BAIYB: Blessed, Chosen, Adopted, Forgiven, Redeemed
Pentecost P+7, L15B
Ephesians 1:3-14
July 12, 2015
BLESSED: CHOSEN, ADOPTED, FORGIVEN, REDEEMED
This morning – I’d like to start with you all thinking about you. You will need a post-it note and a pencil.
What are 5 characteristics that you would use to describe yourself? Write them on the left side of your post-it.
This morning – there are 6 other characteristics that are lifted up in the reading – so keep that post-it handy…
And even in what you have written down – are there negatives? Stressed? Overtired? Alone? Discouraged?
There are a lot of ways we describe ourselves – but today – we are looking more specifically at God –
and how because of Godwe have been blessed in Christ…which is where we start and end our faith journeys.
We move to a new letter written to an early community in Ephesus – which is in present day Turkey.
This letter was written to encourage the new community as they learned to live together – Jews and Gentiles no longer – but chosen and beloved of God.
But before the writer (Paul, pseudo-Paul) gets into the parts and how’s and the why’s of being a new community, he begins the letter with a doxology – a praise to God. In fact – the whole reading in Greek is one sentence (try diagramming it!).
But what I find joy-filled and heartening in this letter is that before the how-to’s…there is this moment of praise to the One – who is blessed because the One has blessed a chosen people with adoption,
redeeming them in Christ, and forgiving them their sins (see – I did that faster and with less words – but truly less poetic)
This doxology is a both a praise to God as well as a testimony that in Christ, we have been given every spiritual blessing. Right away – Bless is God who has given us everything in Christ. Not only are we blessed – but bless the One from whom all things flow…
And on the right side of your post-it, I’d like you to write – BLESSED. And eliminate one of the more negative characteristics you wrote.
Just as you are blessed, so is God – because God is rich in grace and mercy, of love and truth…and God doesn’t keep those things to God’s self – God pours them out on those that God has chosen
Next is Chosen: we have been chosen in Christ to be God’s people. Not just me and you but all of us. All y’all (2nd person plural)…we (first person plural)…choose me, choose us and God said yes – to those in the past, to us, and to those in the future…
We like to be chosen to a specific team or to receive a special favor. We dislike to be chosen to clean the shower doors or to deliver bad new. But the act of being Chosen is a beginning step…and an important step – you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood – that means you’ve been chosen for something special…Starting with Adam & Eve to Abraham and his descendants, to David and his line and beyond –the circle of who God chooses continues to grow and spread like ripples in a pond…
So on your post-it – write CHOSEN. And remove something on the left.
So we, as a people, have been chosen, – then what? Something even better – we’ve been adopted into God’s family through Christ. We have been named and claimed through baptism as God’s. It’s more than a symbolic gesture – it’s a milestone in our lives that states publically – I’ve been adopted into God’s family AND made a sibling of Christ – and nothing can ever change that. Blessed is God – for calling the chosen into God’s family…we are adopted in Christ and we celebrate that every time we confess our sins, put our hands in the water and make the sign of the cross, every time a person is brought to the font and washed…Blessed is God
So – now write ADOPTED… and remove something on the left
And in Christ –we have been redeemed and forgiven in Jesus death and resurrection – given to us as a gift from God’s amazing grace…the story is so amazing – Sending Jesus to us not to condemn us – but to save us – all of us…and as God is praised for his graciousness in sending Christ, we remember this act every time we come to the meal, share in the bread and wine, and receive the promise: You are forgiven and redeemed. Thank you God!
And yes – add FORGIVEN and REDEEMED to your blessed list…
What’s the point?
God is the primary actor in our lives.
It is God doing all the work in this hymn of praise – bringing all of creation in heaven and on earth together in Christ – and to be called an honor because we hope in Christ…and we have the Holy Spirit working through, in, and with us…
It is God in Christ who has brought the truth – which we have heard and as chosen, adopted, forgiven and redeemed people of God – are also blessed because we believe in Christ.
And that’s the other thing: ‘In Christ’ has been a phrase that you’ve heard all through this time – and it belongs at the end of each of those words you wrote on the right side of your post-it.
BLESSED IN CHRIST
CHOSEN IN CHRIST
ADOPTED IN CHRIST
REDEEMED IN CHRIST
FORGIVEN IN CHRIST
It is because of Christ – that the letter to the Ephesians – heck all the letters – was written to as both praise and encouragement, as blessing and instructions…things that we too still balance in our lives.
If we believe that we walk by faith and that there is joy in generosity and that God’s grace is enough…than heck yes – Bless the Lord O My Soul. And it is well with my soul. And Praise God from whom all blessings flow…anybody got some other song suggestions?
So – take that post-it and put it on the front of your shirt. Tuck it in your wallet or your personal bible.
And it is from this position of Praise and Blessing that we – all of us – begin and end – no matter what is/was written on the left side of your post-it..and because God is blessed and you are God’s in Christ –you too are blessed.
Thanks be to God. Amen.