November 16 2008 Reading: Ephesians 4.20-5.2

“Live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Eph. 5.2)

On the first Saturday in March every year, there is a race which takes place in Alaska. It’s called the Iditarod Dog Sled race, and the dogsled teams with their huskies race over a distance of 674 miles over trackless, snow covered wastes in Northern Alaska. This is to commemorate an event that took place in January of 1925, in the small isolated town of Nome. The local doctor, Dr. Curtis Welch went to see a little boy, Richard Stanley who had fallen ill, and discovered that the boy had diphtheria. Dr. Welsh immediately began immunizing children and adults with an anti-diphtheria serum. However, within a matter of days he had run out of serum. He knew that there was a large supply of serum in the town of Nenana, but that was 674 miles of frozen wilderness away. Amazingly, a group of trappers and prospectors volunteered to cover the distance with their dog teams! Operating in twenty relays from trading post to trapping station, oblivious to frostbite, fatigue, and exhaustion, a dog sled team managed to cross the distance in 127.5 hours - or five days. Dr. Welsh got the serum he needed and as a result, only two lives were lost in the town of Nome. A great thing done by those dogsled teams, a great thing done for the town of Nome.

In the reading we heard from Ephesians, this morning, Paul says this to the Church at Ephesus.

Live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God (Eph. 5.2) - “Live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God “ (Eph. 5.2)

In this reading Paul puts two things together, in Christian life, following Jesus Christ First love for others, and second, sacrifice.............

A life of love................ ?.

First, Christian life Paul tells the Ephesians, is a life of love.............. live a life of love he says:

What does this mean ?

What is a life of love, as Paul puts it ?

Well, what Paul is simply doing here, is to bring us back to Jesus Himself -

and the life that Jesus lived: The life that Jesus calls us to.

John 13 tells us that Jesus and the disciples were gathered in the Upper Room in Jerusalem.The years that Jesus has lived as a human being, in healing, and teaching, and His perfect life in communion with the living God are drawing to a close. These years are uniquely important for human life and human history. We are told that Jesus knew that all things were given into His hands and that His life was nearing fullness and completion. So, you can see that these moments with the disciples in the Upper Room, are moments of deep and holy intensity, these moments are deeply significant.

So what Jesus does and says here is of deepest importance.

What did He do and say ?

We read that Jesus took a towel, and a basin of water and began to wash the feet of the disciples, taking upon Himself the lowliest task, the work left always for the lowest servant in the house. Here is the One to whom all power has been given washing the feet of the disciples in lowliness. That’s what He does.

And this is what He says: I your Lord and Teacher have just washed your feet, You then, should wash one another’s feet. I have set an example for you so that you will do just what I have done for you

What is it that Jesus calls us to ? the life of love that Paul speaks about ?

It is a life marked by lowly, loving serving of others...............

a life of love, marked by quiet, unseen, unheralded care for others.........

This is a life rooted in Jesus, this life becomes deeper in us as we are rooted in Jesus Christ. As we are rooted in Jesus Christ so the life of love within us becomes more and more fruitful...............

Loving service is the way of Jesus, and the way of life for us. Rooted in Christ, our lives grow into service, loving care for others. Just as deep, life giving roots bring blossom on the tree so our life in Christ, our roots in Jesus, blossom and flourish in loving service, in a life of love in quiet, unseen, ordinary things.............

Now, Paul, writing about a life of love to the Church at Ephesus, quite naturally goes on to speak about the sacrifice that Jesus made.........

This is where the life of love we see in Jesus comes to its great fullness and completeness........... as He gave Himself fully and completely for us at the Cross, to restore us to the living God - live a life of love - just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God

Sacrifice - here Paul brings into sharp focus, the life of love we are called to live

Sacrifice..............

That story of the dogsled teams battling across Alaska through winter storms, freezing conditions to get that serum to where it was needed is probably the kind of thing we think about if we think about sacrifice............

What a great thing to have done, and people still remember it................. that’s because it is these great things we remember, great gestures. We might remember the two sisters, Barbara and Mary Walker, who left their Estate to their entire fortune to build the cathedral of St. Mary’s in Palmerston Place.

That was a great gesture. Lord and Lady Elphinstone who gave Carberry, their ancestral estate and all its grounds in 1968 to the Church of Scotland for use in Youth Work. That was a great gesture. These are gestures that we know about, and admire, and are thankful for.

But sacrifice is giving of what we have to God and for God.

I remember a man I once knew. When this man’s mother was terminally ill, she had said to him - If anything happens to me I want you to look after your brother Bill. Now all his life Bill was afflicted by severe bouts of depression and mental illness. But this man visited his brother in hospital, looked after him when he came home, made sure he took his tablets, tidied his house, put up with his often aggressive behaviour, went and picked him up when he wandered, shouldered all these burdens and concerns, to care for his brother, giving of his time, giving what he could.

Now, I know many of you here

willingly take on the burdens of others,

burdens of care for others............

Sometimes we might wonder why we are doing it,

But think of this for a moment - the New Testament invites us to see what we do for others in a completely new way,

not as a burden, but as an offering we bring to God...........

these ordinary things we do for others

can be an offering, according to the Bible, that we bring before God,

a fragrant offering we bring to Him.

in glad thanksgiving for all that He has done for us in our Lord Jesus Christ who says: I have set an example for you so that you will do just what I have done for you

As the days pass on, may our lives be rich in fragrant offerings to God, the loving offering of our own lives rooted in Jesus Christ

AMEN.