Today This Scripture Has Been Fulfilled
As I was preparing for this service, it occurred to me that what I really wanted to do this morning was mimic Jesus in the synagogue at Nazareth.
You may remember the story.
Jesus stands up and reads from the prophet Isaiah. Then he sits down and offers what may be the shortest sermon ever preached:
"Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."
That's it.
No three points.
No illustrations.
No stories.
Just one simple declaration.
And I am tempted to do the same thing today. Because today, this scripture from Ephesians has been fulfilled in your hearing.
Nearly enough said.
Today we have been enacting the intent of this scripture in real time.
A few moments ago, eight young people stood before God and this congregation and claimed for themselves the promises that were first spoken over them in baptism.
We watched them remember the waters.
We prayed over them.
We asked God to continue the work already begun in them.
Then we welcomed new members into this congregation. We celebrated their desire to join their lives to ours in worship, service, learning, generosity, and witness.
And in response, all of us renewed our own commitment.
We promised once again to be the church.
To pray.
To nurture.
To encourage.
To walk alongside one another.
And now, in just a few moments, we will gather around Christ's table.
Today this scripture is being fulfilled in our hearing.
Because what we have done is exactly what the writer of Ephesians is praying for.
Ephesians 3 is not really a lesson, a sermon or a letter.
It is a prayer.
The writer bows before God and prays for the church.
Not that they become more successful.
Not that they become more influential.
Not even that they become more knowledgeable.
Instead, the prayer is that they might be strengthened by the Spirit and have the power to comprehend the love of Christ. The power to comprehend.
Praying that we would have the power to comprehend assumes that there is something about God's love that exceeds our current understanding.
It assumes that there is more for us to discover.
More to receive.
More to learn.
More to experience.
The writer is praying that our capacity might grow.
That our hearts might expand.
That our imaginations might stretch.
That we might become capable of receiving more of God's love than we thought possible.
That prayer connects directly to the first baptismal vow we are exploring in this series. Do you renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness, reject the evil powers of this world, and repent of your sin?
When many of us hear the word repentance, we immediately think about guilt. Or shame. Or feeling bad about our mistakes.
Certainly repentance includes honesty about our failures. We cannot tell the whole truth about ourselves without acknowledging where we have fallen short.
But repentance is actually much richer than that.
The Greek word is metanoia.
Literally, it means a change of mind.
A going beyond our current way of thinking.
An expansion of vision.
An opening of possibility.
Repentance is not simply turning away from something.
It is turning toward something larger.
Toward God's perspective.
Toward God's imagination.
Toward God's dream for the world.
In other words, repentance is what happens when we stop insisting that our limited understanding is the whole story and allow God to widen our view.
The problem is not that God's love is too small.
The problem is that our imaginations often are.
We draw circles.
God keeps making them larger.
We decide who belongs.
God keeps widening the welcome.
We decide what is possible.
God keeps surprising us.
We decide who can change.
God keeps creating new life.
The prayer in Ephesians is that we might have the power to comprehend the breadth and length and height and depth of Christ's love.
Not because Christ's love is growing. But because we are.
Today we witnessed that kind of holy expansion.
Our confirmands did not stand up here because they have figured everything out. Quite the opposite.
What they said today was not, "I have all the answers."
What they said was, "I am willing to keep growing."
"I am willing to keep learning."
"I am willing to keep being transformed."
"I am willing to trust that God's love is larger than what I know today."
That is discipleship.
And today’s membership vows are really no different.
None of us joins a church because we have reached the finish line.
We join because we believe God is still at work in us.
We join because we need companions on the journey.
We join because faith is something we practice together.
And so today, as these new members joined this congregation, they were not signing up for certainty.
They were saying yes to growth.
Yes to relationship.
Yes to allowing God to continue expanding their hearts and minds through the life of this community.
And perhaps that brings us to the table.
Because Communion may be one of God's greatest acts of holy imagination.
Every time we gather here, God reminds us that divine love is larger than we thought.
Larger than our failures.
Larger than our fears.
Larger than our divisions.
Larger than our assumptions.
Larger than our ability to comprehend it.
Think about who gathers around this table.
Children and elders.
Lifelong Christians and those still figuring things out.
People full of confidence and people carrying doubt.
People who arrived this morning joyful.
People who arrived exhausted.
People who feel close to God.
People who are struggling to find God at all.
And somehow Christ welcomes all of us.
Every time we come to this table, the circle grows wider.
Every time we come to this table, God expands our vision just a little more.
Every time we come to this table, we discover that grace is larger than we imagined.
Which means perhaps Jesus' famously brief sermon still works today.
Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.
Not because we fully comprehend the love of Christ.
But because we have seen it.
We have seen it in water.
We have seen it in promises.
We have seen it in community.
And in a few moments, we will taste it in bread and cup.
Thanks be to God.
Amen.
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