United in Love

The Mystery of God

Over the last several weeks we have been looking at the book of Ephesians that Paul wrote to the people to help explain the purpose of God in their lives and the importance of His Word in their lives and why their lives matter to God.

We are all interconnected in one way or another, we weave in and out of each others lives creating the beauty that is life itself. As our lives weave in and out as it relates to the word of God, then we can begin to see how the Word of God and the life that it represents also represents our life here and now. When we can begin to see our all of our lives are connected, being connected with God first and with God being the author of life, our lives are not just about ourselves, but it includes all of God’s created order, our life is a part of a bigger story.

Within any story, you will have subplots, different mini dramas taking place, twists and turns and with as the story continues, it creates different stories within the story. One of the ways they do this is the relationship between the characters that create the action. We have these same stories affecting our lives as well, we have Our Story that we try to write as we work our way through life to establish ourselves, this can also be called the Inward Story.

There is the story that brings in outside relationships, those whose lives we want to be a part of, must like the groups we talked about last week, of how we long to be a part of something larger than ourselves. This is the Story of Us but it’s not the complete story.

Then we have The Story, this is the Word of God, the story that has God as the author leading us through life, taking us through the highs and lows to teach us more about who we are and how we should depend on Him and not ourselves. This is the story that clears things up for us, it tells us that life is not simply about ourselves and the reality that we create for ourselves, but that life is much more intricate, more delicate, more beautiful and more loving than anything we can create. We often try to mute this story, we try to distort it at times because we may believe that we can write a better one, that God may be taking too long to finish the plot, we can fool ourselves into thinking that we are actually the authors of our life and we have the control over ourselves.

Paul writes to them from prison in Rome. Ephesians 3:1 “For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles—”

Paul did what he usually did, he boldly shared the world of God on the steps of the Temple in Jerusalem as recorded in the book of Acts 22, telling the people that God was sending him to the Gentiles to preach to them and in saying this the people rioted saying things like, “he’s not fit to live, rid the earth of him.”

Our Story

The people hearing this could not understand that God was for all people, not just them. They were after all, the “Chosen”. They believed that the Gentiles were useful only as fuel for the fires of hell or as slaves if need be. They lived exclusively in “Our Story”, no matter the impact this had on others.

We see people today that like to assert their own authority on others, that look down on people they see as “less than” themselves, in fact it’s pretty common today. Look to social media with all of the influencers that like to post their views and want you to believe that their way of thinking is the only way. And if you disagree with them they attack you in any way they can. But it’s not just online.

We see that in relationships all around us, that when we try to assert our will on others, thinking that our ways are the best ways, that we hold the secrets of success and the secrets of God and we try to force that on others because anyone who challenges them are wrong.

This was the Jewish thinking, they held the secrets and their life was the only life that mattered so when Paul came preaching that Gentiles were God’s people as well, that was just too much.

What God is and has, he is and has for all his people’s good.

William S. Plumer

They believed that their story was the only one that mattered, they were singled out as God’s people and everyone else couldn’t be a member of their story. They were a part of an exclusive club that no one else could join and they wanted you to know it. They didn’t care what happened to you, how you felt, all they cared about was life as they knew it and they lived within their story so completely that they even excluded Christ himself.

Imagine that, that they considered themselves so holy that they kicked God out of their story. This is what they way of thinking does, it blinds you to the point where you call yourself holy, believe yourself saved yet never accepting the savior. That’s what they did and they did this because Jesus was so unlike what they imagined that there was no possible way he is the author of their life, of creation, the God of Abraham.

We too, may have the same story, we want to call our self Christian yet never recognizing the Savior. I believe that Jesus looks so much unlike what we believe, that He is more loving, more gracious, that maybe we too discard Him, write Him out of our story and rewrite Him into what we want Him to be.

The Mystery of Grace

The Revised Standard Version Chapter 3

6 that is, how the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel

Paul tells the people that through Jesus, the mystery of grace has been revealed through the love that He has for us, so much so, that He didn’t exclude anyone, all are excepted into His kingdom, at least for those that call upon Him. His grace is free and for everyone, not just a chosen few.

This was God’s solution, through Jesus the church will be established

The Revised Standard Version Chapter 3

10 that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places

God’s plan is to bring all things together through Christ and the way He’s going to do this is through the Church so that we call all be united into one family and be the recipients of God’s mercy and salvation through Christ. But how does the church do this?

We are the plot that destroys the walls of division, hatred, we are to tear down everything that divides the people of God. We are then the place where God’s word is shared to all the world, in our communities so that the power of Christ is shared and shown, to love one another, to bring those that have been cast out and bring them home, to bring all people together especially the ones we may have tried to write out of our story.

Instead of putting others in their place, try putting yourself in their place.

Anonymous

This is how we were created. Think back to Eden we talked about last week, everything was designed to work together, there was unity and not division. Everything had its purpose and it fulfilled it as God intended until that is, until humans came along and we rebelled against God.

But included in the mystery of faith, God calls us back to Him through grace and mercy so that we can feel that pull on our soul. God wants us to come back into the garden, back into His presence so that there is no more separation. We have salvation through faith in Christ that we can come back into His presence and accepted into the family.

We must realize that God loves you and this takes you to My Story. We may feel like we don’t belong, that we have run so far away from God that there is no love left for us. Paul even felt this way in his life.

The Revised Standard Version (Chapter 3)

8 To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given

We have our failings, our sins but so did Paul. He calls himself here the worst of all sinners. Although we rebelled against God, the wonder of God is that He calls the rebels back. Now, it took a miracle to do this but it was a miracle of love, mercy and forgiveness, but the invitation is still there us through the grace of God. If you ever feel like you’re not good enough, that you don’t belong, think back to Paul, think of the love that God has for us that He sent His Son to call us back home.

Storm the throne of grace and persevere therein, and mercy will come down.

John Wesley

Realize that if God loves you, then He loves others, not just your circle, not just the people that look or think like we do, He loves all people which takes us to the last level, “The Story”.

Having faith in Jesus Christ moves us from our own personal story, it also moves us away from the story of those like us. It moves us out of My Story and into The Story. It makes us aware of our own brokenness and shows us that God loves me regardless of all of my failures through grace. It places us the The Story of God, that God’s love transcends time, it moves beyond groups, bridges the gap of brokenness, it unites people of all cultures and races and makes us one family united by God just as we were created. He brings us back to where He wanted us all along, with Him in His Kingdom.

Moving us into The Story means we must look at those things we may feel are unworthy of God’s love. Who are those people you feel are “less than”. Who are those that you may feel don’t deserve the love of God. If we feel like God’s love is only for a certain few then we are just like those that felt that God was just for them, becoming so blinded in the own self righteousness that they couldn’t recognize God even when He was standing right in front of them. The Savior they had prayed for then they nailed Him to a cross.

Are the things that divide us so great that we can’t except the love that God has for us? Can we not love each other? Is the division so important we are willing to sacrifice our salvation? We can learn from the Jews in the Gospels what happens to us when we live this way. Unless we can love all people, unite as one people, will we ever see Jesus?