The World Series

Some years ago we went up to Minnesota to visit our daughter, Elizabeth, and she took us out to one of her favorite spots, Interstate Park on the St. Croix River. If that name seems strange, it’s not a place where you have a picnic in the median between northbound and southbound lanes. It’s called Interstate Park because the St. Croix River is the boundary between Minnesota and Wisconsin and the park extends into both states. We had a nice hike on the Minnesota side, and then drove around to a beach on the Wisconsin side. Just upstream from the beach there were some rocky cliffs. And Elizabeth and her brothers and a friend had fun testing their courage jumping off some high rocky cliffs into the river.

Of course, I was much too mature for such things, myself, but I did set out to swim upstream to watch the fun. I swam out about 40 yards from shore and then headed upstream. I swam for a while, then, when I figured I should be even with the cliffs, took a look at the shore to see where I was. I saw that hadn’t moved upstream at all. I hadn’t realized it, but the current was a lot stronger out there in the middle than along the shore.

Now I wasn’t going to let any current defeat me, so I swam as hard as I could against it for a minute and I want you to know that I did beat it, for about 60 seconds. I moved up-river some. But then I was exhausted. There was no way I could sustain it out there, so I came back in closer to shore, out of the current, and then was able to swim up to the cliffs, just fine.

We’ve just finished looking at the first chapter of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, to which I gave the heading, “You’ve got a Lot Going for you.” And you do. We have this one amazing God whom we experience in three wonderful ways. We have God the Father, who created a wonderful world and planned out wonderful things for us, long before we were born. We have God the Son, who died on the cross for our sins so that we have a second chance at receiving that wonderful inheritance. We have God, the Spirit, available to live in our hearts, permeate our minds with the mind of God, and give us a taste of heaven. What blessings we have! If we stop there it could sound like there’s no work left for us at all

But have you ever noticed that it isn’t quite that simple? Yes, you’ve got a lot going for you. I’d like to be able to just stop there. But you also have a lot going against you. The Bible is very realistic about that. There are days when trying to be a Christian feels like you are swimming against the current, sometimes, with hard work, able to make some progress, sometimes getting swept backwards.

You determine to read your Bible every day and you make it for a week or two, but then you realize a month has gone by when you haven’t picked it up.

Just when you are starting to hope you have your temper under control, somebody says something that hits you right in that tender spot and you shoot out some harsh words and an hour later you’re asking yourself how you could have been so dumb. And you are working really hard and making very slow progress, if any at all. It can be tempting to give up or at least lower your expectations a whole lot. But don’t give up. Paul made sure that the Ephesians understood that they were living in a battleground and taught them survival tactics so they could cope with it and even flourish. He taught them to recognize that current and deal with it so that they could move ahead.

Our text for this morning is Ephesians 2:1-10. Please stand for the reading of God’s word.

1 You were dead through the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. 3 All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us 5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-- by grace you have been saved-- 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God-- 9 not the result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.