8TH Sunday of Trinity (after Pentecost) - Resurrection/Kyiv - 7/25/05 -

EPISTLE-Ephesians 1:3-14 3 Praise 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. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will-- 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace 8 that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. 9 And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10 to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment-- to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. 11 In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, 12 in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. 13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession-- to the praise of his glory.

God Grant You These Gifts for Jesus' Sake:
A wise head, here and now!
A heart that sees the end clearly!
Sufficient muscle meanwhile!
Who knows when-if ever-I will stand in this pulpit again. God, of course, knows. I don't. Nor do you. Phoebe and I return to the United States early Tuesday after more than a year of praying and singing and worshipping together with you, the members of Resurrection congregation in Kyiv. When your pastor asked me to preach today, I read the appointed Psalm, Old Testament reading, Epistle and Gospel for this Sunday. Pastor Horpynchuk said I could preach on any text that I would like. My eyes caught the words immediately following the Epistle for today. They are the words of the Apostle Paul. He probably wrote them from prison in Rome. Ephesus was not Paul's home. But he had spent time there. He loved his brothers and sisters in Christ in Ephesus. Like me he didn't know whether he would ever see them again. So what did he do? With the eight verses that close chapter one, he prayed to God for them. He prayed that they would receive three divine gifts for Jesus' sake-one gift for their head, another for their heart, and a third for their spiritual muscles. Let me offer these same verses as a prayer for you. May God Grant You These Gifts for Jesus' Sake! First, a wise head for the here and now. Second, a heart that sees the End clearly. Third, sufficient muscle meanwhile.

We are here today, I in the pulpit and you in the pew. This is certain. Another thing is certain. No matter what happens in the years ahead, all of us will certainly meet again. Not maybe. But for sure! Someday we will be part of that immense crowd of human beings who stand before God at the second coming of Christ. Some of us may be alive when Christ comes. The rest will rise from the dead to stand alongside the living. But FOR SURE every single one of us will meet again! So, we are here today. And we will be together again on the Last Day. Between those times nobody knows exactly what will happen to you, or to me, or to the person sitting next to you in church today. These are important facts. They are real facts. Here's another truth: none of us can stand today, or stand on the Last Day, or make it safely from now to then ALONE! Left all to ourselves we would be failures now, fail for sure at the Judgment, and leave a trail of failures from this day until Christ comes. Yet, for Jesus' sake we are NOT failures. His gifts are what I want to preach to you about. I want you to have head gifts now, heart gifts for the end, and muscle gifts for the time in between. If you have then, we can say goodbye this Sunday with peace and joy and hope and confidence! God grant it for Jesus sake!

True Christians appreciate the head they have been given. With our head we see, we hear, we smell, we taste and we process all the information gathered by our senses with our brains. This is how we KNOW something. Paul says I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. Stand up if you want to be stupid. [pause] I thought so. Nobody stood up. Nobody wants to be stupid. So why here and now do so many people say, do and think so many stupid things? (1) Is it smart to fix our eyes with lust at things that we can't and shouldn't have. No! But people do it all the time. (2) Is it smart to turn our ears towards half-truths, gossip, slander, fantasies, or just plain lies. No! But people do it all the time. (3) Is it smart to stick our nose into things that are not our business, to put our noses in the air thinking ourselves better than others, or to sniff out forbidden pleasures? No! But people do it all the time. (4) It is smart to taste food or drink to the point that our bodies no longer function the way God intended? No! But people do it all the time. (5) Is it smart to think and think and think and in the end have no time for God and his Word and his truth and his love? No! But people do it all the time. And so, I like Paul will pray that God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father...give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.

I can make such a prayer, because you are described in Scripture as church. Where two or three are gathered in my name, Jesus said, there am I, in the midst of you. Jesus was not stupid. Nor does he want those gathered around him to be stupid. Paul asked God to give those whom he loved a spirit of wisdom and revelation, not stupidity. I ask here and now that you listen to the Holy Spirit as he makes you wise unto salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Here in this place-(let's see, yes, one, two, three-there are two or three gathered in Jesus' name!)-- are the Holy Bible from which I am preaching. And there on the altar are cup an plate for the Holy Supper. The Spirit working here in this gathering through Word and sacrament! And he is answering my prayer here and now. Here, today, he gives the gift of wisdom, not stupidity. The Holy Scripture clearly teaches that-apart from Jesus who is the Word and apart from the Holy Spirit who testifies that Jesus is our Lord sent from the Father-each of us is (a) spiritually blind, (b) spiritually deaf, and (c) spiritually dumb. In a word-apart from God's grace in Christ-we are dead to wisdom by birth and dead wrong in the way we use our heads-every single day! You are. I am. And this makes this head of ours a potential tool of the Enemy, right here an now! BUT!!! - God not only reveals our sins to us in his Word, he also directs our eyes to the cross where Jesus carried our sins. He says to our ears, "Christos voscres" so that we can answer with wisdom, "Vaiyistinou voscress." He leads bread to our mouths and wine to our lips and says, "Yes, wisdom! Taste for yourselves the real Jesus-This IS his body, this IS his blood-given and shed for your for the remission of sins! Our heads-with the Spirit of wisdom and revelation-are no longer stupid, but wise when we hear Sunday after Sunday that we are sinners, but Jesus died for our sins and rose again to declare us righteous and forgiven! So, my friends, here and now, I say: May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, …give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better . . . through Word and sacrament.

If you do have such a head, you will also have a heart that looks far beyond the here and now. You will clearly see that blessed day when we all will certainly be together. Paul says in our text, I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints! How does the world measure riches? Well, a few million hyrvnia in the bank might qualify a man as rich. Owning a home with many rooms, fully furnished with expensive furniture might qualify a woman as rich. Being so famous or successful that you have the power to demand and receive a salary measured in millions might qualify you as rich.

But today's bank account, today's luxury home, or the ability to command a multi-million salary-all!-can be here today and gone tomorrow. Ukrainians know this after two World Wars and a century of political turmoil. Lots of people think that a happy heart comes with riches. Jesus told the story to warn us. It is about a farmer man who was so rich that he tore down his storage barns to build bigger ones and then said to himself, "Take life easy. You have more than enough. Eat drink and be merry." That fool, Jesus said, was transported from life to death that very night-a heart attack perhaps-and his riches were suddenly gone. Paul wanted the Ephesians to have a heart to see beyond the here and now clearly. I pray that you have that gift too! Phoebe and I pray that you have enough to feed your families and put a roof over your head and buy adequate clothes and enjoy your beautiful country. We should. God promises to give each of us what we really need. But the REAL gift of riches which God wants every one of you to have is what Paul calls the the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.

Let me explain. By your baptism you were joined to Christ. You became his. Like branches connected to a vine, your life was grafted into Christ's life when you received the water of baptism. He died. You were baptized into his death. He rose. Your inheritance is to have the same resurrection that Christ had. He sits at the right hand of the Father. You, too, will sit at the right hand of the Father, rich beyond anything you can imagine!

Karl Marx ridiculed the sure hope Christians. He scoffed at the idea that there is a heaven. Karl Marx is dead. But Jesus lives! I pray … that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints! Yes! In the end you and I will meet. It will be Judgment Day. Those who die in their baptismal grace will stand before God the Father unafraid. Jesus will throw the garment of his perfect righteousness over us. Our sins will never be seen. And we will live forever! What an inheritance! What riches!

But that Last Day is still coming. When? Nobody knows. Meanwhile we face days and weeks and months and years. Judging from the past, the future will bring more of what we see goes on here and now. All around us are stupid people whose heads are not enlightened by the Word of God. They hate and persecute those whose hearts confidently see the victory ahead, that glorious inheritance that is ours in Christ. Ukraine, the United States, all countries sooner or later will be plagued by political injustice, corruption, economic deprivation, disasters and the like. Jesus predicted that this will be true year after year until he comes again. Thus we Christians must carry heavy burdens in this life between the here and now and the hereafter. So we need muscle! We need muscle to survive! And we have it!! Paul speaks of God's incomparably great power for us who believe. Then Paul describes this spiritual muscle in detail-That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

The heart is a muscle. Muscles in the arms allow us to carry. Muscles in the legs transport us from place to place. Muscles in our fingers let us make and do things. Tiny muscles move our eyes and regulate our hearing. Without muscles we would be motionless, useless blobs of flesh. We would be worthless. But Scripture clearly teaches that God created us not to be blobs of worthless flesh, but to be human beings who work in this world, who worship the One who created this world, and who are made to walk side by side with other human beings as long as the Creator gives us life and breath on this earth. Yes! As we do our work, as we worship God, and as we walk side by side, God calls upon us to struggle against the forces of evil that want us to be nothing more than motionless blobs of worthless flesh. Who are those evil enemies! One is the sinful world around us. Second are Satan and his helpers. Thirs is the sinful flesh we each have. We struggle with temptation. We fall into temptation. We sin! And we do it even though God has given us a wise head that knows better and a heart that confidently sees our inheritance in heaven.

So we need a third gift. God has muscles. He proved it when Jesus rose from the dead. God has muscles. Jesus sits at God's right hand and uses that hand to provide every good thing. And God has given us minutes and hours and days and years to work, worship, and walk side by side while we await his doming. Between now and Judgment Day you fathers have families. Work. Between now and Judgment Days you mothers have families. Work! Between now and Judgment day you members of Resurrection congregation have a church. Worship! Between now and Judgment day, you brothers V'yacheslav and Oleh have a ministry to lead in this church. Worship! Between now and Judgment day, all of you have each other. Pray for each other. Study God's Word with each other. Side by side do what Peter and Paul and James and John did. They helped those who needed help. They gave to those who needed food. They clothed those who were naked. They visited the sick and prayed for those in prison.

I promise you that God will give you sufficient muscle to make it from now till that day that Phoebe and I will certainly meet you all again. You can beat Satan, you can defeat the evil world, you can survive the temptations of your own sinful flesh. You can work, and worship and walk together-but only if your muscle comes from the one who rose from the dead and who sits at the right hand of God the Father.

Who knows when-if ever-I will stand in this pulpit again. God, of course, knows. I don't. Nor do you. Phoebe and I return to the United States early Tuesday after more than a year of praying and singing and worshipping together with you the members of Resurrection congregation in Kyiv. Let me pray for you and for us:

Father, give us all-Phoebe, me, and our dear brothers and sisters-these gifts for Jesus' sake:
first, a wise head here and now that knows how to confess sin and cling to Jesus for forgiveness;
second, a heart that clearly sees our guaranteed eternal inheritance; and
third, spiritual muscle-from now until we certainly meet again-to fight successfully day by day against the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh!

AMEN!