|
| |
“Rooted and Grounded in Love”
John 6:1-14;
Ephesians 3:14-21; Psalm 14
Rev. Sandy Nuernberg
Oakland-Cambridge Presbyterian Church, Cambridge, WI
17th Sunday in Ordinary Time - 8th
Sunday after Pentecost
July 30, 2006
As many of you know, I am
preparing myself for the last ‘hoop’ I need to jump through, the last required
part of my preparation for ministry in the PC(USA). I am to be examined by our
John Know Presbytery in late August (August 19th) at the Presbyterian
Church in Lodi. And as I review for this oral examination by our pastors nearby,
I am enlightened by everything from my ordination exams to reviewing our church
polity, to re-reading our Book of Confessions and The Book of Order
and all they have to offer.
Reading our text, I feel I am
being rooted and grounded in God’s love, and you and each other are the climax
in this process. Really!! It is present tense; I am being given moral support by
you (rooted) in our church life together, and I am in close association with the
firm principles and foundation (grounded) of the PC(USA), all this through
Christ Jesus! Yet, I also remember that in all of these guides, and they are
that, they are only guidance to our being the people/church that you and I are
called to be, it is all truly, by the grace of God. So, I am rooted and grounded
in the love of Christ and through all of you to finish this process of becoming
a Minister of the Word and Sacrament.
In pondering these texts for our
understanding, I couldn’t get the thoughts of prayer and song out of my mind. We
are picturing a solemn prayer here to the people in early Christian times.
Surely, in Ephesians it is a worshipful prayer; John Calvin, in his
Institutes of the Christian Religion, related that prayer is ‘expanding our
hearts before God.’ Here, the author, not necessarily Paul, is bowing to his
knees before the Father. Historically the Gentiles are here acknowledged,
because they prayed kneeling, but the Jews did not; they stood and with opened
hands, prayed. This is a prayer of acclaiming God as Father, Christ as the love
of God, and the Spirit as the power of God.
We know in the O.T. prayer is
primarily of thanksgiving and lament; we need only to read in the Psalms to know
of these treasures; yet in God’s covenant church, and in the N.T. Christians had
issues of how to pray, they watched Jesus pray ( Luke 3:21, 6:12, Matt.
11:25-27, John17:1-26) and were asked to pray without ceasing (I Thess. 5:17,
Romans 12:12, Eph.6:18, Col. 4:2). Just as Jesus helps the disciples provide
enough food for the 5,000 in all of the Gospels, this prayer for us includes the
many abundances that God provides to us in so many ways; adoration of God
as Father, confession of our weakness of power, thanksgiving that
Christ dwells in our hearts, and supplication in requesting to be filled
with the fullness of God. ( The ACTS of prayer). This is a prayer so powerful
that it is hard to believe the magnitude of God’s love for us.
The two operative words for me here in this
meaningful, precious prayer are ‘through faith (v. 17).’ These Christians in
Ephesus were well-grounded in their faith; but they needed to be told the
abundance and the magnitude of God’s love and grace in all they were and could
be. Also, in their faith, it was a mystery to them, as the magnitude of God’s
love and grace given freely to them/us continues to be a mystery–unknown and
unexplained. We can ask, why can’t we know more clearly? And can God’s love
dwell in us forever?
In our faith practices, in our
scriptures we are told Christ’s love is as vast as the feeding of the
five-thousand, and we pray for the power to comprehend the breadth, length,
height and depth of the love of Christ. I listen to Christian radio going and
coming to Cambridge sometimes and a familiar song came to mind when I thought of
the vastness of Christ’s love for us; it’s called “The Love of Christ” by Point
of Grace, and includes these words, (Sing it Sandy!) “Higher than mountains,
deeper than the ocean, wider than the valleys below”; and it asks, “how high,
how wide, is the love of Christ?” The answer for us is that we don’t know. Only
God knows; and that’s O.K. But we do know that in God’s plan for us we are
assured that we, as God’s people, and the church, the Body of Christ, will be
led day by day, as we are rooted and grounded in God’s love that dwells within
us.
The Greek word for dwell is
katoikein meaning to inhabit, settle, or abide permanently; here it is ‘in
relation to the possession of human beings by God, Christ, the Holy Spirit’ (
Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, p.534 ). It is not temporary,
but stays with us residing within us. Again, music came to my mind in Christ’s
love abiding in us or dwelling constantly in us. Henry Francis Lyte, the
Scottish poet and musician, wrote a wonderful evening hymn we don’t sing too
much anymore, but I love it, “Abide With Me”; it was one of my Mom’s favorites
as we sang songs in the car together on Sunday afternoon rides.
Henry Lyte wrote this song in the
last year of his life in (1847), not knowing its popularity or its intent for
church choirs and worshipers. In his early childhood his Mom told him the love
of God and taught him his prayers at her knee; she read him Bible stories. When
Lyte died, this hymn was sung for the first time, and in Presbyterian fashion,
all eight verses! I especially like the verse of a constant dwelling of Christ’s
love within us:
“Not a brief glance, I beg, a passing word;
But as thou dwellest with thy disciples, Lord,
Familiar, condescending, patient, free,
Come, not to sojourn, but abide with me.”
http://homepage.tinet.ie/~taghmon/histsoc/vol1/3lyte.htm
Through their faith, the disciples
were being rooted and grounded in Christ’s love first-hand, in their viewing the
feeding miracle of Christ Jesus, they discovered, as we do, that the miracle and
mystery of it all is that Jesus Christ meets their/our needs everyday. Jesus is
the host, the One who provides at table and whenever we are in need. It is all
God’s gracious hospitality and all we need do is accept it; there will always be
enough and perhaps leftovers as well!
The good news is that Jesus
answers not to our world’s expectations, but to God’s plan, God’s will for us.
If we can grasp the vastness of Christ’s love for us in its breadth, length, and
height and depth, we know how great a love God has for us. Is this possible for
us? I don’t believe so, but as the mystery of God’s plan is unknowing and yet
revealed to us, through our faith we do know clearly, that we are heirs of God,
through Christ, dwelling in us. It is God’s vast love for us as we together
receive God’s plan–a plan to make God’s wisdom known to us. God is known through
Christ Jesus and the church. Let us become comfortable with God’s miraculous,
yet mysterious plans, as we are rooted and grounded in Christ’s love; “In life
and in death, Lord, Abide with me!”
THIS IS THE WORD
OF THE LORD. THANKS BE TO GOD. AMEN.
|
