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THE MYSTERY OF GOD’S WILL
Ephesians 1:3-14; Psalm 145:1-9
A sermon preached at First Presbyterian Church by Carter Lester on
July 12, 2009
It has been said enough that it has become a cliché. And yet, like all clichés, there is truth in it. You have heard it before: “there are two kinds of people – those who see the glass of life as half-full, and those who see it as half-empty.”
There are those who first notice what they have and there are those who first notice what is missing. There are those for whom hope is not hard to summon, and there are those for whom disappointment is easy to find. There are those who begin their days and their prayers with thanksgiving, and there are those whose prayers and days begin with complaints and requests and never have much time for thanksgivings. Which kind of person are you?
There is not much doubt about Paul when it comes to looking at the glass of life – at least here in this letter to the Ephesians. The English translation in verses 3 – 14 is a bit deceptive in that it breaks up what Paul is saying into six sentences. In the Greek, it is all one sentence, as Paul piles up phrase upon phrase to give God thanks for all the blessings that we have received, and will receive, in and through Jesus Christ.
Verse 3 summarizes what is to follow: God “has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” Paul then uses shifting imagery to convey those blessings: God “chose us in Christ” and “destined us for adoption as his children;” in Christ we have redemption through his blood and forgiveness for our trespasses; God lavishes the riches of his grace upon us; and, in Christ we have also obtained an inheritance.
Throughout this inventory of spiritual blessings, Paul is making clear that all of them are heaven-sent. There is nothing that he, or the Ephesians, has done to earn those blessings or qualify for them. We are adopted as God’s children. Before, we had no rights, now we are treated as Jesus’ brothers and sisters. In Jesus’ death, we are redeemed and delivered from sin and death. Apart from Christ, we could do nothing to save or deliver ourselves. All of it is a gift – free for us but a lavish and expensive gift from God.
As the Scottish Biblical scholar and commentator, William Barclay puts it, a person by himself or herself “can acquire a certain skill, can achieve a certain position, can amass a certain amount of this world’s goods; but by himself [or herself that person] can never attain to goodness or to peace of mind. God chose us to give us those things which he alone can give.”[1]
For Paul, counting and naming his blessings is like trying to drink out of a fire hose – the thanksgivings pour out with such quantity and force. No wonder he cannot be bothered to insert a period!
Paul wants the church in Ephesus then – and in Pottstown now – to know that the glass of life is more than half-full thanks to the wonders of God’s amazing grace in and through Jesus Christ. But Paul is no optimist who can only see the world though rose-colored glasses. After all, he knows what it is to be persecuted, jailed and beaten for his faith.
Paul has hope for what is to come, but he is not ignorant as to present realities. He can speak of God’s revealing 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,” but he knows that we have yet to experience that fullness of time. That which will be fully revealed is now only partially revealed.
In other words, Paul knows that the glass will be full. But he also knows that it can seem half-empty.
Fred Craddock, a great teacher of seminary students and ministers, tells of coming back to the house after his mother’s funeral. There was food and drink and a chance to gather with family, friends, and the community. There was one woman there who was all full of pat phrases about the joys of heaven available to those who die. She was just a bit too glib for Craddock. When she came up to Craddock and remarked, “you must be awfully happy now knowing that your mother is in heaven,” Craddock could not help but say, “Well, it was obviously not your mother that just died.”
The fact is the glass is both half-full and half-empty in this world in which we live. There is the joy of heaven’s promise, but there is also the grief of saying good-bye to someone we love. There is the beauty of a Mozart symphony – and there is the cacophony of gunfire on city streets. There are the glories of a sunrise and the wonders of the human brain – and there are the terrors of a destructive hurricane and the horrors of a cancer cell. There are great acts of courage, compassion, and kindness, which when we see in others, can bring a tear to our eyes, and cause us to forward “You-Tube” videos across the globe. But there are also words and actions of needless cruelty which make us wonder who we are as a species.
Paul understands this – that is why he speaks of “the mystery of God’s will.” If all was perfect now, as it will be some day, then there would be no mystery. If all was clear now, as it will be clear some day, then there would be no mystery. But that is not what life in this world right now is like.
This is why we can be sympathetic to the skeptics and doubters who question God because of what they see in the world. This is why we can understand why the poet A. E. Housman might write, “I, a stranger and afraid/ In a world I never made.” This is why we can understand where Andre Maurois is coming from when he wrote, “The universe is indifferent. Who created it? Why are we here on this puny mud-heap spinning in infinite space?”[2] All is not right; And sometimes it is horribly wrong. Where is God and what is God up to?
That is the great mystery that Paul writes about in verses 9 and 10. It is a mystery that cannot be cracked open by the best of forensic science or solved by the deductive powers of a modern-day Sherlock Holmes. Only faith can solve this mystery. And the answer can only be found by looking through the magnifying glass offered to us in Jesus Christ.
You see, by looking through Jesus Christ, we know how the story begins and what that beginning signifies. By faith, we know that “in Christ all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible….He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:16-17). The world and all that is in it was therefore created in and through the love and grace of Jesus Christ. As David Bentley Hart writes in The Doors of the Sea, our Creator is not only good, but goodness itself, not only true or beautiful but infinite truth and beauty.” Everything made by such a Creator is meant to be good and true and beautiful.[3]
But we also know that God’s creation has lost its way. Why is it is this way? Because love and grace do not create robots, just as Jesus Christ does not bully or overpower his disciples or critics. Instead, we are loved enough to be given the freedom to reject that love, and to turn away from the light of God and toward the darkness of life without God.
The sorry story is that too often we have turned down that invitation and turned away from God’s love. God’s creation is broken by creation’s rebellion from God. Like a broken mirror, this world imperfectly reveals the beauty and goodness with which we were made. The darkness has invaded the light.
And, it is not just human beings who are damaged by sin. As Paul makes clear in Romans 8, all of creation is broken and groaning for redemption and new life. That is why the glass often looks half-empty, why the world can look more like a “mud heap” and less like the artistic masterpiece it was intended to be.
But through the eyes of faith we see what God is doing in Jesus Christ to fill up that emptiness. By faith, we see that Christ “has come to save creation, to conquer, to rescue, to defeat the power of evil in all things.”[4]
Finally, looking through Christ, we also know the end to which history is moving. Paul sums it up in verse 10 that God’s plan “for the fullness of time” is “to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” Looking through Christ, we see the direction in which God’s grace is moving: away from selfishness and sin, discord and lies and toward love and grace, beauty and truth. Away from death; toward life. Away from separation and alienation; toward unity with God and all people and all creation.
When we look at the world through the eyes of faith, there is no mystery. Jesus Christ came to save the whole world and reconcile all of creation with the Creator. He died on the cross to set all people free from our sins and deliver us from aloneness in a world we did not make. Like the shepherd in his parable of the 99 sheep, Christ is always searching for every lost sheep and will never be satisfied until the flock is complete and all is made whole.
This is the mystery of God’s will which has been revealed to those who believe in Jesus Christ. And we don’t have to wait until the future to see the goodness, beauty, and truth. The Holy Spirit has already given us a down payment so that now and then, here and there, we get glimpses of heaven and we tread on holy ground. It is these holy moments and the knowledge of what God is up to that gives us comfort in the midst of doubt; assurance in the midst of suffering. And above all, it gives us direction for our own life.
You see, the mystery of God’s will is not a secret to be kept by the church like those secrets and codes maintained by secret societies. No, it is just the opposite. This secret is an open one - one to be shared with all who might listen. We have been given a task and purpose in life: to reveal what can appear to be a mystery of God’s will to all that we encounter. But it is an answer that can only be revealed the way it was revealed to us – by love, and not by argument, by grace and not by bullying or coercion.
In Jesus Christ, God has already chosen and adopted – not just us but all of God’s creatures. In Jesus Christ, God has already forgiven the trespasses and offered deliverance – not just for us, but for all of humanity. In Jesus Christ, God wants to gather – not just us, but “all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” And in the end, there is no mystery. God will drive out all evil and God’s will will prevail. Nothing – nothing – can ultimately defeat God’s will.
Friends, in Jesus Christ, God does not want our glass to be half-empty, or even half-full. He wants our cup to be overflowing. And this is what He is doing.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing.” Amen.
[1] William Barclay, The Letter to the Galatians and Ephesians, rev. ed., (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1976), 77.
[2] Quoted by Barclay, 85.
[3] David Bentley Hart, The Doors of the Sea: Where Was God in the Tsunami? (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2005), 54-55.
[4] Hart, 97.