Get Into Shape
Ephesians 3:20-21, Taught by Pastor Tom Lacey at Church on the Hill, February 11, 2024
We all want to be successful in our lives, but the Lord seeks you to accomplish something with your life. It’s easy to get trapped in urgent matters. We lack confidence to go beyond what we know we can get done. Getting to a place of comfort in life has its advantages. But these are the way people live who don’t live with a deeper commitment to God. It’s okay faith that says I believe so and so two thousand years ago did something extraordinary. Biblical faith however says I believe I can do something today or tomorrow that is out of the ordinary for me here and now.
The Bible tells you to “(t)rust in the LORD with all your heart…. In all your ways acknowledge him, and she shall direct your paths.” There’s nothing here about believing that so-and-so was someone God used in a special way. Trusting God is about where you’re going and what you’re doing. It should be a difference maker in everyday ways, among everyone you meet, at basically all times. But I’m still not saying it right. Trust in God is who we are. It’s not a belief, at least like an opinion that’s really just an opinion. Trust in God shapes us; opinions are things we believe but can also not believe are true. Opinions leave us unchanged. Trust in God gets us into better shape.
This is something Zacchaeus didn’t know he was about to start understanding that day we hear about in the Gospels. When Jesus came to Jericho, Zacchaeus, a very successful tax collector, left his office to see Jesus and listen to him. But because the crowds were too thick and he was too short he had to run ahead of the direction Jesus was going and find his own spot. He found it in a tree he climbed. That’s where Jesus saw him.
You got to know Jesus could recognize in an instant someone whose heart was ready for more, whose life as lived so far was not enough. A rich man up in a tree is a sure indication of a person who still wants to accomplish something for the Lord. Some people might have faith in God, but what they’re lacking is faith in themselves. That day, Zacchaeus realized he was the one who could make the difference.
Someone thinks, “Sure, God wants people who can accomplish things for the kingdom, but I’m not that person.” Or “I used to be that kind of person but after all the stuff I’ve done bad there’s not much good left in me.” Or, “I’d like to be but time has passed me by.”
Excuses are so difficult to see. It’s hard to know when we’re making them. But they all have the same result: We stay right where we’ve been for too long. We don’t reach the blessing we’re seeking; we don’t overcome what’s defeating us; we don’t fulfill what other people and the Lord see in us. Be honest with yourself. Stop making excuses. Agree with someone who is calling on you to take responsibility for something that’s yours.
Even a little bit more honesty and a few less excuses is all God needs to put his power at work within us. Give the Lord an inch of room and you will get a mile of results. Let God have the first step and she will guide you for the thousand-mile journey.
I like the story that happened in a cathedral that was being built. A man stopped to watch some stonemasons do some specialty work. One was chiseling a triangular piece of rock. The observer couldn’t see where that piece was going to go, so he asked the stonemason where he was going to put it. The workman said, “Do you see that little opening up there near the spire? Well, I'm shaping this stone down here, so that it will fit in up there.”
You don’t have to be extraordinary already. The Lord will fit the job for you. You provide the body and mind, the time or talent, prayers or treasure, you provide the ten minutes a day or an hour or so a week, you offer the commitment needed to match the importance of what you’re to accomplish. Let the Lord fit you where you belong. Belong where you fit.
Paul knew this is true. This is why he didn’t give just a little bit of himself. He gave God his whole life. He wrote in Romans, “…present your bodies as a living sacrifice,” the body here meaning 100% commitment to God’s will and work. After all, he was a very rough stone in fact. He didn’t fit at all, honestly. He wanted to break down the early Church not build it. But God has a sense of humor or a sense for the dramatic sometimes. Paul definitely got into shape!
Our reading, Ephesians 3:20-21, said, “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.” In the New International Version, we read: “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”
By the order of the phrasing, the NRSV translation emphasizes “the power at work within us;” and the NIV translation stresses the God who can “do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.” But they both tell us that the power at work within us does more than we can ask or imagine, and what gets done beyond what we ask or imagine comes through God’s power within us. All this accomplishing and power that occurs beyond our will and strength is a testament to God, and so to God should go the glory, and in Christ and the church this glory is to be seen.
What Paul’s really after in our scripture passage is teaching us that God’s power can be at work within us. We’re not just enjoyers of worship, but we’re empowered through our worship. We’re not just hearers of the word; we’re doers of the word.
God’s power is at work not just in certain people who meet certain criteria. There are no limits or only certain groups here. God’s working knows no limitation because of people. This is the Gospel Paul’s talking about, the good news for everyone, no matter where they are on life’s journey, or where they’ve been before. It’s for everyone. In fact, this is the first issue ever in the Church’s life that needed a Council to decide who was in and who was out. Not all that surprising that the inclusivity vs exclusivity issue was the first. We still haven’t finished this one yet, have we?
So, the problem back then was whether Gentile people, Greeks and Romans, actually anyone who wasn’t Jewish, or more to the point, people whose males weren’t circumcised, could be permitted in the Church. The decision to open the Church to non-Jews came about because the Holy Spirit had already come to non-Jews. God led the way on this issue. Since non-circumcised men had already receive the Holy Spirit, why would they need to be circumcised? That’s how they solved the issue and decided for inclusivity. It's how the Church still should decide, and for us at least have decided, such an issue: Since the power of God to do good works—or as Ephesians 3 says, “is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine”—already occurs in everybody, no matter gender, race, sexual orientation, gender identity, or, I dare say, religion, then God says clearly that the Church was always and still is open to all.
We all have things, jobs, to do. But sometimes we don’t rise to the occasion. We don’t believe we fit the bill. The job’s too big or it’s something we’re not comfortable doing. But we also know there is more in us than we have shown so far. Scripture says, “For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” The Lord wants something of real value from you. Your life needs to account for more than what can be done by mere human power. God is willing to invest his own strength and might in you to accomplish things that bring glory to the Lord.
God’s power is at work in us in amazing ways. In other words, there’s more to us than our own strength and labor. Some people have shown this in remarkable, physical ways. In 1982, in Lawrenceville, Georgia, Tony Cavallo was repairing a 1964 Chevrolet Impala automobile from underneath. The vehicle was propped up with jacks, but it fell. Cavallo's mother lifted the car high enough and long enough for two neighbors to replace the jacks and pull Tony from beneath the car. In 2009, in Ottawa, Kansas, 5 ft 7 in, 185 lb Nick Harris lifted a Mercury sedan to help a 6-year-old girl pinned beneath. In 2012, 22-year-old Lauren Kornacki rescued her father after the jack used to prop up his BMW slipped, pinning him under it. Lauren lifted the car, then performed CPR on her father, saving his life.
I know these are all physical acts of superhuman strength, but there’s a direct parallel with the spiritual life that we’re called to live. We can do way more than we think we can. We can become way more than we are already. A church can become more than it is. It does take more to become more. It takes a power that we can’t control, that comes to us. We have the holy power of God in us to do amazing things. Believe it. Find it. Accomplish something for God with it.
A little girl came home from school and said to her mother, "Mommy, today in school I was punished for something I didn't do." The mother exclaimed, "That's terrible! I'm going to have a talk with your teacher about this. By the way, what was it that you didn't do?" "My homework," she replied.
God’s will is not for you to do something amazing and huge in other people’s estimation. God seeks for you accomplish what fits you and your life. The small things first. This is what brings glory to God. Scripture tells us if necessary go climb a tree. Find a way to set your sights on the Lord. Let God know again and again you’re available for a job that fits you.
Because it’s true. God’s mighty power is working within us. We are meant to accomplish beyond what we even ask for and imagine. To God be the glory now and forever, in Christ and the Church.