Sermon by the Rev. Maggie McTernan

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable to you O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.

I don't know what you like to do on holiday, but one of the things I most enjoy is visiting old buildings – the older the better – I was recently in Shetland, and was wandering around houses about 4,000 years old! The more ancient houses tend to be just ruins and remains, but if you go to more recent buildings – and when I say recent, I mean medieval – they are often furnished to look like they did when they were lived in. In many medieval houses, you find tapestry wall hangings, I imagine to try and combat the cold of the stone walls. As you walk around, you can either stand back and take in the tapestry, as a complete work of art, or you can step in and focus on particular details of colour, texture and design.

This morning I want to approach our passage from Ephesians a bit like one of those tapestries. I want to take a moment to stand back and look at the whole thing, and then come in and focus on some of the detail in the verses we read.

Ephesians is a book of two halves. My old youth group leader used to sum the book up in the phrase: “high calling, lowly walk” - I'm sure he'd be pleased to know I still remember that after all these years! The first half focusses on our high calling, finding our place in God's great work of salvation through Christ, and the second half speaks about how we live out lives in the light of our salvation – our lowly walk. The letter is ascribed to Paul – and to keep it simple, I'll refer to the author as Paul. In fact, it may not have been written by Paul himself, but if not it was written by someone who knew his teachings well, as it expresses and develops themes from Paul's earlier letters.

The letter was written at a time when the early Church was still developing its identity as a separate community, distinct from the Jewish faith. There were of course many Christians who were also Jews, but there were increasing numbers of converts from outwith the Jewish faith. We read throughout the New Testament about the tensions that came from this. Ephesians address not only who we are as individuals in Christ, but who we are as a Church, and our unity in Christ.

Let's look closer, then, at the passage. Following the traditional greetings, Paul launches into the real content of his letter. This whole section, from v3 to v14 is one long sentence, holding it together as a unit, offering praise to God for what he has done for us. I want to pick out three points for our attention this morning.

Firstly, the Father's choice. We read:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world”

It's always a precious thing to be chosen, to be picked out, and all the more precious when we've not done anything particular to deserve it. I remember years ago, going to visit a friend who had recently got engaged. She had always said she wanted me to sing at her wedding, so of course I asked her what did she want me to sing, and she replied: “Oh, I don't want you to sing.” I felt so disappointed, and rather embarrassed at having asked, until she added: “I want you to be my bridesmaid.”

It was not a reward for anything I had done – you can't “earn” the role of bridesmaid – it was purely a gift from my friend, in recognition of our friendship. When God chose us, it was not in any way a sign of anything special about any of us – I guess we're a fairly ordinary bunch of people here this morning. God chose us as a gift of his grace

In saying this, Paul is saying something particularly significant to the early Church. Remember, he is writing to a Church that is bringing together two groups, the Jews and the Gentiles. The Jews considered themselves God's chosen people, and there was a danger that the Gentiles were seen as second class Christians. Paul is challenging this notion here – all in the Church are chosen by the Father, whether Jew or Gentile – whether lay or clergy, whether cradle Episcopalian or ex- Presbyterian or Baptist! I don't know if you have come up against status battles in the Church – maybe at the receiving end, or perhaps slipping into evaluating some as more worthy than others. We are reminded, assured, here that there is no hierarchy of chosen-ness in God's eyes, he chose all of us – not because of our worth, but purely as a gift of his grace.

This point is emphasised in v5: “He destined us for adoption as his children.” In Roman law, it was quite common for people to be adopted as adults – it was often done by a couple who had no heir. Under Roman law, when someone was adopted, they took on the status of their adopter. So if an upper class father adopted a son from the lower classes, or even the slave classes, that son took on the upper class status of the father, and had full equality with any sons born into the family. Again, you get the point – whatever background we come from, once we are adopted by the Father, we stand together, in his grace.

So we have the Father's choice. Secondly, the work of the Son. God's grace is freely given, but it is a costly grace. Our redemption, is through the blood of Christ. The word “redemption” gives a picture of liberating slaves from their captivity. This picks up that great story from Jewish history, the Exodus. There it was the blood of a lamb painted on a door post that saved those inside. Now it is the blood of Christ – God himself is the sacrifice that redeems his people.

What are we redeemed from? Our slavery is not to humans, but to sin. I recently came across a description of sin that I found very helpful – it's not from a theological text, but from a book by Terry Pratchett (Lords and Ladies).

This description of sin comes up in a conversation between two people, one of them an enthusiastic young religious leader, and the other a worldly wise, rather cantankerous old woman. Let me read it to you:

“Sin, young man” (says the old woman, Granny Weatherwax) “is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. That's what sin is.”

“It's a lot more complicated than that –” starts the young man.

“No. It ain't. When people say things are a lot more complicated than that, they means they're getting worried that they won't like the truth. People as things, that's where it starts.”

“Oh, I'm sure there are worse crimes –”

“But they starts with thinking about people as things...”

In Christ, we are redeemed from slavery to sin, and we are forgiven for all we have done that has hurt others, hurt ourselves, and hurt God.

Finally, we have the promise of the Spirit. V14 says we have been marked with the seal of the Holy Spirit as a pledge of our inheritance. The word used for pledge is a word that comes from the business world. The picture is of someone engaging in a barter – say, for example, I want to barter my cloth for your grain. I might have 10 bundles of cloth to barter, but when we meet to discuss the deal, I will only bring a sample of that to show you. Once we agree our deal, I will leave that sample with you, as a pledge of the full amount that you will receive in due course.

The Spirit, then, is the pledge for our full inheritance in Christ. One day, when God's plan is fully realised, we will live in a world that is restored to what God intended from the start. And we ourselves will be restored to be the best of ourselves, the people that God created us to be. This is the redemption that Christ bought us on the cross.

But until that day, we live in the knowledge that we are redeemed, but waiting for the completion of our redemption. The Spirit is our pledge – our promise, that that day will come. And in the mean time, the Spirit works in us, transforms us, slowly but surely. We are reminded of this week by week as we come to communion – the priest calls the Spirit upon us so we may be renewed for the service of the Kingdom, and we respond:

Help us, who are baptised into the fellowship of Christ's Body to live and work to your praise and glory; may we grow together in unity and love until at last, in your new creation, we enter into our heritage in the company of the Virgin Mary, the apostles, and prophets, and of all our brothers and sisters living and departed.

It is the Spirit that assures us of this inheritance, and who works in our lives to transform us, and through us to transform the world, until the day God completes his work of redemption. Paul will go on to look at how this works out in our lives in the later chapters of Ephesians, and we'll hear this in the weeks to come – but for today, let us give thanks that we are chosen by the Father, through the work of the Son, and that we have the promise of the Spirit, assuring us of our inheritance in God's Kingdom.