Oak Chapel United Methodist Church

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That's why, when I heard of the solid trust you have in the Master Jesus and your outpouring of love to all the Christians, I couldn't stop thanking God for you -- every time I prayed, I'd think of you and give thanks.  But I do more than thank.  I ask -- ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory -- to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for all Christians, oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him -- endless energy, boundless strength!

    These days when I hear someone promising "endless energy" and "boundless strength,"  I listen up!  That's exactly what I need.  Once I could, as Kipling said, "fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run," but not anymore.  Now I tire.  I used to think it funny when my father fell asleep in a chair.  Now it doesn't seem so amusing.  But here is Paul describing the immensity of the glorious way of life (God) has for all Christians (Older, more literal translations say, "the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints.") -- here is Paul promising "endless energy and boundless strength."  Wow.  It reminded me of Jesus saying, "If you drink the water from this well, you will thirst again, but if you drink my water, you'll never thirst."  For my water will be like a spring inside you, bubbling up into eternal life."  And the woman at the well spoke for all of us, "Sir, give me some of that water!"  An endless source of energy and strength.

    Inheritances are more than bequests.  What is bequeathed comes to us at the end of another's life, and often comes too late to really help us!  What is inherited, on the other hand, benefits (or bedevils) us all through life.  "She inherited her mother's good looks," we say.  Or, "he inherited his father's ill temper."  To say it another way, bequests are gifts that come once in a while, if at all.  Inheritances are the gifts "that keep on giving."  And Paul says he is praying for us to know (with intelligence and discernment) what we have inherited, "the hope to which (God) has called us,…the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints." -- and he lists as part of that inheritance "endless energy and boundless strength."

    Religious faith is directly related to a person's strength and energy.  When we lose faith (or, to use the modern words, "when we are depressed…") -- when we lose faith, we lose strength and energy.  We don't feel like doing anything.  We sleep too much.  We eat too much.  We can't find a reason to live, and can't think why we shouldn't die.  Like Job, we curse the day we were born.  And we can't muster up the energy or strength to do anything.  I've been there.  The big lie today is that life can be lived happily and successfully without faith in God.  That we can somehow find enough meaning and purpose in our secular philosophies to make life worth living.   I have never found that to be so.  This much I think I know: that it is only when we find some meaning, some purpose, outside  ourselves and above ourselves ("a higher power," as the alcoholics say) that we start to heal from our depression (or our addiction, or whatever it is) and regain our strength.  We can't just conjure up energy, but we find energy when we find something worth living for, or maybe even worth dying for.  Part of our glorious inheritance from God is strength and energy, renewed over and over again.  Endless.  Boundless.  That's what Paul is saying here.  It's what Jesus was saying about the living water.  It's what Isaiah had said so many years before: "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, "they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint."  These are good promises to remember when we're faithless and depressed.

    Energy is hard to come by, and easy to waste.  We are better at dissipating energy, than we are at finding it.  They tell me it is very difficult to live in zero ravity.  It sounds lovely, not to be weighed down, but astronauts have to be carefully trained to do it -- and not to expend too much energy doing it!  The toothpaste doesn't stick to the brush, the coffee doesn't stay in the cup.  A tool, or a nut or a bolt drifts away from where it's put.  And, if we're not trained, we can expend far too much strength, and actually exhaust ourselves, chasing after such things and trying to keep ourselves where we want to be.  Today's moral world is a zero gravity world.  Nothing stays put.  Nothing is certain.  There is nothing to hold on to.  And, if we're not trained in our faith and certain where we want to be, we will use up all our energy chasing floaters.  This is not the same as depression, or faithlessness, which sucks the energy out of us for lack of meaning and purpose.  This is wasting the energy God gives us (maybe even with enthusiasm), not using intelligence and discernment. This is throwing ourselves into a world without sign posts, and trying to go every which direction at the same time.  Either way we end up exhausted, with little to show for our efforts.

    Whenever God sends an invitation there is an R.S.V.P. at the bottom.  He invites you, today, at this communion table, to accept the glorious inheritance he has prepared for you in Jesus Christ -- which includes, among many blessings, endless energy and boundless strength.  If you accept his invitation, and come to the party (which is the Kingdom of God), you will know, without a doubt, that there is reason to live.  You will know where your energy is well spent and where it is wasted.  But there is a price to pay.  Your old self has to die before you can come in.  He wants to hear back from you.  Which will it be?  A faith that keeps renewing itself, and renewing you (like a spring bubbling up inside), or the stale water of this world, which just leads to more thirst?  Let's not kid ourselves.  We can't really come to the party and not come at the same time.  That's a luxury God won't permit.  Because it's a lie, and the most pernicious lie of all: that we can be loyal citizens of God's Kingdom and of this world at the same time.  We have to decide.  We can accept the invitation or regret it, and (if we choose the latter) great will be our regrets.  I urge you today to write back to God saying you will come.