7/12/09 - The Richness of God's Grace
| "The Richness of God's Grace" |
July 12, 2009 |
| Ephesians 1: 3-14 |
15th Sunday in Ordinary Time |
| Colesville Presbyterian Church |
Pastoral Associate Aaron D. Frank |
Around this time, three weeks ago tomorrow, I walked into the living room of a row house in downtown Reading, Pennsylvania. Like any row house, it was only 10 or 12 feet wide, and though it was a clear skied and sunny day outside, and though the ceilings were nearly 10 feet high, the room was unusually dark—“I can’t quite tell how close the couch is to the wall,” dark. This was the first impression, of the home of Elaine Robinson, that I and the youth I’d be working with got on that Monday morning. We introduced ourselves and had a short conversation with Elaine. She told us that, in her words, she’d be staying out of the way and that we could move anything we needed,to do our work. At which point she retreated upstairs to her bedroom.
As we inventoried the supplies we had and looked over our assignments; we learned that the first task ahead of us that week would be to paint the living room and the rest of the first floor. The living room and dining room were both wall papered and had been painted over with relatively dark pink sponge paint; complimenting the walls were dark burgundy tapestry-like curtains that hung from ceiling to floor. If the space had a mood, it was sullen. To describe Elaine’s mood as resigned to the way things were, would be accurate.
In his commentary on Ephesians, Ralph Martin titles the section we are studying in this morning's text, “The Purposes of God in Eternity and Time.” I read the text hoping for some nugget of inspiration from a respected professor. Martin goes on at length to explicate the Purposes of God in Eternity. He offers a couple of answer to the question of why Paul sought to begin the text in this manner. He glances at the idea of this new faith’s dynamic history and the hymn-like movement the text provides. But, he finally settles on the idea that settling a feud between Christianized Jews and Gentiles over entrance to heaven was the goal and he uses this as an opportunity to explain the concept of election, that is, predestination, in complex but coherent ways. Everything he unpacks from these verses is otherworldly. He lacks the Purpose in Time part of his section title.
I quibble here because the terminology used in the scripture -- adoption, blessing, salvation, and so on, presume a relationship with God; however, the text does not ask for a seminar on election or evangelism. I quibble here because it is not simply that he got the section title wrong. But, because this myriad of "election" type questions or concerns that still plague the church to this day and none of them are honest about the purpose of God in time. These questions - of ordiantion in our denomination, of abortion, of racism, of kidnapping - all seek to divide us. And,have been if you've been watching they have been in the news just in the past month. In each instance it is Christians denouncing, attacking and killing, literally, other Christians because of intellectual differences that are in direct conflict with the grace that they claim in their Christian faith. I quibble here, and I’m telling you things you already know, because we cannot sit in these four walls and allow ourselves to be insulated from those events. God's purpose does take place in the boundless eternity—God’s purpose in Christ was eternal. But God has a purpose in time too. A purpose in this time. God's purpose in time is to draw people into community and communities.
Entering Elaine's home, we, a work team of five teenagers and me, didn't know oneanother. We had no idea what to expect--how extensive the work would be, how we would get along, how comfortable it would be. But we knew that there was an assignment. That first day we removedthe drapes, cleaned the walls and windows, caulked the windows and began priming the walls. By Wednesday, the living room and dining room were complete. The pink was gone, the heavy curtains gone and Elaine was no longer just staying "out of the way" in her room. We moved freely through the home she and we; we learned of her 30 years working at the Community Hospital, her son the computer engineer and how part of the house had been engulfed in flames, but rebuilt some 20 years ago. Her husband had died, and her neighborhood had changed, and the home that was once bright and bustling with family and friends had become constricting, imposing of its limitations on her as she too had aged.
Read the second of the bulletin quotes.
Grace, as the infusion of love, is the power which overcomes estrangement.
–Paul Tillich
Now read it aloud with me.
On Thursday morning, we arrived to work, ready to start on our other big project, but that's a story for another day. Elaine greeted us at the door and as we settled ourselves, she announced, "I have made you a chocolate cake. I don't eat chocolate, but I take this cake to every party I go to and people love it. I use sour cream to make it rich. You can eat the cake or take it with you, but don't leave any, 'cause I won't eat it." She went on to say how much she was loving coming down the stairs to the bright living room. She had spoken to a friend who was going to come over the next week to help her rehang the pictures and reorganize her home. She was going to get new blinds to replace the curtains and she had already invited relatives from Philadelphia to come for a party. It was a joyous morning. We went about our work, and thanked her profusely that afternoon after we'd gorged ourselves on the chocolate cake.
Remember Martin's title, "The Purposes of God in Eternity and Time" and hear again Tillich's quote, "Grace, as the infusion of love, is the power which overcomes estrangement." We were but one of many groups serving the community that week. Our story is no greater than another. I haven't told you this story to hold myself or our group out as an example; instead I tell you this because it is in community that we see Christ. It is in those who are foreign to us, who are beyond these insulating walls, that we are able to find through the giving and receiving God's grace.
In the exchange of a coat of paint for a slice of cake, the estrangement and bonds of many years are broken. In the free giving of friendship to oneanother we can be a blessing to more than just our friends.
Yesterday, at the memorial for Diana Jovanovic I was amazed at the people who turned out. Though she was a long time member, she was not well known in the CPC community, but yet there were nearly 150 people here from every other portion of her life. I was told and recounted in my sermon of her boundless love for everyone she met, her hospitality even to folks who others may have dismissed. Her adult children, Nick, Tania and Jessica, told me a story when we met last week about the man who delivered her oxygen. Not knowing she had passed, he came to drop off the next delivery, and was stunned to hear of her death. In the long conversation that followed, he told them that she had changed his life in her kindness. She had,literally, saved his marriage in the conversations they'd shared over many months. A hundred other stories were told to me last, just like that. How broad a community of grace she made in those many relationships.
What is the purpose of God in time? It is to be a blessing, a rich blessing to everyone we meet.
Amen.
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