I was lying in bed this morning (Sunday) and it was still dark outside. But that did not stop the birds (especially the cardinals) from chirping. It was as if they were saying, “Hey everybody, get excited! The sun is about to come up!” And slowly the sun did begin to rise. I must admit it has been a long time since I have been up before the sun.
I find listening to birds very relaxing and quite peaceful, especially in the early hours. This is because the world has not quite awakened so the only sounds you hear are the birds. Their voices have this sense of excitement to them, that they’re excited about the coming day. This morning for me they were the voice of God welcoming me, calling to me, inviting me actually to get up and become engaged in and with His world.
We receive this invitation every day of our lives but we must realize that the invitation is join in on God’s terms. Many times we don’t actually hear it because we rise up in the morning and our minds are already going a hundred miles a minutes because we have so many things on our agenda for the day. Other days we don’t hear the invitation because we don’t feel we have the strength to get up and face the day. But no matter what God always invites us to join in the day, even when we don’t want to RSVP.
The Apostle Paul prays for us this morning and he reminds us that God can do more than we can ask for or even imagine. David, on the other hand, shows us what can happen if we are left to our own devices and chose to ignore God’s invitation. David once again shows us what can happen when we try to do things on our terms and not God’s.
David reminds me of myself: he is and I can sometimes be a slow learner. David realizes and then forgets how blessed he is by God. Then he goes off and does something pretty outrageous because he is all about himself and not God. His actions can have disastrous consequences not only for himself but also others. But because if God’s grace and forgiveness and God’s ability to make teachable moments David learns about God’s unfailing love.
David’s story this morning is a real mess. It has all the aspects of a great soap opera but it also reflects real life. Look at all the ingredients involved. Lust: David can’t look away or even walk away when he sees Bathsheba bathing. Power: because of who he is David sends for Bathsheba; she could not say “no” to the king. Adultery: they’re both married and she becomes pregnant because of their encounter(s). Deception: David calls Uriah, husband of Bathsheba, back from the battlefront and tries to get him to sleep with his wife in order to cover up the pregnancy. Murder: when his ploy doesn’t work David commands his general to make certain that Uriah is killed in battle.
The real battle for David is not the wars being fought or the enemies his people face but it is the inner battle, the same battle we all face. It is the battle of the human condition. It is the inner battle of trying to please God, to live the life we are called to live, accepting our place in God’s world and answering the invitation to join in every morning.
This is what Paul’s prayer in our reading from Ephesians is al about. He prays not only for the people of Ephesus but also for all Christians. He is praying that we each can gain our inner strength from God to help us better understand who God is. Paul tells us when we gain this inner strength and understanding God’s work within us will enable us to receive more than we could ever imagine.
It’s like going into a restaurant and looking at the menu. I preferred the old days when selections were just a few. But today our choices have multiplied and are quite varied no matter where we go. We look at the menu and there are many selections we can make. What on the menu appeals to us today? What food are we going to select to feed our stomachs?
Just like the restaurant menu our choices in life have expanded; or have they? We can still go the David route of this morning: lust, power, adultery, deception, and murder. There are other choices along those lines today that we could add to our list. Or we could choose other selections from the menu: compassion, justice, hope, love, peace, and others that are the choices that God would like us to make. I think the menu of life is still basically the same today as it was in David’s time. So what are we going to select? What will we choose to feed our soul? When we come to know God we gain an affirmation that God can do more than we could ever ask for or imagine. So let us listen to Paul’s prayer for us this morning. What is it telling us? Paul’s prayer tells us that when we come to understand, trust, and believe in all that God is we will be strengthened with power through the Holy Spirit. We will have Christ dwell in our hearts. We will be given an appreciation of the breadth and length and height and depth of Christ. We will be filled with God’s goodness. We will come to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.
Paul is telling us that it is our inner well being that is more important than the power that we hold, than the position we have attained; more important than our popularity, prosperity, or our health. If our inner well being is not strong inwardly, the temptations and pressures of life can cause our life to collapse in on us. I have seen this up close and personal this week how perilous this collapse can be.
Our lives are sectioned off: day and night, work and vacation, chores and relaxation, the changing of the seasons, etc. But God is always constant, the only constant thing in our lives. Remember the words of Paul. Let us absorb God’s love and live from the inside out.
