October 5th sermon is below September 28 sermon.
Brent Siegrist
Glade Mennonite Church
September 28, 2008
Ephesians 3:1-13
God's Kingdom is Born through Suffering
Grace to you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I am Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you, the foreigners. Surely you have heard about the plan of God's grace that was given to me for you, and how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I wrote above in a few words, a reading of which will enable you to perceive my understanding of the mystery of Christ. In former generations it was not made know to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: that this, the foreigners have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise of Christ Jesus through the gospel.
Of this gospel I have become a servant according to the gift of God's grace that was given me by the working of his power. Although I am the least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the foreigners the news of the boundless riches of Christ, and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have access to God in boldness and confidence, through his faithfulness. Therefore I ask you not to be discouraged by my sufferings for you, which are your glory.
Brothers and sisters, we must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God. You see my chains, but I am not a prisoner of the Jews or the Romans. I am a prisoner of Jesus. And I wear these prison clothes with as much pride as Claudius Caesar wears his purple toga, because I know that God has a plan for my life. By looking at me, you can see what God is like. I'm prisoner for you, because I believe that everybody should have equal access to God.
The kingdom of heave is born through suffering. It's not fun being in jail—no more fun than morning sickness or preclampsia or a big belly. Your pastor's wife told me that your doctors have medicine to take the pain out of labor. That's wonderful! God gives me grace in my suffering, too. But, labor and delivery go together just as surely as babies and messy diapers. It's tough, but you wouldn't trade that suffering for anything in the world because of the joy that follows.
I'm like a pregnant lady, and you are my baby. Five times I have received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. They leave out that last one so that they won't kill a person. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked; for a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from bandits, danger from my own people, danger from foreigners, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers and sisters; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, hungry and thirsty, often without food, cold and naked. And besides other things, I am under daily pressure because of my anxiety for all the churches. I am in labor, and you are my baby, because through me God is calling you Christ in Garrett County.
Brothers and sisters, your church will only succeed through failure. If you are faithful to God's call, you're going to have problems. Things won't be easy. You'll make mistakes, and people will criticize you. At times, you may feel like Israel in the desert, and you'll need to decide whether you want to go back to Egypt or keep on going to the Promised Land.
[lights out] Your pastor told me about a man named Thomas Edison, who wanted to make an electric light, and he succeeded—in discovering all kinds of things that didn't work. But how did he respond to failure? He hired a scientist from Germany. He rented a vacuum pump from Princeton. His men worked long hours. He hired a glass blower to make fifty bulbs a day. Fifty times a day, they tried and failed. The newspapers called him a fraud. But Edison just kept on failing. He failed over 2000 times until . . . [lights on] Well, you can just see the results. You see, it's not about failing or succeeding. It's about failing or succeeding in the right direction.
Brothers and sisters, you will find true safety only by taking risks. Your pastor told me that you have doctors who can heal a failing heart, and you trust them to give you strong medicine, that could kill you. You trust them, to poke things through your arteries. Sometimes, you even trust them to break open your ribs. I think your pastor called it open-heart surgery. Now, if you can trust a human being to operate on your heart, how much more can you trust the God who made you?
Can you trust God with your loneliness, your dreams, your spouse, your children, your nerves, your depression, your responsibilities, your reputation, your education, your job? Can you trust God with your sin, your resentment, your addictions, your guilt. Sometimes God calls us to open up to other people. I've heard that some of you are taking about small groups. But, can you trust God? I believe that you can! Because the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in you.
Brothers and sisters, you will financial security through poverty. I understand that your nation is facing an economic crisis. This is a great time to put your faith in God's economy. Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor because theirs is the kingdom of heaven!”
(Note: The following two paragraph are the result of creative speculation regarding Paul's comment in 2 Corinthians 12:7-9. Although possible, it's unlikely that the events described below actually took place.)
Perhaps you've noticed my limp. All of those beatings and shipwrecks and mountain journeys weren't exactly good for my health. One time, I stepped on a thorn half way between Antioch and Troas, and I had to walk on this foot for 200 miles before getting real medical attention. I prayed for healing, three times, and three times God said “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect is weakness.” What type of answer is that? I was mad at God!
I never did get recover, but the doctor who helped me in Troas decided to join my little team of missionaries. He turned out to be a great writer. Maybe some of you have read his books. His name is Luke. Then, a short time later, while making tents in Corinth, my eyes started giving me problems. Soon, I could read or write—except for really large print. However, my teammates, Timothy and Silas, helped me out, and I also found some teenagers to be my eyes wherever I went. Maybe you've heard of some of them: Tertius, Sosthenes, Onesimus, Tychius. Most of them became great church leaders, and it was my blindness that gave me to privilege of spending time with them. Some of these young men actually helped me to writer my letters, which, by the way, would not have been written if it were not for my biggest disappointment of all: the problems in the churches that I had started.
In retrospect, I can see that God did indeed show his strength through my weakness, and he will also do the same for you. This time of financial weakness might be a good opportunity for the Christians in your nation to consider what things really matter in life, to put your trust in God's economy, and to invest in the lives of other people. As you begin to feel just a bit more uncertain about how you will find the daily necessities of life, this might also be a good time to pay attention to your God-given hunger for truth and relationships, for meaning and purpose, for God's own Word. I need to go back to my prison cell, but I've asked your pastor to speak about that next week.
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you now and forever more.
Brent Siegrist
Glade Mennonite Church
October 5, 2008
Ephesians 3:14-21
Are You Hungry?
I have a picture that I'd like to show you. Well, I don't actually want to show it, but it makes a good introduction for our sermon today. So here goes . . .
“Yummy” appears
When I was a senior in high school, I sang in a music group that went around to nearby Mennonite churches for Sunday evening programs. Once, we took a trip to the Franconia area of Pennsylvania for a music festival at Christopher Dock High School. We stopped for lunch at McDonald's on the way. I didn't want to waste my money at McDonald's, and so I went next door to a grocery store. I bought a long loaf of French bread, a pound of meat, a pound of cheese, and a lettuce salad. Then, back at McDonald's, I assembled the largest personal sub that anyone had every seen—and proceeded to eat it. The first half went quickly. The next quarter went at a normal pace. The next bit went a bit slowly, and the last few bites took forever. My feat impressed my friends so much that when we visited Baltimore Inner Harbor they paid for my portrait.
“Yummy” disappears
I am a glutton in a nation of gluttons, and today I'd like to talk about the way that our appetites can either draw us near to God or pull us away from God. But first, I think that I'd better explain what I mean by gluttony. Gluttony, I suppose is overeating, but there's a lot more to it than that. You see, a glutton is not necessarily a person with excess weight. God has given some of us high metabolism rates and some of us low metabolism rates. All of us could probably improve our diets, and I'd love to encourage you in that area. I have quite a speech that I gave the third graders at Rosslyn every year, but I think I'll spare you because I have something even more important to talk about.
Instead of just focusing on the way that food affects our own bodies, we could also look at the way that our appetites affect other people. My younger brother was always the first person in line at every fellowship meal, and on just about every picture with him and food, it was going into his mouth. Yet, he had the nerve to tell me that I sounded like a cow when I ate. I still do if I'm not careful, but I'm not here to talk about manners.
A small group of people are consuming most of the world's resources, with little concern for the rest of the world or future generations. When I talk about a nation of gluttons, I could very well be talking about the extravagant, self-centered, self-indulgence of the citizens of the United States of American. It's our right! We deserve it! Some of the political advertising recently makes me want to puke. But, I think I'll spare you that speech, too, because even that is not the height of gluttony.
The Bible says, in Deuteronomy 8:3, that we do not live by food alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. All of us are hungry, but our appetite for venison and applesauce and pumpkin pie and blueberries and maple syrup and homemade bread and blueberries is a signpost pointing toward a much deeper longing. God has created us with an insatiable appetite for relationship with him, and through him with other people. Today, I would like to encourage you make a habit of experiencing your relationship with food as a reminder of your need for God.
“Ephesians 3:14-19” appears with 14-15 bold
In Ephesians chapter 3 prays for the church: “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.” Just as a side-note, verse 15 is hard to translate.
“Ephesians 3:15” appears
Here are three possibilities:
l from whom all fatherhood in heaven and earth is named
l from whom his whole family in heaven and earth is named
l from whom every family on heaven and earth is named
Everyone united with Christ has God's last name. Through Christ, we are no longer Siegrists and Brennemans and Yoders and Opels and Dodges and Hibshmans and Millers and Martins. We are all Christ-followers.
“Ephesians 3:14-19” appears with 16 bold
I pray “that he may give you—according to the wealth of his grace—power to be strengthened through his Spirit unto the inner person.”
“Ephesians 3:16” appears
All of the major translations say “in your inner being” or “in the inward man” or something like that, but another interpretation is also valid, and I think preferable. I'm sure that Paul is trying to cut us apart into an inward person and an outward person. The danger with that view is that it could lead us to think that our minds and our spirits and our souls are the only part of us that God cares about, and that our bodies are not important. I prefer to see it this way. Our outward bodies are important because they are the physical dimension of a much greater inward reality. Therefore, I'm understanding Paul to say that he wants God to strengthen us through and through, like a beam of sunlight penetrating the very depths of the ocean of our personhood.
This is related to the my message for today because I am asking you to examine your attitude toward food, starting with the tangible stuff that you can hold in your hands, and extending to your deepest spiritual hunger for God and his Word.
“Ephesians 3:14-19” appears with 17 bold
I pray that God may strengthen you unto your inner person “(to have Christ dwell--through faith--in your hearts), rooted and founded in love.”
“Ephesians 3:17” appears
A possible translation would be “to inhabit Christ—through faith—in your hearts.” It's like Christ is a city, and we all live together in him. Like a plant, we sink our roots deep into his love so that we won't be shaken when the strong winds blow and so that we can get that deep spiritual nourishment that we need to live. Like a building, we have a solid foundation, deep below the surface, in the bedrock of God's love.
A good foundation is mostly hidden, and healthy roots don't stick above the ground. Each of us needs a secret life in Christ. Some sort of habit of Bible study and prayer, a way of staying focused on God and listening to God's voice. Recently, I heard a great sermon on the importance of being silent before the Lord. Is it possible that God doesn't seem real to us because we're so busy that we don't take time to notice him? Is it possible that God doesn't seem to speak to us because we're surrounded by so much noise? Deer hunters, as you're sitting out there in the quiet woods, consider this: maybe God wants you to find more than just a deer in the woods this year. It's not about being pious, or feeling like we're good Christians, or accumulating Bible knowledge. It's about hungering and thirsting for the living God.
Another possible translation would be “to have Christ make his home—through faith—in your hearts.” This translation is probably a better one, but I wonder if perhaps God would like us to consider both meanings. Jesus wants to dwell in our innermost being—the place where we make decisions, where we dream, where we love. We might fell like a wreck inside, but that's were Jesus wants to live. He wants to start at our core, and from there to slowly fill our whole being until we're glowing with God's live. He wants to start at our roots, our foundation. Most of us just want a new paint job, but Jesus wants a new building.
“Ephesians 3:14-19” appears with 18-19 bold
I pray “that you may be fully able to understand with all the saints “What is the width and length and height and depth?” and to know the knowledge-surpassing love of Jesus.” I pray “that you may be filled to all the fullness of God.”
My prayer for you today, is that God may fill you: not just with food at the fellowship meal, not just with ideas from this sermon, not just with good feeling from being with other people, but most of all with the fullness of God. I pray that you might have a voracious appetite for God's word, the Bible. I pray that prayer might become for you like breathing—only more urgent. I pray that you might rise early in the morning, with excitement, because you want to listen to God and see what he has prepared for you in the new day. I pray . . . that you may thirst . . . for the companionship of people . . . who help you to draw closer to God . . . and for those of worship when you feel like God's people have become a literal temple . . . for his overwhelming presence.
In a few minutes, we are going to celebrate the Lord's Supper . . .
