During my days as a banker, one of the areas we focused on was that of estate planning. The importance of proper estate planning was made very clear for me one afternoon as I sat down with a customer whose husband had died several months earlier. She came into my office, explained that her husband had passed away, and that she had no idea where to start. He had handled all of the finances, and she was overwhelmed by all she had to do. We started reviewing her accounts, and I began guiding her through the process of consolidating various accounts and talking about ways to move her assets around to where she could maximize her earnings, but also where it would be easier for her to handle.
In the midst of our conversation, she pulled a check out of her purse and said, “I’ve also been carrying this around for a couple of months, and I really don’t know what to do with it.” She handed me a check for several hundred thousand dollars. It was then that I called our trust department.
I felt so sorry for her. She was grieving the death of her husband, overwhelmed by the decisions that lay before her, and at a loss for what to do. I was also stunned, because her husband had done a fairly good job of saving and investing, but he had not organized their finances well and had not done any estate planning, which was now left to his grief-stricken, unprepared wife. A well thought-out and thorough estate plan is one of the best gifts you can give to your spouse and your children, no matter how much or how little you think you have.
In today’s scripture passage, Paul is speaking to estate planning, and specifically, our being heirs to the kingdom. The book of Ephesians has been described as a theological tract or religious meditation, for it is unlike any of the letters we attribute to Paul. It doesn’t have the usual personal greeting, as these thoughts are directed to the Gentiles in general, nor does it address specific questions or circumstances. Paul wrote this while he was in prison, and many see this as a meditative, poetical piece lacking the usual rebuke or argument we’re accustomed to from Paul. What we have in this morning’s passage is Paul’s reflection upon the wander of God making us heirs of the kingdom.
First of all, Paul never thought of himself as having chosen to do God’s work, rather he always thought of God having chosen him. The account of Paul being chosen takes place in the ninth chapter of Acts. Known as Saul, he was a great persecutor of Christians, traveling the countryside to expose them and bring them to justice. On his way to Damascus, he is blinded and hears the Lord ask him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” Through this experience and other circumstances surrounding this trip, Saul is converted to Paul, and becomes one of the greatest first century proponents of Christianity.
While Paul’s conversion is incredible, what holds more wonder for me is the fact that God chose Paul, and for that matter, that he chose any of us in the first place. God certainly could have accomplished his ultimate end much quicker and with a great deal less heartache, had he not chosen us to carry out the process.
These three young ladies that were baptized this morning did not so much choose God, as God chose them. Yes, they held the ultimate decision in whether to submit to God’s choosing them. They could have turned from it, but God has chosen them, just as He has chosen us…with a plan in mind for our lives.
God also chose to use this church, formed in 1773, to serve as the birthing church for our local association. God chose this church as a vehicle of ministry for this community, and each one of you plays a part in that choice. We have been researching and planning and praying for almost two years with regard to the work of our long range planning committee. This Wednesday, they will make the formal recommendation that we adopt the schematic plan that is posted in our vestibule. We have asked that you be in intentional prayer for the past 90 days, that we might discern God’s will in this project.
God made the choice that the local church is his vehicle of hope and mercy, and we gather later this week to share in the discernment of God’s will for this church. This decision isn’t about me, it isn’t about Bert, it isn’t about the committee, but rather it is only about God’s chosen people discerning His perfect will. Remember, we did not so much choose God, as God chose us for a purpose.
Also within God’s choice is the bounty that we enjoy- God’s blessings. Each of us can work hard to acquire skills, achieve a certain position, amass a certain amount of this world’s goods, but we can never attain goodness or peace of mind by ourselves. God chose us, and part of that choice is that He might give unto us those things which He alone can give.
There’s the story of an old mountaineer who had lived a full but not exactly saintly life and now was on his deathbed. He summoned his weeping wife and said, “Sara, go to the fireplace and take out the third stone from the top.” She did as instructed.
“Reach in there,” said her husband, “and bring out what you find.”
Her fingers touched a large Mason jar, and with some effort she pulled it up. The jar was full of cash. “Sara,” said the old man, “when I go, I’m going to take all that money with me. I want you to put that jar up in the attic by the window. I’ll get it as I go by on my way to heaven.”
His wife followed his instructions. That night the old mountaineer died. After the funeral his wife remembered the Mason jar and went to the attic. There was the jar still full of money and by the window. Sara sighed, “Oh, I knew I should have put it in the basement.”
The point is that far too often we look upon the blessing of God’s choosing us, only as the blessing that comes from eternal peace in heaven. I don’t deny or disagree with this blessing, but I feel as though the richest blessing comes from the goodness and peace of mind that we gain through humble obedience to God while here on this earth.
C. H. Spurgeon made the comment, “One reason some saints will have a greater fullness of heaven than others will be that they did more for heaven than others. By God’s grace they were enabled to bring more souls there.”
Those words should cause all of us to reflect. How many people will be in heaven because of us? Our desire should be that when we reach our eternal home, there will be those who will say to us, “I’m so thankful for you. It was your testimony, your life, your involvement in my life that helped shape who I am.”
Hopefully, when Christ says, “Well done my good and faithful servant,” it will be because of the blessing we received from serving him and others here on earth. We do this through the commitment of our talents, time, and tithes. We have to discover what it is we do well. We then have to commit the time to use those talents in service to God, and we have to commit our tithes. Our tithe is not a request from God, but rather a requirement.
The bounty of God having chosen us is not only the blessings that come through eternal peace, but also the blessings that come through the goodness and peace of mind that God alone can give, because of our obedience to Him while we are here.
There was also a purpose in God’s choice- that we be holy. Holy has in it the idea of difference and separation. A temple is holy because it is different from other buildings. The Sabbath is holy because it is different from other days. God is supremely holy because he is so different from us. So, then, God chose the Christian to be different from all other people.
This is the challenge that the modern Church has been very slow to face. In the early Church, the Christian never had any doubt that he must be different from the world; in fact, he knew that he must be so different that the probability was fairly high that the world would kill him and the certainty that the world would hate him. But the tendency in the modern Church has been to play down the difference between the Church and the world.
In effect, we have said to people, “So long as you live a decent, respectable life, it is quite all right to become a Church member and to call yourself a Christian. You don’t need to be so very different from other people.” The truth is, a Christian should be identifiable in the world.
It must always be remembered that this difference on which Christ insists is not one which takes us out of the world, but it makes us different within the world. It should be possible to identify the Christian in the school, in the shop, in the factory, the office, or the hospital ward. The difference is that the Christian behaves not as any human laws compel him to do, but as the law of Christ compels him to do. It is the simple fact that if enough Christians become holy… different, they would revolutionize society.
Whenever Bert and I speak with those who want to be baptized, we speak to them about the beginning of a journey. Baptism is not the culmination of a journey, but the beginning. Becoming a Christian and following Christ into the waters of baptism marks a new birth for each of these three young ladies, and they should be noticeably different in the way they treat their friends, in the way they relate to their siblings, and in the way they approach life.
As a church, we are called to be a beacon of light, hope, justice, and mercy. We are called to be all things to all people in providing love and forgiveness, but we are also called to stand for something. We are called to be holy. This isn’t an elitist statement to say that we’re better than everybody else, but that we’re seen as being different.
Bertoldo de Giovanni is a name most of us don’t recognize. He was the pupil of Donatello, the greatest sculptor of his time, and he was the teacher of Michelangelo, the greatest sculptor of all time. Michelangelo was only 14 years old when he came to Giovanni, but it was already obvious that he was enormously gifted. Giovanni was wise enough to realize that gifted people are often tempted to coast rather than to grow, and therefore he kept trying to pressure his young prodigy to work seriously at his art. One day he came into the studio to find Michelangelo toying with a piece of sculpture far beneath his abilities. Giovanni grabbed a hammer, stomped across the room, and smashed the work into tiny pieces, shouting this unforgettable message, “Michelangelo, talent is cheap; dedication is costly!”
Being a church, being a church member is cheap; being holy is costly. Being a church member is cheap; being holy is costly. 19th Century Scottish theologian John Brown said, “Holiness does not consist in mystic speculations or enthusiastic fervors; it consists in thinking as God thinks, and willing as God wills.”
God has chosen us. God’s choice carries a bounty of blessing. God’s choice requires holiness. My prayer is that these three young ladies take that choice to heart, and that as a congregation we strive to discern God’s will in His having chosen us. We are heirs to the kingdom. How well have we done in our estate planning? Amen.
