Sermon Tone Analysis

*Hymn *# 352    Jesus, Thy Boundless Love to Me

*Call to Worship* \\ \\ L. Praise God, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name.

\\ P. May we be strengthened in our inner beings with power from the Holy Spirit.

\\ L. May Christ dwell in our hearts through faith, as we are rooted and grounded in love.

\\ P. May we be filled with the fullness of God.

\\ Amen.

\\ *Invocation* \\ \\ We bow before you, O God, for you are the parent from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name.

We pray that, according to the riches of your glory, you will grant that we may be strengthened in our inner beings with power through the Spirit, that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith.

In his name.

Amen.

\\ \\

*Children's Sermon* Ephesians 3:14-21 \\ Gather a variety of greeting cards with little poems that wish people well.

Ask the children if they have ever received a card from somebody.

Remind them that the person who sent the card was thinking about them and wished them well.

Tell them that the Scripture lesson is like a card from Paul to the Christians in Ephesus - Paul was thinking of them and wanted to share Christ's love.

Paul's card might be a get-well card for their hearts.

The message in Paul's card might sound like this: May Christ live in your hearts through your faith, like a tree rooted and planted in love.

Or it might say: God's love for you is so great - it's higher and wider and deeper and longer than you could ever imagine.

Have the children describe what the drawing on the front of that card would look like.

Give the children each a card that says God loves you on it and ask them if they'll decorate that card and send it to someone they think might want to be reminded of God's love.

In that way they can be an apostle to someone else, just like Paul.

Hymn # 55       Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee

/Ephesians 3:14-21/  

Spa Christianity

*We seem to be more concerned these days about unsightly hair removal than we are about unsightly habit removal.

We can''t afford to let the spa mentality of the culture to creep into the church.*

Ear candling.

\\ It's something Charlotte Davis is good at.

She's an expert massage therapist, trained in the rare arts of Hawaiian Loma Loma, Hot Oiled Rocks and Deep Tissue Work.

This one-woman spa lays hands on and unties the knots, layer by layer, in the backs, shoulders, legs and forearms of doctors, clergy, teachers, fisher folk, sheriff's deputies, clam diggers, crab pickers and cab drivers.

\\ Davis is part of an exploding trend.

Spas and massage therapy are a growing phenomenon, reaching out and grasping the torqued tendons and tense tissue of people everywhere, even on the remote and rural edges of the United States.

In 1989, there were 30 day-spas in the United States.

Now there are 1,600.

\\ Spas are popping up like meadow daisies in springtime.

Small-time talent like Davis and big-time spa operators like Avon are planting operations guaranteed to help our nation relax, feel pampered and get what the Eagles called "that peaceful, easy feeling" that glows down to the bone.

Demand for quick-shot pampering has led to the creation of full-service emporiums offering leisurely Salt Glow Body Treatments, Seaweed Wraps, Mud Masks, all manner of waxing in places too delicate to mention, eyelash and eyebrow tinting, manicures, pedicures, sculptured nail overlays, massage, reflexology and - ear candling.

\\ It's hard to think that the apostle Paul would be interested in ear candling or any other tension tamer.

He's writing this letter to the Ephesians from prison.

Seaweed wraps not available.

The question we put to the apostle is whether it is biblically defensible to describe the church as a sort of spa for sinners.

There is a long tradition of allegorical interpretations which see the church as a hospital for the spiritually sick or a harbor for the storm-tossed soul.

But the church as a spa where Christians can name it and claim it and seize the pampering and prosperity we call the American dream?

\\ Don't think so.

\\ One might try to make a case for spa Christianity.

It goes this way: People who go to spas don't go there to work, but to be worked upon.

And if by a spiritual spa experience, one means a willingness to let the Holy Spirit massage one's spiritual muscles, pounding, chopping and kneading until the deep tissue is touched, torqued and twisted, then okay.

Perhaps there a point there.

But it's not in our text.

\\ Instead, Paul prays that the Ephesians will be "strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit" (v.

16).

He also speaks of being "rooted and grounded" in love (v.

17).

He refers to a "power at work within us" (v.

20).

This is the language not of the spa but of the health club.

Paul sees believers not as those who need to be worked upon, but as those who need to do the work.

Elsewhere, he says "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" (Philippians 2:12).

Paul has no time for spa-la-la Christianity; he rightly understands that Christian character emerges with a workout, not a handout.

\\ Unfortunately, too many Christians are more interested in unsightly hair removal than unsightly habit removal.

We have misused the benediction of our text to support a theology of material prosperity: "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, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.

Amen" (3:20-21).

Yet, God's power is at work within us to challenge us to change, not to increase our comfort.

Can you imagine believers who go the extra mile, turn the other chee k, forgive those who sin against them and love their enemies?

Can you fathom the training, the discipline, the exercise, the pain to produce believers that are strong and muscular?

If you can, then you understand that we are called to a love life not a lux life.

\\ The health club craze notwithstanding, our culture of instant gratification does not provide a model on which to understand the ecology of spiritual growth.

Susan Faludi, social critic and Third Wave feminist, is not blind to the shallowness of the postmodern culture: "How many more Starbucks and Banana Republics can we build?"

she asks.

"The commercial world we live in is very seductive.

There was much more powerful dissent, social critique and challenge with the rise of industrialism, when it was pretty clear who the bad guys were.

This is a much more subtle, slippery dynamic.

A lot of people see it as great: 'I've got my SUV and my cell phone.

If there's something wrong in my life, I can treat it with Prozac or Viagra.'"

\\ You want your ears candled and your face matted and mudded?

You want to sip your Starbucks coffee, slip on your Age Defiance nylons and dab some Oil of Olay age-defying cream on your face?

Fine.

Nothing wrong with that.

But leave that mentality at the church door, because when we come into God's presence in worship or in the world, God has something else in mind.

It begins with deep knee bends (v.

14) and moves to "strengthening," to "indwelling" and then to the "fullness of God" - a natural progression of spiritual growth that peaks with one's complete knowledge and experience of God.

\\ We go to the spa to feel and look younger.

We go to the Spirit to feel and look older.

God is not so much interested in age defiance as he is in age reliance.

The age-reliance products God offers are prayer, inner spiritual strength, power, and - most important - deep-tissue love.

\\ Granted, the country club spalike atmosphere of the church might be very comfortable, and we're loathe to invite others in because they might dirty our spa water.

\\ But Paul reminds us that while strength and power buff up the body of Christ, ultimately the benefit is to go out from us to others.

\\ When this happens, the promise of the Pauline benediction is actualized: glory to God through the church beyond what we can ask or think!

\\ Sources: Tamela M. Edwards, "A day at the spa," Time, October 18, 1999, 84-85.

Susan Faludi, "Party 2000," Rolling Stone, December 30, 1999-January 6, 2000, 72.

Caroline E. Mayer, "For a Generation in Denial, a Fountain of Youth Products With an Ageless Appeal Feed Boomer Vanity," The Washington Post, May 6, 1999, A1. \\ Hymn #242  O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus \\ Alternative Sermon Idea \\ The Far More Church \\ When we are "strengthened with power," and experience the "fullness of God," we become what Paul describes as the Far More Church: "far more than we can ask, far more than we can imagine."

\\ The apostle suggests that in such a case, only our imagination limits our opportunities.

What would your Far More Church look like?

\\ • Far More giving to missions?

\\ • Far More evangelism?

\\ • Far More hospitality?

• Far More love for our neighbors?

\\ • Far More youth in Christian education?

\\ • Far More families staying together?

Combine this emphasis with the Far Less Church, the mirror image of the Far More Church: \\ • Far Less bickering?

\\ • Far Less wavering and doubting?

\\ • Far Less negativity?

\\ • Far Less unfriendliness?

\\ • Far Less rigidness?