A Sermon by Pastor Tom Lacey . . .

ONE DAY AT A TIME

Ephesians 1:3-14, Preached at Congregational Church of Boca Raton, January 6, 2008

A concerned husband goes to see the family doctor and says, "I think my wife is deaf because she never hears me the first time I say something. In fact, I often have to repeat things over and over again." "Well," the doctor replies, "go home and tonight stand about 15 feet from her and say something. If she doesn't reply, move about five feet closer and say it again. Keep doing this so we can get an idea about the severity of her deafness." The husband goes home and does exactly as instructed. He starts off about 15 feet from his wife in the kitchen and as she is chopping some vegetables, he says, "Honey, what's for dinner?" He gets no response. He moves about five feet closer and asks again. No reply. He moves five feet closer. Still no reply. He gets fed up and moves right behind her, about an inch away, and asks again, "Honey, what's for dinner?" She replies, "For the fourth time, vegetable stew!" Life does surprise us, doesn’t it?

Our text is about having a plan. There is nothing like having a plan, sticking to it, and reaping the rewards. There are game plans, emergency and escape plans, business plans, and plans of attack. Political campaigns have plans and strategies and I believe parents need a plan and a basic philosophy in order to do their job. And according to scripture God has a plan: “…he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time….” Now if God needs a plan, then it is guaranteed that we do too. Once, Jesus was asked about a particular fellow who was born blind from birth. The prevailing thought at the time was that such a tragedy would only have occurred as an act of God to punish a sinner, either the parents or I guess the in vitro baby. You can see where thinking in such a way about God can quickly turn troubling. Jesus’ extremely thought-provoking answer turned away from such inhumanity and lead instead to God’s grace “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.” And then for our purposes this morning, we hear Jesus express his game plan: “We must work the works of him who sent me.” This is Christ’s controlling thought. It is his mantra. This is his life’s plan—to do the works of God, the one who sent him. Ephesians 4:1 and 2 tell us that we should “lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience….” So walk worthy of God and follow your faith with works and good deeds. Walk where God would lead and don’t fight against the good the Lord intends for you. The human heart may devise the way, but the Lord directs the steps.” Proverbs 16:9

What we want to see this morning is that today, this first Sunday of 2008, is a good day to get a plan and to execute it.

Now before you think it, let me just tell you that planning on winning the lottery isn’t really a plan. A plan demands action on our part and it requires commitment. You know the thing is plans are funny. Many times we don’t even know we are being directed by one or another. We are motivated to do something and so we organize a larger or smaller part of our lives around it. About three years ago, I decided I was going to learn how to hit a golf ball with a driver, one of those big headed drivers, and hit it straight, which sounds fairly easy to most of you, except to those of us who are afflicted with a humungous slice, like me. In fact, I gave up golf when I was twelve or thirteen after two summers of it because I had decked an elderly woman with one of my massive slice shots as she and her husband were innocently yet foolishly walking up the fairway to my right. One bounce and, smack, the ball hit her in the side of her head. She stood up straight for just a moment and then went down. I ran out there to see the damage and fortunately for me by this time she had gotten to her feet, tears rolling down her cheeks, and was able to call off her 80-year-old husband who wanted to crack me with a couple of good ones himself. The last I saw of them, she was teetering off arm in arm with him back to the clubhouse. So my somewhat subconscious plan was to learn to hit the ball straight before I die—since obviously other people can and why shouldn’t I be able to—or to go down swinging. It took me some two years and several thousand practice balls later, but I can now hit it straight, most of the time.

Of course there have been other less frivolous plans: To learn to preach for example. Yeah, I know. It sounds like I’m doing better with the driver. Anyway, we all have our fun plans and our serious plans, and the important part is to stay committed to them, to get them done. Don’t give up on your plan. Stick to it. Get some help if you need it. Ask God to lead you. But asking God to help is different than expecting God to accomplish. Just expecting God to bless us and then simply wait around for payday is not a plan; it’s a cop out, nor is it faith. In the great hymn, Our God, Our Help in Ages Past, we sing "Sufficient is thine arm alone, and thy defense is sure." God is sufficient for defense against spiritual enemies, like a fortress of protection, but even soldiers inside a fort have to fight to defend themselves. Do not be afraid of the next step. Accept the commitment it takes to make your plan work. Give God a bigger plan on which to work with you and then after all the hard work comes the payoff and God’s blessings.

In our scripture we see God has a plan for all of us. What is so interesting about this is that the plan involves God doing the work. Before this, before Christ, God did something—freed the Israelite slaves from Egypt—and from then on the Jewish people had to do the rest. They had to obey the laws, keep the covenant, and follow the Torah in order to continue to be God’s people. But as we read in Ephesians, we see that God has taken on the fulfillment of all obligations. God has “blessed us in Christ.” “He chose us in Christ … to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children….” “We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of trespasses.” We have even obtained an inheritance, eternal life, the pledge of which is the Holy Spirit within us. Everything is covered. Repeat: Everything. The Lord has even or most importantly taken on “the forgiveness of our trespasses,” which means that God will not only complete the commandments in Christ, but when we break them, God will complete them again, so to speak, redeeming us through the power of Christ’s sacrifice. The law is fulfilled and so is the reconciliation required after the law is broken. This is God’s plan, and it’s a doozy!

What does all this mean, then, you may be asking? Let me put it this way. There is the saying that goes: “When you need to get something done, you’ve got to do it yourself.” This is exactly, precisely the motivation for God’s plan. Look at verse 10 again, where it says, “as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” I’m not going to go into the idea of the fullness of time other than to say that it means at the right time, the special divine time. The more important part is the next phrase: “To gather up all things in him…” When you are responsible for something, the buck stops with you. Right? God is responsible ultimately for his creation. God is responsible for what happens to it, to us, to bringing all things together to a good place, “to gathering up all things in him,” as Paul puts it. Our continual waywardness proved we couldn’t execute our side of God’s original hope for us. Like sheep that go astray, it was awfully tough for us to gather ourselves to get us going in God’s direction. Yet the Lord refused to abandon us. But now in Christ, God has gathered all things to save all things, to perfect all things, to complete all things, all things in heaven and all things on earth. God’s continual love, overcame all opposition and rebellion, so the Lord’s will might be done, to the praise of his glory, to the praise of his goodness. In Christ Jesus, God’s hope for his creation was completed and his plan for us secured.

Plans require sweat. Plans require tears. Plans sometimes require blood. But above all, the really great plans, the really good ones, require love. A childless couple wanted to adopt a little boy. They had visited several adoption agencies and finally found a child that was a match for their family. As they visited with the child, the wife said, 'If you would come and live with us, you could have your own private room, a nice yard with play equipment and all the toys and clothes you could ever want. Would you like to come and live with us?' The little boy hesitated a moment and said, 'No, I don't think so.' The couple was stunned. They felt that they had offered the child everything a child could want. The husband said to the boy, 'We've offered you everything anyone could want. What more do you want?' And of course the child replied, 'I just want someone to love me.'" (Farrell) This boy stuck to his plan, his dream, to get what he needed.

Fact is, what’s in our head, the internal plan and image we have of how to be a parent, is what gets worked out in real life. It’s a good idea for us to double check with our basic thoughts about what it means to be a mom or a dad. Make sure your plan is really the best one. If you are going to be your kid’s best friend, and worry whether or not your child will like you if you discipline him or her, it may be tough to continue to be a parental authority figure in the house. Don’t be confused about your role. The buck stops with you, not with the child who is trying to grow up and being tossed around by all kinds of different pressures. One of the most important aspects of being a parent is to give a direction to your child’s life. Stress what is most important and keep stressing it. The top three that I always think of are school, being considerate and helpful at home, and going to church. Keep homing in on these. Everything else is a privilege. You see, that’s where we can get a bit confused. There are three primary things that children and youth should be doing. They have their duties and responsibilities too. Everything else after doing well in school, being a positive, contributing family member, and going to and participating in church are privileges. Xbox 360, movies, cell phones, ipods, sleepovers, sleeping in late, etc. and etc. are not entitlements. Our children and teenagers get them or get to do them because they have fulfilled their three primary responsibilities first. It sounds so easy, doesn’t it? Huh. But that’s at least a plan, and it always good to have a plan.

  So know now the hope to which God has called you, which God planned for you and has fulfilled for you. Set your heart on obtaining the good riches God has to give to those who lead a life worthy of the Lord Jesus Christ, whose name has been given to you, whose life was given for you, and whose grace continues to save you.  

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