Scripture Lesson: Ephesians 3:14-19

Sermon Transcript for May 11, 2008

By Pastor Bob Coleman

I remember the first time I sang that song was serving as pastor at Hagerstown United Methodist. I think it’s a fairly contemporary piece; it was very new at the time. New to me at least! It continues to be a warm, welcoming kind of a song. It sort of prepares us for the message this day, entitling it “The Price of Love”. It’s going to be in somewhat two sections, Part A and Part B. Part A is going to reflect first that this is Mother’s Day but a greater statement about women. What I will be saying, I do not mean to imply that every one is exactly like what I will describe because there are great varieties in God’s creation. I want to also express that right goes to Part B. It will be clearly for all of us without question.

The price of love – “Always do right,” Mark Twain said, “this will gratify some people and astonish the rest.” To do what is right, the price of love is for some without question a joy, privilege, for others clearly a sacrifice. I want us to think for a moment on this Mother’s Day for the mothers, grandmothers, but let us expand it to the significant women in our lives, those who are teachers, sisters. Who are the women who have paid the price of praying for you specifically, not just the price of love in generalities, but praying for you or with you? We all have mothers—biologically that’s the way we come in to this world; God’s planned creation. Or it may be the one who gave us physical birth. Maybe there is one, a woman, who gave us spiritual birth and helped us to come along in that way, maybe legally adoptive or spiritually adoptive as a mother in that sense. They may still be with us physically or they have gone to life to come. They are women who may not fill the typical mother role but they are influential guides, mentors, even like a parent to us.

I want you to think these women in your lives – at least one of them. There are yellow cards you’ll find in the pew rack. And I want you to do two things with this. You’re welcome to write on it. What I want you to do is to take and write the name of at least one woman who has been very influential, a model, one who has guided you. Maybe your mother, maybe a grandmother, maybe someone not related to you but filled that powerful witness in your life. And the second part of that card is to use this as a thanksgiving to God whether you literally give it to that person, write a note of thanks or appreciation, or just carry the message on your heart Think of that woman or women who have done that for you and with you. And I want you to make a pledge using this card. If they are available to you, give them a call or write a card, go visit them. But if they are not any longer in this life, pray to God that God’s spirit and will will enable that person to know what you are thinking, your appreciation, your thanksgiving to God. Give God the praise first but also give God the thanksgiving for what this person, this woman, has done.

John Savage said, “The only people with whom you should try to get even are those who have helped you.” Think about that! The only ones who you should really get even with are the ones who helped you. And the woman or women that you have listed on this card or on your heart, may they be the ones whom you, in a sense, get even with. Pass it on also. The influence that we receive from one person becomes an influence that I believe does come from God and then we pass it on to others.

Robert Frost wrote a poem called, “The Silken Tent”. It’s not the easiest poem to read. I’m going to set it up for you that he is describing a woman. We don’t know whether it is his mother, grandmother, what relationship whatsoever. And interestingly enough, as a metaphor he describes her as a tent. Not the old Army style that we had as boy scouts made out of canvas and heavy and clunky. No, this was a silken tent. Picture with your mind that. A tent out on a warm sunny afternoon with the wind blowing and silk, being a light material, and picking up the lightest little breeze. But tents can not stand on their own. Without something to support they just lie on the ground. So think of the center pole that comes up from the ground above and the tent comes out from there. Now, it’s one thing to have a pole which points to heaven, but it’s another that they are tied down, the tent is, with ropes. And the ropes symbolize the connection with other people. So Robert Frost says:

And its supporting central cedar pole,
That is its pinnacle to heavenward
And signifies the sureness of the soul,
Seems to owe naught to any single cord,
But strictly held by none, is loosely bound
By countless silken ties of love and thought
To every thing on earth the compass round.

The critical connection to God is that pole, but then we are tied with all others. Think of the influence that each of us has and the women that we are thinking of have in our lives. The ropes or ties reach out to family, to friends, to acquaintances, to others with whom we have influence.

And I want to read to you something, two parts, actually that come from a source that when you do searching on the Web be careful what you search of what you will find. And literally, be careful about the bad things that are there but also be surprised at times. I found on a Sikh site, s-i-k-h, a religion of Indian area. I didn’t have to change it much though. The setting I want to read to you in two parts. One is a description of the beauty of women. “The beauty of a woman is not on the clothes that she wears, the figure that she carries or the way that she combs her hair. The beauty of a woman must be seen in her eyes because that’s the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides. The beauty of a woman is not in the facial mode but truly beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul. It is the caring that she lovingly gives, the passion that she shows. And the beauty of a woman with passing years only grows.”

Beautiful women—but it also indicates, of course, an idyllic view. No woman ever fit that all the time. And so I wish not to put an undue burden on all women here today that somehow I believe or expect that you are like that every moment of the day. Because you see, the woman in Robert Frost’s poem has to have the pole that is first of all pointing to and connecting with God. We have to have a vertical connection with God to build upon our faith and to do our work and influence in earnest.

From this very same source there is a story which I have adjusted to fit but not greatly. It’s a story, a metaphor; it’s a fable if you will. It starts out with a young boy who was asking his, “Why are you crying?” “Because I’m a woman,” she told him. “But I don’t understand,” said the little boy. His mom just hugged him and said, “Well, maybe some day you will.” Later on the little boy had the same question on his mind and in his heart so he asked his daddy. Daddy, why does mommy seem to cry for no reason?” “I’m not sure why women cry, (an honest man). Some will cry more than others,” was all his dad would say. Well, the little boy grew up and learned what prayer meant--conversing with God, asking God questions. And as he grew and was able to do so, he finally decided to ask God a question. “God, why do women cry so easily?” God replied, “When I made women in my image I made her to be special. I made her shoulders strong enough to carry the weight of the world yet gentle enough to give comfort. I gave her an inner strength to endure childbirth or to be as a mother those I had given to her and to have the strength to stand the rejection that many times comes from her own children. I gave her a hardness that allows her to keep going when everyone else gives up and take care of her family through sickness and fatigue without complaining. I gave her the wisdom,” God said, “to discern right from wrong and to ferociously protect the innocent. I gave her the sensitivity to love others under any and all circumstances even when they hurt her very badly. This same sensitivity helps her make a child’s hurt feel better and shares in a teenager’s anxieties and fears. If her journey leads her to be a wife, I gave her strength to carry her husband through his faults and fashion her to protect his heart. I also gave her a greater portion of my love for others so they might more clearly see me in her. I gave her the freedom of choice just like you and sometimes by blessed one will stray from the way of her creation. And then I shed a tear for her. A woman’s love at its best is the same love I have for you and for all of my children,” God said, “so I gave her a tear to shed. It’s hers exclusively to use whenever it is needed. It is not her weakness; it’s her strength. For you see, it’s the same tear I shed for my creation, my humankind that I have made in my image.”

Could we be so fortunate to have a clear answer in a prayer like that? To have God say it to us in a first person account? Not as a creation of someone’s mind, but yet it opens a door of understanding that leads us to our passage for today that Paul gives to us. In Ephesians, Chapter 3:14-17, I want you to hear today that this is not just for women but for all of us. It gives us an awareness of the power of what I’ve said already that is available to all of us, that the way and the price of love is the practice of love through prayer; to be connected with God. All of God’s creation at its best—men and women, boys and girls—all of God’s creation is first to be called to pay the price of love in living a life of prayer. Not always the formal prayer but the prayerful attitude of life, a feeling that connects you with God.

For Paul starts in Verse 14 of Ephesians 3 when he says, “For this reason I kneel before the Father from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.” And I thought, “How do you depict that? How do you visually show it?” So I went like this, “For the reason I kneel before the Father from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.” Think of the tent that Robert Frost used to describe the woman. Prayer is a pathway of love. All creation is at best when we are open to and receive God’s spirit through prayer. Like Pentecost!—because that’s the other reason for the day. Pentecost was the time when the disciples were gathered under Christ’s direction. When Jesus left them from this earth He said, “Go and wait for me in Jerusalem.” And they went and through prayer and sharing and communion and the fellowship of being together they waited and they waited until the connection happened. And God’s Spirit came upon them as it is described like a mighty wind rushing and also like the tongue of flame upon them. Paul must have been thinking of that, of that connection from heaven that helps us to see the vision of God’s family but also knowing that’s the family here on earth.

Paul moves on in verse 16 and says, “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his spirit in your inner being.” We all need strength, don’t we? The inner being is the most important part. Now unfortunately, our culture and many other cultures around the world do not hold this in high esteem or give it great credit. The inner strength is translated instead of can you be powerful on the outside? Can you have great influence? Can you accumulate great things? Can you have the power of the military behind you or whichever? We look at high esteem to those people who have made it in the world’s definition. The topmost influential people in the world don’t always include sometimes they do people who have great inner strength. We should do more of that. For what gives us is the strength the world will make into a weakness, less than important, second rate.

But Paul moves on in Verse 17 and says that conclusion of that line that with the power through His Spirit and your inner being “so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” For as Christ dwells in us, as we open the doors to heaven by way of prayer, as we have that connection that points skyward and heavenward, that we learn better that we should not judge others but we judge their actions. We are respectful and show that way of respect by example. We celebrate the accomplishments of others instead of criticizing always. The spiritual dimensions are new when you celebrate someone else’s achievements and on them also. We need to learn to sing to each other instead of shouting at one another. We are to offer solutions instead of whining and complaining, smile at someone who’s getting angry at you instead of meeting their anger with anger. When Christ dwells in us it changes how we respond to others. Not as the world dictates is important, but as God shows us the way. We need to allow Christ’s spirit in us and in you and in me so that we will not be dominated by others but we will not dominate others.

Paul continues in his verse for today, “And I pray that you, being rooted, established in love may have power together with all the saints to grasp how wide and long and high and deep in the love of Christ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” So I want you to visualize for yourself the tent of your life. Is it a central pole that reaches to heaven? That gives you the vertical connection? And are you tied and connected with others like the ropes that give body and shape to a tent? Robert Frost’s poem isn’t just for women; it’s for all of us. For that understanding as Paul says as we reach towards heaven and we see and understand God’s heavenly family and the family here on earth. Then this Pentecost Sunday and this Mother’s Day on this day of prayer we understand that the price that we are to pay for love is the price of being in connection with God which is prayer. Remember again Paul’s opening words, “For this reason I kneel before the Father from whom this whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.”

Let us join together for prayer, “The words may be easy to speak, probably so, but they are difficult to live. When I pray to you, gracious God at this moment, may we be your family here on earth as Grace, as a community of believers, as men and women together seeking to understand the gifts that you have given us, the connection that we have from you open by your coming to us by your spirit like a fresh wind among us, the dance in the flames of your spirit to bring brightness and light to our lives so that we might become your influence for others., Let us stay grounded and rooted. Let us have the spiritual pole of our life reach to heaven and the ties that bind us with all others stretch beyond and out to our family, our friends, our community, your world. This is your connection with us. Let us be your people here on this Pentecost, Mother’s Day, a day when we understand the price of love. Amen.”

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