Sermon for the 16 th Sunday after Trinity, September 27, 2009
“… that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. ”
IN THE BEGINNING, as God put the last touches on His great Creation, mankind rising male and female out from the elements of earth, He said, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Gen 1:28 At the subsiding of the great Flood, He blessed Noah and his family in similar fashion. Melchizedek, priest and king of Salem, blessed Abraham and gave him bread and wine. God too blessed Abraham and Isaac on Mount Moriah for their willing sacrifice, with many descendants, his seed to bless all humanity, and enjoy peace on all sides: God's own good will expressed in earthly terms. These were all blessings for this world, holy and good. God blessed Moses' mission of deliverance, King David's royal line, the people He called by His Name in their Promised Land. But a blessing for this world and the next waited for the One who might come from Eternity's shores to these, and become as much a part of this world as we are.
The hands of the carpenter's son were large, strong and tough. They had handled the saw, the plane and the rasp. They were dark from exposure, yet beautiful. These articulate hands gently touched the heads of young children, the upturned chins of hopeful faces, and eager hands reached out to Him in supplication. These hands would lift bread heavenward with blessing, and see the loaves go out multiplied. These hands would raise the Holy Grail, the cup of Christ's Communion, and its wine became a sacrament. And the hands that blessed many would be pierced by nails and drenched in His own blood. Blessing poured out of Jesus as naturally as wisdom, grace, forgiveness, and love. Everyone who knew Jesus was susceptible to the blessing, and coming under it, they would love Him.
Saul never saw Him. The crucifixion was over when he strode the streets of Jerusalem, coming to learn from the greatest rabbi of his day, then to become the avenger of offended Judaism, catching and judging and executing these Christians. He must have been astonished at their spirit. What was it about these people to follow a false Messiah and yet have such command of their emotions, and such zeal for him, at the point of death, even forgiving him as he killed them? What was it Stephen had seen as he died by stoning? How did James, son of Zebedee, take his beheading so bravely? Then Saul saw the light.
It is Saul, or St. Paul, who gives us the blessing today. Forgiven even of exterminating Christians, this zealous missionary Apostle laid himself open to all that Christ would give him. Unlimited, he has received the full fruits of God's will and intent for all His creation, which from the beginning was designed to be filled with grace in like measure. It's my favorite blessing in the Bible. Let's hear it again.
St. Paul says, “I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.”
Is that a blessing! Let's look at this closely, for St. Paul is really wishing a complete experience of God for us. First, Paul worships God the Father, whose very Person names heaven and earth, that is, it is His by placing His holy Name upon it. All things come from the Father, and we are therefore in His family. This is no alien god or warlike conqueror. Every creature has His mark upon it, and is by nature His own, and part of a greater family—all mankind, all creatures, all the worlds. Now Paul in his worship of the Father asks on our behalf: that He would grant part of God's riches to us. God owns all, and it is His to give us.
The first gift is strengthening by the One Jesus called the Comforter . Might through His Spirit in the inner man is the abundant power of God's Third Person living inside of us. When God lives in you, every secret, all knowledge, every divine grace and godly ability lies inside you. Nothing is impossible and God's Spirit wants to be there, for you were made to have Him inside you. It's the mark of the Christian Covenant—no other covenant, false or even true, bears this astonishing feature. God in you, who strengthens you. By this indwelling Spirit, we come to know and believe all that follows.
Paul then prays for Christ to be in your hearts by faith, so that you might be rooted and grounded in love. We hear children pray for Jesus to come into their hearts. Asking the Lord Jesus into your heart sounds like a symbolic act, a child's simplification, but is He there? You might say, “I love Christ,” as an act of faith and desire. But have you simply said, “Jesus, please come into my heart.” God's Spirit in your spirit strengthening you, His Son in your heart, informing you and empowering you to love as He loves, you are entered into God's intended life for you. By faith, we come, believing that Jesus is God the Son, and knowing this is true, we ask, “Jesus enter my heart.” And then it happens: LOVE . Not some cotton candy fluffy empty infatuation, nor lustful passion, nor sentimental sophistry: this is strong stuff, and you are rooted and grounded in it, a powerful love that establishes and feeds you. What kind of love is this? It has empowered martyrs and missionaries, crossed continents and oceans, and died with blessing on the lips of millions. Rooted and grounded, we are unmoved by lesser loves. This is the love we stay in always.
Now we comprehend, as have others before us, the fullest extent of God's vast empire, His purpose in creation, His reason for sending His Son, our future, His past, the breadth, length, depth and height—an infinite God wishes us limited creatures to appreciate a little of who He is. So He shares with us the Trinity, One God in Three Persons, undivided yet not confused with one another. Think on that for a few years. Then go on to a God eternal without beginning, yet not alone, for the Father, Son and Spirit have always been. Then He speaks, and Light explodes upon the darkness. And so on. You will never get to the end of it, but you'll never want to.
Paul then asks that we might know the love of Christ, a love that passes all normal human knowledge. What love is it that leaves heaven's perfection, and for the love of His Father and of us, would be born as one of us, live among us, be misjudged, unappreciated, hated, scorned, sinfully lusted for, arrested, falsely charged and convicted, whipped, beaten, pierced, spit on, and finally have His great heart burst in His chest. All for love of us. It is finished , His great cry from the cross booms in triumph as the quest for us, for our redemption, is bought in His dying breath. Such love passes all our experience. How can this be love? Find that out and you will love Him too.
Finally, Paul prays that we might be filled to overflowing with all God's fullness, like the Psalmist's cup that runneth over. We are small, God is infinite, and we can't hold much of Him or His grace or wisdom or transcendence. But Paul would have us grow, and be able to hold more and more.
Is all of this possible? God's Spirit within us, Christ in our hearts, comprehending vastness, the Messiah's love for us in dying in our place, and God's fullness expanding our hearts, minds, spirits? No. It isn't possible. Not by trying as hard as you can. But Paul adds this: “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory…” It isn't our achievement. At the end of the day, either God has done it or we have forbidden Him. It's so easy to tell God No . He won't knock that down. We forbid Him every day. But try saying Yes just once, Yes to this entire prayer, this Blessing that St. Paul means you to have from God above. Everything he mentions he experienced himself, and gave to others and saw them transformed. The world was changed forever by these few brave men and women. If only a few brave men and women were to receive in like measure the entirety of this Blessing in our day, what would be impossible for them? Paul gave up a life of privilege and honor in Judea, preferring to be an outcast from his own race for the riches he found in Christ. “Indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness… but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.” Phil 3:7-11 His knowledge of God was better than almost every person of his time, but he knew it was very imperfect. “For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away… Now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.” 1 Cor 13:9-12
May I pray this blessing over you, this day, that St. Paul wanted you to have, and he knew this was God's own desire upon you, first and last.
May God, the Father of all, from His own glorious treasure, give you His Spirit inwardly to strengthen you, and may Christ live in your heart that by faith in Him, you will be established unmovable, and might understand the vastness in all its dimensions, and experience from inside and outside Christ's love wiser than knowledge, so you might be full of God's ever expanding fullness. And while you can't achieve any of these, He is able to do all this in you and more than you ever could ask or even imagine.
PFH+