Rooted and Grounded in Love

 Rev. Debbie Cato
Ephesians 3:14-20
Fairfield Community Church
September 11, 2022

Let us pray:  Eternal God, Open us to your Word read and proclaimed. Help us not to turn from your truth or avoid and distract ourselves from your message. Help us be receptive to the wisdom you offer. Amen.

 

Rooted and Grounded in Love

 

Today’s scripture is a beautiful prayer in Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians. 

According to tradition, the Apostle Paul wrote this letter to the church in Ephesus while he was in prison in Rome, around AD 62. It is believed that it was meant as a circular letter; meaning it was intended to be sent from the church in Ephesus to the other churches in Asia that Paul and his followers had started. Paul wanted it circulated so everyone could read it and learn.  You might call this the “Zoom Workshop of AD 62” – passing a letter from church to church.  This would actually take years to do because of the distance between churches and transportation, depending on location was walking or water.

Paul's first trip to Ephesus was hurried.  It is recorded in Acts 18 and lasted about 3 months. The work he began when he was there was continued by Apollos and Aquila and Priscilla. You might recognize their names.  Paul met Aquila and Priscilla in Corinth and took them to Ephesus with him where they started a church together.  He left them in charge of the church when he left for a missionary trip. 

On his second visit to Ephesus early the following year, Paul stayed for three years.  This was a long time for Paul to stay in one place.  Ephesus and the church there was a key location for the western provinces of gentile believers and they used it as a launching off location when they set off for other missionary journeys including to Macedonia and Greece.  From Ephesus the gospel spread abroad "almost throughout all Asia." Despite all the opposition and persecution Paul encountered, the gospel message grew thanks to the church and the believers in Ephesus. 

 So now in prison in Rome, Paul writes a letter to encourage this beloved church.  Overcome with the amazing way God has reconciled Jews and Gentiles and brought them together in His church, Paul begins by saying, “For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father.”  Showing true reverence to God, Paul kneels before God and prays for this church body that he loves and cares for, even from a prison cell.

Now notice that Paul does not pray that the church will grow.  He does not pray for financial resources.  He does not pray that more missionary trips are launched from the church or more programs are started.  He doesn’t even pray that problems within the church would be resolved.  Paul prays for the spiritual health and well-being of the church and by doing so he prays for the spiritual health and well-being of each individual member in that church.  Paul prays for “strength in their inner being with power through God’s spirit.” “Strength in their inner being with power through God’s spirit.”  How can the church not help but triumph if they have the power of God’s Spirit in their inner being?!  That’s powerful!

Paul gets to the heart of what the church is and what we might all be called to do to make that come about. Can you imagine praying every day that God would give you strength in your inner being with power through His Spirit?  Praying that he would give this church strength through the power of his Holy Spirit?  Do you pray for this church?  What if we stopped praying for more people to come or for our offering to increase to meet our budget needs?  Or what if we even stopped praying for what action steps we should take next and just prayed that God would strengthen our inner being with power through His Spirit.  How powerful would that be?  How might that change us?

But Paul doesn’t end there.  He goes on.  He prays that “Christ might dwell in their hearts through faith, as they are being rooted and grounded in love.”  If Christ dwells in our hearts, Christ lives in our hearts.  He has a permanent place in our hearts.  Oh, how that would change us! 

And because Christ dwells in their hearts through faith, they are being rooted and grounded in love.  That’s such a beautiful image for me.  I love old trees.  As I drive around the countryside, I see so many old trees that were planted decades ago.  Some of them stand straight and tall and some are gnarly and crooked. 

Old trees have roots that have dug deep down into the earth through the years.  They often have no right angles but have twisted and intertwined; finding the best places to rest and go down deep.  They are messy, sometimes even ugly at times, but they hold fast as they have sought out nourishment through years of drought and wind, winding around each other, using another root for support, holding that tree firmly in place.  Often, roots seem haphazard, certainly not going in a straight direction or even a logical direction but growing in the way most beneficial for the tree. Growing the way they needed to grow for survival of the tree; the way they needed to grow to get the most nourishment from the ground.

I think that’s how our faith is meant to be – and the faith of a church community.  If we as individual members are not rooted and grounded in the love of Christ, our church certainly will not be; for after all, we the individual people are the church.  It does not happen overnight.  Like a tree, it takes time for our roots to go deep.  That’s why the generational inheritance we have received from the two churches that merged to become Fairfield  Community Church is so important to us and to what we bring to this community.  Two churches that each brought something important to this community, separately proclaiming the gospel and doing good works.  Two churches that needed each other to continue to survive.  Two churches that chose to intertwine their roots and continue to grow deeper together.  Taking the best of each branch and replanting together so to speak.  Needing each other. Relying on one another. Recognizing that each was rooted and grounded in love, recognizing that God could and would accomplish far more than you could ask or imagine. 

 There are multiple generations in this church; now one church melded from two.  Different generations; different roots, all intertwined; all parts of the same church rooted and grounded in love and faith.

Along with the old, thick, deep roots, we have new roots that are forming, twisting and following the roots that have already developed and grown and dug down deep.  Roots holding us steady and in place in times of turmoil like the pandemic that closed the doors of the building but not the heart and soul of the church.  Christ is at the center of this church and Christ is here to stay. 

And then comes this powerful sentence from Paul.  “I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, … , “what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”  The breadth and length and height and depth of God’s love and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

 God’s love is multi-dimensional.  It has width – it is wide.  It has length and height.  It goes deep.  Think about that. God’s love is not flat.  His love is multi-faceted and more complex than we can imagine.  Think of how understanding this, how really believing it, how accepting the fathomless nature of God’s love would change us and change how we live?!  Think how it would change how we are as His church!  Let’s pray for the power to truly understand God’s love – the power that comes from God that brings an understanding that can only come from God Himself. It all comes from God. God makes it all possible.

Realizing and living into Christ’s love will lead to spiritual growth, faith formation, and character in our lives.  If we as individuals experience spiritual growth, faith formation, and increased character in our lives, naturally our church will experience the same growth and development, and vice versa.  Everything we do will sprout from these roots and will come from a place of love and faith.  We will be “doing” out of our rootedness and groundedness in love and faith and not out of a sense of needing programs or needing to just do stuff.  This is God’s gig.  He is active and involved in all that we do as His church.  But he needs us to join along.  We are the hands and feet of Jesus, acting out of His love that fills and changes us. 

If we are rooted and grounded in the love of God and understand the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of Christ and believe that God can accomplish abundantly far more than we can ask or imagine, the ministries of this church will not be a burden or an extra check on our to-do lists.  We will be acting out of the love that flows from us.  The things we do will be things we want to do; things we crave to do because we are filled with this incredible love of Christ.  It will be God working through us to accomplish the work that needs to be done.  We will gain far more than we give when we are doing the work of God.

Paul reminds us of this as he ends with a doxology that is fitting for this Sunday in the life of our church.  “Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine..”  To him who by the power at work within us – God’s very own spirit is at work in his.  That’s powerful to think about.  We don’t have to; nor should we, do things on our own.  God will lead us if we allow him to.  Because, Paul reminds us, God is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine.  Wow!

Let’s not limit ourselves by our own small thinking.  Let’s believe God’s promises.  Let’s believe that Christ wants to dwell in our hearts.  Let’s believe that we can be rooted and grounded in the love of Christ, and it will be life changing for us and this church.  Let’s believe the breadth and length and height and depth of God’s love has no limitations.  Let’s believe  that God can and will accomplish far more than we can imagine.  Let’s dare to be that church that believes God’s promises.     Let us pray:

 

Holy God,  help us to claim these promises for our own.  We want to be rooted and grounded in your love.  We want to be so full of the love of Christ that everything we do and say is out of love.  Help us to cling to the claim that you can indeed accomplish far more than we can ask or imagine.  In Jesus Name, Amen.