LORD, I pray, save my life!”

 

Gracious is the LORD, and righteous;

                  our God is merciful.

         The LORD protects the simple;

                  when I was brought low, he saved me.

         Return, O my soul, to your rest,

                  for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.

 

For you have delivered my soul from death,

                  my eyes from tears,

                  my feet from stumbling.

         I walk before the LORD

                  in the land of the living.

         I kept my faith, even when I said,

                  “I am greatly afflicted”;

         I said in my consternation,

                  “Everyone is a liar.”

 

What shall I return to the LORD

                  for all his bounty to me?

         I will lift up the cup of salvation

                  and call on the name of the LORD,

         I will pay my vows to the LORD

                  in the presence of all his people.

         Precious in the sight of the LORD

                  is the death of his faithful ones.

         O LORD, I am your servant;

                  I am your servant, the child of your serving girl.

                  You have loosed my bonds.

         I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice

                  and call on the name of the LORD.

         I will pay my vows to the LORD

                  in the presence of all his people,

         in the courts of the house of the LORD,

                  in your midst, O Jerusalem.

         Praise the LORD!

 

Ephesians 3:14-21

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,

from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name.

I pray that, according to the riches of his glory,

he may grant that you may be strengthened

in your inner being with power through his Spirit,

and 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.

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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As Christians, we have claimed our allegiance to the God Paul describes as “able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine.”

We have placed our faith in the God who the Psalmist tells us has dealt bountifully with us.

We bow our knees before the Father God from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name.

Every family.

Accomplishments more abundant than we can imagine, more bountiful than we can ask.

These are the resources and the potential of the Lord God.

Does anyone here really doubt or question this?

But on the other hand, do any of us really live our lives as if this were true, as if we completely trust this?

Does the church of Jesus Christ behave as if the power it possesses is as abundant, as deep and wide and broad and high as we know God to be?

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Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is a letter that pairs together Christ and the church. Eugene Peterson, in his book, Practice Resurrection, says that Ephesians does this more so than any other text, anywhere in scripture. In this brief letter, only six short chapters, Paul sets Christ and the church alongside one another eleven times as intertwined and inseparable.

So if the church is inseparable with Jesus Christ, then what are we afraid of? If Christ has conquered death, then why do we fear the demise of the church?

The Ephesians text we heard today is a prayer that Paul is praying for his congregation, for the church in Ephesis. It is an exuberant prayer, filled with praise for the extravagant nature of God!

for

…the riches of his glory….

…power through his Spirit….

…our being rooted and grounded in love….

….the power to comprehend…

…the breadth and length and height and depth…

…the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge…

…that we are filled with all the fullness…

….a God who can accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine….

Paul’s prayer flows out of a huge reservoir of plenty, a knowledge beyond knowing of the abundant love of God in Christ. 

And Paul trusts in this abundance, this boundless love, and prays that we may comprehend its utter magnitude and power, its breadth and length and height and depth, that we may know this love that surpasses knowledge.

But we live our lives as a church and as individuals from a foundation of scarcity and caution, behaving as if our resources will run out if we are not exceedingly careful.

We focus our attention and energy less on loving our neighbors, and more on trying to eke out just a few more members, on trying to commit or raise just a few more hours or dollars to the cause, fearing all the while that our days are numbered, and limiting our imagination and our requests accordingly, not as if we were in partnership with a God who can accomplish abundantly more than all we can ask or accomplish, a God who is boundless in love and capability and a God who dwells in the hearts of every family in heaven and on earth.

Eugene Peterson tells a story of two friends of his, Fred and Cheryl, who adopted a five year old child from Haiti, joining her to their family which also included two teenage sons waiting back at home for her in Arizona.

Their first night back after going to Haiti to pick Addie up, they sat down to dinner together. There was a platter of pork chops and a bowl of mashed potatoes on the table. After the first serving, the two teenage boys kept refilling their plates, until they eventually finished off the pork chops on the plate and the potatoes in the bowl.

Meantime, little Addie, on her first night away from Haiti, was becoming very quiet and seeming quite anxious, fearful, bewildered. Her mom, Cheryl, appropriately guessed that it had to do with the disappearing food. Addie had grown up hungry. She had likely never seen so much food on one table in her life, and she had never seen so much food disappear so fast. Perhaps she was thinking that when the food was gone from the table it could be a day or more before there was more to eat.

So Cheryl took Addie’s hand and led her to the bread drawer and pulled it out, showing her a backup supply of three loaves. She opened the refrigerator drawer and showed her the bottles of milk and orange juice, the vegetables, the jelly and peanut butter, the eggs and bacon. She opened the pantry and showed her bins with potatoes, onions and squash, and shelves filled with canned goods. All the time she was reassuring Addie that there was lots of food in the house, and that no matter how much her brothers ate and how fast they ate it, there was a lot more where that came from. She both told and showed Addie that she would never go hungry again; that she was home.

This prayer from Paul is much like the act of Cheryl leading Addie gently through a food tour of the kitchen, reminding her of the “boundless riches”, “all the fullness”, and the “abundant accomplishments” that are part of the household in which she now lives. God’s kingdom is like that, and that is where we now live.

We have been assured that we have received the grace and Spirit of God long before we even come to ask God for them. We can be confident of our access to this God who is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine. These are words that only begin to give us a glimpse of the power of God’s boundless love.

And, oh, what that power, that has been unleashed in the church, can do in the world. Writer Annie Dillard, in her book, Teaching a Stone to Talk, expresses it in this way:

“Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we Christians so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake someday and take offense, or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return. ” 

The power we wield as Christians is the power of love, and it is not our own doing; it is Christ who dwells within us who makes it all happen, makes it possible. It is up to us to not turn away, to not shut our doors to the love that dwells within us.

My friend Hugh Hollowell, who runs Love Wins Ministries in Raleigh, North Carolina and who considers himself a “pastor of last resort” for those who have nowhere else to turn, likes to say that “God has a plan, and the plan is us.”

God has abundant supplies, unlimited resources, and boundless potential – all through us.

What if God has given us clear instructions through Christ, through the great commandments to love God and love our neighbors, but we are not taking them seriously? What if Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is what God is waiting for us to live out? What if we are enough, even as we are waiting for everyone else to get on the bandwagon?

What if God sees Memorial Day as our opportunity to remember the peace beyond understanding that Christ has freely given us? What if God is waiting for us to shut down our departments of war and establish departments of peace? What if God’s heart is breaking as we continue to make plans to kill one another, to risk the lives of the young and the elders, the men and women of all nations, the children of God all over the world, rather than putting all our energy and talent and imagination into seeking ways to live in peace?

What if God has a plan, and the plan is us, and the abundant resources and boundless potential all lies in our ability to trust that God is with us, and God can truly accomplish far more than all we can ask or imagine?

May the church of Jesus Christ, around the world and here on this corner, live out its calling with the confidence and assurance of the New Life we have received in Christ, and the abundant potential of God’s plans, waiting to be accomplished in and through us, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Roots Down, Branches Out, Bearing Fruit

John 15:1-8

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower.

He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit.

You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you.

Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.

I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.

Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.

Colossians 2:6-7; 3:1-17 (Common English Bible)

 So live in Christ Jesus the Lord in the same way as you received him.

Be rooted and built up in him, be established in faith, and overflow with thanksgiving just as you were taught.

Therefore, if you were raised with Christ, look for the things that are above where Christ is sitting at God’s right side.

 Think about the things above and not things on earth.

 You died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

 When Christ, who is your life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.

So put to death the parts of your life that belong to the earth, such as sexual immorality, moral corruption, lust, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry).

The wrath of God is coming upon disobedient people because of these things.

You used to live this way, when you were alive to these things.

But now set aside these things, such as anger, rage, malice, slander, and obscene language.

Don’t lie to each other. Take off the old human nature with its practices and put on the new nature, which is renewed in knowledge by conforming to the image of the one who created it.

In this image there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all things and in all people.

Therefore, as God’s choice, holy and loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.

Be tolerant with each other and, if someone has a complaint against anyone, forgive each other. As the Lord forgave you, so also forgive each other.

And over all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.

The peace of Christ must control your hearts—a peace into which you were called in one body. And be thankful people.

The word of Christ must live in you richly. Teach and warn each other with all wisdom by singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing to God with gratitude in your hearts.

Whatever you do, whether in speech or action, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus and give thanks to God the Father through him.

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I follow a number of church’s Facebook pages. The other day I watched a video that the First Presbyterian Church of Benton Harbor, Michigan, posted on their page. They spoke about how they decided to stay in their downtown church building rather than moving somewhere that would reduce operating costs. Their reasons had to do with the needs of their neighborhood, and the ways they were supporting and assisting the people living around them, and the additional ways they saw that they could. They concluded that to leave would diminish the services being provided to their neighbors.

They expressed their decision, as well as their mission, in a short phrase that they called their “motto” – Roots down, branches out.”

What a cool way to express their identity and their purpose, God’s call to them.

Today is Trinity Sunday. It is a day to acknowledge the holy mystery of the Triune God – God in three persons. The common way we refer to the three “persons” of God are Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  We call the first person, God, Father because Jesus called him Father, Abba, even though we know that any description of God is limiting, and that God is described in scripture in many ways – God is like a rock, God is like an eagle, God is like a hen, God is like a shepherd, God is like a mother. To consider any one description of God is to limit God or to place God in a box.

We call the second person, Jesus, the Son because God called him My Son.

And we call the third person the Holy Spirit because Jesus told us the Holy Spirit would come to us after he had ascended, and so that is just what happened, on the day of Pentecost. And the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, has been with us ever since.

But how do we think of God as three and as one? Many people have tried to provide a fitting analogy or explanation for how this can be.

Some talk about how we can experience water in three forms – liquid, gas, and solid.

Some talk about shamrocks – three leaves, one stem.

Some suggest considering God as the wellspring or source, Jesus as the river, and the Holy Spirit as the water.

Some talk about the roles of each – God as Creator, Jesus as Redeemer, Holy Spirit as Sustainer.

Clearly this is part of the holy mystery that is God, and to me, the fact that it cannot be fully understood or explained is a source of comfort. God is like no other. God is fully God, and Jesus is fully God, and the Holy Spirit is fully God. And thanks be to God that this is true, even when it cannot be fully explained or understood.

But as I read this week’s scripture texts, including this portion of the gospel according to John that speaks of the vine and the branches, it seemed to me that there is an aspect of that, that we can add to the list of ways to think about the trinity.

Jesus says to us, “I am the vine, and my Father is the vinegrower.”

God is the Master Gardener. Jesus is the vine to which we are attached as branches. As long as we are connected to the vine, we can produce fruit, we can be fruitful. The nutrition, the nourishment from which the fruit comes, this is the work of the Holy Spirit in us. And whatever good fruit we can bear is the direct result of our connectedness, to Christ, and through Christ to one another.

It’s all about the connection. And this is also how many theologians have come to consider the Holy Trinity, the Triune God – that it is less about distinguishing the three elements or aspects of the Trinity, and it is more about acknowledging the connectedness, the relationship between the three.

The three participated together in Creation.

·      God created

·      The Spirit moved across the water

·      and God said; God spoke the Word; and the Word is Jesus.

The three participated together at Jesus’ baptism, as the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus, and God said, “I am well pleased with you”.

The three participated together at the crucifixion, as Jesus cried out, Father, into your hands I commit my Spirit.

The three participated together in the conquering of death through resurrection, as Jesus told Mary he was ascending to God, and as he breathed the Holy Spirit on the disciples, allowing them to receive it, as told in the gospel according to John.

The power of God is exhibited in the relationship between and among the Triune God, the three in one.

Let’s take a look at this video about the Trinity, as described by Richard Rohr.

(play video: Pattern of the Trinity - produced by The Work of the People.)

The power of God in relationship is the power of love. The power of love is unmeasurable, unexplainable, unending. The power of love is what flows through us as we remain connected, as branches to the vine which is Jesus Christ. The power of love is what people experience through us when we are bearing good fruit. The power of love is what is increased when we are pruned, when even our losses help us to love more deeply and more compassionately. The power of love is the New Life that flows through us and in us.

This is what the apostle Paul means when he calls us to be rooted in Christ. This is why he reminds us that we are God’s choice, holy and loved; this is why he encourages us, as we remain on the vine, to bear the good fruit of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. To put on love over all these things. To let the peace of Christ control our hearts.

This is what First Pres in Benton Harbor is talking about when they say, roots down, branches out. As they abide in the vine, as they branch out from the trunk of the tree of life, they bear witness to Christ by bearing this good fruit into their neighborhood.

This is what we are called to do. We come here to be equipped as disciples, so that we can go out and bear witness to the love of the Triune God.

On this Trinity Sunday, let us give thanks for the love that is shared between and among the Triune God, and for the amazing grace that allows us and calls us to participate with this holy mystery trinity in the loving work of God, here in this congregation and out there, in all the moments of our lives, and with all the people desperately needing a glimpse of True Love.

In the name of the Gardener, and the Vine, and the Nourisher. Amen.