Power Hungry

When I left the Pillsbury Company to go to seminary I never thought I’d miss anything about the corporate world - except the salary. But after I left I realized that I had really enjoyed paying the bills. Our work comp costs ran about $2,000,000 a month, and I was the one who signed off on the payment requests. It was really, really fun. But of course, the money wasn’t really mine. The power was delegated from somewhere much farther up the food chain, and it was only sort of mine for a particular purpose. But that didn’t take away from it... because I was a key player in a really, really important process. One of the key emphases in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is how different our lives are to be given that we are now God’s adopted children. But that’s a hard concept to grasp. And even if we kind of have a handle on what has been given to us, we mostly don’t have a clue about how to use it, how to appropriate the gift and be changed by it.

Some of the problem has to do with motivation, of course. Some of us became Christians out of guilt or fear, others out of a vague sense of restlessness, others simply because it was the thing to do when they were growing up. But those aren’t motivations that get you very far, or that last very long. They may work to get you in the door, but Paul wants more for his flock than that. That’s one of the reasons he keeps repeating the list of gifts: redemption, forgiveness, wisdom,

hope, purpose...

But motivation alone isn’t enough. Even the best of intentions often fail . . . as many of you may already be experiencing with your New Year’s Resolutions. And that’s especially true of living for Christ, or more correctly living in Christ. It just isn’t something we can do under our own steam. We can’t even find Jesus without the Holy Spirit leading us by the hand, much less bond with him. Even Christians who are doing pretty well with the basics of faith and love, as the Ephesians were, needed regular reminders that we need something more than head knowledge to come into our true inheritance.

What Paul asked for was that they might know Jesus Christ better. And that is exactly what we need, as well. Not just with our heads, not just by memorizing the parables and the miracles and the sayings, but by being intimate with him, by spending enough time with him to let his world-view rub off on us. Now, mind you, we can’t be intimate with Jesus without spending time on those dusty Judean roads, but what also needs to happen is for our hearts to be opened. Like the two disciples who walked with him on the road to Emmaus after the crucifixion, we need the Holy Spirit to open our eyes.

"So that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe." [v. 18-19]

How clear is your vision of what God has planned for you? How sure are you of your inheritance? How convinced are you that you are held in God’s almighty and perfectly loving hands? Unless we seek and receive the gift of enlightenment that only comes through the Holy Spirit, we cannot have a clear vision, a compelling conviction, a secure confidence in our privileged position. We’ll begin to compromise, to hedge our bets, to divide our attention between the things of God and the things of the world. And that will only impoverish us in the end.