March 30, 2003
“A Trace of Grace”
Ephesians 2: 1-10
John 3: 14-21
Ephesus is a wonderful site to visit. Ephesus was
founded according to legend by female warriors known as the Amazons.
Ephesus was inhabited from the end of the Bronze Age onwards but has
changed locations. Ephesus became one the wealthiest cities in the
Mediterranean world. According to documentary sources, the city
suffered an earthquake in 17 A.D. After that however, Ephesus became a
very important center of trade and commerce. The historian Aristo
describes Ephesus as being recognized by all the inhabitants of the
region as the most important trading city in Asia. It was also the
leading political and intellectual center with the second school of
philosophy in the Aegean. From the first century onwards Ephesus as
visited by Christian disciples attempting to spread the Christian
belief .For the Apostle Paul, the city, with its highly advanced way of
life, its high standard of living, the variety of its demographic
composition and its firmly rooted polytheistic culture, must have
presented itself as an ideal location to spread the good news of Jesus
Christ. He spend three years here, from 65-68 A.D. The ancient city has
been recovered, through the efforts of archeologist, and as I strolled
down the marble road that led down the entrance of the city, to the
amphitheater, I was emotionally overwhelmed. This is where the Apostle
Paul walked, these are the buildings he saw. In other places we had
visited, the ruins did not offer such a comprehensive glimpse into the
first and second A.D. life as Ephesus.
Ephesus is also the home to the largest temple ever
found, almost twice as big as the Parthenon in Athens, the temple to
Artemis, a fertility goddess worshiped widely throughout the
Hellenistic and Roman world. When it was completed in 250 B.C. it was
considered one of the seven wonders of the world until it was destroyed
by the Goths in 263 A.D.
The question is, why did Paul’s religion
survive all these many years, and Artemis, and the gods of the Romans
sink into history? On this One Great Hour of Sharing Sunday, I will use
this title to explain at least from my perspective why Christianity is
strong and alive today as it was when Paul preached.
First, the word “one.” Unlike other
cults that were popular in Paul’s day, unlike the belief in many
gods of the Romans, Paul preaches of one God. We do not have to offer
certain sacrifices to certain gods. No we have one God, one Lord, one
Master who has created life, who sustains life, and who raises us up on
the day of our resurrection. The God we believe in is a graceful God,
and does not want burnt offerings, grain offerings, God wants us to
accept the gift of grace for our lives, the grace that feeds our souls
, the grace that shapes our lives into continue prayer of thanksgiving.
Paul believed that we were one in God. For Paul,
and for us God is our intimate companion. God is with us, in us . One
way of saying this more clearly is to say that our body is in our soul.
I have heard that many people consider their soul inside of their body.
But if you think about it, our souls are what lives on, long after our
bodies lay in eternal rest. Our bodies are temporary but our souls live
forever. Our bodies are in our souls.
Great, yes our God is great, and greater than any
of the false gods that may be popular in any point of history. As I
walked through the ruins of the temples, I was amazed at how they were
constructed. At the time of Paul, he had to preach in the shadow of
grand and glorious moments to the Roman Gods. He preached to a society
where there was no separation of Church and state. Cities were designed
with those gods in mind. The temples were placed in strategic places so
visitors of the city would be impressed by the status of the city.
Philosophy, was taught to the public, athletics were centered around
the gods, such as Nike and Apollo. But God’s great power and love
did not wither. Paul’s God has survived because as he says in
chapter 2 of Ephesians, “God 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 in Christ Jesus, that in the coming ages he
might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us
in Christ Jesus.”
God’s richness is more long lasting than any
riches, more than glorious marble temples, more than empires, more than
we can imagine. This richness brings us forgiveness. This richness
brings us light for our lives so that we might see clearly the path we
are to take to eternal life.
Our next word is Hour. We are reminded daily of the
fact that time stops for no one. We have only a brief visit here on
earth. As I traveled around to sites that have been there thousand of
years, and how many people have lived in that one spot. What we saw was
the result of many people, in Ephesus alone it was populated by over
200,000 and thousands more visited the city. But we do not know hardly
anything about the individuals. We do know what they valued by
uncovering the statues and seeing who they worshipped. But the riches
we believe in are those that cannot be measured by by historians.
Because we believe in living a life of love and mercy,the gifts we have
are invisible except in practice. We have only a limited time to live
here on earth. If someone was to come along in a couple thousand years,
and uncover your house, they might not find what was really important
to you. But when God comes to uncover your life will he find darkness
or light?
Sharing, finally our lives are about sharing with
others. Sharing not only food and clothing and our physical offerings
but of our love. Just as we need to develop good habits of health, so
as to counteract and challenge the forces of disease, so we need good
habits of forgiveness so as to counteract and challenge the forces of
sin and evil in our midst.
We need to examine our lives, and bring to light
those ways that have led to destructiveness, those broken relationships
and habits that have led us down the dark path. Lent is the time in our
church where we are called by God to honestly face those destructive
ways and to choose to follow a different path, the path of God.
When John Wesley’s preachers returned to him
enthusiastically speaking of the great numbers at their meetings, how
well people received their sermons, how many people got a spiritual
high, he loved finally to ask them, “But did you offer
Christ?”
“God so loved the world that he gave his only
Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have
eternal life.” This is our task as well, to follow God, means to
offer Jesus the Christ to everyone we meet. It does not matter how big
our house is, it does not matter how new our car is , it does not
matter if we are an executive vice president and pull in six figure
salary. What does matter is if we share the great love of God to all we
meet.
On the third day of our trip we boarded the ship
which was to take us around the Aegean sea. As we were getting settled
in our cabins, we had safety drill, we all had to go to the deck with
our life vests on. We all looked very orange and dorky. During the
drill one of my fellow bus mates, Paul Rogers, suffered a heart attack,
and although there was a nurse right next to him when he collapsed,
even though the ship’s doctor came right away, Paul died. His
very dear friend Karen is a member of Norwalk United Methodist church
and I knew her from when I served there. Karen and I talked about
Paul’s hope for the trip, and how much he had prepared to come.
He was so excited to be able to go up to the Parthenon and had even
said to Karen while on the Acropolis, “this is better than I even
imagined.” Although we were sad about his death, we concluded
that he had died doing something he really loved.
Life is so short, we do not have time to stay angry
at one another, we do not have time to hold grudges, seek revenge for
every wrong, to live with fear and anxiety. Life is too short to live
in darkness, so come into the light. Leave behind the habits that do
not serve you. Leave behind the distress and the disobedience. Leave
behind the stress and pride. Leave behind the doubt and cast your faith
on the One Great God, the Lord of Life, the one who will not
disappoint, the one whose love and grace endures throughout the ages.
Come into the light of God’s blessings and rest in the arms of
mercy. Come into the light of God’s forgiveness and be free to
share mercy with all you meet. Amen
