Sermon Tone Analysis

Grateful To Be Broken

Intro

[pray]

[pictureof thanksgiving]

What do we give thanks for?

What can move us to be as thankful as Paul seems to be in this text?

What are we truly, and deeply, grateful for?

Inevitably, thanksgiving brings that question to mind.

This past week almost demands that we take at least a moment to think about what we have in our lives that causes us to feel gratitude.

Some families even talk about it.

They will sit around the table and each say something that they are grateful for.

Our family does that.

If you have ever done that, you will no doubt relate to this.

But when you start, I get a little nervous.

Like everyone else around the table, we all sit and think of things to say while we wait for our turn, hoping that somebody doesn’t take ours right?

Listen, we don’t do that because we don’t know what we are grateful for, but because we know that the good stuff is always taken right away!

“I am grateful for family...”

Right out of the gate, the best answer is gone, right?

So then what happens?

Well for us, every single person will qualify their offering with something like, “I am obviously grateful for you all, and also...”

Person after person, the answer is always like that.

They just can’t seem to stop talking about how grateful they are for family even though we all know that we are all grateful for each other!

Paul, here in this letter, can’t get over his gratefulness either.

And it is the exact same feeling you and I have!

Here he is, grateful for these new believers.

“Ever since I heard about your faith…and your love for God’s people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you.”

From the moment you became a part of my family, from the moment you chose to be a child of God, my Father, I have not stopped giving thanks for you.

You know, even though we are still on the front-ish part of our adoption journey, I can really feel this scripture.

I can feel it more, because at our table, we talked about Sam.

We prayed for him, even though he likely isn’t even alive.

We couldn’t, and can’t stop giving thanks to God that there, one day, might be another member of our family.

That, I think, is the same feeling Paul has here.

Paul, who is trying his best to show these new believers how to think and live, is holding a mirror up to his soul and showing the Ephesian Christians how important, and how meaningful, and how amazing and all encompassing it is to belong to the family of God!

He is showing them how grateful he is to be one with them.

And not just one with them, but one with God Himself!

I love the way the Message paraphrases these verses.

It says, “I ask—ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory—to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for his followers, oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him—endless energy, boundless strength!”

I can almost hear the pastor in Paul crying out to these fellow believers - his brothers and sisters - even to us here in this room today!

I can almost hear him starting off that chain of gratefulness that we express around our tables.

I can hear him, in this moment telling us what he is, and we should all be grateful for!

I am grateful to be broken...

I’m grateful to be broken.

Now what do I mean by that?

Well understand that Paul is pointing to an awfully high calling for humans in this text.

Hear the words again: “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.

That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.”

What Paul is reminding them, and us, of is that if we are believers and members of his family, that the eyes of our hearts must be opened so that we can know hope!

And when our eyes and hearts are open, church, then we will be able to see what we are truly called towards!

The “riches of His glorious inheritance,” Paul calls it, “IN His holy people.”

An inheritance that lives within us!

Within the hearts, souls, and lives of all those who believe!

But we aren’t to just be able to see that inheritance, no, we are to take hold of it!

We are to grab a hold of, what Paul calls Christ’s, “incomparably great power for us who believe.”

Endless energy, boundless strength; as the Message puts it.

The very power that raised Christ from the dead.

That is the high calling of God’s family.

And it is impossible to do on our own.

And that is why I am grateful to be broken.

[broken bowl pic here}

[broken bowl pic here}

Let me tell you a quick story to explain what I mean.

Back in the 15th century, a Japanese shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa sent a cracked chawan—or tea bowl—back to China to undergo repairs.

Upon its return, Yoshimasa was upset to find that the bowl had been mended with metal staples - so the bowl was now essentially useless, even though it looked whole.

Angered by that, he asked craftsmen to find a way to repair the vessel, and make it beautiful AND functional, while making it truly whole again.

So they began to repair broken vessels with lacquer so that it would maintain usefulness.

But they did more.

You see, that act alone isn’t that important.

So they fixed it, big deal!

But church, they did more than just fix it.

Understand that the problem wasn’t that the bowl was just needing to be held together.

The problem was the bowl was more than just something to look at!

This was something they valued that, at the same time, had a very real purpose and usefulness to them!

But

So to highlight that fact, to bring to light the importance of that particular vessel and to show everyone how precious this one broken thing was, they inlaid gold along the repair lines.

Church, they didn’t want to cover up the broken places.

They didn’t want to hide the damage!

They wanted to show how treasured this vessel was even - and perhaps especially - in it’s brokenness!

They gladly showed the world that this particular vessel mattered so much that they not only fixed it, but they made it stronger - and perhaps more importantly - made it far more valuable in the process!

[kintsugi pic]

Every crack has a story.

Every break, an opportunity to be mended again.

Every accident, every disaster, every misstep, created for them an opportunity to showcase the unbelievable importance and value of not only the owner, but also the vessel that served them.

Oh, church, I am grateful to be broken.

I am grateful that our lives bear these same scars.

I am grateful that every break, every mistake, every crack, every hurt - they can all be put on display!

They can be highlighted in my life!

After all, they are there - not to show the world how worthless or useless I am - but to show the world how loved I am and, more importantly, how powerful, and how amazing my God is!

And not just amazing because of my scars!

Listen, our scars are nothing!

Sure we all have our own cross to bear, but even by saying that, we acknowledge that someone somewhere bore a cross that was far greater than anything you or I could ever bear!

And church, to bear that cross, Christ had to be broken for each and every one of us!

Oh I am grateful to be broken, church!

Eph 2

I am grateful He was broken, too.

You see, we have been brought near to God because of it.

Those scars, lined with gold, have strengthened us so that we can now be useful to the Father.

There, in His life and in His death, He was broken so that, as Paul says later in this letter, “he might create in Himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace,” and reconciling us to God.

Church, in His brokenness we find peace.

I am grateful.