a sermon on Ephesians 1.3-14
for the Annual Ecumenical Thanksgiving Service 2007
by David C. Mauldin
Westminster Presbyterian Church, Mobile, Alabama
When I read the newspaper, the first place I turn is the comics page. I’d like
to think this is because I am a deep, not a shallow, person. I believe there is
always truth in humor, and I suspect one can find more, important truth in the
comics than in the rest of the newspaper.
Whether I am right or wrong about that, tonight’s sermon begins with a comic
strip I saw one Thanksgiving—I don’t remember the year. It was an Arlo and
Janice cartoon. In it, the family was gathered for a traditional thanksgiving
dinner. Before the meal, Arlo, the husband and father of the family, offered a
prayer. He said, “God we thank you for this moment. Amen.” His son asked him,
“Dad, considering all the things we have, wasn’t that a weak prayer.” He
replied, “This moment is all we have.”
Makes you think, doesn’t it? All we have is this moment. You see what the artist
was trying to say. He was making a point about the transience of life and a
point about gratitude. Considering how fragile life is—how unpredictable—we
ought to live in the moment and be thankful for it.
He has a point, but I could never make Arlo’s thanksgiving prayer my own. Why?
Two reasons: The first is because he is right. The second is because he is
wrong.
He is right that life is fragile and precarious. It can change forever in an
instant. I don’t know for certain that I will be alive tomorrow. I don’t know
that I will be healthy. I don’t know that my house will still be standing or
that my car will run. Any of a million things could happen. Arlo seems to think
this is a good reason to give thanks for what we know we have, this moment. I am
inclined to say, “So what? So life is unpredictable? I am going to thank God
anyway.”
I have no guarantee of my continued health. In fact, I know that if I live long
enough things are going to start breaking down in my body. So what? I am going
to thank God for my health anyway. The fact that I cannot take it for granted
makes me want to thank God even more. There is no absolute law in the universe
that says I have to be healthy now. It is a gift from God, and I should thank
him.
My house may be struck by a meteor and flattened tomorrow. I am going to thank
God for it anyway.
In all areas of life we have to trust in God and put our hope in him. Many of
our families will have someone missing from the table this year—someone we have
lost to death in the past year, or even longer ago. Can we thank God even then?
Of course we can. We can thank God for the memories and for the love that lives
on. We can thank God for those around us now. And above all we can thank God for
his promises. Through his Son, Jesus, he has given us the hope of eternal life.
And this leads me to the second reason Arlo’s prayer can never be mine.
I agree with him that life is precarious. I disagree that this moment is all we
really have. The most important things we have to be thankful for are things
that no one can take from us and we can never lose. I am talking about God’s
promises and his faithfulness; the Good News about Jesus; his death for us; his
Holy Spirit; the promised resurrection to eternal life; and that coming day when
God brings his kingdom in all its glory and makes all things new. I am talking
about the same things Paul wrote about in Ephesians 1. When I give thanks this
year, these things will be on the top of my list, and I hope they are at the top
of your list too.
I love Ephesians 1. What a powerful survey of the marvelous gifts God has given
us. It is not an exhaustive list, but it is rich and full and beautiful. Allow
me to point out a few highlights.
Paul praises God because God has “blessed us in Christ with every spiritual
blessing in the heavenly places.” When you hear that word “spiritual” do not
think it means “not physical” or “all in your head.” It includes physical
things, things like the resurrection of the body and the fellowship of
believers. We are here tonight, together—Catholics, Methodists,
Presbyterians—united by our common love for Jesus Christ. Our churches include
people of different races and languages, brought together in Christ. Oh no, the
blessings are not all other-worldly. Paul will in verse 10 talk about God
bringing everything together in Christ—“things in heaven and things on earth.”
So do not hear “spiritual” to mean “not real.” God’s blessings are real and
solid. You can see them and experience them.
Likewise, when he says God gives us every blessing “in the heavenly places,” he
does not mean we get them all when we get to heaven or that we have to wait for
them. He means God gives us every blessing heaven can bestow. As he spells out
some specifics, we find things we have to wait for as well as things we enjoy
right now.
Notice too verse 4, where Paul says God chose us “before the foundation of the
world.” That provides an important contrast to the transitory nature of life.
Change, change, change—everything constantly changes! No. Not everything. God’s
good and loving purpose for us does not change. It has not changed since before
the foundation of the world was laid. How’s that for something we can count on!
I am not a six-day creationist. I believe the Bible is right about God creating
the world. That is an essential truth of Christianity. I suspect God did it over
a long period of time. Billions of years. Imagine that, if you can. If you begin
counting and you count one number every second, it would take you about 40 years
to count to a billion. Imagine the changes in God’s creation over billions of
years. You can’t really do it. And yet, all that time, these things remain
constant: God’s character, God’s love, and God’s loving purposes. No matter how
long we have to wait until God’s kingdom comes in all its glory, no matter how
many changes come and go, these will remain the same. And that is something for
which to give thanks. Our salvation and our future are in God’s hands. What a
comforting thought.
Moving into verse 5 we read that God destined us for adoption as his children.
Here again is something no one can take away from you. Think about Romans 8:
Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or
persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? … No, in all these
things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor
things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all
creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our
Lord.
All we have is this moment? Not if we are in Christ. In him we have received
adoption as God’s children. Notice another gem in verse 5: “according to the
good pleasure of his will.” Why has God done all these wonderful things for us?
Why did Jesus come and die for us? Why has God given us his Holy Spirit and the
church and all his trustworthy promises? Because he wanted to! No other reason
in the world. He wanted to. Here again, something permanent amid the changing
fortunes of our existence. Here again, something to be thankful for.
Ephesians 1 goes on to talk about our inheritance in Christ. And I don’t have to
explain that this is something no change can take from us.
Ephesians 1 talks about truth. Truth is important. Many people no longer believe
in truth. They think all truth is relative at best. Truth is in the eye of the
beholder, right? Wrong. Truth is in the eye of God, and because we are created
in the image of God, we can know truth. Not exhaustive truth. We cannot know
everything, but we can know real truth. I for one am thankful for that. The
truth of the gospel about who God is, who I am, and the world I live in gives me
something real to hold onto as life constantly changes around me. Even as I
myself change with the passing years.
Finally, Ephesians 1 talks about the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised, “I will be
with you always.” He keeps that promise by his Holy Spirit. Through the Holy
Spirit God is present with us and at work in our lives. How exciting that is!
The living God—the creator of the universe—at work in you! And it gets better. I
remind my congregation every Sunday: The power of God that raised Jesus from the
dead is at work in you. Our Lord lives and reigns, and he is present with us.
I could go on and on, listing things even Ephesians 1 does not mention. But I
think you understand. The most important things we have can never be taken from
us. That’s the best reason I know to thank God.
Everyone ought to be thankful. God has blessed us all so richly. In America we
enjoy freedom and a quality of life unrivaled in the world. We can afford to
take for granted something as important as clean water. Few people in history
have been so fortunate. Every American ought to be deeply thankful.
Yet we who are Christians have so much more—things more real and more permanent
than prosperity. In Christ, God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing
heaven can bestow. Therefore, unlike Arlo, I will give thanks both for the
things I can lose and the things I can’t. God is good. And he has been good to
us. Amen.