How Many Camels Are You Worth? (Ephesians 3:14-21)

        Elna Baker’s older sister, Tina, was gorgeous.  

Elna was not.

Tina was the kind of woman that, when she walked by, people stopped whatever they were doing and stared in awe at her body.

Elna was the kind of woman that, when she walked by, people stopped whatever they were doing and made rude jokes about her body.

Tina got all the family’s beauty genes.

Elna could never fit into skinny jeans.

In America, every school makes a yearbook every year.  It has pictures of every student and teacher and a summary of the year’s activities.  When the yearbooks come out, all the kids go around signing and writing witty little messages in each other’s yearbooks: “Best friends 4ever,” and “Thanks for the memories,” and stuff like that.  One year, one of the most popular boys in the school wrote a message in Tina’s yearbook: “How come you’re so pretty and Elna isn’t?”  Another boy in Elna’s grade wrote: “I wish your sister looked like you.”

Elna tried to get even.  She left a snarky message in their yearbooks: “You will regret your comment in my sister’s yearbook next year when you beg to go out with me.  Of course, I will refuse.”  Except Elna never got to refuse them because they never asked her, ever.

When Elna was twelve, her family took a trip to Morocco.  When they were walking through an outdoor market, a carpet salesman saw Tina walk by and did the standard stop-whatever-you’re-doing-and-stare-at-Tina thing.  Then, he caught up to the family and said with his face all aglow: “Your daughter is the most beautiful creature on earth.  I will give you 1,000 camels for her.”  

Her parents smiled and said, “No thanks.”  

Then the man, looked at Elna, and his face changed.  He said, half walking away, “I’ll give you 100 camels for her.”

At the young age of 12, Elna processed this moment and said to herself, “There is a 900 camel difference between my sister and me.”  

More than a decade later, telling her story in Elle Magazine, Elna said, “The rest of my life can be described as a pursuit to be worth more camels.”  Despite love from her parents and the constant message from her church that her body is “a temple of the Holy Spirit,” the world was beating another message into her: because of the way she looked, she was worth less.

Elna’s pursuit to be worth more camels led her to seek her worth in writing, acting, and comedy.  But eventually it also led her to extreme dieting and to radical plastic surgery.  All to be worth more camels.

  

That’s just like us.  What do you do to be worth more camels?  Exercise, work more, get degrees, write papers, pursue awards, horde power, go on dates, dream of dates, travel to all the cool places, make witty Facebook posts, play political games, criticize others?  Where does your pursuit of camels lead you?  How is that working out for you?  Do you like who you are in this pursuit?  Would you recommend your way of life to your kids?  

Ephesians 3:

14 When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, 15 the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. 16 I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. 17 Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. 18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. 19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

20 Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. 21 Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.

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The Call of Grace (Ephesians 3:1-13)

Ladies, imagine that the CEO of Chanell International called you and asked you to be their global beauty representative.  They want you to go all around the world talking to people about beauty and demonstrating beauty principles.

Naturally, you might be surprised.  You would immediately start thinking of all of your faults and weaknesses.  I’m too thick or too thin.  I have too many wrinkles or too many zits.  This part is too big, and this part is too small.

But the Chanell CEO was ready for this.  “First of all,” she says,  “that’s the point.  You are a normal woman.  We are starting an Every Woman Campaign - sending out the message that every woman is beautiful.  No matter your skin type or body shape, every woman is beautiful just as she is.  We deeply believe this, and we want you to help us get the message out.   Secondly, we won’t leave you like we find you.  We’ll connect you with our top nutritionists, fitness coaches, skin experts, and stylists.  After a few months with us, your inner beauty will begin to shine outwardly where everyone can see it.”

How does that sound ladies?  A little intimidating, but pretty exciting right?!

OK, men, I know eye shadow and facials doesn’t really get you excited - at least I hope not.  But how about this?  Imagine that the General Manager of Manchester United called you and made a similar offer: “Hey man, this is your lucky day.  Man-U has chosen you to be our global fitness representative.  We know that people all over the developed world are really putting on weight, and we want to do something about it.  Sports and athleticism are not limited to a few guys with exceptional DNA.  We believe that every human being alive has a natural sports star inside, and we want to prove it through you.  We want you to be our the global face and body of our Every Man Campaign.  You’ll even get to play with Man-U in a few Premier League games.”

Killing our Hostility (Ephesians 2:11-22)

11 Don’t forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders. You were called “uncircumcised heathens” by the Jews, who were proud of their circumcision, even though it affected only their bodies and not their hearts. 12 In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope. 13 But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ.

14 For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. 15 He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new people from the two groups. 16 Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death.

17 He brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from him, and peace to the Jews who were near. 18 Now all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us.

19 So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family. 20 Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. 21 We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord. 22 Through him you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by his Spirit.

We have often read this text when we are talking about our church’s vision of being a multicultural community.  We want to embrace our differences as God brings us together through Christ.  The theological roots for this part of our vision are here in Ephesians 2, so we we have turned to this text again and again for encouragement and inspiration.

But as far as I can remember, before today, we’ve never preached directly on this text.  I expected to do some basic teaching and encouragement about being a multicultural community, breaking down cultural barriers and being one in Christ.  But I kept getting stuck on the middle part of this passage.

• “... he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us.”  What was that wall of hostility?  How did it separate us?
• “He did this by ending the system of the law with its commandments and regulations.”  Wait, huh?  How does ending the system of the law break down walls of hostility?  What is the connection between law and hostility?  And how does ending the system of the law make any difference in reconciliation or peace?
• “... by means of his death on the cross ... our hostility to each other was put to death.”  The Greek here is that Jesus actually “killed the hostility” in his body on the cross.  How does that work?  How does Jesus’ death “kill” our hostility for each other?

Wise Love - Philippians 1:1-11

The church in Philippi began quietly, turned into a roller coaster, and then proceeded into a slow plod of active waiting.  Paul and his missionary team arrived in Philippi and just kind of hung out for a few days.  On the Sabbath, they went to the river bank - a common place of prayer for Jews when the city didn’t have synagogues.  

That’s when the action started to pick up.  A rich business woman, named Lydia became a Christian right there on the spot.  They baptized her right there right then in that river.  Then, being a woman used to getting her way, she insisted that they come and stay in her home.  

Things went on fairly normally for a while.  It seems that Paul continued his normal missionary pattern of preaching at gatherings of Jews and interested gentiles.  But then Paul cast a demon out of a slave girl who told fortunes.  Without her demonic connection to the spirit world, the slave girl lost her fortune telling powers.  Her owners were furious, so they stirred up a riot and got Paul and Silas arrested.  

Then, God rocked the jailhouse with an earthquake and set Paul and Silas free.  Except they didn’t leave.  They stayed to convert the jailer and his whole household.  But the next day, the city officials begged them to leave so they’d stop causing trouble.  After a mob riot, a beating with rods, and a night in jail, Paul and Silas understandably decided it was time to move on to another city.

But that left a group of brand new Christians in Philippi.  They came from all walks of life.  There was Lydia, the elite fashionista ... the unnamed slave girl ... and the jailer who was so limited in job options that he worked in a dungeon babysitting criminals.  This motley crew of baby Christians not only survives but thrives.  

Life's Fast Moving Opportunity - 1 Thessalonians 5

    First of all, I want to thank you for all of your care and support for our family over the past week and a half.  Many of you came to visit us.  Several offered to help or brought us meals.  John David is a blessing, but you have also been a blessing and an encouragement to us.
    Second, I want to let you show you some pictures of the newest member of our family, and this is not John David.  Let me introduce you to Elliana Renae Palmer, or Ella for short.  Ella was born on Tuesday - three weeks early.  Michael and Elizabeth went to our hospital for a check up and were holding her in their arms three hours later.   John David and Ella were born 4 days and 32 minutes apart.  Sarah and Elizabeth were in the same hospital, on the same floor, just across the hall from each other.
    These are special times - full times - full of love and meaning and opportunity.  We couldn’t have planned it like this if we tried.  This was a beautiful, serendipitous blessing.  
    But these days will not last forever.  These moments are passing.  We can only experience them now.  You know what parents say to each other: Cherish these moments.  Before you know it, he’ll be riding a bike.  Blink twice, and she’ll be entering college.  They grow up so fast. 

    This is not far from our text today.  This week, we are finishing our study on 1 Thessalonians, so we’ll read all of chapter 5.  It’s pretty long, so we’ll take it in sections.  Let’s start with just verse 1.

1 Now concerning how and when all this will happen, dear brothers and sisters, we don’t really need to write you.

    You can’t catch it very well in English, but Paul actually uses two different Greek words for time here: chronos and chairos.  Chronos is for the simple progression of time - tick, tock, tick, tock.  One second after another, one hour, one day.  Chronos is the kind of time when you say, “Their plane arrives Friday September 2 at 1:05 pm.” 
    But Chairos is a different kind of time.  Chairos is focused on the quality of time rather than the quantity of time.  Chairos is closer to the idea of an opportunity or when we look back on a particular period in our life and say, “Those were good times.”  Chairos is like that moment of opportunity when there is an opening in a horse race, and the rider has to go fast before it closes.
    To help explain the nature of Chairos, the ancient Greeks depicted Chairos as a young man moving fast, with wings on both his back and feet. He is tipping the scales in one direction for now, right now only.  One scholar explains, “His hair is long in front and bald behind; he must be grasped, if at all, by the fore-lock.”  If you want to catch Chairos, you have to get ahead of it, or it will get away.  ...

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Turning the World Upside Down (1 Thessalonians 1)

For the next five week’s we’ll be walking through a little New Testament book called 1 Thessalonians.  It’s pretty small - just five chapters and only about two pages in my Bible, but it was actually written to a really important city.

Thessalonica (now Thessaloniki) is still the second largest city in Greece, but it is some 2,300 years old.  Around the New Testament times, it was the capital of Macedonia - the northern half of Greece.  And it was rich, very rich.  It had an excellent port, comfortably nestled into the northernmost port of a gulf.  It was also centrally located on the major Roman highway running east and west through the empire.  All of this led to lots of importing and exporting.  They worked hard, and they had lots of cash.

Thessalonians were also very religious.  Like most ancient Greeks and Romans, they worshiped a wide variety of gods.

• Of course, there were the traditional gods of Greek mythology, but the most prominent in Thessalonica were Dionysius and Artemis.  

• Dionysius was the god of wine and ecstasy.  His followers were famous for wild drunken party-parades which “freed” everyone from all their social inhibitions.
• Artemis was worshiped both as goddess of wild animals and goddess of fertility.  

• Thessalonians also adopted two Egyptian gods: Isis and Osiris.

• Isis was the goddess of motherhood, fertility, and magic.  Her statues often showed her nursing a son.  Also known as the Queen of Heaven, she offered salvation and eternal life to all in exchange for humility, confession, and repentance.
• Osiris was Isis’s brother and husband, and he was supposed to be the god of the afterlife and underworld.  Osiris was believed to die every year and be raised from the dead by Isis’s tears.

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