“An Invitation to Wonder & Praise”
Preached Sunday, July 14, 2024
What is the best gift you have ever received?
I asked this question online as I worked on this week’s sermon and got an array of responses: surprise trips, a gaming console, a complete collector’s edition of a book series, custom made gifts, homemade crafts from children, a clock-making kit, family Bibles and heirlooms, gifts that were the “last” gifts from a loved one before they died… People shared gifts of thoughtful affirmations and hand-written notes they have received, one person received a video gift of friends and family from all over the country.
There were also the less tangible gifts: time with family, the gift of children, of love.
When I considered people’s answers to this question and my own experience I seemed to notice two common things. People’s best gifts they’ve ever received are one or both of these things:
1. Lavish and generous - a gift that just floors you for how the giver went above and beyond in giving it to you. And
2. A gift that is personal and it’s less about the gift and more about how much the giver knows you, “gets” you, loves and appreciates you.
Think now of a gift or gifts you have received that have been among the best. That floored you with the generosity and love behind them. When you have been given a gift that just amazes you at the generosity, thoughtfulness, kindness, love and appreciation behind it…
The writer of Ephesians, is GUSHING about a gift that he - and we all - have received: the gift of God’s love, the adoption of us as God’s children, redemption, forgiveness, salvation, an inheritance through Christ… Actually, you can tell he is just gushing, that he’s floored, amazed at these gifts by the writing. In the Greek today’s 11 verses are all basically one convoluted run-on sentence. The translators of most English versions, including what we read today in worship, normally make it more palatable and understandable by breaking it down into sentences but in the original Greek it reads as one long gushing sentence. I can relate to him here, when I’m excited over something, REALLY excited about something, I tend to talk faster, my voice gets higher, and I can go on and on and on… And that’s basically our reading from Ephesians today.
This week’s Scripture is an invitation to wonder and praise. It is an invitation for us to marvel at the lavish love, the generous gifts, that God has given us - as it lists in today’s Scripture: the gift of God’s love, the adoption of us as God’s children, redemption, forgiveness, salvation, an inheritance through Christ.
The sacrament of Baptism is a way we recognize, celebrate, wonder, and give thanks for God’s lavish gifts that we have received from our Maker. Today we celebrate the lavish gifts and love that God has bestowed upon the child we baptized - and we remembered and recognized that same love was and is given to all of us. I’ve had the joy of sharing in multiple baptisms with you and getting to preach on it several times so what I am going to say to you today, many of you will have heard it before, but it never hurts to be reminded.
One of my favorite ways to frame baptism is a signing of the adoption papers. Before we are baptized, we are all already loved by God. We are all already God’s children in God’s eyes. Yet through the sacrament of baptism we are saying, “Okay, God - I know you love me as your child. I love you as my parent. I know you love me and I will respond to that love with more love - and let my life be shaped by you, the God of Love.” When a child is baptized, their parents bring that child forth as a recognition that this child belongs to God, even more than this child belongs to those who formed them in this world. It is a recognition that they will raise this child as God’s child, loving them, surrounding them in a loving Christian community, and teaching them about God’s love.
The sacrament of Baptism, this holy, mysterious, and wonderful ritual is part of how we participate in God’s divine plans of God’s love for us and for all. Through baptism we wonder at God’s love, we praise God’s goodness, and recognize the lavish and generous gifts God gives us. Being baptized, bringing a child forth to be baptized, remembering our baptism - it was a way we acknowledge, we recognize before God and before one another, that we know we are loved by God.
Part of the reading from Ephesians today is not only to marvel and wonder at God’s love, but the writer’s intent is to assure Gentile readers in the church of Ephesus that God always had a plan for them. That their acceptance into God’s covenant, their adoption as children of God - these things are not afterthoughts. That like their Jewish siblings, God always planned to gather them up in love and offer them an inheritance through Christ. The Scriptures say: “He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will.” It says that before the foundation of the world, this was all part of God’s plans, we were always part of God’s plan - God has always, since before Creation, planned to adopt us, to love us.
This again is another invitation to marvel and wonder and praise God - you were never an afterthought to God. Before creation, God already knew that you would be divinely loved, a child of God.
And, the Scripture goes on to give us even more reasons to just be floored at the lavish generosity of God’s gift of love. It reads, “he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” That is, God’s divine plan, God’s BIG big picture plan, is to draw all things to God’s self in love. As the first verse of our Psalm today declares: “The earth is the Lord's and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it.”
We started worship this morning by singing “He’s got the whole world in his hands'' - a children’s song which sums up so succinctly these points our Scripture readings make: The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it…God’s got it in God’s hands! We know this truth as children when we sing this song but the hardships and motions of everyday life can make us forget this fundamental and awe inspiring truth - we are all God’s. We are all loved by God. God’s got us all in the Divine’s loving hands. This song is another invitation to marvel and praise God for the lavish and generous extent of God’s gift of love for us - for them - for all - for the whole world.
This morning I wanted to extend to you an invitation to wonder and marvel at God’s gifts of Love for us, for the baby we baptized today…AND to marvel and wonder at God’s divine, mysterious, generous, lavish plan for the redemption of all God’s creation. If we truly believe that none of us are an afterthought, that God holds all of us, that God’s end game is to draw us all into God’s hands, cradle us all in the loving hands of God… wow! What a reason to give God praise!
So our takeaway, our “go out into the world and do” from worship today is simply this: go and lose yourselves in the wonder of God’s gifts towards us and all creation. Think about how much a mindset of marveling at God’s love for all - how much it will change how we all interact with the world, the people we meet, our day to day lives, etc. Think about how much living a life filled with praise for God’s generous and lavish gifts of love - think about how much that will color every interaction we have. How our knowledge of God’s love for us - for them - for all - how our knowledge of God’s plan to redeem all creation, to hold us all in God’s hands…how it will change…everything.
May we be absolutely floored at these gifts of Love that God has given us. May we offer God praise and thanksgiving. And may they change everything for us, as beloved children of God held in God’s hands.
Amen.
When I considered people’s answers to this question and my own experience I seemed to notice two common things. People’s best gifts they’ve ever received are one or both of these things:
1. Lavish and generous - a gift that just floors you for how the giver went above and beyond in giving it to you. And
2. A gift that is personal and it’s less about the gift and more about how much the giver knows you, “gets” you, loves and appreciates you.
Think now of a gift or gifts you have received that have been among the best. That floored you with the generosity and love behind them. When you have been given a gift that just amazes you at the generosity, thoughtfulness, kindness, love and appreciation behind it…
The writer of Ephesians, is GUSHING about a gift that he - and we all - have received: the gift of God’s love, the adoption of us as God’s children, redemption, forgiveness, salvation, an inheritance through Christ… Actually, you can tell he is just gushing, that he’s floored, amazed at these gifts by the writing. In the Greek today’s 11 verses are all basically one convoluted run-on sentence. The translators of most English versions, including what we read today in worship, normally make it more palatable and understandable by breaking it down into sentences but in the original Greek it reads as one long gushing sentence. I can relate to him here, when I’m excited over something, REALLY excited about something, I tend to talk faster, my voice gets higher, and I can go on and on and on… And that’s basically our reading from Ephesians today.
This week’s Scripture is an invitation to wonder and praise. It is an invitation for us to marvel at the lavish love, the generous gifts, that God has given us - as it lists in today’s Scripture: the gift of God’s love, the adoption of us as God’s children, redemption, forgiveness, salvation, an inheritance through Christ.
The sacrament of Baptism is a way we recognize, celebrate, wonder, and give thanks for God’s lavish gifts that we have received from our Maker. Today we celebrate the lavish gifts and love that God has bestowed upon the child we baptized - and we remembered and recognized that same love was and is given to all of us. I’ve had the joy of sharing in multiple baptisms with you and getting to preach on it several times so what I am going to say to you today, many of you will have heard it before, but it never hurts to be reminded.
One of my favorite ways to frame baptism is a signing of the adoption papers. Before we are baptized, we are all already loved by God. We are all already God’s children in God’s eyes. Yet through the sacrament of baptism we are saying, “Okay, God - I know you love me as your child. I love you as my parent. I know you love me and I will respond to that love with more love - and let my life be shaped by you, the God of Love.” When a child is baptized, their parents bring that child forth as a recognition that this child belongs to God, even more than this child belongs to those who formed them in this world. It is a recognition that they will raise this child as God’s child, loving them, surrounding them in a loving Christian community, and teaching them about God’s love.
The sacrament of Baptism, this holy, mysterious, and wonderful ritual is part of how we participate in God’s divine plans of God’s love for us and for all. Through baptism we wonder at God’s love, we praise God’s goodness, and recognize the lavish and generous gifts God gives us. Being baptized, bringing a child forth to be baptized, remembering our baptism - it was a way we acknowledge, we recognize before God and before one another, that we know we are loved by God.
Part of the reading from Ephesians today is not only to marvel and wonder at God’s love, but the writer’s intent is to assure Gentile readers in the church of Ephesus that God always had a plan for them. That their acceptance into God’s covenant, their adoption as children of God - these things are not afterthoughts. That like their Jewish siblings, God always planned to gather them up in love and offer them an inheritance through Christ. The Scriptures say: “He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will.” It says that before the foundation of the world, this was all part of God’s plans, we were always part of God’s plan - God has always, since before Creation, planned to adopt us, to love us.
This again is another invitation to marvel and wonder and praise God - you were never an afterthought to God. Before creation, God already knew that you would be divinely loved, a child of God.
And, the Scripture goes on to give us even more reasons to just be floored at the lavish generosity of God’s gift of love. It reads, “he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” That is, God’s divine plan, God’s BIG big picture plan, is to draw all things to God’s self in love. As the first verse of our Psalm today declares: “The earth is the Lord's and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it.”
We started worship this morning by singing “He’s got the whole world in his hands'' - a children’s song which sums up so succinctly these points our Scripture readings make: The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it…God’s got it in God’s hands! We know this truth as children when we sing this song but the hardships and motions of everyday life can make us forget this fundamental and awe inspiring truth - we are all God’s. We are all loved by God. God’s got us all in the Divine’s loving hands. This song is another invitation to marvel and praise God for the lavish and generous extent of God’s gift of love for us - for them - for all - for the whole world.
This morning I wanted to extend to you an invitation to wonder and marvel at God’s gifts of Love for us, for the baby we baptized today…AND to marvel and wonder at God’s divine, mysterious, generous, lavish plan for the redemption of all God’s creation. If we truly believe that none of us are an afterthought, that God holds all of us, that God’s end game is to draw us all into God’s hands, cradle us all in the loving hands of God… wow! What a reason to give God praise!
So our takeaway, our “go out into the world and do” from worship today is simply this: go and lose yourselves in the wonder of God’s gifts towards us and all creation. Think about how much a mindset of marveling at God’s love for all - how much it will change how we all interact with the world, the people we meet, our day to day lives, etc. Think about how much living a life filled with praise for God’s generous and lavish gifts of love - think about how much that will color every interaction we have. How our knowledge of God’s love for us - for them - for all - how our knowledge of God’s plan to redeem all creation, to hold us all in God’s hands…how it will change…everything.
May we be absolutely floored at these gifts of Love that God has given us. May we offer God praise and thanksgiving. And may they change everything for us, as beloved children of God held in God’s hands.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment