"I do not cease to give thanks for you"
Ephesians 1:3-6, 15-19a

Sermon at Trinity Episcopal Church – Marble Falls, Texas

2nd Sunday after Christmas -- January 4, 2004

Venerable Canon Masalakulangwa Mabula

Prayer: Day by day Dear Lord, three things I pray: to see you more clearly, Love thee more dearly, Follow thee more nearly Day by day… Amen.

Some years ago Mahatma Gandhi said “I love Christ but not Christians.” He also said “if it were not because of the Christians I would have liked to become a Christian.” What Gandhi says reminds us today to reexamine our ways and ask ourselves what people see in our lives? What do they say when they pray for us? When we look carefully, we soon discover that we create a story in our life. What story is mine and yours? We are at conflict with community, we are at conflict with God’s creation, we are at conflict with ourselves and finally we are at conflict with God. And God says “take away from me the noise of your songs (Amos. 5:23). This is what we technically call an “intra-psychic conflict. With all that in mind, what do people say of us as Christians? Do they thank God for our exemplary life or they say like Gandhi? I pray that our life will always reflect the good news of Jesus Christ.

Saint Paul writing of the Ephesians says: “I cease not to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayer” (Ephesians. 1:16). God loves all of us, better if our life will reflect God’s love. God the giver of wisdom (Ephesians. 1:17), deals with us on the basis of who we are in Christ. Jesus Christ who reveals God to us. Our life is God’s project. Listing our blessings our life demonstrates God’s faithfulness. God brought Jesus Christ because God wanted us to remain connected to Him, to each other, to creation and to ourselves. The Church is a place of connectedness. Disconnectedness is the innermost problem of the intra-psychic conflict, in this type of conflict some of our blessings are stolen. Sin steals peace, joy and love of the world.

John Wesley said: “If you give me only 10 people who hate nothing but sin and who love nothing but God, I will set the world on fire.” If we agree with Wesley and pray like him, when Paul writes a letter to Trinity Church in Marble Falls, he will definitely say, “I cease not to give thanks for you,” because the emphasis of the church community is on following God, loving God and serving God. If you ask God, why do you love Trinity Church? God will continuously say, “I love Trinity Church because I love it.” But if we ask Trinity Church, why should we or why do we love God, our answer is likely to be different from God’s answer. Our answer is, Trinity loves God because God first loved us. How do we know that God loves us? God’s love for us and our love to God is what makes Paul say: “For this reason I, too, having heard of (Trinity’s) faith in the Lord Jesus…, and your love for all the saints, I cease not giving thanks for you.” Faith in Christ is our connection to God. We are a blessed community and for this we have to thank God. Some of us have not discovered how we are blessed.

If we have enough food, clothes, shelter, we are richer than 80 percent of the world population. If we have enough money, we are probably among the top 8 percent of the wealthiest people in the world. If we have come to worship God with more health than illness -- we are favorable than the one million people who are ill and will not survive beyond this week. If we have never experienced the danger of war, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture or the pangs of starvation -- we are ahead of 500 million people in the world. If we can attend this worship service, or any other religion-related meeting, without fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death -- we are favorable. Billions of people in the world cannot worship freely.

It is not hard for us to count our blessings, thanks for family, for friends, for food, for clothing, for cars, for a home, for a job or education, for health, for freedom, for opportunity, and so on. But think about this, if we follow this logic, then it means that if we lack these things, we cannot give thanks. It means we can count our blessings only if we have stuff to count.

However, Paul gives thanks for nothing of material, physical, or of tangible value. Paul writes, “I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, and for this reason I cease not to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers.” Paul is giving constant thanks for things that have no market value at all. Paul gives thanks for the Ephesians’ faith in the Lord Jesus and their love, and service, the language of servant-hood and discipleship.

I mentioned a list of things for which we should give thanks to God, but now Paul makes it very clear that the greatest gift of all is the divine plan. We have been blessed, chosen, adopted, redeemed, and forgiven. We are sealed and made a special family of God. Because of all these good things. Paul gives thanks to God for a Christian living.

Faith + Love = Good. Yes, we can easily believe, but love for others, NO!!! Sometimes we think certain other people are quite unlovable. This is a sign of the intra-psychic conflict. Yes, we believe and we love the Gospel, but loving others like Mr. So and So or Mrs. So and So, God NO! Asked if we are Christians, we reply, “ Oh! Yes, we are!” But we want only to be nice to the nice. We want to love others who are like ourselves.

After Paul gives thanks for the faith and love of the Ephesians, he begins to put an emphasis on wisdom and revelation -- to know the hope that God is calling all the people to keep.

Wise people have said that it is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye. A prayer is attributed to Richard Chichester (1197-1253) who was a man of faith and love: “Day by day o Dear Lord, three things I pray: to see you more clearly, love thee more dearly, and follow thee more nearly, Day by day.” We can make this prayer part of our personal prayer life.

We are now aware of the “intra-psychic conflict.” Will the people praise God, and thank God because of our faith, our love? Paul loves the Gospel because of what God has done in Christ.

We are called sons and daughters of God’s glorious kingdom. We have hope in a world full of darkness. We have the promise of everlasting and abundant life in the loving embrace of God. We have real power to do good in the world. We have to fulfill the mission of the Church. As we extend God’s kingdom let us meditate on the words of Mary Ann Thomson (1834-1901):

The Church’s Mission

O Zion, haste, thy mission high fulfilling,

To tell to all the world that God is Light;

That he who made all nations is not willing

One should fail to know his love and might,

Publish glad tidings: tidings of peace,

Tidings of Jesus, redemption and release.

Will we use our faith and love, wisdom and knowledge to serve God and bear witness to the life-changing good?

Prayer: Dear Lord, three things I pray: to see you more clearly, Love thee more dearly, Follow thee more nearly Day by day… Amen+