2023 WORLD DAY OF PRAYER
For this reason I too, having heard of
the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you
and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks
for you, while making mention of you in my
prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of
glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in
the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your
heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of
His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance
in the saints, and what is the boundless
greatness of His power toward us who believe. These
are in
accordance with the working of the strength of His might
Ephesians 1:15-19 New American Standa
There is a meme that I’ve
come across on social media. It portrays
a picture of cute little tweetie pie saying his prayers and he prays, “Dear
Lord, so far today, am I doing all right.
I have not gossiped, lost my temper, been greedy, grumpy, nasty,
selfish, or self-indulgent. I have not
whined, complained, cursed or eaten any chocolate. I have charged nothing on my credit card… But I will be getting out of bed in a minute,
and I think that I will really need your help then.”
When we shut ourselves off
from the world it is easy to do the right thing -To be kind and even holy. But God doesn’t want us shut off from the world. We are called to be a part of a community and
we are to be a blessing to the world, to be the hands feet and heart of God in
flesh, making a difference in our communities.
Saint Paul thanks God for a
group of people, the Ephesians, because he has heard of their faith in God and the
love they have for the saints. This
tells us that these people put their faith into action. The saints, refers to other Christians, and
we need to explore this a little further, because those “saints” are you and I,
and the people in our church family.
Ephesus was a center of
travel and commerce. Situated on the Aegean Sea at the mouth of the Cayster
River, the city was one of the greatest seaports of the ancient world. The Christian Ephesian Church was made up of
people of various ethnicities, and here we see similarities between the
Ephesian Church, the Church of Taiwan and our own local Church.
These Ephesian saints were no
more perfect than you and I, and no easier to love than those in our faith
communities. Yet this group of Ephesians,
at that time, had a reputation for their faith and their love for others- and
in particular, other saints – meaning, those in the Christian church. What do you imagine this would look like in
our own community of faith? In the
least, I imagine that there would be prayer support for the concerns of each
other. There would be practical support
for those going through crisis, and there would be many strong friendships,
such that the church was more like a family.
I also imagine that there would be occasions like this… of coming
together to share faith and learn about each other in our broader Christian
context.
The group of saints, loved
and supported by the Ephesian Christian church, included those who were local
and those like Saint Paul who travelled bringing the word of God with clarity
and encouragement.
This is the way we are meant
to be as church. We are meant to be a
people of genuine faith in God, and we prove that faith by our active love for
those in our community and those who belong to our Christian family but live
far away. We are ALL the body of Christ
and if one part is hurting, all the other members of the body ought to be aware
and compensating. I play sport and often
experience injury or aches and pains… if my right leg is in pain, my left will
bare more of the load of my body weight, my back will be affected and my whole
being groans. All of me is involved in
compensating for that injury, or weakness.
The body of Christ in Taiwan,
like the Ephesians, is also a group of various ethnicities and with strengths
and weaknesses and areas of pain. Through our World Day of Prayer, we become
aware and connected. Their needs should
naturally move us to action, and to prayer.
We also give thanks for their faith and love, which exists in their
diversity.
While it seemed like the
Ephesian Church had everything going for them, Saint Paul adds a very important
element to his prayer. Along with his
prayer for them to have wisdom, he prays that the eyese of their heart may be
enlightened, so that they would know what is the hope of God’s calling, and the
riches of the glory of God’s inheritance in the saints.
The hope of our calling, the riches
of the glory of God’s inheritance in the saints, and the boundless greatness of
God’s power towards us who believe…. It
is in knowing and understanding these that we do not become exhausted or
discouraged in our Christian walk.
Knowing the hope we have in God, is what continues to give us strength
and renew us. Understanding that our
community, the faith family, are richly the glory of God, enables us to be
gracious with each other and truly love in the way that God desires.
Many years ago, I read a book
by M. Scott Peck. It talked about stages
of community and the first stage is pseudo community. This may possibly have been where the
Ephesians were at when Saint Paul wrote his letter, commending their faith and
love. When our community is new and we
are bonded by some commonality, there can often be an almost euphoric sense of
love, acceptance and belonging. The
following stages in community are; chaos, emptiness and then TRUE
community. It seems that if a community
can hang in through all that, they will then reap the rewards of a true
community.
Too often, we give up. Things are not going well and we “Jump
Ship”. This is because we don’t
understand the hope of our calling and the riches of the glory in God’s
inheritance in each other. How can true
community happen?
Saint Paul understood that he
was developing a community with an eternal and divine consequence, and for this
community to continue in their faith and love they needed to have a depth in
their understanding. They needed to have
a revelation of their place in Christ – a surety of who they are to God, and
how each other is a precious treasure in the eyes of God, in order to continue
to grow as a loving, faith-filled community.
Saint Paul says it this way;
“That you will know what is the hope of His calling.” That sounds quite straightforward, but what
IS the hope of God’s calling?
Ultimately, we expect that we will one day get to be in heaven, but if
we think that is the only purpose of our faith, we are severely disabling our
church. There is much more to the hope
of God’s calling. Saint Paul is
referring to the hope we have as part of God’s plan for this earth.
Every now and then I meet
people that say, they can’t wait until Jesus comes again - and often, these
people seem to be wonderful, but disconnected people who go to church, but they
are just waiting for Heaven. They are
much like Tweety-pie before he gets out of bed… Their hope is that one day we
will leave this existence and find a better one in heaven. If heaven was all that God intended for us,
then as soon as we become Christians, he could just take us out… but that isn’t
what he does and it isn’t His plan.
We are called by, and we are,
the children of God. As children of the
king, we are part of the family business.
God is in the business of unconditional love, and lavishing that
sacrificial love on people who, probably like us, don’t deserve it… and he
brings us into his Kingdom. God’s desire is for us to grow in his likeness, to
grow in his love and to grow in having a mindset that is also about growing his
Kingdom. We have an inheritance that is
part of the LORDs prayer… Thy Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.
We pray this prayer so often,
but do we realize or understand that God’s Kingdom comes on earth somewhat through
us? And do we realize that this Kingdom
of God is constantly knocking on the door of our Earth, wanting to be a
reality… and it can and is a reality, when we surrender to God and cooperate
with God’s plan for us.
The hope of God’s calling is a
hope to be transformed into who God originally intended us to be and a hope for
our world to be transformed into His Kingdom.
It is a moment-by-moment reality, as we interact with each other in ways
governed by God’s ways. We recognise God’s
Kingdom when we have a correct vision of life, as given to us by God. It is a Kingdom where love and mercy rule.
We are called, as children of
God, to aim for living in the reality of the Kingdom of God. In our own strength and power, it is beyond
us but see, God is the author and perfector of our faith… not us. Therefore we
rest assured in the knowledge that God is working in us, and we are becoming
the community he wants us to be, so long as we remain surrendered to him and
connected to him, constantly being renewed by his Spirit and his word.
It truly is like the Tweety pie
meme… I can be good while I’m asleep or
cut off from temptation, but after that we need divine help. Don’t despair! We have that help. We live in the freedom of knowing that there
is no condemnation for those who are in Christ.
And being aware of our forgiveness we live with grace toward one
another. This truly is the hope we
have. It isn’t just hope in an
afterlife, but hope in this life here and now, that encounters and moments here
and now, can be and will be infused with the Spirit of God.
In the year 2023, we need our
eyes enlightened to know and to see the hope of God. The world desperately needs this hope, and
the world needs the Kingdom of God where the wisdom, love and grace of God is
more than merely proclaimed… but where it is truly lived and experienced. It comes through us when we surrender to the
Kingship of our God and father. May we
surrender to our God our king, in joyful knowledge of the hope we share, as we
continue to grow in faith and love and may His Kingdom come on Earth as it is
in Heaven.
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