ASPIRATIONS
One of the new phrases dotting the political landscape of late has been the one "aspirational voters". As we come up to a State election, I’m sure we will hear that phrase many times from both sides of the political divide (which is itself a very narrow, very low outcrop of shifting sand).
That word "aspirational" means that we’re looking for something better - the next step, the higher rung, something we are reaching and hoping for. But within our political and social context, "aspirational" has been narrowly defined as meaning little more than greed. And so an "aspirational voter" is someone our politicians anticipate will vote for their party if their promises sound like they will increase our wealth more than the other parties’ promises. The polies and spin doctors hope that the dollar will win votes, or buy them. If they can promise tax cuts, or improved superannuation, or equivalent health services for less money, or cheaper education then they expect us to vote for them.
One of the problems with appealing to "aspirational voters", besides feeding and encouraging outright greed is that almost all forms of materialistic wealth conform to a phenomenon known as a "zero-sum game" - your gain is someone else’s loss. If you buy shares in a company and sell them at a profit, then your profit is being funded by the person or corporation who bought your shares. That buyer, in turn is then driven by a desire to see those shares continue to increase in value. House prices operate on the same basis.
All forms of material wealth comply with the rules of the "zero-sum game". Someone wins but only when someone else loses. That loss may not be realised yet - it may be a loss borne by our children or their children and so on.
But are there aspirations and forms of wealth that don’t meet that criterion - that aren’t "zero-sum games" but are instead "win-win" situations? Thankfully yes.
TO WHAT DO WE ASPIRE?
I’ve painted this idea of "aspirational voters" in a fairly subdued light, yet some aspirations are good. The things that drive us can be good and helpful and positive. And so let us turn our thinking from aspirational voters, to us aspirational Christians. In terms of our Christian lives and how we relate to God, what do you aspire to? And what aspirations does God have for you? And so let’s take 30 seconds to reflect on those two questions of what we aspire to as believers, and what aspirations God holds for us.
Paul presents his and God’s aspirations for the Ephesians and for us in his prayers recorded in Ephesians chapter 3 verses 14-21. These particular aspirations are the highest calling, the highest love, the highest knowledge and the highest understanding to which we can, well, aspire. As we approach the passage, we’ll tackle it from three angles. Firstly, to look at the specific things that Paul prays and the reasons why. Secondly, to look at the process or steps that are laid out in those prayers. And finally to draw some distinctions between what is our part to play and what is God’s work in these processes, and how we can cooperate with God in reaching the things He would have us aspire to.
PAUL’S PRAYERS
PRAYER 1 (V 16-17A)
The first prayer of Paul starts in verse 16: "I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being". That’s not a bad way to pray for anyone - including ourselves - that God’s Holy Spirit will strengthen us with power in our inner beings. Many years ago someone told me that one of the good things about having others praying for you is that you don’t have to spend so much time praying for yourself.
But the critical thing is why Paul would pray such a thing. What is the reason or the purpose of Paul’s prayer that they would be strengthened with power in their inner beings by the Holy Spirit? What sort of power is it, and what could they do with it? We get that one in verse 17 - "so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith." Notice two important words here - "so that". It is a cause and effect, a consequence. Jesus dwelling in our hearts through faith is a consequence of us being strengthened by the Holy Spirit.
This idea of dwelling isn’t merely a casual occupation like a holiday unit, but a case of allowing Christ to make Himself at home. As Harold Hoehner puts it, "It is an appeal to let Christ become the dominating factor in their attitudes and their conduct."
PRAYER 2 (V 17B-18)
If that’s not enough, Paul continues praying that "you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ."
His phrase "being rooted and grounded in love" is reminiscent of the parable of the soils and indeed Psalm 1; whilst his reference to the width, length, height and depth of Jesus’ love echoes Romans 8 where Paul is convinced that, among other things, "neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
His first prayer was for power for them to have faith so that Christ would dwell in their hearts, and his second prayer is that they may have power to grasp or comprehend the width, length, height and depth of Jesus’ love. But don’t miss one of the more amazing things with this prayer - that Paul is praying for us - "that you (the Ephesians), together with all the saints ..." That’s us!
Equally, the immeasurable extent of Jesus’ love, Paul says, is something that our self-nature doesn’t, can’t and won’t recognise without help because it’s only through Jesus’ indwelling in our hearts through faith that we can start to understand the extent of his love. It’s generally true that it is only when you’re "up close and personal" with something that you can fully appreciate it. It’s a bit like this thing ... From a distance Uluru looks fairly big, but if we zoom in a bit our perspective obviously changes and we can see and appreciate much greater detail. The closer you are to it, the more you can appreciate it, and the more amazed you are at its immensity.
Similarly, a proper and expanding view of the extent of Jesus’ love is a revolutionary, transforming thing; and we need God’s help and power to be able to do it.
PRAYER 3 (V 19)
But grasping this immense love of Jesus is one thing - as Paul recognises, but it is only half of the story. For the second half of this particular story we need to look at verse 19 where he writes, "and to know this love that surpasses knowledge". Interestingly, Paul is speaking about knowing beyond the knowable - "to know this love that surpasses knowledge". It is one thing to see and to grasp, but it is another thing entirely to know it, to have experienced it, and for it to be a part of our ongoing experience.
I think the distinction that Paul is driving at - the distinction between grasping an idea against knowing something is whether we pay lip service to it by giving some intellectual assent to it contrasted to really living it out. In our aspirational voter scenario it’s the difference between voting for one or other party every few years compared to being a member of the party - attending meetings, engaging in debates, participating in party conferences and rallies and perhaps even seeking preselection. The differences are huge. One is some form of intellectual assent; the other is living it out. One is lukewarm, the other is red hot. One is being committed to the point of inconvenience; the other is being committed despite any inconvenience.
I’m not proposing that we all go off and join our "political party of choice", but I am advocating that we continually invite the Spirit into our lives; that we allow Jesus to dwell in our hearts; that we grapple with the extent of Jesus’ love, and that we know it for ourselves, that we continue to experience it, and that we continually strive to understand more of it. Though all of these things will be incomplete this side of heaven, it is something we need to wrestle with.
And why? Why does Paul pray that the Ephesians, together with all the saints may have power "to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge." Easy (sort of) - so that we "may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." Not that we become gods, but that we inherit everything God has in store for those whom He has called - both in this life and the next.
DOXOLOGY (V 20-21)
Paul concludes his prayer for the Ephesians with these words: "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."
Paul finishes his prayer, appropriately, with a note of high praise, and it is a fitting reminder as Matthew Henry (who is one of my principle consultants for every sermon) puts it, that: "there is an inexhaustible fulness of grace and mercy in God, which the prayers of all the saints can never draw dry. Whatever we may ask, or think to ask, God is still able to do more, abundantly more, exceedingly abundantly more."
PROCESS
Having looked at the specifics of Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians and indeed all the saints, you will hopefully have seen that there is a development or progression in the ideas that he presents. It’s almost a cause and effect type of thing with a series of steps and their consequences.
I’d like to spend a little bit of time looking at that progression of ideas because if we jump in at one of the steps without appreciating what has gone on before it, then we can miss the mark altogether. It’s similar to following directions like "take the second left, right at the lights, third right". Unless you know where you’re starting, you’ll have no idea where you should be finishing. You will finish somewhere, but it won’t be at the intended destination. And so let us look at the directions Paul gives:
Verse 16 again, "I pray that … he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being". And so the first step is to ask that the Holy Spirit would strengthen us. If we miss this step, then we could end up anywhere!
Secondly is "so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith". The consequence of asking the Spirit to strengthen us is that Christ will dwell in us through the exercise of faith. Is Christ getting larger and larger in your experience?
Thirdly "being rooted and established in love". Note that love is consequential upon this power and indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It isn’t the first step because the love that Paul refers to only flows from faith in Jesus. What are you doing to improve the soil?
Fourthly "grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ". This is a grasping of things beyond the capacity of our human understanding - and that is why we can do so only by the indwelling of the Spirit. But there are things we can do to help that process - meditating on the love that God has for us is one such way.
We might just take a brief timeout at this point to talk about meditation. Christian meditation has nothing to do with the lotus position, or emptying our minds, or repeating phrases. What it means is to prayerfully consider and dwell on something about God before God.
By way of example when considering the love of Christ, you could dwell on the fact that Jesus’ sacrifice was for all sins for all time; or that Jesus died even knowing that many would still reject Him; or meditate on the attitudes displayed by the two thieves on each side of Jesus; or to consider the rejoicing in heaven when one who was lost is found.
We will never exhaust the possibilities as we grapple with the love of Jesus.
Fifthly "to know this love that surpasses knowledge". To be continually experiencing and growing in our understanding of this love. Are you?
Sixth and finally "that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God". This is the goal of God - this is His highest aspiration for us - that we will be filled to the measure with His fullness. That we take on the character of His Son and that we seek to live our lives - on both sides of the grave for "the praise of his glory".
PARTICIPATION
Have you noticed where the emphasis and onus lies for these things that Paul speaks of? What is God’s responsibility, and what is ours?
As far as I can tell, the first step that Paul outlines lies with us because though it is God’s work, it is in response to our prayer - that we may be strengthened in our inner being by the Holy Spirit. God won’t do this unless we ask Him! He can work without us; and He can work despite us. But His preferred modus operandii seems to be to work with us - or more correctly to have us work with Him.
If any of the things on the screen that I just mentioned aren’t happening in your life then start at step 1 and ask God to strengthen you with power in your inner being through the Holy Spirit. There will be an opportunity to do that a little later on.
I believe that we (the royal "we" being the Anglican Church) underrate and underestimate the power and role of the Holy Spirit in our lives. For the record I believe that our Pentecostal brothers and sisters underrate other things. We are here this morning only because of the Holy Spirit. We can understand the Bible at all only because the Holy Spirit teaches and enables us to. We pray only because of the Holy Spirit; and we will be strengthened in our inner beings only through the Holy Spirit.
Let me give you an example: I know someone who, many years ago I would have said was a believer. They, I think, understood the love of Christ. They knew the words, they seemed to understand and live by them. And yet something happened. It was a gradual thing - a slow turning away from the things of God. There was probably nothing intentional or overt in it, it just happened over time. Today that person would have almost no understanding or knowledge or experience of the love of Christ. This person has turned from God and so the Holy Spirit’s illumination and teaching in this person has all but vanished. They would have no comprehension of the breadth or the length or the height or the depth of Jesus’ love for them, and they have no personal knowledge of that love. I’m sure we all know people like that - apparently believers once, but not now.
We know what we know, and we say what we say, and we pray what we pray about the things of God only ever because of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
We need to recognise and understand that, and, as a result, to do everything that we can to foster and encourage the Spirit in our lives. But we also need to foster prayer, our reading and understanding of the Bible, our involvement in good works, our love for Jesus, our love and concern for each other, our commitment to this body of Christ that meets here, our desire to see our friends and family and our community brought under the Gospel. One of the primary things that hold us back, I believe, is the fear of being labelled as a "religious fanatic". I also think that September 11 and Bali could strengthen that fear.
But Michael Griffiths in his book Take My Life says this about Christian fanatics "if a person is offensively, fanatical ... it is not so much that they are failing to be moderate, but that they are failing to be equally fanatical about all the teachings of Christ." He then gives an example of someone who may need to become fanatically considerate and fanatically humble. He concludes the paragraph by saying that "The Lord Jesus Christ was utterly whole-hearted, but this attracted people and did not repel them."
Do we recognise, appreciate and actively encourage the Holy Spirit in our lives? If not then why not?
LET US …
If you think about it (and that’s what we’re here for), Paul’s words should be the first thing we pray for each other and ourselves - that the Holy Spirit would strengthen and empower us to understand the vast extent of the love of Christ for us, and to know that love for ourselves.
Let us invite the Holy Spirit to fill us with power.
Let us by faith allow Jesus to dwell in our hearts.
Let us be rooted and established in love.
Let us ponder and meditate on the immensity and yet the personal implications of Jesus’ love for us.
Let us know this love not only with our minds, but with our hearts.
Let us be filled to the measure with the fullness of God.
And let us do these things continually.
We can have no better aspirations for ourselves and each other than the things that Paul speaks about in these verses. Let us conclude this morning by praying for each other in a similar vein to how Paul prayed for the Ephesians and all believers:
Dear heavenly Father - from whom your whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. We pray that out of your glorious riches you may strengthen us with power through your Spirit in our inner being, so that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith. And we pray that we, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that we may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
And Amen.
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Gary Bennett November, 2002
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version.
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission.
