Date : Second Sunday after Christmas, January 3, 2010

Text : Ephesians 1:3-14

Title : Start the new year right

The first Sunday of every year, the epistle is from the first chapter of Ephesians, where the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write to that God the Father has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ, even as He chose us in Christ before He created anything that He created.

What a dandy place to begin: right at the beginning.

It was from the beginning that God put into place the plan of salvation. It was from the beginning that God chose—that is to say, He elected, He predestined, He hand-picked—everyone whom He would, over the course of time, call by the proclamation of the Gospel, regenerate in the washing of Baptism, and keep nourished in the Lord’s Supper.

That you are sitting here is entirely because God chose you before the creation of the world. That you have the faith in Jesus Christ, which moves you to want to be in church, is strictly because God elected you to have this faith before God ever said, "Let there be light." That you possess the assurance that you have a resurrection from the dead and an eternal life toward which to look is because God hand-picked you to possess that assurance.

He chose you to be His children when all that existed was Him. He determined that you would possess every spiritual blessing that He has to give. While we can name dozens of them, we normally summarize them in the three: forgiveness, life, and salvation.

He lavishes you with these gifts; He doesn’t only dab them on—a pinch here, a dash there. This is what moved me, years ago, to say that you are a bowl of vanilla ice cream and God’s love in Christ is the hot fudge. You know how you are only satisfied when the hot fudge has smothered your ice cream to the point that some of it drips onto the counter. Well, God smothers, showers, surrounds you with His love in Christ to the point that it drips off you.

God is not cheap; He is generous. This is who you are to Him: beloved and valuable. After all, He made you in His image; you are the work of His hands. You know how deeply you love your children. Well, how much more deeply would the perfect Father love His children? Indeed, so deeply that He could do no less than give His best—and, that is His Son—so that you could have eternal life. And, He could leave nothing to chance, so He ensured that you would be sitting here, today, in His church, by choosing you, before the foundation of the world, that you should be holy and blameless before Him.

But, not every Christian is sitting in church, today. Not every Christian feels holy and blameless. Many Christians have doubts and concerns about their standing before holy God, and don’t have the assurance of being resurrected from the dead to eternal life.

All of this leads me to a letter that I received, last Thursday. When I looked at the envelope, I recognized the name—a former member from one of my churches in Iowa. Since I served at four—two on vicarage, and two in my first call—I trust that I will not say anything to reveal his identity, but only speak of these things for your edification.

As I recognized the name, I was surprised at the state—nowhere near Iowa. Then, I noticed the string of eight numbers after his name. He was writing me from a federal prison.

A couple of years ago, he had a knock at his door, completely out of the blue. It was the FBI. They were not there to make conversation, but to seize his computer. Some months later, he got another knock at his door. The FBI was back, with a warrant for his arrest.

He knew they had him dead to rights, so he pled guilty. He was sentenced to ten years in federal prison, seven years of supervised probation, a $5,000 fine for restitution, and he will be publicly registered, the rest of his life, as "one of those horrible people."

He’s six-hundred miles from home. He’s so embarrassed that the news has been kept from his grandma, meaning that the whole town is in the dark, lest the word leak. He is godfather to his sister’s son, and he’s wondering: how does the church view him as being a godfather and having committed such a crime? Indeed, how does God view him?

What do you think I wrote back to him, in a letter that I wrote, New Year’s day morning, which was nearly twice as long as this sermon?

What do you tell people who have committed one of the sinister crimes? How do you deal with a man who tells you that he has sinned, and he committed the sin, over and over, for years on end, and would still be committing it had he not been caught?

What goes through the heads of you Christians, when you face yourselves and you don’t like what you see, because you know how miserably you have let down God, let down your families and friends, let down yourselves?

How do you think God views you? Are you not in such a bad spot as my former member, because, at least, hey, you didn’t commit that crime? Sure, you’re a sinner, but you’re just a garden-variety sinner; what you do, and think, and say—or those things at which you fail—are all of the things that God is used to forgiving—what God expects to forgive—so you don’t worry about them. And, hey, you haven’t done anything that bad.

Whether you are a garden-variety sinner, or whether you find yourself in a federal prison, marked as the worst-of-the-worst of society, God sees you the same way, when you are one whom He chose before the foundation of the world.

In my letter, I started out with the good stuff, to lay a Gospel foundation for the rest of the letter. Here are the first two paragraphs:

Are you shocked that I’m telling a despicable criminal that he is a beloved child of God? But, he is; and so are you.

He, and you, and I, are all the most despicable criminals because we have broken God’s laws without hesitation. As this man committed his crime, over and over, for years and years, so do you and I commit the same sins, over and over, for years and years. The only difference between him and us is that his was also a crime against the laws of the government. You and I? Our crimes are only against the laws of God. Hilarious.

Dear Christians, begin the new year at the beginning. Repent, because you are a despicable sinner, whatever list of crimes you have against God’s laws. Turn from your sins; turn to Jesus Christ. Bathe, once again, in His baptism of rebirth and renewal. Commune at His altar, once more, in His meal of His redeeming body and blood.

Hear, once more, that you are His beloved children, holy and blameless in His sight, for the sake of Jesus’ death as payment for your crimes, and know that He loved you so much that He began this good work for you when only He existed. Amen.