Sermon for 7 Pent Yr B, 27/07/2003
Based on Eph 3:14-21
Grace Lutheran Church, Medicine Hat, Alberta
By Pastor Garth Wehrfritz-Hanson
“The fullness of God”
Cindy’s husband, Jim, pulled his tools out of the garage and began fixing the back deck. The city had warned them that they had to comply with a work order or they’d be fined. As Jim conscientiously followed the city’s strict building code, he created beautiful railings. When he’d finished, he stepped back to admire his work and checked the original notice; it was then that he saw the words: Permit required! 1
Unlike Jim and Cindy, our passage from Ephesians today reassures us that WE ARE GIVEN PERMISSION AS A GIFT FROM OUR TRIUNE GOD. PERMISSION TO LIVE IN THE FULLNESS OF GOD. Paul, in this prayer, cast in very flowery language, prays for the Gentile churches—asking for the fullness of God. The prayer is itself an outpouring of generosity and goodwill towards the Ephesians. Just as Jim built beautiful railings by following strict building codes without a permit; how much more are we as God’s people given the permission to live and build beautiful lives, thanks to the fullness of God. What is this fullness of God then that Paul speaks of so eloquently today?
First of all, Paul describes it like this: “I pray that, according to the riches of his (i.e., the Father’s) 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.”
Notice that Paul emphasises here the activity and the initiative of God the Father. THIS IS NOT OUR WORK OR INITIATIVE OR ACTIVITY, IT IS NOT SOMETHING WE ACCOMPLISH ON OUR OWN IF WE THINK MORE POSITIVELY OR TRY TO WORK HARDER AT BEING A BETTER PERSON—RATHER, THIS IS ALL A SUPERABUNDANT GIFT FROM GOD. Notice too, that it begins INSIDE OF US—our “inner being” is given strength and power through the Holy Spirit, so that Christ is able to “dwell in our hearts through faith” and we can become “rooted and grounded in love.” We remember that this emphasis on our inner being is very consistent with the teachings of Christ himself in the gospels where he insists that it is what is within us that defiles us: “For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” (Mk 7:21) That is why if all of these things are driven out and replaced by the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit; by Christ himself dwelling in our hearts through faith, and by being rooted and grounded in love—then our words, thoughts and actions will be God-pleasing and make a difference in our personal lives as well as build up the lives of others.
If a tree has deep and healthy roots, then the whole tree will be healthy and produce beautiful and plentiful fruit. So we as God’s people will be healthy and produce beautiful, plentiful fruit if we are rooted in Christ’s love; if our foundation is solid in Christ’s love, just like a solid foundation keeping an entire building on solid ground. So, then, what is given to us out of God’s fullness and placed inside of our hearts will influence, instruct, and motivate our thinking and feeling, our speaking and acting—and determine how we live.
Secondly, Paul continues his prayer with these words: “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.”
Paul’s all-inclusive language here most certainly refers to the saving activity of Jesus Christ suffering and dying on the cross and being raised from the dead. This saving activity, says Paul, is so large that it encompasses the entire universe! According to Jerome, one of the leading biblical scholars of the church back in the fourth and fifth centuries:
The upper arm of the Cross points up; the lower arm points down; and the crossing arms point out to the widest horizons. Jerome said that the love of Christ reaches up to include the holy angels; that it reaches down to include even the evil spirits in hell; that in its length it covers the people who are striving on the upward way; and in its breadth it covers the people who are wandering away from Christ. 2
IN OTHER WORDS, NO ONE AND NO THING IN ALL OF CREATION IS BEYOND OR OUTSIDE OF THE SAVING POWER OF JESUS CHRIST’S CRUCIFIXION AND RESURRECTION.
If that is the case, then, says Paul, we shall know this love of Christ that SURPASSES KNOWLEDGE. How is this so? Well, as we all know, there is a great truth in the old saw: “The proof of the pudding is in the eating.” We can have all kinds of analytical, scientific, and other knowledge; we can know as much as possible ABOUT JESUS; however, unless and until WE ACTUALLY KNOW AND MEET HIM IN THE EVERYDAY, PRACTICAL LIVING OF OUR LIVES, WE SHALL NOT MAKE MUCH DIFFERENCE IN THE CHURCH OR IN THE WORLD. BECAUSE HE LOVES US SO MUCH AND REACHES US AT THE VERY CORE OF OUR BEING LIKE NO ONE OR NOTHING ELSE; SHALL WE NOT WANT TO RESPOND TO HIS LOVE FOR US BY MODELLING OUR LIVES AFTER HIS? The following story is a good example of how Christ’s love surpasses knowledge and is actually lived out in daily life.
It was February 1941, Auschwitz, Poland. Maximilian Kolbe was a Franciscan priest put in the infamous death camp for helping Jews escape Nazi terrorism. Months went by and in desperation an escape took place. The camp rule was enforced. Ten people would be rounded up randomly and herded into a cell where they would die of starvation and exposure as a lesson against future escape attempts. Names were called. A Polish Jew Frandiskek Gasovnachek was called. He cried, “Wait, I have a wife and children!” Kolbe stepped forward and said, “I will take his place.” Kolbe was marched into the cell with nine others where he managed to live until August 14. The Nazis then injected carbolic acid into him and his body was cremated in the camp ovens.
This story was chronicled on an NBC news special years ago. Gasovnachek, by this time 82, was shown telling this story while tears streamed down his cheeks. A mobile camera followed him around his little white house to a marble monument carefully tended with flowers. The inscription read: In memory of Maximilian Kolbe. He died in my place. Every day Gasovnachek lived since 1941, he lived with the knowledge, “I live because someone died for me.” Every year on August 14, he travels to Auschwitz in memory of Kolbe. 3
So too, may we live each day knowing that it is because Jesus died on the cross and was raised FOR US. May his death and resurrection make a difference in the living of our lives. For, as Paul’s doxological conclusion to his prayer reminds us, God’s generosity; God’s superabundance is able to accomplish things in us and through us far beyond our ability to ask or imagine. Amen.
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1 Cited from: Clergy Talk, July, 2003, p. 26.
2 Cited from: Wm. Barclay, The Letters to the Galatians and Ephesians (Burlington, ON: Welch Publishing Co. Inc., 1976), p. 132.
3 Cited from: Victor Knowles, Peace on Earth Ministries. Adapted from Crossroads Family Circle.
