Sermon on Discipleship: Living Circumspect Lives, Ephesians 5:15-20

Posted on August 16, 2021 by patrick h wrisley

A sermon preached by Dr. Patrick H. Wrisley on August 15, 2021

We continue with our study of Ephesians this morning and pick up in chapter five beginning with verse 15. Last week we noted that this part of Paul’s letter turns from talking about theology and is now looking at how that theology, what we believe, impacts how we live. In other words, this part of the letter deals with ethics and how we live in the world. The first part of chapter five describes what a life looks like before a person gets to know Christ. There’s an obvious transition in chapter five right at verse 14 where we read, “Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” It is believed that this is part of an ancient baptismal hymn and serves as a launching point for today’s lesson showing what it looks like to live as a Christian after one’s baptism and you are now a Christ-follower.  In baptism, a person wakes up from death and lives a revitalized life. In baptism, a person renounces their former way of life and are re-clothed with the robes of Christ’s grace. We get an entirely new spiritual wardrobe.

Listen to the Word of the Lord!

Ephesians 5:15-20

15 Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, 16 making the most of the time, because the days are evil. 17 So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, 19 as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, 20 giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. [1]

The first thing a person hears when they wake from their sleep and rise from the dead is, “Live circumspect lives as a person of wisdom as opposed to one who acts like a fool. Why? Because there is manifested evil all around us!”

The days are evil we’re told.  One doesn’t need to be a rocket scientist to see that going on around us. School shootings are at an epidemic level. Our battle with the COVID epidemic has morphed into the COVID endemic that is not going away. We turn on the news and hear stories how the Taliban are going door-to-door shooting family members and kidnapping daughters to sell them of as wives.  People there are so scared they are burying book because books are dangerous and encourage you to think for yourself. Fellow Americans threaten other fellow Americans with threats like, “I know where you live and I will come and hunt you down” over politicized healthcare issues. Then we add to this list all the natural and environmental issues the world is facing like water shortages, drought, wildfires around the globe, melting ice packs, dead zones in the oceans from trash, depleted fish supplies…you get the point.  Evil and the effects of evil are legion. And the first thing from Paul’s pen today is, “Live circumspect lives because the days are full of people, issues, and circumstances that will harm you and try to bring you down to places you don’t want to go.”

What does living circumspectly even mean? Let’s break it down. When Paul writes the word “live”, he’s using a word we get the word ‘peripatetic’ from today. A peripatetic is a person who moves around a lot. They’re active. In Jesus’ time, a peripatetic was often used to describe a teacher who taught his or her students while walking about; Jesus was a peripatetic, for example. The other word Paul uses is an adverb that describes the type of walking a person is to walk.  How are you and I to walk in this world? Carefully. Diligently. Circumspectly. It’s the same word used when the Three Wise Men came from the east and anxious King Herod told them, “Go and search diligently for this child and then let me know where he is!” One Bible translation has our verse read, “Be careful how you walk.”[2]  Friends, that’s what living a circumspect life means.

My eldest daughter and her husband recently went on a hike in the Alpine Wilderness Area in the Eastern Washington through an area known as The Enchantments. Surrounded by 7-to-10,000-foot mountains, the trail takes you through remote wilderness full of mountain goats, beautiful views and pristine lakes. In order to hike the Enchantments requires two things. First, you need a permit. Second, you must be in excellent physical condition. The trail is a strenuous one-day and one-way hike through twenty-two miles of some of the most rugged terrain in our country. Except for along the lakes, there are no trails to speak of to follow. You have to plot your own most of the time because the trail is made up of large granite rocks and boulders. At one point of the trail, you must climb to a place called Aasgard Pass which is over 7,800 feet high.  In order to get there, you scramble up rock and boulder fields gaining almost 2,500 feet elevation gain in under three-quarters of a mile! As you hike this rugged terrain, you must watch where your feet land; is that rock stable or will it give way when I walk on it causing me to twist an ankle? Hiking up to the pass requires you to read the mountain and choose a safe and efficient way up the side. You climb over boulders ensuring that you have good handholds. And then there are the goats and rams like we see on the Dodge truck commercials.  They eye you all the way up. So not only do you have to pick a safe path, you have to have an eye on the rams and goats making sure they don’t get too friendly! Lauren and Brooks hiked circumspectly, carefully, and thoughtfully.  The had to pay attention to their immediate surroundings or risk injury. Their route was always adapting itself based upon the condition of the trail.

Friends, this is how the Apostle is encouraging the folks in the church in Ephesus to live! He reminds them that now they have been raised in baptism in Christ, their lives should reflect a new way of living and engaging life itself.  He then gives three reminders as they walk carefully in life.

The first is thing he tells them is literally, “Don’t be stupid” which our English versions dilute to being foolish.  Sounds kind of harsh, Paul! Well, it is! Paul doesn’t want them to forget the new life they have been given in Christ. He wants them to remember that new life came with a high price tag with the death of Jesus. Paul doesn’t want them to get spiritually lazy and fall back into old ways of living which was unto themselves instead of for God. He wants them to be able to discern God’s direction for them as a church, so they need to be alert. Be diligent in understanding what the will of God is, Church; don’t be foolish and stupid!

And then Paul reminds them of a second compare and contrast: Don’t get drunk with wine but be filled with the Spirit of God. This can be interpreted in a couple of ways.  One way to understand it is that Ephesus was home to a very active Dionysian cult whose worship included vast amount of wine drinking and hedonism. Perhaps Paul is telling the church not to get caught up in the local ways of worship and stick to worshipping the Lord[3]. Another way to understand this text is simply that Paul is telling the church not to become inebriated with what the world says will make you happy and content. The world says consume but the Spirit of God says give. The world wants us to look out for ourselves, look out for number one, but the Spirit of God says look after each other.  Be filled with Holy Spirit, Church, and not overly saturated with the way the world and culture lives life.

Finally, Paul tells the community, worship together Church! Make music together as a Church and within your hearts! Saturate yourself with the presence of God with one another and sing songs of gratitude!  Be thankful and grateful for all you have been given, all that you have, and for all that is coming! Sing, Church, sing! 

This, beloved, is what it means to walk a care-full, thought-full, diligent, circumspect life. So, as we go today and head into a new week, let’s assess how we are walking in this life of ours. Does your life, does my life, reflect that we are walking circumspectly, care-fully, and attentively with God?

I’ll close with this prayer pastor Eugene Peterson wrote regarding our text this morning. Perhaps you can make it your own. He prays:

Instead of careless, unthinking lives, we want to understand what you, Our Master want. What we really want is to drink your Spirit, huge draughts of your Spirit. We want hearts so full that they spill over in worship as we sing praises over everything, taking any excuse for a song to you our Father in the name of our Master, Jesus Christ. [4]

© 2021 August 15 by Patrick H. Wrisley, Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, 401 SE 15th Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL. 33301.  Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, Florida and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission. All rights reserved.

[1] New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

[2] New American Standard Bible.

[3] The Dionysian Background of Ephesians 5:18 by Cleon I. Rogers in Bibliotheca Sacra, BSAC 136:543 (July 1979).  Accessed on 14/2021 at    http://mydigitalseminary.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/The-Dionysian-Background-of-Ephesians-5_18-by-Cleon-L.-Rogers-Jr.pdf.

[4]  Eugene H. Peterson, Practice Resurrection: A Conversation on Growing Up in Christ (repr., Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2013), 204.

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Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery, Ephesians 4:25 – 5:2

Posted on August 9, 2021 by patrick h wrisley

A sermon preached by Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min. on August 8, 2021           

Turn in your Bible to Ephesians 4 as we look at verses 25 – 5:2 this morning.  We are at a point in the letter where there is a significant shift in Paul’s focus.  In the first three chapters Paul talks a lot about what good theology looks like; chapters four to the end deal with what good Christian behavior or ethics looks like. Another way to say it is that there is a shift in discussion from orthodoxy (right thinking) to a focus on orthopraxy (right living).[1]  We can see and hear this dramatic shift in today’s scripture. Today’s text is a reminder to the Church that if we cannot follow what Paul describes as to how the community of faith behaves with each other, then we can guarantee the larger world will not get it either.  Hear the Word of the Lord!

Ephesians 4:25-5:2

4.25 So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. 26 Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and do not make room for the devil. 28 Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. 29 Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. 31 Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, 32 and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. 5.1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, 2 and live in love, as Christ loved us[c] and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. [2]

            It was 1978 or thereabouts. The church was started not too long after the Civil War and through its long history, it had a storied reputation. It boasted almost 500 members, which for a Presbyterian church located in a small mountain town, was pretty respectable. The late 1970s and the early 80s brought a new civil war to the community but this time it was within the church itself.

            It’s helpful to know that the Presbyterian Church had a major split back in the 1860’s that separated it into the Southern church and the Northern church. Sadly, the split occurred over the issue of slavery and that split between the southern and northern branches of the Presbyterian Church lasted until 1986 when the two sides finally reconciled and became one again. As the time for reunification drew closer, the church located in the foothills I spoke of a minute ago began to get uneasy.  Well over half of the members did not want to reunify the southern church with the northern churches because of, “Those blankety-blank northern liberals.” The big overriding theological issue at the time was the ordination of women as pastors along with the confluence of a gross sense of jingoistic fundamentalism. This is what split the church. It was ugly.

            Families were torn apart because of the church split. Brothers who grew up together no longer spoke to each other. Cousins were forbidden to play with one another. There was shouting during church services, and it all led up to the fateful day when literally all hell broke loose.

            The pastor got up as he did every Sunday and walked across the street from the church manse to his office at the church. His wife and two little girls would wander over a little later for Sunday school and worship. The day was going fine until the pastor and his family went home to the manse after church. Someone had broken into their home during church services and ransacked their house. Beds were sliced up, walls had holes punched in them, windows were broken. The pastor’s wife had a baby grand piano that had its strings cut and had the poured the contents of the refrigerator dumped into it. Perhaps the most hateful thing they discovered were all the spray-painted epithets and threats down the hallway walls leading to the kids’ room.

            Over the course of time, it was discovered that a group of people from the church who opposed church reunification were the ones who broke into the house during church services and did the destruction. The Sunday following the incident, members of the presbytery came to talk with folks in order to better understand what was going on with the church. The pastor and members of presbytery, along with any members who were not against reunification were literally locked out of the church.  Chains and padlocks had been put on all the doors and armed men blocked anyone’s entry. A few fights broke out. It was not a good day in the Kingdom. The Holy Spirit was grieved.

            Eventually, the court case on church property wound its way to the Georgia State Supreme Court. The church split and the animosity between the two sides forever boiled. Eight years later, I would bring my new family up from Atlanta and begin my first call as a minister trying to breathe life into a congregation that had dwindled down to about 80 people.  Listening to the stories of those church members and townsfolk was a sad lesson in church politics you could not learn in seminary. If only they would have heeded the words from Paul’s letter. Paul’s words are not written in some ancient vacuum; they are applicable today.

            Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and if the people could have imitated God and live in love with one another in the midst of their disagreements, the outcomes could have been so much different. 

            Lies were told. Anger boiled over into expressions of violence. Sides were taken and the church eventually died because the people chose to tear down instead of build one another up.  This is what is behind Paul’s call for ethical behavior and Christ-like imitation.  Speaking truth is difficult at times. Truth can make a person uncomfortable because it acts as a mirror reflecting back to us a reality we may not wish to see. Truth in a community is vital for its health. As one scholar noted, “Without truth, authentic community fails.”[3] Think about that.

            It’s when truth is hard to hear or hard to accept that a person can become angry. The tendency is to fort-up and build a wall between ourselves and the one with whom we are angry with. Paul is telling us that ethically, it is okay for a person to become angry; it is not okay if the anger isn’t addressed, and division occurs. What’s necessary is to be able to express the hurt, the anger, the confusion truthfully so that understanding, consensus, and yes, maybe some compromise, can emerge. Speaking the truth in love is anger’s antidote.

            Church, Paul is reminding us that we are to take care of one another. When we are baptized and made members of a church, we are called to help one another in growing into the image of God. We are called to build up and fortify one another. Why? Because if we don’t, Paul reminds us that we afflict pain upon the Holy Spirit.  Hence, we have Paul’s call to put away bitterness, wrath, and feelings of malice and intentionally, and sometimes inconveniently, replace them with kindness, with tender and deep feelings for one another, and with forgiveness. (Did you know the word for forgiveness is from the same root word we get our word grace and gift from?[4] It literally means gifting someone.)  For centuries, the Church has had to, as Paul says, prevent the devil from getting a foothold inside it.  It’s hard work to do that. It requires speaking the truth in love. It means acknowledging our hurt and moving on together with forgiveness, kindness and love. Paul is not being Pollyanna here; he is telling the church that because of what we believe about Jesus, our personal life should reflect that to one another in the church, which in turn, reflects on how to do it out in the world in our civics and in our politics.  Listen, Beloved, if people like you and me in the church can’t lovingly tell the truth to one another, we can’t expect the world to future it out either.

Friends, as your pastor, I want you to know that I have witnessed this church’s leadership make every attempt to imitate God as beloved children. They speak hard truth in love to each other. They express frustration and sometimes, even anger with one another, but they always work it out. I see the leadership of this church attempt to build one another up in kindness, forgiveness, and by opening their hearts to one another.  I am proud to serve with the members of Session that you have elected by the Spirit’s guidance.

            Over the last year, your Session has had to make some difficult decisions in its desire to pursue truth and in its attempt to imitate what Jesus would do. Our conversations have been lively at times.  Our conversations have lasted longer than many of us wanted but we always arrived at the place where there was no anger, and we could agree to disagree agreeably. It has wrestled with COVID protocols and adjusting church schedules. It has had to make strategic financial decisions as well as address issues of sexual ethics. I am proud to be pastor of a group of leaders who are living out what it means to imitate God.  You need to be proud of them, too. Your leadership knows that in order to change the world out there, we first had better be able to work it out in here, together as sisters and brothers in Christ. The Church is tasked with the responsibility to model for the culture what it means to work things out together instead of becoming fractured and devolving into separatist camps.  Let’s all continue to imitate God together and give the world something to talk about! Amen.

© 2021 Patrick H. Wrisley, Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, 401 SE 15th Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL. 33301.  Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, Florida and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission. All rights reserved.

[1] Connections: Year B, Volume 3: Season after Pentecost (Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Worship) by Joel B. Green, Thomas G. Long, et al. https://a.co/4HSJUDi

[2] New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

[3] Feasting on the Word: Year B, Volume 3: Pentecost and Season after Pentecost 1 (Propers 3-16) (Feasting on the Word: Year B volume) by David L. Bartlett, Barbara Brown Taylor, https://a.co/7SeCbxS.

[4] Charizomai from the same root as charis, Greek for ‘grace.’  It is a word that literally means actively gracing and showing pleasure upon someone!

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The Sermon: How Do We Know if We Have Grown Up?; Ephesians 4:1-16

Posted on August 2, 2021 by patrick h wrisley

A sermon preached August 1, 2021 by the Rev. Dr. Patrick H. Wrisley.

Ephesians 4:1-16

4.1 I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

7 But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore it is said (in Psalm 68.18),

“When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive;
    he gave gifts to his people.”

9 (When it says, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.) 11 The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. 14 We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. 15 But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love. [1]

            Let’s begin today with a simple, straightforward question: Are you a grown up? A twist on that might be, have you grown up yet? Young people hear their parents tell them, “When you start acting like a grown-up, then you will be able to go and do such-in-such!” Parents attach certain characteristics to what it looks like to act like an adult in the world and try to teach those to their children.  

            What are signs you look for in a person that determine their level of maturity? Is it how someone dresses?  Is it how they act in various circumstances? Do we measure maturity by age or by how knowledgeable someone is? Then again, maybe we measure someone’s maturity by how well they handle increased responsibility.

            The Apostle Paul is writing the church and is imploring them to grow up and act like mature followers of Christ. Apparently, Paul had some rubrics or metrics that determine both a person’s and a church’s maturity, and we will unpack those from our text today. He lifts up at least three indicators of what a mature disciple looks like in our scripture this morning. First, our lives are to look like a disciple’s life. Second, we each have been given gifts to use for the greater good. Finally, disciples of Christ are committed to life-long learning of the faith.

            Indicator of Christian maturity number one: His or her life looks like a disciple’s life. Now, looks can be deceiving and what we see on the outside may not always reflect what’s going on inside. We have all met those Christians who say and act piously and do things like carry a Bible, go to church, and bring a casserole to the pot-luck picnic but they will also gossip, put down and withhold the love of Jesus if they disagree with you. When I say our life needs to look like a disciple’s life, I mean that our life consistently reflects internalized core values which are expressed from the inside out.

            Paul says for us to lead a life worthy of our calling, literally our vocation, as a disciple of Jesus, then our life will bloom with the buds of virtues and values that smell like Christ. He says our lives will be steeped in humility and gentleness. Our lives will display patience and longsuffering. A disciple’s life is reflected in its ability to bear up with others in the Christian community. Another way to say that is to put up with one another for the benefit of the greater good of the church. Humility, gentleness, patience, and putting up with those you disagree with are values and virtues that are only developed over time and practice. Its only when these virtues and values are expressed that all the pieces fall in perfect alignment and the grandeur of the One Spirit, the One Lord, the One God and Father of us all is displayed.

            The second indicator of a mature Christian is whether he or she is using the gifts Spirit has endowed each of us with. The list of gifts in our lesson today is not meant to be an exhaustive list because Paul is echoing other verses from Romans and Corinthians that also have lists of spiritual gifts. As a result of Christ’s death and resurrection, you and I were gifted to foster an environment where the ministry of Christ is practiced in Christian community in order that through the Christian community, that is the Church, Christ is taken out into the world. The Church is where we learn and practice the art of being an apostle, a prophet, an evangelist, a pastor, and a teacher. The Christian community, the Church, should be the safe environment to explore our gifts and graces in order to leverage them in the larger community. The Christian community, the Church, should be teeming with people who are eager jump in and use their gifts. The Christian community, the Church, should be the place disciples can come together, work on tough issues together and show the world how to lovingly agree to disagree and carry forth together with the mutual ministry God has called us into.

            Christian maturity is measured by the display of basic virtues and values.  It is displayed in our using our spiritual gifts both individually and corporately. The third indicator of Christian maturity is a disciple’s commitment to life-long learning about God and their faith. Paul is imploring us to grow maturely in our knowledge of the faith so we will not be blown about in the wind by the many spiritual snake oil salesman out there in the world today.

            Beloved, how are you growing in your knowledge of the faith? Are you?

            Think with me a moment. Think about a person’s emotional development. As a person grows older and at various phases of her life, her personality changes, the way she processes information changes, and the way she relates and communicates with others changes. In a person’s psycho-social development, it is really obvious when an adult behaves like an adolescent isn’t it?  If a person is not growing in their psycho-social development, we get worried and call-in specialists and counselors to help them get unstuck. Well, did you know growth in our spiritual maturity is the same? One’s spiritual maturity and knowledge is supposed to grow and develop, too!

            Unfortunately, over the three decades of ordained ministry I have seen too many Christian adults act like they are stuck in spiritual adolescence. Their faith has remained stuck in what they remember from children’s Sunday school and youth group when they were younger but now their lives are getting besieged by mature adult problems in a swirly world. They have matured intellectually, physically, and socially but spiritually they are stuck in the past and have not grown in their maturity of the faith.  Sophomorically, they point and say, “Well it says in the Bible such-in-such,” but have failed to grow up in their understanding of God, of who Jesus was, is and the message he is desperately trying to get out. Let’s not forget the Devil knows how to quote scripture with the best of them. The Pharisees and Sadducees knew their Torah and the Law inside and out; that wasn’t the problem.  Jesus kept reminding them it’s how you apply what you know in the Bible with others that shows whether you are a God-honoring disciple or not. Jesus is not so concerned how well you and I can quote scripture as he is if we can apply the ethical, moral, and theological teachings in our everyday life.

            What virtues does your life reflect?

            What spiritual gifts have you been graced with and are you using them?

            Has your faith matured biblically, theologically, and missionally or are you riding the coattails of what you learned years ago as a child?

            Beloved, these are just three indicators that point to our spiritual maturity as disciples and a church. The time is upon us where you will be asked to say Yes! in using your gifts and graces. The time is soon coming when you’ll be given the chance to have the best two hours of the week! Let’s all grow up together! Amen.

© 2021 August 1, Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church, 401 SE 15th Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33301 and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission.   All rights reserved.

[1] New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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Sermon:  Do We Really Have Any Idea?; Ephesians 3:14-21

Posted on July 26, 2021 by patrick h wrisley

This message was delivered July 25, 2021 by the Rev. Dr. Patrick H. Wrisley

            “For this reason, I bow my knees” Paul begins this exclamatory prayer of praise.  The first thing as readers of the text is to ask ourselves, “For what reason is Paul referring about?” So before verses 14 – 21 make any sense whatsoever, we have to stop and go backwards in the letter and find out what Paul is talking about; if we fail to do that, we miss the impact of this glorious prayer.

            Fortunately for you, I have done that homework for you! Going back to chapter 3:7-8, we hear the reason for Paul’s prayer. It reads, “Of this gospel I have become a servant according to the gift of God’s grace that was given to me by the working of his power. Although I am the very least of all saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles the news of the countless riches of Christ.”  Paul is saying that God uses people even like him to bring the winsome news of Christ’s salvation to all who are alienated were from God.

 Ephesians 3:14-21

14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. 16 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, 17 and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. 18 I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

20 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, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.[1]

            Verses 20 and 21 are an outburst of praise to God because through Jesus Christ, a once exiled people (i.e., you and me!) have been brought into an intimate relationship with the Almighty God! Have we fully let that sink into our inner being?  Have we really taken hold of the fact and understand the immeasurable love of God for us and that in turn we are to have for one another?  Do we really have any idea?

            When my girls were growing up, I would just marvel at the depth of my love for them. Because of my wife, Kelly’s, aggressive cancer treatment when she was 18, we were told that the probability of her being able to conceive was nigh impossible. The third year into our marriage began our journey of being parents! All children are miracles to me but my two daughters, they are gifts from heaven; they weren’t even supposed to be here!  As they grew up, I would ask them, “Do you really have any idea how much I love you?”  They would look back at me with a dumb stare and go, “Huh?”  For me personally, it wasn’t until I became a dad that I fully understood the breadth and width, the height and depth of what love is and means.  I became aware of love’s enormity, its intensity, and its boundlessness that moves me along in spiritual and relational growth with God and with others.  The ability to love deeply creates a flywheel effect that gains momentum each time love is expressed to God or towards another person.  The more we love, our desire to love others intensifies, grows and seeks new avenues to express itself!  Do we really have any idea as to the breadth, width, height, and depth of God’s love for you and me?

            Pause a moment and think about it: How does the Great I Am’s love for you make a difference in your life today?  How do our lives show that we are God’s beloved? Do our lives even exhibit that we are God’s beloved apart from going to church once a week? Do we have any idea as to how much we are God’s beloved? Really?

            Our first scripture reading this morning from 2 Samuel dramatically illustrates the breadth, width, height, and depth of God’s love for His created.  This morning’s lection describing the turning point in David’s life when all the wheels began to fall off the bus of his power and success demonstrates this indescribable love of God. As was mentioned earlier, this is not a Bible Story that would makes its way into a Vacation Bible School curriculum!

            It was the springtime of the year when kings were beginning their battle campaigns and have gone to war.  Except David.  He sent others to fight his battles for him. While everyone else was off at the battle lines, we find David napping and slipping into a voyeuristic tendency to spy on his neighbors when they weren’t looking.  He gawks at beautiful Bathsheba as she bathed, and David burned with lust.  He sends for her and demands that she violate her marriage vows; within the next month, she sends word to the King that she’s pregnant with his child. King David sends for her husband Uriah who was at the front lines of battle and invites him to come home on leave and be with his wife Bathsheba. If David could pull that off, then people would think the baby is Uriah’s!  Uriah proved to be more honorable than the King and refused to do it.  After all, his fellow soldiers were deprived of sleeping in a bed and even the ark of God did not have a resting place; who is Uriah that makes him so special and set apart from the others?

            Well, David gets a little desperate and on the second night of Uriah’s leave, David gets him loaded. He stuff’s Uriah with savory food and got him drunk off lots of wine.  Surely now David could coerce him to pass out in his own bed with Bathsheba.  That plan did not work out too well either. So now, David the King, God’s chosen, the composer and singer of all the beautiful psalms plots a murder. He loops his friend and general Joab to help him pull it off, too. David was so cold that he had Uriah unknowingly carry his own death sentence in the message to Joab! The next thing we hear in the Story is that the Jewish battle line pulled back leaving Uriah exposed to the enemy and he was killed.

            Friends, this Story about David reminds us that he is an archetype for you and me.  In David’s fall, we can see our own.  In just 15 verses in our Old Testament Story, we read how David broke at least five of the Ten Commandments and committed the sins of sloth, lust, adultery, hubris, lying, showing deceit, creates a conspiracy, planned the harm of another person, and commits murder. By now as readers of this Story, we are shouting, “If only David had gone off to war like the other kings did!  If only David did what he was supposed to be doing!”

            But David didn’t.  David wasn’t. David went from being way up here to throwing himself way down there. What we don’t hear in our David Story today is what happens following.  You see, David is confronted with his actions, confesses his sins, and makes right with God but his life was never the same. There’s a cost to and for sin and there’s a cost in our relationships with God and with the Bathsheba’s and Uriahs of our lives when we sin and break relationship with God and neighbor. And David, like Paul, looks at you and me and asks, “Do you really have any idea?”  Ironically, it’s only through his gross sin and restoration from God that David learned the answer to that question.  The answer to the question is this:  No, we really have no idea how much God loves us, will do for us, or be patient with us. It’s only after David figured out the answer to that question that he able was to compose a hymn, Psalm 103 where he writes,

9He will not always accuse,
    nor will he harbor his anger forever;
10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve
    or repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
    so great is his love for those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west,
    so far has he removed our transgressions from us.[2]

            Isn’t this what Paul is talking about in our Ephesians text as well as he prays for the Ephesians Church? He wants them to know and experience the immeasurable breadth and width, he wants them to swim in the unfathomable height and depth of God’s love in Christ.  He later describes it to the Church in Rome this way:

38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.[3]

Do you, do I, do we really have any idea as to how much God loves us in and through Christ?  Have you, have I, ever stopped to think about the profundity of that simple question? For those of you asking, “Well, Preacher, so what? I know God loves me,” let me simply say…

Beloved, the “so what” makes a difference in your Christian life this very day. If we take God’s love for granted or treat it lightly, we end up treating our relationship with God and our relationships with ‘the least of these’ in our community lightly as well. But if we contemplate and reflect upon the breadth, width, height, and depth of God’s love for us, then love regenerates in us exponentially and we become the phalanx of the Kingdom of Heaven right here, right now!

Do you really have any idea how much God loves you?  Let’s chew on that today as our spiritual homework.

Let us pray.

© 2021 July 25 by Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church, 401 SE 15th Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33301 and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission. All rights reserved.

[1] New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

[2] New International Version (NIV). Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

[3] Romans 8:38-39.

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Pastoral Prayer for Sunday, July 18, 2021

Posted on July 19, 2021 by patrick h wrisley

God of Abraham and Sarah, Mary and Joseph, we offer up our prayers and unite them with all the saints and with your angels in heaven. You are a God is who is mighty but gentle and who openly reveals yourself to us but who also desires to be sought after and wooed. You have created the community of faith called the Church, the very Bride of the Christ, so we can worship You, learn about You and have a place to practice how we are to love one another in this fractured world. Come, Spirit of Life, fill this room, saturate our hearts and lives with Your Presence!

Lord of Creation, we come this day and thank you for the gifts our fragile planet provides us from water, minerals, and trees to soft breezes, gentle rains, and nudges from a dog’s nose asking us to scratch it behind their ears. We acknowledge we have not been the best trustees of Your Creation, however. Recent news headlines indict our inability to care for your planet through poor forest management, rising seas and coastal flooding, sustained droughts and through causing the extinction of species. Forgive us and direct our ways to care for our world and for each other before it’s too late.

We pray for those living out West amongst the wildfires raging there. Particularly, bless those who have placed themselves in harm’s way to fight these blazes and bless their families who await their safe return.

We are mindful of those impacted by the horrible flooding in Germany and Belgium and the loss of life and livelihood from the recent rains.

We lift before Your Face our neighbors in Cuba and Haiti as their citizens clamor and cry out for justice, freedom, and political and social stability.

This morning we thank you for the freedoms and liberty we share in our nation and for the gift of the separation of religion and the government. Hold close to Your heart those who suffer from religious persecution at the hands of others who discriminate and oppress because of one’s faith, nationality, or identity.

Lord of Justice, we pray for our community leaders beginning with the President and Vice-President, Congress, the Court, our Governors and legislatures, our Mayors, Commissioners and heads of police, fire, and education; dog them to lead apolitically with justice, and fairness.

On this day, we are grateful for doctors and nurses who place themselves in harm’s way in this latest spike in the pandemic. We have been reminded our health is not bulletproof and give us the grace and sense to do all we can to remain safe.

Each of us comes this day with our own lists of joys and concerns and place them upon your lap. Receive our prayers of concern over illness, pain from physical or emotional injury, and grief over the death of one close to us. Spirit, pray with us in this time of silence…

And now, O Christ, we weave our prayers together using the prayer you taught your disciples as we pray simply, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name.  Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day, our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.  Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, for Thine is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory forever.  Amen!

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