A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at
“ALL THINGS NECESSARY FOR THE JOURNEY”
(Homily text: Ephesians 3: 14 - 21)
“Now to him
who by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all
that we ask or think, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all
generations, for ever and ever. Amen.”
(Ephesians 3: 20 – 21)
This
morning, we continue our journey through St. Paul’s marvelous letter to the
early Church in Ephesus. This letter is
full of wonderful, mind-boggling truths about the great and gracious God we
love. Its statements lift our heads up,
asking us to look beyond the immediate, ordinary cares of everyday life, and to
see God for the majesty that is His. Its
statements ask us to recognize the power that is His as well, a power that is
made available to us in Christ.
The passage
before us this morning has all the hallmarks of St. Paul’s writing
style….Sentence after sentence reveals yet another truth for us to
contemplate. The writing is dense and
complex. Welcome to St. Paul’s literary
world!
Perhaps it
might be best if we approach this text with a common, ordinary image in mind,
an image that can serve as our framework for a consideration of what Paul has
to say to us this morning.
The image
and experience that I have in mind is this one:
Remember back to the first vehicle we were privileged to drive when we
were first licensed. Let’s go back to
that point in life.
If your
experience is anything like mine, I could count the years, months and days
until I turned 15, the age at which (in those days) a person could drive a car
in my state. (I still hear teenagers
tell me how long it will be until they are able to drive…some things don’t
change down through the years.)
That first
vehicle that I drove was a 1957 Buick Special, red-and-white. When my dad
bought it, when it was three years old, he had some reservations about buying
that car, because he thought it might be “too flashy” for us to drive. It was a good-looking car, and it was
powerful, as well: One time, my father
got that car up to 110 miles-per-hour!
When he reached that speed, he looked over at me and said something
like, “Pretty hot car, huh?”
So I knew
what that car could do….its large, V-8, high-compression engine[1]
was capable of generating a lot of power and a lot of speed.
So the time
came when I got my learner’s permit, and learned to drive.
That’s my
image. Can you remember and call to mind
your own experience like this one?
Now hold that
image in mind, and let’s turn to today’s text….
St. Paul’s
prayer for the Ephesians (and for us) is that they may receive the gift of the
vehicle of salvation, that is, Christ Jesus.
In verse 17, he says that he wishes that “Christ may dwell in your
hearts through faith.”
At baptism,
Jesus Christ comes to dwell within us, becoming the vehicle, the means of
working out God’s plans for us as life unfolds.
Having the
vehicle is just the start. Now, we need
to realize that the responsibility for carefully making our way down the road
of life is in our hands. We have our
hands on the wheel.
The next
thing that we’ll need is the fuel that will allow the vehicle move forward
through the coming days and years.
Again, we
return to the image of God the Father, the one who has provided the vehicle of
salvation, Jesus Christ. The fuel that
God provides is the Holy Spirit.
Let’s see
how St. Paul states this reality: He
says that “according to the riches of his (God’s) grace he may grant you (us)
to be strengthened with might through His spirit in the inner man.” (Verse 16)
Essentially,
Paul is reminding us that it is the Holy Spirit that provides the power for the
vehicle of salvation, so that it may negotiate the ways of life which lie
ahead.
Reviewing
what we’ve considered thus far, we can see that:
·
God the
Father is the provider of all things,
·
He provides the vehicle of salvation, Jesus
Christ,
·
He puts us in the driver’s seat of that vehicle
at baptism,
·
He provides the means to allow us to move
forward through life, through the gift of the Holy Spirit.
With all of
these things in place, we are now ready to consider the impact of all of these
necessary parts of the journey of faith. And as we do, we return to the image of the
vehicle, the driver and the fuel that makes everything move….
Recall your
experience as a young driver….If you were like me, perhaps the things we thought about were the immediate
benefits that we realized once we could set our bicycles aside and get behind
the wheel of a car. We could drive to
school, to the store, to the bank, to the movies, to church. We could go for joy rides or just tour the
countryside. We could load up the car
and head off for vacation.
All of
these things were benefits to us, the operators of the cars.
But,
perhaps as the years went by, we also realized how much of a broader impact our
driving had on others in the community.
For example, when we drove, we bought fuel which kept the gas station
and the oil industry in business, and that, in turn, offered employment to many
people. Our driving helped and shaped
the local economy as we went shopping.
In due time, perhaps it became our task to carry our parents or
grandparents to medical appointments, so that their quality of life was
improved and protected.
Just a
little bit of reflection might turn up all sorts of ways in which our travels
impacted others.
What is
true in the physical world of operating a vehicle is also true in the spiritual
journey we are taking….
St. Paul
reminds us of the greater and bigger picture as he says that he hopes that we
“may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and
length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses
knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Verses 18 –
19)
As we make
our journey from the baptismal font forward, the Holy Spirit’s presence changes
the way we live, and the way we love.
Our love for God grows and matures, and we begin to grasp what is the
breadth, the length, the height and the depth of God. As others see us, they too, catch a glimpse
of all those things, as well. In the
process, the course of our journey changes, and theirs does, too.
And along
the way, God’s power, which is at work within us, proves to be able to do far
more abundantly than we can ask or imagine.
Thanks be
to God!
AMEN.
[1] It had a 364 cubic inch (CID) engine…in
modern terms, that’s 6.0 litre engine.
It had a compression ratio of 10-to-1, requiring high test gasoline.
