July 12 Proper 10

Good morning!! Today I’m going to talk about geography, kind of a strange subject for a sermon. And, no, there’s not going to be a test. And it’s not about mountains and rivers, topography. It’s not about states and capitals. It’s a bit more personal than all that—our personal geography.

When someone asks where you are from, what do you say? For many that’s pretty simple, you state where you grew up perhaps. Or if you are traveling you might give the name of your home city or state. When people ask me where I’m from, it’s a little more difficult. It depends on the conversation, who I’m talking to, and discerning whether they want the long answer or the short answer. The somewhat long answer is that I lived in 8 states before I was 10 years old—my dad was a civil engineer in heavy construction and we went where the jobs were: dams, bridges, pipelines and such. Then we moved to Littleton, Colorado, and I spent the remainder of my childhood there. My young adult years were also spent in Colorado, and in 1993 Larry and I moved to Illinois—his home.

The short answer to the question as to where I’m from would be that I grew up in Colorado and moved to Illinois in ’93.

When someone asks you where you live, present tense, it’s easy to get pretty specific isn’t it? Larry and I live at 12806 Mallard Dr., Whittington, Franklin County IL, USA.

When we think about these questions, we do think in terms of geography, don’t we. Physical locations. But I’d like to challenge you to think differently.

Our Epistle today is the opening sentences of St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians—one of my favorite books. It’s in the standard style and form of a 1st century letter. When we write formal letters—probably almost a lost art with the advent of email and text messages, we start by greeting the recipient: Dear so and so, And we end with a salutation and our name, right? They did it a bit differently, starting by naming the author of the letter, in this case Paul who further identifies himself as an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God. And then he notes the recipients: To the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus. Did you hear that? To the saints who are in Ephesus, a geographical location are also in Christ Jesus. In Ephesus and in Jesus.

The phrase “in Christ” is dominant throughout the 6 chapters that make up the letter to the Ephesians. “In Christ” or “in Him” or “in whom” appear over 30 times in this letter, and a third of the occurrences are in the first 14 verses, today’s lessons. We are to live both in a specific place, and in Christ. The Christian faith is to be such a union with the Lord that we actually live in him—he is our home. It is in him that we live and move and have our being. “To live in Christ is to be determined by him. He shapes who we are” (Snodgrass, Klyne. The NIV Application Commentary: Ephesians. Zondervan p. 42). This idea will have implications for our salvation and for our lives in our churches and in our world.

Paul’s letter continues with a doxology, blessing and praising God for all he has done for Jews, for Gentiles, for us. The language is effusive and majestic, building and developing, setting the tone for the rest of the letter. There are so many riches and so much deepness in these 14 verses—just 2 sentences in the original Greek, that it’s impossible to mine the depths in a brief sermon. But since I started with geography, with the idea of being in Christ, we’ll look at a few of the benefits that come with being in Christ.

First of all, God blessed us in Christ to be holy. We are incorporated into the mystical body of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are in Christ, in his body and that’s where we reside. If we live in Christ, that defines us and our lives become more and more determined by the character of Christ. He is our environment. When we sin, we forget where we live. We forget our home—we forget who we are and whose we are. When we live in Christ we are empowered by his spirit, and we live progressively more holy and blameless lives. We tend to focus on Christ being in us, inviting God into our hearts, but the idea of living in Christ is much greater. “If we emphasize only that Christ is in us, we define reality, and Christ is about one inch tall. If we realize we are in Christ, he determines reality and encompasses all that we are” (ibid p.63).

We were chosen in Christ, destined and elected. God chose us first. The initiative is God’s, based on grace. We were destined by God for relationship with him, to be his children. This doesn’t remove individual responsibility, but our actions and decision for Christ are a response to his action towards us. The focus is on God and his grace. And our election is always in and through Christ. The question is not whether one is elect, but whether one is in Christ.

In Christ we are redeemed—we are set free from the bondage of sin through the payment of a price—the blood if Christ. Through Jesus’ sacrificial death he paid for our sins once and for all. In Christ we receive forgiveness. We no longer live under the bondage and tyranny of sin, but because we have been forgiven we live under the Lordship of Christ—we live in Christ. And all this is because of the riches of his grace that he lavished on us. In Christ we are inundated with God’s grace, God’s unbelievable and undeserved acceptance of us. The initiative is God’s and it is in and through Christ Jesus. It is grace upon grace, to the praise of his glorious and amazing and abundant grace.

In Christ we have the revelation of God’s will. In Christ, through the gospel, God’s purpose and work are revealed. The hidden is revealed. The mystery is made known. And God will complete his plan of salvation. The whole universe will be reconciled in Christ as Lord of all. The fulfillment of God’s purposes began with Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, and in the fullness of time all things will be united and reconciled in Christ.

In Christ we are marked with the seal of the Holy Spirit. When we become Christians we receive the Spirit as a deposit or guarantee of our life with God—marked as God’s own forever. The Holy Spirit is the payment of a deposit on our lives, a guarantee that our inheritance of life with God will be delivered.

To summarize, “God blessed us, chose us from eternity, graced us, planned for us, sent Christ for us, revealed to us, will sum up all things in Christ in whom we have a part, gave us the Spirit as a guarantee, and will redeem us as his own people” (ibid 66-7). And all of this is in and through Christ.

For Paul, salvation is not about asking Jesus into your heart so you can go to heaven. It’s about faith in Jesus, but a faith that results in being united with Christ, living in Christ. It’s not about believing facts, about reciting formula for salvation, but about being joined to Christ. Once again, it is in him that we live and move and have our being. He is our home.

When we live in Christ, wrong allegiances and tyrannies lose their power. Jesus is our Lord, establishing our very being. It’s been said that being a Christians is about Being, not Doing. It’s about being determined by our life in Christ. Our geography is that we live in Christ, and are part of Christ. We are not simply individuals, but incorporated into Christ Jesus and will more and more act in accord with who he is. All that we do, good and bad, involves Christ and we are transformed into his likeness. In his letter to the Philippians, Paul says that “he who has begun a good work in you will bring it to completion” (1:6).

Where do you live? What is your geography? What does it means for you to live in ______________ and in Christ. What’s the significance for ________ that you live in Christ? What’s the significance for Jesus Christ that you live in _________? We need to reconcile the place that we live and the Christ in whom we live. How are you called to live in Christ and in ___________? Where do you live?