Welcome to our service today.  Join us on Sunday morning at Clevedon at 10 am, or watch the live stream on our YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxBzxjBb3xU8ra2NHwvD_9A(The service can also be viewed at any time afterwards.)

The Reading and Reflection for the service can be found below: 

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus: 2Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. 5 He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace 8 that he lavished on us.

With all wisdom and insight 9 he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, 10as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. 11 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, 12 so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. 13 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; 14 this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.

There is a movie that came out many years ago called 'Babette's Feast.'

It is a Danish movie and won several Oscars.

It tells the story of Babette, who came as a stranger to a very dour village filled with very serious Protestants.

Babette was escaping the bloodshed of the French Revolution, and unbeknown to the villagers, she was a very famous French chef.

To cut a long story short, Babette wins a lottery and uses the money to prepare an extraordinary banquet for this very serious and suspicious congregation.

Although members of the congregation refuse to comment on the earthly pleasures of their meal, we see how Babette's gifts break down their distrust and superstitions, elevating them physically and spiritually.

And we see them, in sharing in this abundance, that old wrongs are forgiven, ancient loves are rekindled, and a sense of redemption of the human spirit settles over the table.

So, think for a moment about a time when you encountered a sense of generosity and abundance.

Have you ever had that experience? Where maybe you didn’t know what to expect and were overwhelmed by the warmth and generosity of your host, wonderful food, great conversation.

Or maybe it was some other moment where an experience captured you unexpectedly, and you felt a sense of well-being, a sense of being loved.

A day, an event, that you thought was going to be pretty straightforward turned into something exceptional.

All Bible readings are exceptional, but this one from Paul’s letter to the churches in Ephesus stands out.

These are words that place the Gospel in the context of the wonders of the universe.

There are phrases that stand out here:

“Before the foundations of the earth.”

“Glorious grace.”

“Gathering up all things.”

“Living in praise and glory.”

So, imagine our reading this morning as our Biblical grand dinner, or amazing unexpected feast.

In fact, in Greek, it is written that way— 14 verses where there are no full stops, commas, no pauses in the language. In its essence, there is a great wave of grace and love and promise and hope.

The point in this text is that it is for you and me to celebrate and enjoy what Christ has done for us.

Sometimes we look at a Biblical text in the same way we might put our eye right up close to a great painting. While it may be important sometimes to have that detail, at times the real glory and understanding only come from standing back.

You have this wonderful inheritance, this assured blessing, so let’s just pause, focus, and celebrate that.

Behind this reading, there is a key principle of faith. And it settles on a decision that we can make for ourselves, and test our views against.

It is what we could call the principle of abundance or poverty.

And the question that comes from this is: do we see the world from the acknowledgement of all that we have, or do we see the world from the position of all that we feel we lack or do not have?

It can sound superficial, but it is a matter that goes to the heart of our faith.

The money I don’t have, the family that hasn’t worked out, the other person who is happier, healthier, more beautiful.

That is the impoverishment view, and it can be a grim, insatiable, and a very hungry presence within us.

But it is a view promoted so heavily in our advertising and on social media. And it often has a devastating effect on our young people and teenagers.

"I am inadequate, not good enough. Not enough friends or clothes, and no matter what I do, I am never going to be like those beautiful people doing those wonderful things that I see on social media." 

But here this morning, that impoverishment view of the world is shattered by Paul. We are challenged, each of us now, to see ourselves as the recipients of a wonderful gift.

11 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, 12so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory.

And just a short note. The word "inheritance" here has more to do with the idea of not just personal inheritance. It’s not like you have just been given Grandma's 50-inch smart TV, but more the idea of inheriting the farm or the business.

It comes with joy but also with a sense of responsibility and challenge. Now that you have inherited this, how are you going to make the most of what you have for the benefit of others as well?

So, simple but critical messages this morning.

God’s promise and assurance are surprising and overwhelming, filling every part of life, and they are based on the promise of being adopted and receiving an extraordinary inheritance.

And the challenge is that with all this promise, and all the assurance of adoption and inheritance, there comes a fundamental shift in the way we see ourselves and others. A view not based on poverty or lack, or comparison with others.

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places ...

I see things now as the recipient of a wonderful and enormous act of blessing.

Finally, in talking about this letter, it can make it sound very intellectual, something that we mainly grapple with in our heads, perhaps.

But that was never Paul’s intention.

Toward the end of his life, Paul was under house arrest in Rome. While he was there, he wrote this letter to the churches surrounding the city of Ephesus.

Paul was talking about bringing unity between groups of people who had disliked, avoided, and feared each other for centuries.

How in the world could Jews live together, in the same community, as brothers and sisters, with Gentiles? 

Another image:

Going out on the ferry sometimes,  you are sitting there minding your own business, and the captain says, ‘’There’s a whale on our starboard bow” – and, after a short pause when people try to figure out what direction they should be looking in, there is almost a collective moment of wonder and joy as people point out and say ‘there it is.’

And for a moment all those differences, all those things that might separate are pushed aside as we encounter and share in something wonderful.

Paul wants the community he is writing to, to come together with that sense of unity that comes from encountering wonder and awe.

He says:

“With all wisdom and insight, 9 he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth."

There is so much language that works to define distinction and difference.

Political views, gender, wealth, race, ethnicity and so on.  And sometimes that is important.

Paul is speaking into those spaces where we have created distance.

And he says "God has a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth."

So, this morning, let’s respond to Paul’s challenge. And commit to a unity based on the claim of a shared inheritance, a commitment to see the world from a place of abundance, and finally, a commitment to witness to our faith, as big as the universe, and established before time.

A certain hope that brings us together in wonder and glory and praise.

AMEN