Sunday LinkUp – 28July2024 – Ephesians 3:14-21

 

OPENING COMMENTS

• Today is the tenth Sunday after Pentecost.
• Our theme is comprehending God’s love.
• The readings for today help us see that our lack of understanding about the mystery of God does not impact God’s love for all creation, even as human beings inflict pain and suffering on one another.

 

OPENING SONGS

 

 

 

 

 

---

SERMONETTE

• King David’s Foil 
• Greg Williams  

 

From the TRANSCRIPT …

Don Quixote had Sancho Panza. Sherlock had Watson. The hare had the tortoise. This literary convention called the “foil” has been around since stories were told. The foil is not necessarily the enemy of the main character but is someone who brings out and exposes parts of that person.

The Bible is full of foil characters. From Cain and Abel to Jacob and Esau to Peter and Paul—these “foil” relationships expose and develop the people in these stories. One of King David’s many foils was Uriah.

The story starts in 2 Samuel 11, with this foreshadowing verse:

In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.
2 Samuel 11:1

In the following verses, David takes Bathsheba to bed after seeing her bathing on the roof. She becomes pregnant so David brings her husband Uriah home to let nature take its course and cover things up.

Uriah refuses to sleep with his wife and sleeps in the doorway of the king’s house, ever the soldier on guard. He declares that as long as the army is sleeping rough, and as long as the Ark of the Covenant is in temporary housing, he can’t go home. David gets him drunk and again tries to get him to go home, and again his plan fails.

Ultimately, in one tragic final stroke, David tells the commander to put Uriah in the worst of the fighting, causing his death.

Indirectly, and without even much interaction, God uses Uriah in the story as David’s foil.  In a short series of actions, probably constituting just a few weeks, David is exposed as a broken, hollow man in need of healing.

The story starts with David wandering the rooftops, away from the wars that Israel was fighting.  He is on his own, at the height of his royal power, looking over his empire.  He feels indestructible.

He sees Bathsheba on the roof, and everything changes.

And the juxtaposition with Uriah makes it worse.

• • David uses unchallenged power to take another man’s wife and force a commander’s hand.
  • David acts out of impulse and lust; Uriah acts out of loyalty and respect.
  • David orchestrates a man’s death out of cowardice, Uriah is the man who died fighting bravely.

Through the course of these events, God brings vivid clarity into David’s life.
And then by exposing David through the foil of Uriah, God heals him.

Has God ever sent a foil into your life?  Maybe someone who challenges you to bring out your best?  Maybe someone who annoys you and grates on your patience?  Maybe someone who by sheer contrast gets your attention and shows you where you need a savior?

God’s goal is always to heal, to redeem, and to restore.  Because of his love for us, he is faithful to bring foils into our lives.  We are blessed when we pay attention.

I’m Greg Williams, Speaking of Life.

 

 

---

FIRST READING.

Ephesians 3:14-21.

¹⁴ For this reason I bow my knees to the Father ^[f]of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁵ from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, ¹⁶that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, ¹⁷that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height — ¹⁹ to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

²⁰ Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, ²¹ to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.  Amen.  

 

---

SPECIAL MUSIC

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

---

SERMON  (Interactive Discussion)

 

 

 

 

 

¹⁴ For this reason I bow my knees to the Father ^[f]of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁵ from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 

• What reason?
  • See Ephesians 3:8-13 … then Ephesians 3:1-7 … Ephesians 3:1 …  then Ephesians 2:19-22.
• The reason = The transformation that God had wrought in them, making them a people, etc.
• The basis of Paul’s prayer was his knowledge of God’s purpose.
• Paul could pray confidently and effectively because he had insight into God’s purpose and God’s will.
• In remembering that all God’s family is called after His name, Paul showed that God is Father of both Jew and Gentile.

 

¹⁶ that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man,  

• We all understand the importance of strength in the physical body (the outer man), but many are exceedingly weak in the inner man.
• According to the riches of His glory: “It would be a disgrace to a king or a nobleman to give no more than a tradesman or a peasant. God acts up to the dignity of his infinite perfections; he gives according to the riches of his glory.” (Clarke).

 

¹⁷ that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; 

• Paul asked that Jesus would live in these believers, even as Jesus promised in John 14:23.
• Two ancient Greek words convey the idea “dwelling in.”  One has the idea of living in a place as a stranger, and the other has the idea of settling down in a place to make it your permanent home.
• The word translated as “dwell” is the ancient Greek word for a permanent home.
• Jesus wants to settle down in your heart, not just visit as a stranger.

 

that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸ may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height — ¹⁹ to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge;  

• “Two expressions are used: ‘rooted,’ like a living tree which lays hold upon the soil, twists itself round the rocks, and cannot be upturned: ‘grounded,’ like a building which has been settled, as a whole, and will never show any cracks or flaws in the future through failures in the foundation.” (Spurgeon)
• God’s love is wide enough to include every person.
• God’s love is long enough to last through all eternity.
• God’s love is deep enough to reach the worst sinner.
• God’s love is high enough to take us to heaven.

 

 that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.   

 

• Paul wanted Christians to experience life in Jesus Christ, the fullness of God (Colossians 2:9), and to be filled to their capacity with Jesus, even as God is filled to His own capacity with His own character and attributes.
• “Among all the great sayings in this prayer, this is the greatest. To be  FILLED with God is a great thing; to be filled with the FULLNESS of God is still greater; but to be filled with ALL the fullness of God utterly bewilders the sense and confounds the understanding.” (Clarke).

 

²⁰ Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, ²¹ to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.  Amen.  

• “This doxology does not only belong to the prayer that precedes it, but also to every glorious privilege and blessing spoken of in the first three chapters. Who is able to bring such things to pass?  Only God can do this because He can do far beyond our ability to think or ask.” ~ David Guzik, Enduring Word Commentary.

 

WHAT CAN WE TAKE AWAY?

• The things Paul prayed for in the previous verses
  • • spiritual strength … for the inner man — reason, conscience, will (Eph.3:16),
    • the indwelling Jesus (Eph.3:17),
    • experiential knowledge of God’s love (Eph.3:18-19),
    • and the fullness of God (Eph.3:19)
    • . . . as well as what’s mentioned in Ephesians 1:15-21 …
      • • • ¹⁵ Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, ¹⁶ do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: ¹⁷ that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, ¹⁸ the eyes of your ^[f]understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, ¹⁹ and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power ²⁰ which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, ²¹ far above all principality^[g] and ^[h]power and ^[i]might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.  
      • belong to us as children of God.
      • However, they must be received by believing prayer and can be furthered in the lives of others by our prayers for them.
• The only fitting response to this great God is to give Him glory — especially in the church —  throughout all ages.
• “When the church understands and walks in God’s eternal purpose, God will be glorified and the church will fulfill its important duty of simply glorifying God.” ~ David Guzik, Enduring Word commentator

 

CLOSING SONG

 

 

 

 

---

SERMON

How to Pray for Others

Ephesians 3:14-21 (NRSVUE)

Prayer is a critical part of a Christian life, and many might identify with the notion of prayer as a conversation with God. Author Richard Foster writes, “And so I urge you: carry on an ongoing conversation with God about the daily stuff of life, a little like Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof. For now, do not worry about ‘proper’ praying, just talk to God.” There are specific types of prayer we can practice that help us develop an ongoing conversation with God, such as breath prayers or centering prayer. But today we’re going to think about how we pray for others and what that looks like. First, we’ll look at some common problems that can sabotage our prayers for others, and then we’ll consider a broader foundational perspective based on our sermon text.

Though the motivation to have a prayer chain or designated prayer group is generally positive, unfortunately, church prayer groups can sometimes devolve into gossip. Instagram comedian Landon Bryant (@landontalks) shares his funny perspective on prayer chains from his experience growing up in the American South. Bryant compares prayer chains to “newsfeeds” and explains how this happens:

As long as you preface it with some sort of religious reason, you can say what you want and tell all their business because we’re praying for them. This is the Lord’s work; this is not the work of men and their flappy tongues. This is the work of the Lord, and I’m a servant of the Lord doing my very best to uplift those around me by listing off everything someone did that was incorrect. We want clarity with prayer requests – not one of us down here likes an unspoken prayer request – you know somebody’s gonna speak it so it might as well be you. But we don’t gossip – we will never – that is a sin. But we will put you on our prayer list, bless you.

Though Bryant’s comedic routine might be a caricature, it also should give us pause to consider whether we’ve participated in prayer groups in this fashion.

Another hazard of praying for others is prescriptively telling God how to fix someone or something. This issue is often connected to the idea of praying specifically or including prescriptive details to convey to God our fervency and faith. There’s an old joke about a preacher caught in a flash flood at his church. His church was surrounded by water, and so he prayed for God’s deliverance. Two boats and a helicopter came to rescue him, but he shooed them away, saying that God would deliver him. He ended up drowning, swept away by the rising flood waters, and in heaven, he asked God why deliverance never came. God responded, “I sent two boats and a helicopter; what else did you want?”

In this case, the preacher had a specific idea of what God’s rescue might look like, and because two boats and a helicopter didn’t fit that ideal, they were dismissed. The danger of prayer that is too prescriptive is that we will miss the miracles that we didn’t even think to ask, whether for ourselves or others. This is also true when we pray for others.

Our sermon text today allows us to eavesdrop on the apostle Paul as he prays for the believers at Ephesus. We’ll learn how we can approach praying for others from a bigger, more helpful, foundational perspective. Let’s read Ephesians 3:14-21: [Read sermon text].

The context of Ephesians 3:14-21

Looking back to the earlier verses of chapter 3, we read that Paul is writing of the great “mystery” that the Holy Spirit had revealed:

In former generations this mystery was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: that is, the gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. (Ephesians 3:5-6, NRSVUE)

Paul discusses his responsibility to bring this “gift of God’s grace” to the Gentiles and then states that this gift was “in accordance with the eternal purpose that [God] has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Ephesians 3:11). Paul’s ministry to share the good news of inclusion in Christ with the Gentiles and Jews is the reason he offers the prayer found in Ephesians 3:14-21.

Paul offers three big ideas that we can consider when we’re praying for others:  being grounded,  knowing the love of Christ,  and  trusting outcomes to God.

Being grounded

Paul begins the prayer emphasizing the unity of believers (“from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name” – v. 15), and then Paul makes his first request: that believers would be strengthened spiritually. The word used in v. 17 for Christ dwelling in us is katoikein, which implies a permanent residence rather than temporary.

This imagery of a permanent residence in us is furthered by the wording “rooted and grounded in love” (v. 17). The imagery of roots firmly entrenched in the soil of love offers a broader perspective to our prayers. Rather than praying that someone might change a behavior we find offensive, which is often subjective and relative, we can pray that their spiritual nourishment and stability comes from the love of God. For author Nadia Bolz-Weber, this grounding addresses the choices people make:

I recently heard someone say that [he’s] started to realize ‘God’s will’ for him is that he lives a life filled with compassion, love, and service. God’s will isn’t that he becomes an astronaut, or that he [is] single, or that he lives hand-to-mouth, or that he [is] super rich – God’s will is that no matter the path he takes, …he takes it with compassion, love, and in service to others. I haven’t stopped thinking about that. Maybe God’s will is more how than what.

Knowing the love of Christ

Next, Paul asks that the church might fully grasp how deeply loved each person is. Notice that there is no caveat assuming any transformation has taken place in them; we are loved and accepted by God as we are, warts and all. When we really grasp the “breadth and length and height and depth” (v. 18), we can’t help but be humbled. Princeton theologian Sally A. Brown writes, “The indwelling presence of God is a sheer and utter gift, not a reward for merit. God chooses to live among us; God’s glory fills us. This is sheer grace, unimaginable possibility, life-giving hope.” Paul uses the Greek uperballousan gvoseos, indicating a love that is beyond what we can comprehend on our own. This love is connected to the mystery of God, and by linking this mystery to our prayers, Bolz-Weber argues that God is both expansive and small:

Prayer is a blessed escape from the tyranny of my petty resentments and annoyances when I miraculously, and sometimes for the 100th time that day, get over myself and remember that God is bigger. And that is the mysterious part. The bigness of God is more unknowable than I used to think it was. And at the same time, God’s bigness infinitely folds in upon itself just enough to fit inside my smallness – like a divine nanobot, doing its redemptive work inside of me.

Recognizing God’s unknowability and mystery while being assured of the security of divine love is a blessing to pray for others. We can ask that they might understand the depth of Christ’s love for them, and we can ask that we might convey that same love to them, too. After all, Christ followers are Jesus’ hands and feet.

Trusting outcomes to God

Verses 20-21 are called a doxology or formal praise to God. In these verses, Paul acknowledges that God is able to achieve much more than we might ever desire or dream. While these verses are sometimes used to support the myth of productivity that is so common in the American culture, Paul is giving us an “out.” Without having us ask or pray, God is influencing people through the Holy Spirit toward more love, kindness, and goodness. We certainly can take part in promoting these qualities in the world, but the outcome is not in our hands. For reasons we don’t completely understand (remember the mystery of God), Paul encourages us to pray for others, knowing that the outcome of those prayers is not contingent on them, on our faith, or on the faith of those we pray for.

However, prayer for others ignites compassion in our hearts, which fuels social justice movements and change. Praying for those who suffer compels us to seek the flourishing of all, not just ourselves. We’re challenged to express this concern for others by taking concrete steps within our scope of influence, and in this manner, we are co-contributors with God in forging new systems and communities that are fair for all. In ways we can’t quite explain, prayer changes things.

When we focus on being spiritually grounded, comprehending Christ’s love, and trusting the outcomes of our prayers to God, our prayers are launched from a broader perspective rather than the nitty-gritty of personal or confidential details or prescriptively advising God on outcomes. Rather than dictating to God what we think should happen, we become agents of change in the world, co-contributors of flourishing, and participants in what God is doing in the world.

Call to Action: This week, ask the Holy Spirit to help you join in his prayer for others. Pay attention to your prayers for others and notice any tendency to devolve into gossipy details or prescriptively figure out a solution. If you catch yourself, try to reframe those prayers to ask for spiritual grounding, an awareness of deep divine love, and the most compassionate response from you toward that person. Ask God to help you see and love others as he does.