Ephesians 2:1-10

2 You were dead through the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. 3 All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us 5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— 9 not the result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

This week we will look at Bible passages that support the Mission Statement of St. Andrew’s Church, Fergus. The Mission Statement is: To accept Jesus Christ’s love, embrace Jesus’ teaching and share Jesus with those both near and far.

The Ephesians 2 reading holds two truths in balance. All human beings – us included – have lived patterns of life that had nothing to do with God’s desire for our lives as human beings. As vs. 5 says bluntly, we were dead because of our wrongdoing. We know that truth in our deepest selves, guilt and shame were part of our lives, and we had been impacted by the sins of others whose actions scarred and marked us. We were unlovable, there were things in our lives that made us unlikeable, unworthy of love. 

But, and this is the second truth, but God who is rich in mercy loved us when we were unlovable (vs. 4). Only God’s grace could make us alive, only Jesus’ love could give us freedom from guilt and the debilitating marks of our sins and the sins of others. We did not earn or deserve the love – it was unmerited, unearned love.

So, we are left with a choice will we accept the love Jesus offers, will we recognize this love as unmerited, undeserved. Acknowledging that the negative, dark parts of our lives outweighed the good parts, and our only hope is to accept this love which we had nothing to do in bringing about. It is God’s work from beginning to end.

This is where the journey with Jesus begins – accepting that his love for us is all about Him and his grace and mercy, and nothing about us being nice or pretty, or good or winsome. It is all about Jesus’ love – our story of being followers of Jesus always starts there. 

PRAYER:

We rejoice, O Lord, in the undeserved, gracious love that you have poured into our lives. A grace that gives us the chance to begin again because of what you have done, because of your actions in Jesus’ death and resurrection. Thank you for your love shown to us in the cross and the new life that is ours because of Jesus’ love for us. It is in his name that we pray. Amen.

Sept. 6 – Revelation 2:1-7

 2 ‘To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands:

2 ‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance. I know that you cannot tolerate evildoers; you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them to be false. 3 I also know that you are enduring patiently and bearing up for the sake of my name, and that you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember then from what you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. 6 Yet this is to your credit: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. To everyone who conquers, I will give permission to eat from the tree of life that is in the paradise of God.

 The church in Ephesus received this letter. The church in Ephesus had been around for a long time, it was one of the well-established congregations in that part of the country we now call Turkey. There were lots of things going on, they were busy doing good work (vs. 2). They were faithful to the gospel message, and they had faced challenges and opposition and had kept on being faithful. There was good work happening and they had much to be proud of.

But the church, the people of the church, had lost the passion, the fervour, that had brought them into the church of Jesus Christ in the first place. When they first started following Jesus, their work in following Jesus was fired by their love for him. But over time that fire of love had ebbed and the work had become duty only, it did not have the fire of love. It had become brittle and lifeless, instead of being warm and full of care and grace.

Work for Jesus that comes from remembering his love for us, that comes from our love for Jesus, has a warmth and joy to it. Work for Jesus that is driven entirely by requirement and obligation does not have that warmth and joy in it.

Jesus said it well, our work for God needs to be rooted in a love for God. Our work for God is a declaration of our love for God. Such work is self-giving, is sacrificial, is warm for it is fired by the love of God for us and our love for God.  

The church in Ephesus was doing the right things, but they had lost the fire that had led them to do the right things. They needed to fall in love with Jesus again. The obvious question is: where are we?

PRAYER:

God of love, we rejoice in your love for us. Fire our love for you, warm our cold and brittle hearts that we might with warmth and love for you follow in the steps of your Son and our Saviour, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.