A Blessed Inheritance: A Sermon for Proper 10

It’s hard to fully understand and appreciate Paul’s letters when we read them today. That is why I’ve decided to spend so much time focusing on the Epistle lessons this summer. One reason I think that it is hard for us to understand St. Paul is because we take for granted some things that his original audience did not. For example, there were seasons in my life when I was less than faithful in my walk with Christ. But in the midst of my wayward journeys I never questioned whether or not I had a right or access to Christ’s mercy, love, and grace. On the other hand, Paul’s original audience - Gentiles - had to be convinced that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacobs could also be their God. Even though they were Gentiles, they were invited to be full members of God’s family. It seems to go without saying today, but back then and there, it was not an easy sell. 

So one of the primary objectives of this letter that we will be reading from the next few weeks was to convince the Gentile Christians in Ephesus that even though they were not Jewish, they too could be members of the household of God. And even more, the Gentile Christian men did not have to be circumcised to be fully grafted into Christ’s body. 

And what Paul was also trying to do in the opening section of this letter is to remind the Gentile Ephesian Christians that their inheritance was just as legitimate as the Jews’ inheritance. Their Jewish brothers and sisters were members of the household of God - children of Abraham - the minute they were conceived. They didn’t have to do anything except be born - and for the males - to be circumcised on the 8th day of their life. Their inheritance was more ethnic and cultural than it was some sort of choice. So Paul had to convince the Ephesian Gentile Christians that God’s family wasn’t limited to just one race of people. Gentiles also had a rightful claim to God’s inheritance.

Some call it luck, some call it divine providence, but most of us recognize that much of who we are and what we have simply have to do with where, when, and to whom we were born. So, if you were born in Jerusalem prior to the first century, you most likely would be Jewish. If you were born in Ephesus, you most likely would be a Pagan. For most of the world's history, people have inherited their religion, not chosen it. So for the Gentiles in Ephesus to choose a new religion was a radical departure from the norm.

I believe that a large part of why I am a college-educated, healthy, middle-class Episcopalian who pulls for the Florida State Seminoles is because of the household into which I was born. And my inheritance of certain values and privileges was not just from my parents, but from their parents, and the generations that preceded them. 

But St. Paul would say that the Christian faith that I inherited goes deeper and further than a few generations on my family tree. Paul says that God’s hand crafted our stories before the world was created. He told the Ephesians that “[God] chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. [God] destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will…”. Paul goes on to say that “In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory.”

By writing this, Paul is working hard to convince the Gentile Ephesians that their inheritance as children of Abraham, and thus children of God, is every bit as legitimate as the Jews’. And as such, their place in God’s kingdom isn’t earned by following the Law or any other sort of works-righteousness. They - and we - are made righteous through nothing or nobody other than Jesus Christ himself. Paul goes on to write, “In [Jesus] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us.”

Again, as children of the Protestant Reformation who live in the United States, none of what Paul is writing to the Ephesians is really that shocking to us. We’ve heard this sort of thing over and over. Of course we’re included in God’s kingdom. All we have to do is respond in faith to God’s gracious invitation. Of course it doesn’t matter who we are, where or to whom we were born, or what our ethnicity, race, gender, or sexual orientation is. Through Jesus, God offers all of us the forgiveness of our sins and transformative, redemptive new life in Jesus Christ. How privileged we are to be able to say “of course” to these statements. But there are still many people today who haven’t yet heard or embraced this great Good News that in Jesus Christ, all qualify for God’s redemptive mercy, love, and grace.

So today’s letter to the Ephesians is a wonderful reminder for those people throughout history - and still today - who for one reason or another have not been able to say or feel “of course” to the belief that all human beings have access to a heavenly inheritance through Jesus Christ - or as Paul says, access “to the riches of [God’s] grace that [God] lavished on us.”

It’s also a wonderful corrective for those who believe that “the riches of God’s grace” is only for their own tribe - whatever tribe that may be. The bottom line is that this amazing grace that has been “lavished upon” us is - to use Paul’s word - an inheritance. We receive it as a radically generous, unmerited, and unearned gift. 

If you do not believe that to be true for whatever reason - either you haven’t heard it put this way or you haven’t really thought about it much or somebody has told you otherwise, the most important thing for you to take away from this message today is that you too are or are invited to be an adopted child of God through Jesus Christ, “according to the good pleasure of God’s will.” In other words, God wants and intends for it to be so. Paul calls this  “God’s glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.”

If you already believe all of this to be true, I think the most important takeaway from today’s message should be what we are to do with this unspeakably incredible inheritance that has been “freely bestowed upon us in the Beloved.” If you are like me and you no longer need convincing that as a Gentile Christian, you have a rightful - albeit undeserved - claim to the inheritance as a child of God...great! Now our calling is to faithfully, and most importantly - humbly claim our inheritance by loving the Lord our God with all our hearts, souls, and minds, and loving our neighbors as ourselves.