Ephesians 2:8-10, 19-22A Beautiful Life

Sermon preached May 31, 2015

Opening

Tuesday night, I rented and got dressed up in a tuxedo for a meeting of our Presbytery.For those of you who dont speak Presbyterian, thats our local district, about 55 churchesand their pastors.

Before the meeting, I put the thing on, checked myself out in the mirror - and I must say, Ilooked sharp, looked like I was ready for dinner at Downton Abbey. Karl Shreiner andScott Wiley and I rode together to the meeting, and they were awestruck by myappearance.

I dressed up in the tux as sort of a gag, to make a point, about the importance ofwelcoming people to our churches and so when I got to the meeting I went aroundwelcoming people - got a lot of strange looks, who is this peculiar man dressed up likeformal night on a cruise? - then stood by the door and welcomed people as they came in -and then at the very end of the meeting I stood up and explained what I was doing - that Ihad dressed up and greeted people to illustrate the importance of churches welcomingpeople, and then made my pitch for the church hospitality workshop the Presbytery ishoisting at Central the end of September.

Even though the cummerbund kept slipping down and the pants were too loose and thecollar and tie itched and I was too hot wearing that tux during the meeting, I have toadmit, I kind of liked it, I felt, somehow, elegant and dignified, daresay it, I felt -beautiful.

Thesis - God seeks to make us beautiful

With our reading from Ephesians we waded into the deep end of the pool. Amazing stuffin this letter. And were going to focus down on one idea that Paul puts forth in vs. 10 -we are Gods workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God preparedbeforehand, that we should walk in them.

Workmanship - the Greek word behind this is poeima - in ancient Greek it most oftenwas used for Gods creative work - his making the universe and his making of individualhuman beings; in the New Testament it most often refers to Gods work in healing andsaving us - but very interestingly, the word is also is used for an artists creativeworkmanship. What this suggests, when Paul says we are Gods workmanship, is thatwe are created by God, for sure, but even more - that God is an artist, and we are worksof his creative genius.

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Maybe youve thought about God as an artist. How could we not, with the beauty of theworld all around us?

The works of God -

A cheetah in full pursuit of a gazelle...The sun coming up over the ocean over the Outer Banks...The face of a six-month old when she is laughing...The faint band of the Milky Way stretching across the sky on a pitch-black night...

Its like beauty spills out of God, its everywhere - the beauty of creation, the beauty ofmusic, the beauty of mathematics...if there is a single thread to be found at every level ofcreation, from the universe down to the subatomic, it is the thread of beauty.

And we seek beauty, we want to be in its presence - we go out into nature, we go to artmuseums - and the beauty creates awe and wonder and joy - Susan and I are going toAlaska on Thursday and the whole point of it, is to see the beauty of Gods creation.

Well - you and I are beautiful because you are Gods creation. The Genesis creation story- the last act of Gods creation is humankind, and that means that we are the pinnacle ofGods creation - that God saved the best for last.

A former pastor of mine put it like this: God says that you are the pinnacle ofcreation, that you are the most worthwhile thing God has ever made. All alone inthe middle of forty acres of nothing, stark, staring, buck naked and penniless, youare the crowning glory of the created universe. You are beautiful enough, you arelovely enough, you are worthy enough for Jesus to call you (friend). Thats whatGod thinks of you...

Its like Vincent Van Gogh said, God is more of an artist than the artists: heworks in the living spirit and the living flesh; he makes men instead of statues.

Heres one way - every single one of us is a unique creation of God.

You know that you have unique fingerprints. Nobody has the same fingerprints asyou.

You have unique DNA, and even if you have an identical twin, your DNA getsexpressed differently and you end up a lot alike, but with differences too.

Youve got unique retinal patterns - you know those retinal scanners - you lookinto them and they scan your retina and since yours is unique its foolproof proofof identity.

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There is no other person exactly like you, and there has never been, and there never willbe, another person exactly like you. You are a unique work of Gods creative genius.

But we have marred Gods creation

But just as we have marred and vandalized the beauty of Gods world, we have marredour own beauty too. We human beings in our sin have become creatures of ruinedgrandeur. And one way our sin shows up, is by what we have done to beauty.

If statistics are borne out among us here this morning, half or more of the women herefeel ugly...feel what is called body shame.

Your hair is too thin or too frizzy...your legs are too skinny or too thick...yournose is too big...you have freckles...you are told in a thousand ways from the timeyoure a little girl that you must be beautiful, that your worth is tied inextricably toyour physical appearance - but its a standard of appearance that you can nevermeet. There are always things wrong with you.

Heres how crazy we are in this way. The women who appear on the covers of womensmagazines - they are made up and then photoshopped so every imperfection is covered up- cellulite erased, wrinkles covered up, waist narrowed, hair colored or hair extensions -and then the magazines have articles about beauty tips - or exercise regimens - so you canlook more like that person on the cover who doesnt even really look like that!

Or take the stuff that keeps popping up in my Facebook feed about how some clothingcompanies are employing what are called plus-sized models - who are really regularsized, non-anorexic women - and some people are engaging in what is called fat-shaming, condemning and ridiculing these women because theyre of normal size andweight.

And not only do women face impossible expectations - if you are somehow blessed withnatural good looks, it makes other women crazy with jealousy - especially if youre inhigh school. And then you age and live in fear of losing your looks because your worth isbased on them.

Its not just women who suffer from this. I felt pretty ugly too when I was growing up. Iwas overweight, I had a birthmark that my eyebrow now covers, I was tall and gawky andfelt ashamed of myself. And I know Im not the only guy here who felt that way.

We have taken human beauty and made it into something pretty ugly.

The gospel

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Please hear this - in Christ, you are beautiful and lovely to God, right now. No matterwhat anyone says about you. You may look in the mirror and see flaws. You may feelself-conscious and even ashamed of how you look. You may have adopted a posture ofanger, rage towards other people because of how youve been shamed. You may feel thatway towards God, too. Well, the gospel is you are beautiful and lovely, and God is atwork in you to make you a creature of heart-stopping glory and beauty.

We know that because its a promise of scripture, from Johns first letter - Beloved, weare God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know isthis: when Christ is revealed, we will be like him... (1 John 3:2).

John is saying, that when the risen Christ returns in glory to bring the new creation- we will become like him - and what is the risen Christ like - we get hints fromthe peek into heaven recorded in Revelation - all those images of Christ point tohim being a creature of majesty and beauty and glory.

Heaven, the new creation, is our destiny - and its the place where God has stored up allthe goodies that he has prepared for us. As the scripture says, No eye has seen, no earhas heard, no mind has conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him. Youremember how when angels appear in the Bible, sometimes they make people cower andawestruck and even afraid, because theyre so glorious? Thats just a hint, a fraction, ofwhat well be like in Gods new creation.

Some implications for us

1. Believe that you are beautiful.

Find your worth and beauty in Gods creation of you, Gods love for you. And stopjudging yourself by the standards of the world. The world is crazy and cruel. You cannever measure up. And if you somehow do, youll get pulled down. You can relax andaccept yourself. And what a relief that would be; and what a witness to the world thatwould be - that we derive our worth not from the impossible standards of the world, butwe are secure in what God thinks of us.

I dont pretend this is easy - you may need counseling to get over years of feeling uglyand worthless; you may need friends who will remind you that your worth and beautycomes from God - but faith is a matter of believing and trusting in what God says aboutyou, what God promises you, and not believing what the world says about you.

2. Live a beautiful life

Paul says that we are Gods workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works,which God prepared in advance for us to do. God doesnt create us and then put us up on

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a shelf - he creates us so we can join with him in his work restoring the world, restoringhuman beings, to their original God-given beauty and worth.

Where do we do these beautiful things? Paul later in our reading emphasizes that hestalking about we, together in the church - God is making us beautiful, together, and thatwe are to form a beautiful community, of the church - saying that with Christ Jesus as ourcornerstone we become a holy temple of the Lord....a dwelling place for God.

This goes back to Pentecost last week - talked about the incredible gift of God livinginside us and the good work God is doing growing the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives. You and I are a temple - in the ancient world, a temple was where you encountered thedeity - and temples were usually as beautiful as people could make them - the temple inJerusalem was that way - paneled with nice-smelling cedar wood, gold trim all over theplace - well, we, the church, are the new temple, the dwelling place of God, and weresupposed to be beautiful.

I mean, its awesome to worship in this beautiful sanctuary - Ive been in a lot ofsanctuaries and this is one of the most beautiful Ive ever worshiped in - but the realbeauty of the church is our life together and how we love and serve one another her in thechurch and people outside the church.

Ive seen beautiful people doing beautiful things. In some ugly places.

Some years back I was in rural Mexico on a mission trip. We worked withChristians who had been driven from the homes in mountain villages becausepeople there were reverting to the old native paganism that existed beforeEuropeans came. The Christians lost everything, and lived in shantytowns.

One afternoon we all pile in the back of the missionarys pickup truck and headout to see a family. On the way we stopped to say hello to a guy named Esteban,and drove on. The family we went to see wasnt there so we reversed directionand head back down the road, and there was Esteban, waiting for us, and got us tostop and invited us into his house.

His house was maybe 8 x 15, dirt floor, made of scavenged wood and metal. Inside was his wife and four little children. They had lost everything when theywere driven from their home in the mountains. There were about 10 of us and weall found a place to sit and then Esteban handed each of us a big glass bottle ofice-cold Pepsi. After we said hello the first time Esteban ran to the store andbought Pepsi for all of us so he could invite us into his home and give ussomething to drink. It cost him a weeks wages, money he made as a laborer. Weall sat there and then sang hymns, Esteban and family in Spanish, we joined in asbest we could. And we all left there in sort of an awestruck silence by the beauty

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of what we experienced.

Ive seen beautiful people doing beautiful things. There is homeless man you seedowntown a lot - doesnt look homeless, hes immaculately groomed and well dressed -who has made it his mission to write letters of encouragement to people. You see himaround, head bent over, writing these letters full of scripture and grace andencouragement, that he then hands to the recipient.

Ive seen beautiful people doing beautiful things. Grandparents who raise theirgrandchildren...wives who care for spouses with Alzheimers; a man who when he hearssomeone is in need quietly seeks them out and slips money in their hands - its all aroundwhen you have eyes to see it.

In Christ, we are made beautiful, and we can live beautiful lives.

Closing - communion

Jesus became ugly and ridiculed that we could be beautiful.

Isaiah 52:13-14 See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.Just as there were many who were appalled at him - his appearance was sodisfigured beyond that of any human being and his form marred beyond humanlikeness...

Isaiah 53

He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance thatwe should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar withpain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we heldhim in low esteem.

Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered himpunished by God, sstricken by him, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; thepunishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.

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