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Central Lutheran Church - Elk River
Central Lutheran Church - Elk River
We Are the Fullness with Pastor Ryan Braley
What if you lived in a city where magic and amulets were as commonplace as smartphones are today? Journey with us to ancient Ephesus, a vibrant metropolis akin to New York City, where citizens worshipped the goddess Artemis and believed in the mystical powers of charms and amulets. We'll uncover how Paul's mission, as detailed in Acts 19, created ripples in this deeply pagan culture by introducing the revolutionary message of the resurrected Jesus. How do these ancient beliefs stand up against today's scientifically driven worldview? Tune in to see how history and faith intertwine in unexpected ways.
Ever wondered what it truly means to know God beyond just reading about Him? We unravel the meaning of the Greek word "apocalypsis," often misunderstood as "the end of the world," but which actually means an "unveiling." Paul encouraged believers to embrace "epinosis," an intimate and experiential knowledge of Jesus. Think about the difference between knowing scientific facts about the sun and actually feeling its warmth on your skin. We'll also talk about how real experiences, like conducting a funeral for a young girl, bring depth to our understanding of suffering and love. Through these stories, you'll grasp why experiential knowledge is crucial for understanding profound concepts.
Lastly, let's talk about the practicalities of living out faith in today's chaotic world. Addressing the diverse community of Central Lutheran Church, we'll offer messages of grace and peace, reflecting on the varied stages of faith among its members. From those devoted to the faith to those grappling with uncertainty, we'll discuss how seeking wisdom and revelation from God can provide hope and stability. Taking inspiration from the life of Jesus, we'll explore the importance of loving sacrificially, aiding those in need, and maintaining inclusivity. Discover how embodying these values can transform not just individual lives but entire communities, bringing light and hope even in the most challenging times.
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Ephesians. Paul writes this letter to this church in Ephesus. And if you forgot where it is, here's where, oh, by the way, our sermon title this morning is called we Are the Fullness. Paul writes at the end of his sermon or his prayer we Are the Fullness, which I'll get there in a minute. But Paul writes this beautiful letter to this church in Ephesus, which is right here.
Speaker 1:In case you forgot, western Turkey, it's sort of the crown jewel of Asia Minor. It's the third largest city in the empire in its day. This is the Roman Empire and of course Ephesus is this vibrant, thriving, religious metropolis. There's all kinds of pagan worship going on there, Lots of Greek and Roman gods. There's a vibrant and thriving art you know cultural community. There's arts and beauty and lots of luxuries a lot going on there. It's kind of like a modern day or an ancient world version of New York City. There's just a lot happening there.
Speaker 1:And Paul shows up here in the book of Acts Acts chapter 19, and he goes on this missionary journey for about two plus years. You can read about it in Acts 19. And when he's there he makes lots of converts. But it isn't quite so easy because the spiritual climate of Ephesus is not at all like you might think or maybe might expect this. This culture in in Ephesus is, again, it's sort of this mixture of pagan worship, religious affiliation and devotion, but not to Yahweh, which is what Paul is talking about, not to Jesus, and Paul comes here to preach about the resurrected Jesus instead.
Speaker 1:One of the main sort of icons in this city is the temple of Artemis. Here's what it might have looked like back in the day. This is one of the seven wonders of the world. It's beautiful, this ornate, gorgeous temple to the fertility goddess of Artemis and the cult of Artemis. These folks, they worshiped Artemis with all of their heart and their soul. They called her the queen of the universe, the queen of heavens, they called her the Lord and the Savior and they saw her as being powerful, this extremely powerful deity, the goddess of Artemis. They thought she even had power over all the evil forces in the world.
Speaker 1:And the fates? Remember, in the Greek world, the fates were what were driving human activity. It was inescapable, the fate. You and I, according to Greek thinking, had a fate and you couldn't escape it. It was this powerful force that drove your life and you were really at the whim of the fates. You had no power on your own and you were sort of at the whim of the fates. And they were these extremely unseen but powerful forces in our lives that drove our activity. And the Ephesians thought that Artemis was so powerful and strong, she even had power over the fate.
Speaker 1:And now Artemis was big business, remember. They would drop coins there in offering, but they also would make these jewelry pieces, amulets and charms. They would sell these amulets and charms in order to keep away the evil forces and to sort of ask for blessings. They would sell these amulets and charms in order to keep away the evil forces and to sort of ask for blessings. They would wear these, they would rub them, they would hold them in order to kind of to win the favor of the goddess Artemis, and they would make lots of money doing so. The Ephesians were very, very wealthy, but they would wear these amulets and charms to stave off or keep away sicknesses or to keep away curses.
Speaker 1:Many people still do this to this day, maybe not so much in the state of Minnesota, but in a lot of places around the world. You will see folks who wear these charms and amulets to keep the evil forces away or at bay and Paul comes here in this vibrant sort of magical community to talk about the risen Jesus and he says you no longer need these things like amulets and charms because we have the power of the resurrected Jesus in our midst. But this Ephesians culture was very much steeped in this magic. It played a significant role in the Ephesian life. Many folks were accustomed to these spiritual forces and they took them seriously in all their forms, whatever the form was. It was a very magical and mystical place, ephesians, and a lot of the practices revolved around worship of these gods one second, excuse me and these spiritual forces and angels and demons and powers, and and so paul uses this same kind of talking about the powers and principalities.
Speaker 1:But this is a very magical and mystical place, not really at all like our modern Western world. Can you already feel the difference In our modern culture? We're these post-enlightenment, post-scientific revolution people. We love science and data and hard facts. The world seems a bit flatter. Not many of us talk about and by us, maybe you folks do but many of us in our culture don't talk a lot about angels and demons and forces and spirits and magical powers. I mean, we all have that one kind of crazy neighbor who does, you know, but most of us don't. I mean, we don't really believe in these kinds of things necessarily. Maybe around Halloween it sort of comes out a little bit when we're making you know sort of plans for the evening, but generally most of us. Well, there is that occasion too where you're in the basement alone, you turn the lights off, that then you believe in the spirits and the darkness. Right, I mean, there's no atheist in dark basements. Are you with me? We believe in God then and the demons and these kind of things. But generally the world we live in is sort of a disenchanted place.
Speaker 1:In fact, there was this great podcast I just heard by Chris Williamson. Anybody listen to Chris Williamson's podcast called Modern Wisdom? Nobody, oh, my goodness, anybody here listen to podcasts? A couple of people, okay, fair enough, all right, wrong crowd, okay. So anyway, he says he's interviewing Robert Greene. He says, hey, what's the problem with modern philosophy and by modern he means sort of this post-enlightenment, post-scientific revolution? And Robert Greene, this great author, says, you know, I think I have a quote, a quote. He says, hey, so much in our culture seems to have lost its soul, and maybe you can feel it.
Speaker 1:There's like this disenchantment to our world today and one of the things I want to, I'm going to hope for this morning in my prayer, is that our faith would be re-enchanted, that a part of us, maybe, maybe a part of us that believes in these mystical forces still to this day and we pray to an unseen god and the resurrection of jesus christ, that these things that we kind of know. But may they. May they re-enchant our lives and our faith, because the problem with living with a in a disenchanted world is that our faith becomes disenchanted and we go through the motions and we hum drum and we sing songs and we pray prayers without really having this mystical and magical experience with the risen Jesus. Are you with me? My prayer this morning is that as we go through Ephesians, we would think about the place of Ephesus and may our faith that maybe was once this enchanted, magical thing, that it would become more like that, that we'd experience the resurrected Jesus. So Paul opens his letter talking about blessings in this great word anakephali osothi. If you don't know what that means, go back last.
Speaker 1:We can listen to the sermon and then he gives this prayer. Remember, paul is writing to the ephesians. But he's not writing in response to a crisis or an issue exactly. He's writing to this culture steeped in this tradition of magic and sorcery and worship of the goddess artemis and all these crazy things happening, and he gives them this incredible prayer. And in his prayer he highlights a few things. He talks about wisdom and revelation and knowledge and power. Of course he'd talk about these things in this kind of a culture.
Speaker 1:So open your Bibles. I'm going to read from the NIV. But if you open your Bible, turn to whatever page Ephesians 1 is on. I don't know If you've got it. Let me know what page it's on. 490? Say it again 949. Thank you, robin. 949. I'm going to read it in the NIV.
Speaker 1:It's a little bit different probably, but Paul writes this letter and he opens with a prayer for the Ephesians. And here's his prayer Are you ready? Okay, no one's ready. Great, so he says. For this reason, starting in verse 15, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and your love for all the saints, I've not stopped giving thanks for you and I remember you in my prayers. In other words, I mention your names in my prayers. I talk about you to God. In my prayers I keep asking that the Lord, god, the God of Jesus Christ, our glorious Father, may give you a spirit of wisdom. There's that word wisdom and revelation. There's the revelation, so that you may know him better.
Speaker 1:By the way, this again is another one of Paul's infamous run-on sentences. He does not like to use periods. By this point, the scribe was like Paul. We really ought to think about no Another comma. No, paul's like man. The editors are not gonna like this, I don't care. So this is all in the greek. It's one long sentence. It's hilarious.
Speaker 1:So he keeps on writing that you may know him better. I pray also the eyes of your heart may be enlightened. Your heart is not just this emotional thing. In the ancient world, in ancient judaism, the heart was the center of your being. So paul's saying I hope that every part of you is awakened that is enlightened. There's light shined on these parts of your whole existence, not just like your heart that makes you feel love. It's, it's actually everything about you may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which you've been called, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints and and his incomparably great power.
Speaker 1:There's the word power. So when they think of powers, they're thinking of things like Artemis and her power over the fates and the evil forces and these kinds of things. And he's talking about, may you know, the power of God through Jesus Christ. For us who believe, the power is like the working out of his mighty strength which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead. That's power, and see him at his right hand in the heavenly realms. Far above all rule, all authority and power and dominion, even above the temple of Artemis and every title that can be given, not only in this present age but in the age to come. A very Jewish saying and God placed all things under his feet. Which things are placed under the feet of Jesus? All things. This comes from Psalm 8. And appointed him to be the head over everything. He's the head over which things? Yeah, all things, everything For the church. It's the first time Paul mentions the church of him, or the church which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. This is Paul's prayer. I love it. And Paul says may you have wisdom Now.
Speaker 1:In the ancient Jewish tradition, wisdom was a highly coveted thing. It was sought after. Wisdom was his God-given ability to make real-life decisions. So you know you need wisdom today to find your way out of Ikea. You ever been to Ikea? Yeah, it takes wisdom that's real-life, practical knowledge to get out of that place. It's like I need some wisdom out of here. Or you need wisdom to know I shouldn't go onto Amazon at 2 in the morning and buy a bunch of stuff. That's not wisdom. Right, this might be the wrong crowd, but I'm going to try anyway. How about this joke? You need wisdom to know the difference between your social life. Or you need to have balance between your social life and balancing your work life, and then knowing when you can binge watch that Netflix series on TV or your computer. Okay, okay, okay, c plus, maybe C plus. Okay, okay, okay, a c plus, maybe c plus.
Speaker 1:But wisdom is this ancient truth, this depth of understanding that goes back to the creation, in fact the jews, so that it was so, uh, that wisdom was created. First and foremost, that at the outset of the creation, god creates wisdom. So wisdom was there at the creation. I have a picture that I thought you might like this morning. Does anyone know what this picture is called? This is from the Hubble telescope. This is called the pillars of creation. That's what they called it. I don't know which scientist named it, maybe a journalist named it. I love this. This is a very famous picture from the Hubble telescope. It's this wisdom that dates back to the foundations of the creation, this knowledge, understanding. It's like seeing the world the way that god sees it.
Speaker 1:Paul prays that the ephesians would have wisdom and a culture steep with amulets and magic and sorcery and pagan arts and culture and beauty and all these things. May you have wisdom, this depth of understanding, and knowing how to live in the ways and commune with God. The Proverbs said the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord doesn't mean like I'm afraid of God, like I'm sort of afraid of a monster. It's this understanding of who God is the divine, ineffable, immutable thing. God is God and I am not. That's the fear of the Lord. So when you begin to have that posture towards God, it brings wisdom and understanding that God tries to give to Job. Where were you, job, when I hung the moon and the stars, when I held back the waters of chaos and when I tamed Leviathan? That's God and I'm not that, and so that's the beginning of wisdom. The Proverbs say so. Paul asks would you have wisdom? May you understand the world and the culture and the people the way that I understand them. May you have the eyes of God on these matters. And then Paul says may you have revelation.
Speaker 1:Now, when we think of the word revelation, the Greek word is the word apocalypsis, or apocalypse or apocalyptic. Now, when you think of apocalypse, what do you think of? Yeah, the end of the world. Thank you, greta. Most of us think of the end of the world. That's not what Paul's talking about. Now, by the way, I have a slide and I told Olivia I go, olivia find me a funny slide about the end of the world, and here's what she found for me. I don't get it, but let's keep it. I love it. We're going to use it. It's great. We think of the end of the world like the world's on fire. We're all going to die, and that's not what apocalypse means in the Greek. In fact, the book of Revelation is not a book about the end of the world.
Speaker 1:The word apocalypse means unveiling or seeing. It's a pulling back of the curtain. John is taking to the heavenly places in Revelation to see things how they really are. It's revealing. He's seeing what's back there. That's what Revelation is. So Paul says hey, may you have wisdom and this knowledge and this how to behave in the world and this culture. May you have this insight that goes back to creation and see things with it. God sees them. I mean you also have a revealing to see the world the way that it really and truly is. This revelation and here's why I think I have it on the next slide, right, olivia. He says so that you may know Jesus better. Okay, may you have the spirit of wisdom, or a spirit of wisdom in Revelation, so that you may know Jesus better. Now we think of knowledge like knowing God in the Western way, so like our mental grasp of facts and truth and data. This is not what Paul means here.
Speaker 1:The Greek word is the word epinosis, and here's the, here's the. Any Greek scholars in the room? Good, so you wouldn't know if that's right or not. It is right, though. You can check. You can check my notes later, by the way. That's a great point.
Speaker 1:I, if you ever want to know more about what I'm saying and where I get my stuff or my bibliography, I have it. I don't have time to give it every week, but if you're like, hey, where did you find that? Come and ask me. I can tell you there's lots of rabbit holes I could go down, but I don't have time. Anyway, epinosis is the transliteration of this word, and epinosis doesn't mean mentally grasping something with your brain like data or facts.
Speaker 1:Rather, epinosis is an experience. It's knowing something intimately, as in a relationship. This is what it means to know something, to know it intimately. I think I have a slide for that too, right, olivia? Yeah, and so may you know god. He's saying. May you have a knowledge. It's not just knowing God with your mental capacity, your grasping with your brain. Rather, may you have an experience, full knowledge of intimate relationship with this divine God. May you have a deep experience of the risen Jesus in your life daily. Paul says may you know God.
Speaker 1:Now, the sun S-U-N is 4.5 billion years old and it's made up of layers of hydrogen and helium gases. Did you know this? And at the center, at its core, it's where it's the hottest. I've read it's about 15 million degrees and the edges, like the borders, is not solid, like if you were to touch it. It's actually quite nebulous. That's the sun. Do you know the sun? That's the sun. Do you know the sun?
Speaker 1:But if you ever woke up on a chilly morning and walked outside and stood under the sun and felt its rays warm your face, I was camping in colorado this summer and I woke up, it was freezing cold one morning as is the case in Colorado in the mornings a lot. I was like cold, I need to do some stretching, but I'm too cold to move. And I looked over and the sun was just popping up over the mountains Because in the mountains the sun rises and sets in the mountains and I saw the rays come over this part of the trees. I'm like I need to get over there. And I saw the rays come over this part of the trees. I'm like I need to get over there. And I walked over there. I just stood there and the minute I hit the sun, I just I could feel it. Do you feel it?
Speaker 1:You ever felt the sun when you're cold? You ever been burned by the sun? When I was in middle school, I went to this place called Waterworld in Colorado and I didn't wear sunscreen. Stupid, some people got to learn the hard way. Are you with me and I got burned like bad. I had blisters for about a week. It was horrible. Needless to say, I never didn't wear sunscreen again. I never didn't wear sunscreen again. Have you ever eaten a fruit that was grown because of the sun and eaten and tasted its sweet juices? And it tastes like candy. The sun grew that. Or have you ever been in a dark room and you just feel kind of stifled and gross and you open the windows and the sunlight pours in? That's the sun. Do you know the sun?
Speaker 1:If I were to talk about love, I could. I'm talking to you. If I could. Have you ever wanted to stay up all night on the phone just to hear her voice? Have you ever thought I just want to share? I want to share every memory, every moment of my life with you, even the bad parts. Do you know love?
Speaker 1:I remember in seminary we talked a lot about suffering and dying and we read books about it and we had. But nothing prepared me for the first funeral I did for a young girl, a teenager, who died of a brain tumor after we had prayed for her for a long time to be healed, and I sat with her mom and she asked me about her being baptized and nothing prepared me for that kind of knowledge of suffering and dying with her mom. And she asked me about her being baptized. Nothing prepared me for that kind of knowledge of suffering and dying. See, a lot of folks know about God. They can talk to you about scriptures and they took maybe a theology class or two here and there and they can wax eloquent about God, but they don't know God. They've never had an experience with God, the risen Jesus. Paul knew God. He was a Pharisee, he knew all the scriptures, but Paul didn't meet Jesus, the resurrected Christ, until later, much later. And Paul comes to know Jesus. He has this experience with the risen Jesus. He knows Jesus.
Speaker 1:Psalm 34 says this taste and see that God is good. Not go read a bunch of books about it. That's fine. I like books. Not go, leave that up for me. Would you, olivia, please Not go and have lots of theological conversation about God. That's fine too, but the psalmist writes taste. Why would he use that word Taste, taste and see, experience that God is good.
Speaker 1:In 2 Peter, the author writes this Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God. May your knowing and experiencing God, may it lead to grace and peace. May your knowledge of God bring change in your life. May it make you more like Jesus. How about this one? Also in 2 Peter, it says but grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever. He's asking that they might have knowledge of the Lord God. How about this one? We just talked about this book, philemon.
Speaker 1:Paul writes to Philemon about Onesimus. Remember this. He says I pray that your partnership with us in the faith may be effective in deepening your understanding, your knowledge, your epinosis of every good thing that we share for the sake of Christ. Remember, he's appealing to Philemon hey, we're brothers and sisters in Christ. Now Onesimus is no longer your slave. May your knowledge of God, your experience of the risen Jesus, may it change how you see everything and how you experience the world and live in it and move in it. See, knowledge of God for Jews was a devotion to God, obedience to God, living in tune with and communion with God and walking the pathway of righteousness. These kinds of things. This is what it means to know God. A lot of us know about God, but do we know God?
Speaker 1:I think a lot about why I follow Jesus. And I follow Jesus not because I have some mental grasp on all that is God. It's probably impossible to do and some days I have doubts creeping in, like most human beings. But I love Jesus and I follow Jesus because I've experienced him. I've tasted and seen that God is good. I've had a real experience of God. I believe in the resurrection because I think there's lots of really great intellectual reasons to do so and that's great. But I've experienced resurrection life in my own life. I've forgiven enemies and it's gone well for me. I've been forgiven and it's been healing for my soul. I've shared things with people. I've tried to live in tune with these things that Jesus talks about and it's just a great way to live life and it's good. I don't mean that it's free of pain or sorrow, no, but actually in those painful and sorrowful moments it actually is sort of consolation and good to know that God is with me. So I follow Jesus because I've experienced Jesus, not because I read a book about him.
Speaker 1:Here's what I want to do to close. I wrote a prayer for Central. Here's what I want to do to close. I wrote a prayer for Central, I want to read it to you, would that be all right? So I thought Paul wrote a letter. I'm going to write a prayer for you guys, then we're going to sing a song and we're going to give our offerings and then we're going to pray and during the song I want to do a little experiential time together. So I'll explain it when I'm done with my prayer. But here's my prayer for central and I think I think I'm going to email this to everybody. Just you can have it. This is my genuine prayer. I wrote this this week as I thought and prayed for you, and so, in the spirit of Paul's prayer for the Ephesians, here's my prayer for you.
Speaker 1:Dear Central Ryan, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, to all the saints who are part of Central Lutheran Church and are faithful in Christ Jesus, even those who think they don't belong if you're in here and those who don't think they're good enough, even knuckleheads If you're a knucklehead and you snuck in here. This is to you as well. Even those whose faith is hanging on by a very thin thread a lot of days. And even to little Ava and Zachary, who are going to be baptized at the 10 o'clock, gathering in just a little bit, even to those two. Grace and peace to you from our God and Father, of our Savior, lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:Ever since I moved here, arriving back in antiquity in 2006, the pre-cell phone era, I've heard about you and I've seen your faith in Jesus and your genuine desire to follow after him. I know that you don't always seem to know how to follow Jesus. Sometimes it's hard to know what that means or looks like, but your heart is pure and your desires are good. I've seen it and I've not stopped giving thanks to you, holding you up in the light of my prayers many weekday mornings at 9.30 here in the offices, except when I forget or when I have a meeting, or if I'm in my office and I just don't know what time it is that occasionally I'll miss. But I know that things seem absolutely bonkers right now if you turn on the news.
Speaker 1:Our culture feels like it's lost its mind and maybe you feel caught out at sea in the midst of a storm, unsure of which way to paddle, and maybe, even though you're here for worship this morning, maybe you're just not sure what you're doing in life or to what, if anything, god has called you to do or to be, or maybe you just aren't sure of this whole God thing at all. Well, I see you and God sees you. You're going to be okay. And I keep asking that the God of our Lord, jesus Christ, the wonderful and life-giving Father, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation that you will see through all the chaos and the media and the headlines, and the evil and the hatred and the fear-mongering and the confusion that, though you feel stuck out at sea, may you see above the waves and see the world as God sees it. May you have wisdom, knowing and seeing things that are true and have always been true since the beginning of time itself Ancient wisdom, so that you, central Lutheran Church, may know Jesus better.
Speaker 1:And I pray that this knowing of Jesus will not just be with your head, and that's fine. But I pray also that from the deep within my own soul, that we would know Jesus, like we know the feeling of the sun that warms our skin in the mornings, those chilly mornings, and like the sun, may our relationship and experience of Jesus. May it give us life and energy and may it sustain us. And in a hopeless world, may it give us hope for a better tomorrow. May we be filled with this hope in a world that desperately longs for it. And may we, the church, who are filled with god paul goes on to say at the end of that verse, there, that we are the church is the first time he uses that word the body of christ, the actual body of Christ, and we've been filled with the fullness of God, who fills all things.
Speaker 1:Paul writes we're filled with God. Did you know that that's a big deal? So may we, the church, who are filled with God, who fills all things. May we indeed be the hands and feet of Jesus out in the world that's chaotic and broken and going the wrong direction. They don't even know it. May you be the hands and feet of Jesus. May we live like Jesus.
Speaker 1:May our knowing of Jesus also allow us to forgive those who've hurt us, our enemies, to sacrificially love our neighbors or our enemies, to give out of our resources to help people in need, to take care of the sick and the poor, regardless of policy or president, I don't care. May we be like Jesus. May we be a stabilizing force of good in a world of chaos. May we be an us without the them. May we have no them. May our doors always be open. May we be unrelentingly unwilling to demonize other people. May we share the life that Jesus came to bring. May we remember that God is the God of the universe, who tamed Leviathan, held back the waters of chaos and hung. The God of the universe who tamed Leviathan, held back the waters of chaos and hung the moon and the stars, who has power over all the powers, and that God is leading us and guiding us, even now when we feel lost or broken or blinded, and that God is present even in our most difficult times. And may this comfort us, even when the nights seem long and Central. May you know in the deepest parts of your souls you are God's beloved sons and God's beloved daughters. Amen.
Speaker 1:We're going to sing a song and when we do, I'd love you to close your eyes if you're willing to, and picture something. Picture the cross. I would say, picture the cross. I would say, maybe, picture the cross and maintain that image, that symbol in your mind and ask the Spirit to come and give you an experience of the resurrected Jesus. I know this sounds a little bit woo-woo or subjective, I get it, but I invite you to do it anyway, because we live in a world disenchanted, that needs to be re-enchanted, and if God is real and God fills this place, like Paul writes either he is or not then we have access to that kind of an experience with the divine, with God. So close your eyes and for just a couple of minutes, while Diana plays, may you experience Jesus, and I don't know what it will be like, but may you experience the risen Jesus this morning, amen.
