Year B, Lent 4 Ephesians 2:1-10
I was
reminded of this quote when I read Ephesians this week.[1] It starts with, “You were dead through your trespasses and sin in which you once
lived…” It’s unusual to hear, “You
were dead…” There are a few people out there with near
death experiences---you might even meet someone who died on the operating table
for a minute and lived to tell the story.
But you are never going to find someone with experience being dead. Yet Paul, was speaking to a group of
people. While he was speaking of
spiritual death (rather than physical death), for Paul, it was no less serious. Spiritual death was like the character in
Princess Bride—mostly dead, but still slightly alive. While being dead through trespasses and sins
is serious, there is a part of that person that is slightly alive—and that is
the place where God’s breaks in.
The first
four verses of Ephesians are heavy with talk of sin and death, but there is a
major shift about half way through our reading for today. “But God, who is rich in mercy, out
of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our
trespasses, made us alive together with Christ…” God
loves us, even when we are spiritually dead, even when we don’t have time for
him, even when we have fallen away from him.
Often when I read the New Testament, I am almost envious of these new
Christians. They had an excuse for being
spiritually dead in the past. They may
never have heard of Jesus Christ.
Knowing
that, I imagine that once they did hear about him, it was a complete
transformation. It was a true conversion
experience. And you know, I want
that. I was baptized as an infant. I was raised in the church with a Christian
family. My church never scarred me. And now I have been to two seminaries and
served in two wonderful churches. I have
no excuse for being spiritually dead.
Despite
not having a good excuse, I have to admit, that I have felt that at times. I
felt it when I was going through infertility treatments. I felt it after my miscarriage. And I have felt it over the past year as I have
gazed out on the empty church every week, as I explained rules that I don’t
understand, as I yelled prayers for a dying person through an open window
because it wasn’t safe to be inside. I
would imagine that many of us have felt it, especially over this last
year.
Yet
God, who is rich in mercy and lavish with his love, makes sure that there is
always a part of us that lives in his light.
God doesn’t need a big opening.
Despite the grandeur and greatness of God, it’s amazing that he can work
his way into such small places. And when we accept that light and see it for
what it is, God expands to fill every dead space within us. It may not be a conversion experience, but it
is no less miraculous.
You
might wonder, well what must I do? That sounds great. Nothing. You can do
absolutely nothing to earn this kind of awe inspiring love. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your
own doing; it is the gift of God…” That is both maddening and
liberating. It’s maddening because we
find value in the things we earn. Even
the love we experience from family and friends can be dependent on our action
and inaction. On earth we have been
taught to earn love and we have learned that we can lose it as well. God’s love is different than any we have
experienced. It is often compared to the love of a parent for a child, but it’s
even greater than that. We are loved not because of who we are or who
we are trying to be, but whose we are.
We are God’s creation---the jewel of God’s creation. Paul writes, “For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good
works….” While we cannot earn God’s
love with work---we have been created to do good work.
Here
is where I have to disagree with The Princess Bride. Being slightly alive is
far different than mostly dead. It might
not always feel the way at the time, but it is.
Why? Because we are alive in Jesus Christ. We are alive because of Jesus. In a time in our world where we are seeing so
much death, let us be grateful for the life we have. “For we
are what God has made us” and not only that, we are created to do God’s
work, to shine God’s light in the darkest places. So it’s ok, if you don’t always feel like a
super Christian or even a slightly passable Christian. You might not even feel fully alive. God still looks at you every minute of every
day and says to whoever is listening, “That’s my child and she is going to do
wonderful things.”
[1] I was
actually reminded when I read a commentary on Ephesians that mentioned Princess
Bride. That was just too hard to explain.
I give credit to this commentator for
the illustration: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/fourth-sunday-in-lent-2/commentary-on-ephesians-21-10-5
