Sermons from Moorpark Presbyterian Church

Make a Moment With God

by Dave Wilkinson

Ephesians 1:17-19

April 1, 2001

I like the story about the two old ladies who were sitting on the front porch one summer evening. One was listening to the crickets chirp. The other was listening to a choir rehearsing in a church across the street. The second lady exclaimed to the first lady, "Isn't that heavenly music." "Yes," agreed the first woman. "And I understand they do it by rubbing their legs together."

It all depends on what you hear.

This week our worship and small group emphasis is on "Making a Moment with God." The goal is to learn how to lift our eyes beyond the day to day or the surface appearance of things in order to experience the abundant life that Jesus says He came to give.

This is what Paul talks about in Ephesians 1 where he prays that we will hear and respond to the Holy Spirit as He ministers to us with two very special gifts -- a spirit of wisdom and a spirit of revelation in the knowledge of God. In verse 18 Paul says, "I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened."

That's a very interesting phrase. What would it be like if your heart had eyes?

Well, in a crassly literal sense, you would have a great view of your lungs and liver. If they were placed right, you might even be able to see the stomach. Imagine what a help this would be for doctors --"How does your ulcer look today, Bob?"

Of course this is not to be taken that literally. What Paul means is that there are things the eyes of our heads don't always see. We need another set of eyes, especially sensitized by God, to see as He sees. The eyes of the heart are inner eyes -- eyes that are able to see to the center of a situation beyond the surface, day to day, same ol', same ol' appearance. Paul implies that we naturally have these eyes but that they have been dimmed by separation from God. His prayer is that they will once again be enlightened. Then we will see the same old things in new and exciting ways.

Let me give an example of what this might be like when it happens. It comes from a friend of ours -- Miji Working who spoke several years ago at our Women's Retreat. I believe she may have told this story then but it's well worth hearing again.

I worked with Miji and her husband Ken at Bel Air Presbyterian Church when I was in seminary. Ken, of course is now the Executive of our Presbytery and Miji is now the Interim Associate at Montecito.

With two boys of their own, Miji and Ken decided to adopt some "unadoptable boys" -- boys with serious handicaps. It was not easy with three more boys in the family. In fact, she said, she sometimes doubted her sanity.

They worked closely with an agency that specialized in finding homes for hard to place kids. One day she got a call asking them to take, on a temporary basis, another boy who desperately needed a home atmosphere. He was developing an extremely bad temper and needed to get into a home as soon as possible. His handicap was a seriously cleft palate which disfigured his face. Miji said yes -- for some reason -- and went the next day to get him. But she had second thoughts. She was upset about one of the boys at home and didn't want to have to deal with still another ill tempered young boy. As she sat waiting a woman walked in with a child who was peaking over her shoulder. Only the eyes were visible and Miji said, "Lord, if only you could give me a child like that. Those eyes are the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen." Of course, that was her boy. As soon as he pulled up straight, she saw his face and knew. But the experience of seeing only his eyes had changed her. For a moment God had let her see with a different set of eyes, His eyes, the eyes of her heart, and she saw not a difficult child but a lovely, lovable one. The eyes of our hearts see in different ways than the eyes of our heads. And friends, we need that new vision. We need to see ourselves and the world through those eyes that God would enlighten.

Our society is very feeling oriented. The "bible" of many in our society is the Book of Vibrations. In Good Vibrations 2:3 we read, "if it feels good, do it." In Second Vibrations 4:6 we read: "How could God love when I feel so unlovable?" In Warm Fuzzies 6:3 we read: "If it feels good, how could it be wrong?" Now what is so tragic about this state of affairs is that many Christians are buying into this feeling oriented way of living. Their faith is only an extension of their feelings. Subsequently, their faith goes up and down like a roller coaster--their confidence in God depending on how they feel that day.

Paul calls us away from this emotional subjectivism to an objective look through the lit-up eyes of our hearts. What is it that we should see?

First, Paul writes, we will know the "hope of our calling." We should know first of all that we have eternal roots to our lives that we aren't here by accident but were known and loved by God even before the creation of the world.

God has called us to an altogether new life in which we know, love, obey and serve Jesus, enjoy fellowship with Him and with each other, and look beyond present suffering to the glory that will one day be revealed. This is 'the hope to which God has called you.' And Paul prays that our eyes may be open to know it.

Then Paul directs our eyes to a second thing that we need to see. He says that we need to know "what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints."

If God's call points us back to the roots or beginnings of our Christian life, God's inheritance points us to the end -- to that final inheritance which Peter describes as "imperishable, and undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you." For God's children are God's heirs. Paul does not regard it as presumptuous that we should think about our eternal life or even anticipate it with joy and gratitude. On the contrary, he prays that we may 'know it', the "glory" of it -- in fact, the riches of the glory of it. Paul doesn't spare the adjectives.

But Paul also prays that we will have the eyes to see God's action in the present. He prays that we will see the "surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of his might."

Paul really pours on the adjectives here. The Greek in this passage exhausts its ability for any more emphasis on the greatness of the power God is using in our lives. Paul uses four words: power, the Greek word dunamis from which we get the words dynamic and dynamo-- "working," the Greek word energia --strength, the Greek word kratos which we find in such English power words as democratic and autocratic- -and might, the Greek word ischus which has escaped involvement in English but which refers to indwelling rather external strength. All of these are summarized with the words, immeasurable greatness.

What's the point of all this? The point is that we need to have the eyes to see our past, our future and our present if we are going to truly experience the abundant life Jesus came to give.

I read somewhere that a publisher of the London Times named Lord Northcliffe was threatened with complete blindness. Specialists who examined him could not find anything essentially wrong with his eyes and they came to the conclusion that what he needed was the "far look." The constant reading of fine print and the need for close observation had imposed too great a strain on his eyesight. He was told to take a month's vacation in the country away from the printed page and to look at nothing but big, far away things.

That's quite a parable for this passage. We too often need the far look in our Christian lives -- the ability to see the big picture so we don't get so wrapped up in immediate problems that we surrender in a fight that God has already won on our behalf.

And how do we gain this far look? How are the eyes of our heart to be enlightened? Well, it won't come from talking about it. It will only come, as Paul demonstrates, by praying for it. The enlightening of eyes is a gift of God's Spirit -- not a product of our intellect. So rather than talk, let us pray.

"I pray that the eyes of each of our hearts may be enlightened, so that we may know what is the hope of our calling, what are the riches of the glory of our inheritance from God, and what is the surpassing greatness of God's power working in our lives this day." In Jesus' name, Amen.