May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord. Amen. Grace, mercy and peace are yours from the triune God. Amen.
For those of you who don’t know me, I just want to offer a quick word of introduction. I am Deacon Jessica Thielke, and I am our diocesan administrator, so I work in the far corner of the building. You can find me in that office most mornings, and then I typically work from home in the afternoons. I am a rostered deacon with our communion partners through the ELCA. I assist Fr. Mark once to twice a month at the 8:30am worship service on Sunday mornings. I live with my partner Vahn, and our two dogs, in Fargo. And I truly love being a part of the Gethsemane community. Now, enough about me, let’s dig into our topic for this evening.
We have reached the end of our Lenten journey, where we have been digging into what it means to die and rise with Christ. Had we not been a part of the winter that never seems to end, we would have started our sermon series with Dn. Terry Overbo and her words and insights on being united with Christ in Baptism. Then as the weeks progressed, we heard from Brad Benton on what it means to have life through the Spirit; we heard from The Rev. Toby Rowe on present weakness and resurrected life; and then last week The Rev. Ann Schutz shared wisdom and insight on what it means to offer a ministry of reconciliation. Which then brings us to tonight’s message, where we dig into every spiritual blessing in Christ. Now before you panic thinking I am going to dig into every spiritual blessing, I am not. I am going to stick with our text from Ephesians, and then let you come up with the other spiritual blessings. There are far too many to count and list in a seven minute sermon. Let’s be thankful for that.
In Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus, we get tonight’s theme directly handed to us in the opening verses, verses 3-4: “Blessed by the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.” We have been blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as we were chosen and called heirs, before we were even created. This promise is whispered to us throughout the Scriptures, but here Paul names it. We are called holy and blameless, before Jesus even entered the world. That is how much God loves each and every one of us. Paul then outlines a few different spiritual blessings that I want us to pay attention to:
● Adoption
● Redemption
● Knowledge
● Inheritance
● Seal of the Holy Spirit
These five words and phrases are the start to every spiritual blessing that is out there, and the reason as to why we receive these blessings from our triune God. Before we end our sermon series, I want to break these five blessings down, so we all have a better grasp as to what it truly means to live, die, and rise with Christ.
Adoption: we were destined to be adopted children of God before we were ever even a twinkle in our mothers’ eyes. Before the world began God destined us to be adopted children and heirs of every good and gracious thing. In our biblical text, adoption is also how the Gentiles, those who weren’t born jewish, were able to claim God’s promises. The same holds true for us today. The promises we find in the Bible are ours through adoption.
Redemption: we can claim redemption through Jesus’ blood and the forgiveness of our trespasses through God’s grace. End of story. There is nothing I can add to this one, because God does all the work through God’s grace. We are freed from the bondage of sin. We are redeemed, washed clean, made whole and holy. God’s grace does the work. Thank goodness.
Knowledge: we can see and unravel some (heavy emphasis on the word some) of God’s will. Even if we can’t do it ahead of time, we are able to see and live into God’s will, and understand that God is with us in the middle of the chaos of our lives. And that God’s will is to gather up all things in God, things in heaven and on earth. We have been given this knowledge, that we will be part of that which is gathered up. God will never leave us or forsake us.
Inheritance: this one goes along with adoption. We receive an inheritance because we are God’s adopted and beloved children. Our inheritance is the forgiveness of all our sins and the fact that we rise with Christ. We have eternal life waiting for us, but more than that, we have inherited all of these spiritual blessings already. Today. Not some unknown time in the future, but everything God has to give us we have already received.
Seal of the Holy Spirit: this one is my favorite. We are sealed and marked with the cross of Christ forever. These words are uttered as we baptize those who come to the font. I whispered these words to my niece and nephews as I traced the sign of the cross on their foreheads. There is nothing that can separate you from the love of God, because you have been marked with the cross of Christ. You are sealed. Called. Claimed. Set apart. Made holy. All because the triune God chose you. Loves you. Died for you. And defeated death for you.
We are inheritors of the spiritual blessings, those we talked about tonight and those we have been talking about over the past six weeks. But what I want you to know most, siblings in Christ, is that Jesus called you, claimed you, and loves you. God died for you, but more importantly, God defeated death for you. Rest in the knowledge that you are loved, and will receive every spiritual blessing offered, because God chooses you and marks you with the seal of the Holy Spirit.
Amen
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