The Special Offer
Rev. Dr. Mark Porizky
6/25/06
Ephesians 1:15-23
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. In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.
I
have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints,
and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in
my prayers. I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father
of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know
him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the
hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance
among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who
believe, according to the working of his great power. God put this
power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his
right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power
and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also
in the age to come. And he has put all things under his feet and has
made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the
fullness of him who fills all in all.
They
come almost daily. Either over the telephone or through mail, I am routinely
besieged by some type of unsolicited “special offer.” Telephone
solicitors (how do they get around donotcall.gov?), telephone solicitors call to
tell me about the Dish Network…three times last week.
Credit card companies want me to transfer my balance to their "new
low introductory rate."
I am
always called just about the time one of them must peer in my window and says,
“Hey, the Porizkys are having dinner! Call
them!” I don't like to sound
cranky, but I have started retaliating. I hang up on the callers. I write
"Void" on the applications and balance transfer checks, sending the
entire mailing back in their postage paid envelopes.
I
find these special offers annoying because they are intrusive. When they come
via the telephone, they try the too-easy familiarity of using my first name.
Sometimes I am cornered by a mildly flirtatious lilt in a female voice. The
Internet joins the shouting throng of advertisers, with teasing special offers
overflowing my e-mail. Somehow I
have landed on nine (9!) different bike catalog lists.
I’ve never bought anything from seven of them, but everyday I confront
their special offers.
I
have become jaded about most “special offers.”
These offers are great for the moment, but none have ever really
satisfied my soul. Their benefits
are always immediate; I don’t have to pay until next year.
They tell me I can ignore the past, my credit rating doesn’t matter.
And they don’t worry about the future.
Charge it. I can figure out
how to pay for it all later.
And
they must work. These offers
wouldn’t come unless they were working somewhere.
Why is our world so full of special offers?
I think they work because we keep hoping that
the next great offer—a purchase, a vacation, an activity—I think we hope
that such offers will give us a sense of direction when we fear we have lost
sight of where we are going.
As a culture we have become people that might
be called nomads. A nomad is someone on the way but not going anywhere in
particular. Nomadic life is all about movement but we are not moving to
anyplace because we have no goal, no larger purpose.
Nomads schlep through a baffling, nasty
world. We don't want to be pegged to any identity forged in the past and so
trudge onward with no real hope of arriving anyplace in particular. The past is
not remembered, the future isn't worth considering.
If we took the future seriously we would have to pay much more attention
to how we are living in the present. And
so what remains is the present moment in which we can, at best, distract
ourselves.
And so, we buy.
It's no coincidence that in this era (ear-a) of the endless present we are being
offered cable TV packages that include upwards of 500 channels. It's no
coincidence that this era (ear-a) of nomad living is the same time period when
the iPod is so popular because it can hold upwards of 1,000 different songs.
When people lack purpose, they are always
ready for the next great special offer. Nomads
need distractions. So what if it takes the whole evening just to surf through
your 500-channel cable selection, at least you won't have time left to reflect
on life. Despite studies that show that television is NOT a good pre-bedtime
activity for those who struggle to fall asleep, it remains the most popular one.
And if your iPod has 1,000 songs on it, it would take just over three whole days to hear them all. That's more than enough music to keep us from reflecting on life's nastiness and, perhaps, life’s emptiness.
Cable TV.
Yes, it’s nice, but as Josh says, “finally we’ve become like
everyone else!” Is that what I
want? One more going along with the
crowd.
As a Christian committed to Jesus Christ, and
living as his disciple, I don’t want to be one of the crowd.
I don't want to be a nomad. I want to be a pilgrim.
Why? Because
pilgrims know where they are going. Pilgrims know where they’re going because
they have an important past that gives them hope for the future, and enriches
the present. This morning Ephesians
1 is God's Word to us, telling us who we are and what that has to say about how
we walk as pilgrims, rather than nomads, in this life.
We'll begin with what Paul says in verses
11-14. In short order Paul says that as God's people, we were chosen, we were
marked with a seal, and so we have a guaranteed inheritance. Those terms are all
in the past tense. This is history and yet, by the miracle of the Holy Spirit,
this history is never ancient history. Sometimes when someone wants to dismiss
something that happened long ago, he may say something like, "Oh will you
just forget about that now! That’s ancient history."
But the Holy Spirit in us makes the work of
Jesus as up-to-date as anything in the newspaper this morning. Jesus’ life,
death and resurrection are part of your history and my history and our history. We
are in this present moment as the people of God because God so loved this world
that he sent his only begotten Son to die for us. Paul says we were
chosen--chosen by God!
Verse 13 goes on to say that God's choice
means that now we are included, which is another wonderful word. Because
to be excluded is awful. I sometimes think that there is no
scenario more difficult than having a group of three friends. Because you
know how it often goes when there are three of you. Sally, Jane, and Jessica are
all buddies, but some days and for some reason it's all Sally and Jane such that
Jessica is excluded and can only go home and sulk.
In the midst of that sadness, Jessica may
think to herself that she won't ever again do that to anyone. But then the next
day all of a sudden Jane is warming up to Jessica.
Guess what? Even Jessica ends
up doing to poor Sally what had been done to her: exclusion.
Even when we become adults, there is
something about "exclusive clubs" that grates on us. When you're
sitting in the coach section of an airliner with your knees up to your chin
because the person in front of you just reclined his seat, don't you wince just
a little when the flight attendant closes that curtain that separates First
Class from the rest of us flying cattle? Isn't there always something about
"Members Only" lounges that ticks you off a little?
No one likes to feel excluded. Paul says that
because God chose us, we are now included in Christ. We are included in the
kingdom of our God in Christ and no one can ever kick us out, treat us as second
class, or exclude us ever again. And through all of that we have a guaranteed
inheritance. We are going to inherit a life in a kingdom so bright and so
beautiful, we'll never tire of marveling over how wonderful it is.
But a pilgrim does not just know where they
have been. Being a pilgrim is about
now, too. That's why in verse 18, Paul says that he has a prayer for Christian
people everywhere: "I pray that the
eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know the hope to which he
has called you."
The eyes of your heart. That
is becoming one of my favorite phrases. At the center of who you are, you need
open eyes that will help you walk in life not as a blank and aimless nomad but
as a clear-eyed, purposeful pilgrim. They
say that the eyes are the windows on a person's soul. What you see in someone's
eyes tells you so much about what is on the inside of also their hearts.
Do you remember the movie based upon one of the classic Christmas books The Polar Express. As you may know, that movie was the first movie ever fully to translate the movements of live actors into a completely digital, computerized format. Tom Hanks is the star of this film but to transform Mr. Hanks into a digital character, the filmmakers covered his face and his body with motion capture sensors.
So when they did any given scene, Mr. Hanks
wore a body suit covered with sensors that would pick up on every movement of
his arms and legs and then record those in a digital format inside the computer.
His face was also peppered with two dozen
sensor dots. But although this process works well, the special effects people
are left with a challenge: it is impossible to put motion capture sensors onto a
human eyeball. So they had to create the eyes of each character from scratch and
try to make them look very real. This was crucial because it's the eyes that can
make or break how real a digital character looks. If the eyes look glassy or the
least bit vacant, then it won't matter how expressive the rest of the face is.
The eyes tell the story. Paul prays that the
eyes of your heart will be opened and enlightened so that you may
"see" the hope we have, the glorious riches God in Christ has made
available to us.
And so to you my friends, I say again: we are
not nomads but pilgrims. Pilgrims know they are on the road, they know they are
not home yet, they may even feel a certain holy restlessness with life as it is.
But unlike the nomads of contemporary culture who are cynical over everything
and who can do no more in life than be distracted for the moment, pilgrims know
where they have come from. Pilgrims know that the past says everything about who
we are now and who we will be in the future. We are God's chosen ones, so
precious to God that he will eternally include us in Christ and keep steering us
in the direction of the great inheritance he has waiting for us.
Pilgrims do not despair despite having a
clear-eyed ability to acknowledge that there is much in life that is tough, much
in this world that is frightening, much in our society that tempts us to be dour
and cynical. But as pilgrims, we know who we are, we know whose we are, and so
we know we do not travel alone nor are we merely walking in circles. Pilgrims
know they are going someplace and, what's more, it is someplace wonderful.
And as a community of pilgrims we should always remember that you are not alone.
We are all together with you in the community of the church. The
church exists as an extension of God’s special offer, a reminder that we are
all finally one body of believers in the family of God and as a reminder that we
are not in this by ourselves. To be a Christian pilgrim is never to travel
alone. The world can be a lonely place. But if the eyes of your heart are
opened, you know for sure that you are always surrounded by a great cloud of
witnesses and fellow pilgrims. With
the eyes of your heart you can recognize, help and support one another.
Nomads wander aimlessly.
Pilgrims travel purposefully. However,
pilgrims sometimes wander. But life
has a way of reminding them what’s important, of sending them back on the
right road.
Wednesday night.
“Proficient/Stupid.” Bike
accident. Elbow.
Lost summer? Nomad or
pilgrim? More time to reflect.
I am a pilgrim.
I have a past, a story, a promise that fuels me.
I have been given the power the “eyes of the heart.”
I am not looking for the next great special offer.
I am looking to further the
This is God’s special offer.
For me. For you.
Will you pray with me now?
St.
Andrew Presbyterian Church,
Web Site: SAPC-CT.HOME.ATT.NET
Office Email: SAPC-CT@ATT.NET
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