Rev. Jay Rowland
Ephesians 2:1-10
March 14, 2021, Lent 4B First Presbyterian Church, Rochester MN
Alive Together
The opening phrase of Ephesians chapter 2 jumps off the page for me:
In the past you were spiritually dead because of your disobedience and sins. …
(In the past? Hmmm. Okay.)
I know what that’s like, don’t you? … what it’s like to be spiritually dead. I know what it’s like to be spiritually alive. I think we all do.
Let’s start with the part about being spiritually alive. For me that’s all about being connected to the Lord in some intentional way and there’s a multitude of ways and opportunities: meditation, prayer, scripture, journaling, a walk outside, a swim in a lake, skating on that same lake frozen in winter, fly-fishing in a stream, camping, exercise, daily devotional, to name only a few ...
For me, being spiritually awake and alive happens when I’m connecting to the Lord. Let me quickly add here my belief that the Lord is always connected to us; the issue for me is about my connection and attentiveness to the Lord in the Spirit. Again, I want to repeat I know the Lord is always “there” but I cannot say the same for me. I’ve also learned that this connection doesn’t automatically happen every time I set aside time for the Lord. But the Good News is that whenever I’m “there” I know it because I feel more alive and at peace, more present in my relationships, more open to life as it unfolds.
Unfortunately, the opposite is also true. Stumbling through life disconnected from the Lord carries over into my relationships and all facets of life. There’s numerous distractions and disruptions which get in the way of spiritual connectedness with the Lord and with life but I don’t usually if ever recognize these as distractions and disruptions b/c they just don’t introduce themselves as such, right? The other tricky thing is that oftentimes there are legit matters that do require some of my time and attention, and also sometimes there are fun and enjoyable distractions which we all need from time to time.
There’s a healthy balance there somewhere but what’s so hard for me is it’s such a fine line of distinction. very nuanced. I don’t ever see spiritual disconnection coming toward me--there’s no trumpets blaring or red-lights flashing in my consciousness. I’ll just be going along, doing my thing and I’ll somehow catch myself going through the motions. Then it dawns on me how much I’ve been feeling spiritually dry or spiritually asleep, or even spiritually dead, as Ephesians puts it. And in my experience, when that happens, I can’t imagine hell being any worse.
What I treasure about this passage from Ephesians is the assurance that God’s mercy is so abundant, and his love for us is so great, that while we were spiritually dead in our disobedience he brought us to life with Christ. It is by God's grace alone that we are saved…(Eph 2:5)
The passage is also fascinating to me because it alludes to other factors in play. It shows how our ancestors in the faith saw it as a given that there are spiritual forces at work in the world. Some are good, some are not. For people back then this was a simple undeclared fact, and I agree.
It’s like gravity is for us. We don’t often think about gravity every day, but it’s a force that acts upon the planet, the solar system, the tides, and even our bodies. Similarly, there are powers and principalities and spiritual forces at work in the world which no mortal or human can single-handedly curtail or control. This spiritual sensibility drives much of the content in the Ephesians text, and much if not all of the Bible.
And yet, here in our hyper-industrialized, digital-ized, and intellectualized 21st-century world, such notions are quickly dismissed. I understand and accept why that is. But to me, this world and this life is a mystery that resists being domesticated by rational explanations alone. Our ancestors took it as a given that there are invisible forces moving and working in the world, forces for good and forces for evil, powers and principalities, and other authorities and forces-of-nature all of which are beyond our or anyone’s control.
The most important corollary about that for me personally is to recognize and accept that I am powerless over these powers and forces, spiritual and natural, at work in the world. Equally important to me is recognizing and accepting how my own sin and disobedience adds to the chaos in the world and in my own life.
I have learned the hard way that I cannot overcome my sin and disobedience by myself. Even the most gifted surgeon cannot perform surgery on themselves. So it makes rational and spiritual sense to understand this reality about how we must handle our own sin. For me, my sanity and spiritual health is contingent upon my reliance upon a power greater than me to show me and help me navigate life fraught with sin and disobedience--mine and everyone else's. And for me that power greater than me (and more trustworthy than me) is God and the community of the faithful.
Admitting powerlessness doesn’t mean being helpless or without choices. We are still free to choose how we live in a world over which we are powerless. For instance, I can choose to dismiss or ignore the power of the world’s authorities and spiritual powers. I can choose to become militant in opposition to or in support of certain powers or authorities. I can choose to run away, break off all contact, declare the world evil and just hide. And above all, the way I see it, though I am powerless, I do have just enough “power” to ruin a good thing, make a bad situation worse, and wreak all kinds of havoc.
The pandemic is perhaps the most blatant example of this nuance of powerlessness. Viruses are naturally occurring phenomena, as old as the earth itself. They’re not inherently evil in and of themselves. But as we know viruses have been wreaking havoc on humanity for centuries, wielding suffering, death, and disaster. We all see that this particular virus has unleashed epic proportions of death and suffering upon every aspect of human life. Yet in spite of all of that, I don’t see the COVID-19 pandemic as an evil scheme hatched by the devil or other evil forces. Nor do I see the COVID19 pandemic as some “punishment from God for our sin” either.
What I do see is the impact of human sin and disobedience and how it exacerbated this disaster. Scientists have been warning us about pandemics, much like it has with global warming, and the epic disastrous consequences of our failure to change our ways and to adequately prepare. And so we see how much human mishandling and mismanagement, and how much human choices and responses contributed significantly to the level of death and destruction from this pandemic. It did not have to be as bad as it was. It might have turned out far less deadly and destructive.
At the same time, however, it is plain to see evidence of God’s abundance of mercy and love. Human ingenuity and cooperation, the best aspects of humanity have delivered a vaccine. The best of humanity has delivered ongoing care, help, assistance, recovery, and healing. I see God at work in all of that. I see the spiritual power for good in every act of human kindness and care and sacrifice.
Now perhaps you can understand why I prefer to see life and the world as a mystery that defies rational explanation.
I recognize my place in the world and I choose to believe in the Lord God as the only power capable of dealing appropriately with the powers, principalities, and forces of chaos at work in this world and in our lives and communities. There’s tremendous energy and power active and moving in the world. I see the Lord God as the only force strong enough to keep the world’s powers, principalities, and forces from destroying us all, including the destructive power of nature and human-created chaos.
I believe that without God there is no me or we. And I also believe that without God we wouldn’t survive the spiritual and other forces in play all around us and within us every day.
Today’s passage from Ephesians remarkably describes this mystery of a loving God who is continually working for our salvation every single day. I’d like to close with a retelling of this passage, a mashup if you will of the Good News and The Message Bible translations with some paraphrasing on my part:
“All of us have followed other spiritual powers ... the spirit who controls the people who disobey God. Actually all of us have lived according to our natural desires, doing whatever suited the wishes of our own bodies and minds. And so like everyone else we seemed destined to suffer.
“But God's mercy is so abundant, God’s love for us is so great that while we were spiritually dead in our disobedience God brings us to life through Christ.
“It is by God's grace that we are saved. In our union with Christ Jesus God raises us up.
“God does this to demonstrate for all time to come the extraordinary greatness of God’s grace in the love God showed us in Christ Jesus.
“It is by God's grace alone that we are saved through our faith. We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. God creates each of us in Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he empowers and prepares us to do, work we had better be doing.
Amen to that.
