Spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3-14)

Christmas 2 (3^rd January 2010)

Theme: Spiritual blessings (Ephesians 1: 3-14)

 

 ³Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. ⁴For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.

 

We are now on the third day of 2010.  This morning I want to invite you to reflect on what has gone past and to think about what is to come.  A few days ago, when we celebrated Christmas, we were reminded about God who speaks in dreams and about angels who appeared to people.  At Christmas there is great enthusiasm about God and religious things; and there is generosity and kindness.  But the holiday is now over, and we are back to the normal things.  The children will be in schools and we shall be back to work; and we get the feeling that is the real world where the actions are.  However, are we sure that these things are more real than the story of Christmas?   Even though we greet one another “Happy New Year”, are we sure that 2010 will really be a happy year?

The fact is: we are not sure about the reality of so many things, in spite of our preparation.  Our experiences have told us that things do not always go as we plan them to be.  One thing or another will hamper our progress or frustrate our plan. We think that we live in reality, but much of it is dream.  We dream of progress and success.  We dream of happiness if we can strike it rich one day.  

But when the reality of human progress and success come, they do not bring all the things we dream about.  Often they bring with them hordes of other problems.  We find things are changing much faster than we can cope with.  We have to constantly learn new things and new tricks in order to be able to cope up with the pace of world’s progress.  But we can never keep pace whether it is with people or with machines.  New gadgets keep on coming up, making what you have just acquired almost obsolete.  We develop the land, but we also destroy the environment.  The result of all these is increased stress and higher medical bills, and hosts of other problems.  

With development and progress come also new form of crimes and new ways to commit sin.  It is getting more and more difficult to trust people.  Even people we are supposed to trust cannot assure us that they can be trusted.  So our modern understanding of survival in the modern world involves distrusting, (and not believing).  If the number of unbelievers is increasing each day in this world, the problem can be partly explained.  It is because people find it difficult to trust, to have faith, and to have relationships.

And, what about the Christians? Sometimes we Christians struggled very much like the non-believers despite the fact that we are called to be people of faith and hope.  So our Epistle reading this morning is a timely reminder.  In verse 3 we read, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who had blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ."  We tend to think of God’s blessing to be something done for us in the future. But according to this verse, it is not that God will bless us. He has blessed us. 

From the perspective of the world we are not rich because people tend to measure their riches with how much money or property they have.  But look at what has He blessed us with: He has given us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.  In other words, what we have is more than money or religion.  It is the thing that the people in world are searching, but which they can never find outside Jesus. And many Christians don’t understand this or know this truth.  

That is why this morning the Bible reminds us again that we are already blessed. And contrary to some teachings, being blessed does not mean accumulating more and more things. It is becoming aware of who we are and learning to be sufficient.  A blessed life does not mean having everything you want, but knowing that you don’t need to have everything.

It is not too difficult to declare this in theory; but what does it mean in practical life?  What does it mean to say that we have every spiritual blessing in Christ?  It means that we must learn to rely on our resources in Christ.  There are people are worried about being poor and abandoned in their old age.   So they would buy properties or shares, and build healthy bank account, so that they have something to lean on when they are no longer under employment.  But I want to tell you that there is another investment that is equally important – that is investment in relationship.  We need to develop good relationships with as many people as possible; people of all ages and all walks of life. We gain nothing by being snobbish or racist.  That is why God built the Church – so that people can have healthy and beneficial relationships with one another within the body of Christ.  That is why we encourage members to invest time, energy, care, and love on people.

You see: we need to abandon that idea of God’s blessing as something that drops from the sky upon our heads whenever we say our prayers to God.  The blessings of Christ are already there and have been deposited into our account.  What we must do is to draw upon those riches and use them to bless others.  When other people are being touch by what you give or do for them, they too will want to use the deposits in their accounts to do something good for others.  God’s blessing works like a domino principle in the lives of people.  The little things we do, will in turn, influence other people to do little things for others.

The sad thing is that there are so many spiritually rich people in Church, but not many are willing to share God’s blessing with others.  They called themselves people of faith and yet they don’t have enough trust. So I want to let you know this morning that we need to trust because salvation and faith have something to do with trusting God we cannot see and trusting God’s people who are constantly changing.  

I emphasize on this because many people tend to see religion simply as means of drawing out blessings from God.  They fail to see blessings involve obedience and submission, patience and forgiveness, love and care.  Instead they see faith in God simply as means of acquiring something from God.   I am not saying that we should not ask things from God because all of us have our needs.  But those needs should open us to God, and make us obedient to his will.

It is sad to say that religions do not always help people in this area.  In fact, in some ways, religion can promote self-centredness.  Some religions encourage fortune telling and prediction of the future so that we can escape from things we do not want, and get what we want.  Some teach people to perform “right rituals” in order to manipulate God into giving them material blessings.  What has happened to the Church’s teachings on love, obedience, faithfulness, commitment, endurance, patience, giving and sacrifice?

My point for sharing this is to help us to look at where we stand as far as our relationship with God and the church is concerned.  If we have made a resolution for the New Year, we must be willing to allow God to be involved in it right from the start.  Do not invite God into your plans only after you have encountered dead-ends; or start to pray only because you have run out of ideas.  God is not just interested in solving our problems and to clean up the mess we have left behind, or even with what we need: he cares about our very being and our salvation.  That is why Jesus is called “Emmanuel”, which means “God is with us”.   It means that he is a God who wants to be involved in what we do. 

Secondly, we must not see Christian spirituality simply as our own personal business. As people of who belong to individual families or churches, we need to take into account one another’s needs.  I know that at the beginning of the year like this, there are parents who worry about where to get money to send their children to school.  It is not because they are poor but simply because they have spent all their money on the less important things and forgot their children. So whatever you plan as a group, think about the Church as a whole.

Thirdly, trusting in the blessings of God is not blind trust that things will just happen. God wants us to understand what it means to live and serve as Christians. We set up fellowships and cell groups in church for the purpose of glorifying God, serving people and developing members.  So when we do our work, we must remember these: glorifying God, serving others, and developing ourselves.

My final point is a brief comment in verses 4 to 6.  In that verse we are told that God chose us in Christ.  In verse 5 we are told that God predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ. And in verse 6 we are told that God freely gave upon us His grace on us in the One he loves.  They say that we are secure simply because we belong to Christ whom God loves.  

I am sure we have plans for this year, either our own individual plans or something we plan as a group. We must lay them down before God today, and allow him to be involved in our plans and projects. At the same time, always remember that to live a life centred in God is not easy because many things will come to test our faith.  So we need to understand that for God’s continual blessings to come upon us we need to have a constant relationship with him and his people. That is where we get our security.  We cannot do God’s work independent of God and his church. We cannot know God’s will without knowing God himself and making effort to listen to one another.  Let us pray that 2010 will be different from the previous years in St. Margaret’s Church.