What do I desire?

We all want more of something. Most of us are keen for more of lots of things. More money, more power, more honour, more fun, more energy. Occasionally I might want more of something for someone else. Perhaps a friend is underpaid and I wish their boss would give them a raise. Maybe a family member is weary and I hope that they can have a good holiday. I might see a colleague catching a minibus and think how nice it would be if they had a car. It is possible that I may even give them a lift, organise the holiday, or slip them some money! So what is it that our writer asks the God of the universe to give his readers? What he wants most for the people he is writing to is that they will “know God better”. Last time we saw that he is really glad that they do know God, but if God is God, then there is always more to be discovered. So our writer wants them to be able to do just that. However, it seems that discovering more of God is not just something that we decide to do, put in the effort and achieve. We need God to give us his Spirit: God himself to come close to us, connect with us. This is when we find, not just more about God, but more of God. Once we become aware of this it is obvious really. We get to know about someone by reading about them. We get a more first-hand experience of them by observing them. But it is only when someone shares themselves with me that I begin to know them. A person must reveal themselves if I am to relate to them deeply. This is what the writer wants for his readers (and, by extension, for us). That God will open us up to “wisdom and revelation” so that we can know him. How amazing if the first thing we want for the people we know is that they will experience relationship with God! Can I value this level of spiritual experience enough to make it my overwhelming desire for myself? The Bible: Ephesians 1:17 http://www.biblica.com/en-us/bible/online-bible/?translation=niv&book=ephesians&chapter=1

How we feel about other people

These days we spend a lot of time keeping in touch with other people all over the world. Through Facebook, Twitter, Emails, blogs, WhatsApp and a host of other avenues we even follow people we don’t know at all. I wonder what it is we hope to hear is happening in the lives of the people we know. What has to happen in other people’s lives to make me happy?
Our writer keeps in touch with people in other cities too. In the days when a letter had to go with a person and to and fro could take months, he listens for news about people from far away and he takes the trouble to send letters. He has heard about his friends living in Ephesus and he mentions two things about them: They have faith in Jesus and they are loving towards people. It is these two things that make him happy: he says he “has not stopped giving thanks” for them. (He means thanking God.)
Sometimes it is hard to be truly happy when other people are doing well; it is easy to have that little edge of envy. But, when I am happy for them isn’t it so often for the external or material? I am glad for promotions, new houses, awards, holidays. Do I really long for friends to find spiritual life? Is my hope for my friends that they will develop more loving caring character? But our writer doesn’t stop there. He isn’t just glad they are doing well, and grateful to God for it.
He also wants good things (more good things, even better things) to happen (and keep happening) in their lives. So he tells them that he asks God to do things in their lives as well. Do I actively want good things to happen in the lives of my friends? Perhaps I am much more focused on hoping for good things to happen in my own life.

The Bible: Ephesians 1:15-16 
http://www.biblica.com/en-us/bible/online-bible/?translation=niv&book=ephesians&chapter=1

Guarentee

We are reluctant to trust.  We have so many experiences of broken promises.  In many work situations we can’t do anything without special measures to ensure that everyone does what they have said they will do.  Unfortunately most of us know of situations where agreements haven’t worked.  People are betrayed often, and usually it is the weaker one that loses out.  We can find ourselves among those helpless against the powerful.  We can find that we are one of the strong, dominating and destroying the weak.

So what happens when God promises things?  Are his promises worth anything?

The answer to this question is multifaceted; but here we are told one part of the answer:

God doesn't just promise to do things for us in the future; he does things in our lives now.  God doesn't just promise to give us an “inheritance” one day when we die, or in the next “age” of the universe; he gives us a security, a sort of down payment that is part of our lives now.  This plays a triple role: it changes our lives right now, it is the guarantee that there is more to come, and it gives us some idea what the ‘more to come’ is going to be like.

So what is it that we are given now?  Our writer tell us that when we put our hope in Jesus we are given the Holy Spirit.  When we talk about someone’s spirit, we mean their very self, the part of them that is most deeply them, the thing that represents who they really are.  The Holy Spirit is God’s spirit, God’s very self. 

So we are ‘marked’, tattooed if you like, as belonging to God – not by some kind of ink, or some artefact or piece of jewellery, but by God himself being with us. 

This is an astonishing thing to even begin to take in.  More about what it means as we read further!

The Bible: Ephesians 1:13-14

http://www.biblica.com/en-us/bible/online-bible/?translation=niv&book=ephesians&chapter=1 

Mystery

Our lives can be so mundane.  Sometimes we stride through life happy to be in control; but the reality is that we have traded the magic of mystery for power over the ordinary.  At other times we feel the oppression of the commonplace; we long for some secret surprise to be there, waiting for discovery, behind the crushing conventions.

The next sentence in the letter to these first century urbanites speaks to both.  We discover that God, far from being an impersonal force or a mechanistic essence, has intention.  Now that is a mystery worthy of the word.  The world is not just bumping along without purpose, God has plans. 

But knowing that there is someone at work beyond the surface could make us feel excluded and hopeless.  Mystery is only exciting, if I can be part of it, if there is a way for me to catch sight of what is coming.  That is exactly what our writer tell us has happened:

God not only has intention, his will arises out of breadth of knowledge and depth of insight, good judgement and perfect understanding: God is wise.  Out of that wisdom he has not only made plans, but he has opened up the secret to us. 

The overarching plan is “to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth”. 

Imagine that.  We get a glimpse behind the universe. 

Not right now, we can all see that, but “when the times reach their fulfilment” this amazing coming together of everything will happen.  Everything is working towards something wonderful. 

The Bible: Ephesians 1:8-10

http://www.biblica.com/en-us/bible/online-bible/?translation=niv&book=ephesians&chapter=1

The things I am ashamed of ...

I suppose most of us are fairly nice most of the time.  At least we think we are.  But I have things I am ashamed of.  I don’t mean things that I’m embarrassed about … you know, the time I wore the wrong clothes, or the time I said the wrong thing, or when I vomited in my friend’s car.  I mean the things I am ashamed of having done; things that can’t be undone.

Saying something funny and cutting making everyone think I’m clever; but seeing the pain in the person’s eyes made me realise I had been cruel.  Breaking something at work and keeping quiet, but someone else got the blame.  There are these things that don’t make me look bad, but show me that I am bad sometimes.  These things can haunt me.  I have made the world a worse place.

It often isn't seen, but if things are wrong on the inside it makes a difference.

But our letter has good news for us.  The writer tells us that in Jesus we have forgiveness.  Forgiveness?  This is the only way these things can be dealt with.  The One who is there, behind the universe http://outsiders-urbanspirituallife.blogspot.com/2014/10/who-is-there.html , is offering to forgive us for messing up, for hurting the world. 

If I can be forgiven that is something to marvel at.  In fact it says here forgiveness “in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us.”  What a picture of abundance, a profusion of treasure.  The freedom we long for is offered to us.

The Bible: Ephesians 1:7&8

http://www.biblica.com/en-us/bible/online-bible/?translation=niv&book=ephesians&chapter=1 

When my life doesn’t measure up …

I had a friend whose husband bought a small house with a mortgage.  They kept paying but, being poor, they could never keep up the payments.  When her husband died, the house was still not his.  He owed as much as when he started.  There was no money in the family.  Unless someone comes from outside, they will lose the house.  They need someone to redeem the house. 

The same thing happens to rich people, especially in these days of access bonds.  We keep paying, but we keep drawing out.  We can get to retirement and have less house than we started with 40 years before.  We have been unable to redeem the house by paying off enough, and it still belongs to the bank.

When I have really honest moments, I can see that there are some less-than-beautiful things that I think and do.  Perhaps there is something good that I owe the universe, some way of being that is part of what is means to be alive, and I am not getting it right.

If God meant us to be “holy and blameless” (see http://outsiders-urbanspirituallife.blogspot.com/2014/10/blessing.html), why do I find that I have a dark side? Why do we have to be adopted as his children (http://outsiders-urbanspirituallife.blogspot.com/2014/10/being-somebody.html ), why aren’t we automatically his children?

Our letter doesn’t answer these questions!  But it does assume that we experience that life doesn’t measure up, that I don’t get it right.  The writer tells us that God has done something about the dark side.  He gives us more insight into how the adoption works.

He uses the image of something (or someone, in the world of that time with the prevalence of slavery) being bought back.  If a debt is incurred, surety is required and that surety is forfeit until the debt is paid.  Our letter suggests that, just as someone in those days whose debt was too big to pay off was sold as a slave, we ourselves are forfeit.  But a friend or relative can come and buy back the house, or redeem the person who has been enslaved. 

In the same way “we have redemption through his blood”.  God has bought us back, but at great cost.  Now we begin to find out how the “spiritual blessings” (http://outsiders-urbanspirituallife.blogspot.com/2014/10/who-is-there.html ) are related to Jesus.  It is his death, “through his blood”, that has bought our redemption.  We owed our lives and he has bought us.

The Bible: Ephesians 1:7

http://www.biblica.com/en-us/bible/online-bible/?translation=niv&book=ephesians&chapter=1 

Being "somebody"

As we negotiate the labyrinth of urban life with is competitive spirit and dehumanising situations it can feel as though no one values us.  In fact we can find it hard to experience ourselves as valuable.  We long to be treasured.  We need someone to cherish us.

I need someone else to "believe" in me; believing in myself is not enough.

Our letter tells us next that God loves us and because he loves us his intentional plan is that we should be in relationship with him.  In fact we are told that God makes it possible for us to be adopted as his children; he wants us to be that close to him.  There is nothing more cherished than a child.  One can’t be more significant than being God’s child!

In case we think that God might not be the loving kind of parent, the writer tells us that it is “in accordance with his pleasure and will”.  Having us as his children makes God happy.  Making us his children demonstrates “glorious grace” – this plan arises from a magnificent kindness and mercy, not from some kind of selfish desire on God’s part.  More than that, God gives us this grace of being his child “freely”.  The words pile up on each other, expressing the largess of God as he pours his love out to us in adopting us.

These sentences suggest that somehow this adoption is tied up with Jesus.  We don’t know how yet, but adoption is “through Jesus Christ”.  Again, “grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves” … and it will become apparent that this means Jesus. 

The Bible: Ephesians 1:5&6

http://www.biblica.com/en-us/bible/online-bible/?translation=niv&book=ephesians&chapter=1