“Hope: Holding Fast to God’s Truth and Grace” 2012

Isaiah 45:21-25 Ephesians 3:14-21

Isaiah 45:21-25

21Declare and present your case; let them take counsel together! Who told this long ago? Who declared it of old? Was it not I, the Lord? There is no other god besides me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is no one besides me. 22Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. 23By myself I have sworn, from my mouth has gone forth in righteousness a word that shall not return: “To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.” 24Only in the Lord, it shall be said of me, are righteousness and strength; all who were incensed against him shall come to him and be ashamed. 25In the Lord all the offspring of Israel shall triumph and glory.

Ephesians 3:14-21

14For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. 16I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, 17and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. 18I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Last week, Kathy and I watched an old movie, Mr. Holland’s Opus.

It’s the story about a musician who wanted to be a composer,

but grudgingly, became a high school music teacher.

One of his students was a very bright and serious red-headed girl

who despite her best efforts and constant practice

made little progress and played her clarinet horribly.

She tried and was driven to succeed, but failed to improve,

so she considered herself just a hopeless failure.

Finally,

one day she tells Mr. Holland that she’s going to give it up.

As she walks away, Holland asks her, “Is it any fun?”

With a shrug, she answers, “I wanted it to be.”

“You know what we’ve been doing wrong, Miss Lang?

We’ve just been playing the notes on the page.”

Confused, the girl asks, “Well what else is there is to play?”

“There’s a lot more to music than notes on a page.

Playing music is supposed to be fun. It’s about heart.

It’s about feelings and moving people and something beautiful

and being alive and it’s not about just notes on a page.

I could teach you notes on a page.

I can’t teach you that other stuff.”

He takes away her music and tells her to try it,

and each time when she gets to a difficult spot,

her clarinet squawks horribly,

and she is upset with herself for failing again.

“What do you like best about yourself?” he asks.

With a shy smile she says,

“My hair – my dad says it reminds him of a sunset.”

“Play the sunset.”

And she closes her eyes, and she begins to play –

really play, not just the notes, but the music.

She is so amazed when she does the hard part perfectly

that her eyes pop open and she stops.

Mr. Holland shares her amazement and says, “Don’t stop!”

And so, on she plays: eyes closed,

head beginning to sway with the rhythm of it.

And we know that this time, it was fun.

Sometimes, our relationship with God, we do the same thing.

We settle for religion, and try to get everything right.

We follow the rules, try to do what the Bible says,

thinking if we do it all right, maybe God will approve…

but it’s not our works that wins us God’s approval.

Yes, God wants us to study and obey His Word and commandments,

but like music, it’s a lot more than just words on a page,

the Christian life is a lot more than just obeying rules…

… true faith is a lot deeper

and something far more personal is going on.

The context of Ephesians

is that the Apostle Paul sits imprisoned in a dungeon.

His thoughts turn to the Lord,

and he is filled with amazed wonder and awe.

As he thinks about all that God is doing in and through the Church

he finds himself caught up in heartfelt praise, worship & joy.

vs. 14-15

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name.

He recognizes in delighted amazement that all of creation

bears the naming and identifying mark of God, our creator,

to whom we all truly belong,

and who calls us His own, His beloved and precious.

And as Paul sits in that dreadful prison cell at Ephesus

and he contemplates God’s gracious love and blessings,

wonder and awe flow over him in a crescendo of grace…

vs. 16-17

I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love.

Thinking about the Church, the church family he loves,

his prayer is that they set their roots deep in Jesus Christ,

for if they realized the astonishing depth of God’s love

that would change, drive and inspire

every aspect and detail of their lives & living.

vs. 18-19

I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Do you know what it is to experience the fullness of God?,

for too many Christians are missing out on that.

Though we try to live lives of faithful, obedient service,

yet we lack the joy and delight

God has and intends for his beloved children.

The text we read from Isaiah was addressed

to those suffering and struggling as captives in Babylon.

Their world had been completely upset, all was in turmoil.

The Babylonians claimed to have defeated Israel

because their gods were mightier than the God of Israel.

In the text assures the people that God had not been overpowered,

there was more going on than just that moment in time,

but eventually all will bow before the Lord their God.

vs. 21~25

There is no other god besides me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is no one besides me. Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. I have sworn: “To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.” In the Lord all the offspring of Israel shall triumph and glory.

The Ephesians text offers a similar perspective

on that same question of the sovereign power of the Lord.

vs. 20-21

Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

When we face a difficult situation or overwhelming trouble,

when we mean to be faithful but are fearful

and in life, when the deck clearly stacked against us …

- where is God, and does our faith make any difference?

What do we really believe about trusting God’s love,

in God’s power, God’s presence and in God’s promises?

What will determine the outcome,

is it the circumstances or is it the will and purpose of God?

What do we really believe about

God’s power to accomplish in this world, in our situation?

It is idolatry if we put more trust in the things of this world,

in the reality of the situation we see before us,

rather than in

prayer, God’s word and the promises of our Lord.

It is idolatry to trust the power of this world

more than we trust in the power and promises of God.

I think the problem is that

sometimes we envision a God too small and too distant…

… not big enough to embrace and govern our world

and not close enough to touch our lives

in a powerfully personal and meaningful way.

In doubt, we may have created a god who is too small.

maybe substituted a puny and punitive god for the great

and gracious God revealed in the history of Israel

and in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

This substitute god we've fashioned is limited, narrow, and tame-

does nothing surprising, amazing, or outside science & reason

a god explainable, boxed-in, captive to our preconceptions.

This little god of stingy mercy, and puts limits on grace & love.

This god of our own making is predictable, safe, and boring.

This false god of human reason who fits our modern perceptions,

cannot or does not chose to get involved in our world,

and can offer little more than sympathy or advice

for coping with our life’s problems and defeats…

… certainly nothing about changing the reality of a situation.

I see our world, our culture, unsteady, shaking and shifting.

It is as if the very tectonic plates of our planet are moving,

and the foundations and even the continents

upon which we built and stood are in motion …

* … and if God can only watch, powerless, or of in the distance,

then we have to figure it out for ourselves and succeed,

and I don’t see much hope in that at all…

… which is why more than ever, I need to hear, I need to believe,

vs. 18-20

I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. … to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine.

The real God, the God Scripture is vast beyond our comprehending,

mysterious, powerful and wonderful beyond our imagining.

Such a God's great love leaves us breathless with astonishment,

and is far beyond our comprehension or understanding

the breadth and length and height and depth of that love…

… shines with such dazzling glory that it fills every shadowy

corner of our hearts and of the universe with joyful hope.

And here’s the most joyful and wonderful news, an authentic and

faithful walk with our God isn’t a self-improvement project,

or our efforts in trying to clean-up our own lives

because an angry or disappoint God is standing

over us with a clipboard, a scowl & checklist.

It’s about a God whose love is endless and promises

to fill us up when we are empty, strengthen us when we are weak

and encourage us when we are fearful and anxious…

… whose grace and truth keeps us rooted and grounded,

even when everything else is moving, shaking and in flux.

Our call and challenge? Are we willing to go deeper in our faith?,

and what do we really believe, do we really trust God’s love?

One time a young woman was holding her baby girl on an airplane

and telling her little child about Daddy waiting for them.

The mother told the baby about Daddy waiting for them.

Unfortunately,

there was some turbulence, making the flight extremely rough,

which of course was hard on the baby, an upset little child.

But the mother

had some fruit and a little Thermos with orange juice in it.

Every time the baby cried the mother

fed her a little bit more orange juice and a little more fruit.

While this seemed like a good idea at the time, but the turbulence

seemed to spread from around the plane to the baby’s belly,

and pretty much all that had gone down came spewing back up.

Somehow in the process of coming up

it was considerably messier than going down had been.

It also seemed to have

increased in volume between the going down and the coming up,

so that not only the baby and the mother,

but so were most of the passengers nearby

covered with the contents of the baby’s belly.

The baby was crying. She looked awful and disgusting.

Even though they didn’t cry, the mother and passengers

all looked – and smelled – pretty awful, too.

Once they landed and got off the plane, the baby was fine.

The rest of the passengers didn’t recover quite so quickly,

being covered as they were in pre-digested fruit.

A young man who had to be Daddy was waiting for the plane

and was wearing white jacket, white slacks, a white shirt…

… and when that clean Daddy all dressed in white saw his baby

with that sticky, smelly stuff

all over her clothes and her face and her hair ----

-he ran to his family, and without hesitation picked up the baby,

and he hugged her and he kissed her and he stroked her hair.

As he held her close, he said, "Daddy’s baby has come home."

All the way to the luggage claim area, his arms around her,

he never stopped kissing that baby and welcoming her back home.

Where did we ever get the idea that our Heavenly Father

would be any less loving

than a young daddy all dressed in white

with a hug and welcoming flower in his hand?