Ephesians 2:1-10
March 30, 2003
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
When I opened last Monday’s front page, I was struck by the headlines, “Toughest Day.” Iraqis interrogate captured Americans before television cameras. U.S.-led forces treading warily after faked surrender and ambushes inflict losses. It was not a good day for the war on Iraq. Today both Iraqis and allied forces are predicting a long and perhaps bloody struggle for control of Baghdad. And for a second Sunday, we are keeping our candles lit on our windowsills and in our sanctuary.
Although we may say that there are times when war is justified to confront human evil in the world, war is not the life-giving answer to our life-threatening problems. When the terrorists trespassed our air spaces and destroyed innocent lives on September 11th, we saw the children of wrath. When the U.S.-led forces trespassed from Kuwait over to Iraq, we were seen by some Iraqi people and others in the Middle East as the children of wrath. And when we open up our morning newspapers like we did last Monday and read about how American POWs were being humiliated and possibly brutalized, we can’t resist the thought that Saddam Hussein and his military leaders are children of wrath.
In the passage from Ephesians, we read,
“You were dead through the trespasses and sins 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. 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.”
Paul is saying that we were once like the children of wrath like everyone else. But now we are no longer like the disobedient children of wrath. Then why does it still seem that we are following the passion of this world instead of following the paths of God?
A few years ago there was a dead body that rode a New York City subway for five hours. Apparently the fellow died from natural causes. But even though dozens and dozens of people were constantly getting on and off the subway, the corpse was left to ride that subway train for five hours before anyone bothered to notify the authorities. We can do a pretty good job at times of blinding ourselves to the problems that are right in front of us.
With Iraq thousands of miles away, if it wasn’t for the journalists and cameramen imbedded in with the military, we would be blinded from seeing the horror and atrocities of war. When it comes to the problem of death, we can become quite skilled in looking the other way and pretending that the problem doesn’t exist at all.
Isn’t that what Rev. Vern Ross preached on last Sunday? We can be so blinded by the needs of our neighbors that we stop knowing how to be neighborly anymore. Sometimes it feels like we are still under the sway of disobedient powers that rules this world. With war on our minds, sometimes we feel more like the children of wrath than the children of the light.
Paul is saying in Ephesians that we are dead people when we follow the ways of this world. We are dead people when we follow the ruler of the power of disobedience. Life doesn’t begin when we follow the desires and passion of the flesh. Life only begins when we believe in Jesus.
The truth, Paul says, is that there is no such thing as life apart from God. There is only death. To live apart from God is impossible for God is the source of life. Apart from God, we are dead—separated from God by our transgressions and our sins. Whether we are intentional transgressors or unintentional sinners, whether we are defiant, or just deficient, it really doesn’t matter. In all cases, as transgressors or as sinners, we separate ourselves from God. And to separate our selves from God is to separate our selves from life.
But God
In your pew Bibles, Ephesians 2:1-10 is titled, “From Death to Life.” Verses 1-3 speak of being dead through the trespasses and sins that we do. But beginning with verse 4, we see a dramatic change. It reads, “But God.” “But God” means that all of this death, trespasses, sins, disobedience, passions of our flesh is about to end. “But God” means that the nature that we have as children of wrath is about to end. “But God who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he made us, made us alive.” The only one who could make us alive decided to do so, not because of anything in us. But God decided to do so simply out of mercy, out of great love.
While we might be preparing for our funeral procession, God is telling us that there’s much more living to do. God decided not to leave us to our own inevitable death. God decided to make us alive with Christ. That decision, says Paul, is the starting point for a definition of grace. Grace is the amazing love of God that will not let go of us even when we want to die.
In the same Monday morning Chronicle newspaper, there was an article about the “Shadows of Agent Orange.” During the Vietnam War, the chemical known as Agent Orange was used to defoliate the thick forests so that bombers can see their targets. Nearly three decades after the war ended, Agent Orange has reached the third generation of Vietnamese people.
The story was about five-year old Phuong who looks out at the world through huge, sad eyes as she wiggles her shoulder deeper into her mother’s embrace. Her attempt to hide is not just shyness. Phuong has already learned that strangers are less interested in her sweet face, her gold earrings, her cheerful cotton dress than in her left arm—a useless stub that ends just below the armpit.
Her other arm is normal, if you overlook the hand with only three fingers. So are her legs and feet, though she has only nine toes. When her mother tries to show visitors of the deformities, Phuong cries uncontrollably. Phoung secretly wants to die.
The new casualties of Agent Orange are reminders of how we through our trespasses and sins, continue to cause misery and untold suffering to others. Unable to confess our transgressions, we can remain dead and separated from God. When we are separated from the only source of life, we are dead.
If I could possibly travel to Vietnam, I would say to Phuong, “I am sorry for what we have done to you, but God is also saying to you, ‘You are my little girl.’” My friends, God is saying this same message to you. God is saying to all of us whose lives have been deformed by the power of sin and we just want to hide some place and die, “You are my daughter. You are my son.”
God is reaching out toward you. Will you let God’s grace touch you and turn you around, and change your life? If that’s what you want to do, then join yourself—as Paul says—to the grace of God by joining yourself to Christ. For by placing your faith and trust in Christ, you’ll be saved. You’ll pass from the death you call life—to real life!
This life is a life full of mercy, full of love, and full of grace. You can’t make those things on your own. You can’t make that kind of life for yourself. You might be able to manufacture small fleeting moments of self-satisfaction. But only in God’s grace in Jesus Christ can give you the everlasting satisfaction that you are looking for. Only God is the real source of life.
There are some of you here this morning who will be meeting with the Deacons today as you prepare for baptism and church membership. You have discovered that contrary to what our culture has taught us about being successful and making it entirely on our own, you have realized that you need Christ in your life to know what real life is. You know that God’s grace in Christ will give you that satisfaction that nothing else can give.
More to God’s Mercy
In this short passage, the phrase, “by grace you have been saved” appears twice—emphasizing that it is God through Christ, and God alone, who has rescued us. But there’s more to God’s grace. The first time we experience God’s mercy and love is only the beginning.
For God, according to Paul, has promised not only to make us alive in Christ but to raise us up with Christ, and seat us with Christ in the heavenly realms, in order that in the coming ages God might show us the incomparable riches of his grace. There is more, you see, to the grace of God that you and I can possibly understand in our present condition, more than we can even imagine. The grace that we experience in this life is only an appetizer of the grace we will experience and enjoy in eternity. For there, the full riches of God’s love will be lavished on those who in Christ are willing to receive it. It’s by grace that you are saved through faith. It’s a gift from God.
It was impossible for me during this past week to not think about the war in Iraq. Maybe you felt that way too. How can we not think about the war when young men and women are in harm’s way. I wonder and question myself on what I can do. Do we march against the war? Do we pray for our troops? Have we found ourselves arguing with each other not because we find ourselves really in disagreement but because we are scared and worried about how easy it was for us to be dead again. It doesn’t take too much to see us become by nature children of wrath.
When I think about the war today, I also can think about the day when the war will end. Like God’s promises of the immeasurable riches that we will receive in heavenly places that we can’t imagine what it would be like today, we must also believe and trust in the future that the war will end and that we will along with the nations of the world rebuild and restore peace and reconciliation. We keep a candle burning because we believe that there will come a day when it would be okay to blow it out. God’s mercy and grace is way beyond our human understanding. And even against the human misery and atrocities of war we are still called to believe in the promise of a new day.
In these troubling times, I found this Ephesians passage comforting. When things around the world are beyond our immediate and arms length control, I find Paul’s words reassuring.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own
doing; it is the gift of God—not the result of works, so that no one may
boast.”
God’s merciful grace is freely given to us when we haven’t earned it or deserved it. None of us have done anything that caused God to give us this gift of salvation. We don’t have the right to go around boasting that because of our good works, we have earned God’s grace. Beyond our human comprehension, God doesn’t abandon us even when we decided to go to war around the world. God having seen what we can do as “children of wrath,” still made us alive with Christ to become children of light.
Good Works
But this passage still has something else to teach us. In verse 10, we read,
“For we are what he (God) has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good
works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.”
We have been seeing a lot of military equipment flashed on the TV and in the newspapers this past week. One thing we learned is that when an aircraft is grounded, whether they were the newer ones or the older ones, it would always break down. When a sandstorm grounds the aircraft, two days later you can almost guaranteed that they would break down. Aircraft are made for flying, and if they don’t fly on a regular basis, they do not work well.
Ephesians 2:10 says that we are made for ministry in Christ Jesus for good works. Since we are made for ministry, when we don’t engage in it, then we too break down and become unfit to carry out the tasks for which we are created.
Just like engineers and workers make aircraft for flight, God makes each person for ministry, doing good works that bring honor and glory to God and which fit in with the way that God created people to live. It’s not our good works in any way, shape or form that causes God to accept us and love us. On the contrary, our good works are the result of God’s love, salvation, and empowering—solely given freely by God to us in grace.
God doesn’t create only a chosen few for good works. God makes each and every person for ministry.
There’s a story of an elderly aunt who was depressed. Her nephew had tried everything he knew to buoy her spirits, all to no avail. The nephew invited a family therapist friend to stop by one day when he was in town. The elderly woman showed him her African Violets in her little greenhouse before taking him into her apartment. After listening to her complain for a couple of minutes, he interrupted and said to her, “Depression isn’t your problem. You problem is that you aren’t being a very good Christian!”
The elderly woman was startled and quite taken back because she had attended church for her whole life and thought of herself as quite a good Christian. “What do you mean?” she responded. “Well,” he said, “I noticed that you have a wonderful gift for growing African Violets. You must have 50 or 60 sitting in your greenhouse as we speak. You aren’t sharing your gift with anyone. There are people at your church right now who could use one. People who have lost a loved one could use one. Families who have a son or a daughter serving in the military overseas could use one. People who have celebrated some joy could use one. And here you are hoarding all of these beautiful African Violets.”
After he left, the woman began to think about what he had said. So with fear and a little trepidation, she brought one of her cuttings to a friend who had recently lost her husband. Then she took one to a family who just had a baby. Thus began her ministry.
About ten years later, the family therapist opened a letter from his friend. In the letter was an article from the local paper that the friend had clipped entitled, “African Violet Queen Dies—Mourned by Thousands.” The story described how this woman over the remainder of her life gave away thousands of cuttings, and how much she had touched peoples lives in the greater community in which she lived, far beyond the church walls.
This woman thought she could not do anything, had no special gifts and was spending her last years in self-pity. This woman was as good as dead. Sometimes we find ourselves like this woman—ready to give up and tired of trying. And when we read about the war in Iraq today and finding ourselves feeling depressed and stressed out because of real fears, we wonder if there’s anything we can do. Like the African Violet Queen brought cuttings to thousands of people, we too can become ambassadors of peace and reconciliation especially during this time of war. We are created in Christ Jesus for good works.
The world filled with children of wrath can’t offer us love and grace. Only God, who is rich in mercy and filled with great love cleansed us of our trespasses in Christ, can make us alive again. We are saved by grace through faith for a life of good deeds.
Let us pray.
God of Grace and Mercy, we pray today for the forgiveness of our sins and trespasses—especially when we have believed more in our own efforts and forsaken your will. Lead us to know your saving love in Christ Jesus and the promise of immeasurable riches of your grace. Call us out of our self-pity to go into the world and become ambassadors of your good works as you have created us to be. Protect us and our loved ones both near and far as we know you will watch over your whole beloved creation. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.