A Universe of Love
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Bigger than our World
Bigger than our World
During the last few weeks we have been talking about the difference between knowing the love of God and experiencing the love of God.
God made a decision to show love through humans, and human relationships are the place he specifically wants to demonstrate this.
However, we are caught in an internal and what feels like an external struggle between what we want and what God has asked of us.
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This tension or struggle among humanity is connected to the very fabric of the universe, in a way that we just don’t completely understand.
You intuitively know it. You can feel it around you. It is when your “senses” go off around you and you just know there is danger. We see it in the animal kingdom, and we marvel and wonder how it works. How do they know things we don’t know.
For the biblical authors, there is something more. They are not shy to make these connections to what we can see and what we cannot.
When we started this three part series, we seemingly skipped over a verse that I want to return to. A verse that tells us about God’s purpose.
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God’s purpose in all this was to use the church to display his wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was his eternal plan, which he carried out through Christ Jesus our Lord. Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God’s presence.
I often wonder if people have really stopped to consider what Paul, the author, is trying to tell me.
God has always had plan A and there will not be anything but plan A. You could just as easily say, there is God’s plan, and no other.
When you read through the Hebrew Bible, you start to get the sense that this plan was going to fail.
We needed a human who could actually accomplish the mission that had been laid out, but from the start to the end of the Hebrew Bible, there is no human that meets the requirement of the plan.
A human that will listen to God and do what has been asked. A human that will follow.
Yet, when Jesus shows up on the scene, what do we see him doing? He listens to the voice of his father. He makes statements like, “I only do what my father tells me to do,” or “I only say what the father asks me to say.”
He says of himself that the Hebrew Bible points to him as being the human we need around here. The one that can bridge the plan of God into our world.
The one who wants us to take this world somewhere.
And that somewhere is into the presence of God.
And it is for that reason that Paul urges us to accept the change and follow Jesus.
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Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future.
We looked at this last week. Paul, making a plea to everyone to lead a life worthy of your calling.
Question: Who has been called? Every human has been invited to follow, but not everyone will do so.
If you follow, you have accepted responsibility for this plan. You have agreed to be a part of this thing.
And how many plans does God have?
One.
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There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, in all, and living through all.
Just like there is one Most High, one Lord of Lords, one Yahweh.
There is just one plan.
And Paul is drawing this conclusion: Since there is one God, there is one Plan, and we all should be committed to that one plan.
But we all have different roles to play in that plan, and that should not bother us.
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However, he has given each one of us a special gift through the generosity of Christ. That is why the Scriptures say, “When he ascended to the heights, he led a crowd of captives and gave gifts to his people.”
Paul writes that we all have a special gift. Some of you might have a version that reads “grace.” It means that each individual plays a role in God’s plan.
Whatever you do, when you do it with the love of God towards another, you not only live out your purpose, but you bring the experience of God’s love with you.
And when that is done for you, you experience the love of God for yourself.
That feeling you get when you do something kind or when you are shown kindness, is exactly what God wants to bring to his creation.
The language in the original is that we each have “a measure” or “an amount” that has been given as a gift, and when we give that gift, we give a part of God, the love of God, away.
But it is like the gift that keeps on giving.
Look at the last part of that verse. Psalm 68:18, Paul knew his Hebrew Bible, he was able to draw from its text to see how Jesus was the human we needed around here.
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That is why the scriptures say, “When he ascended to the heights, he led a crowd of captives and gave gifts to his people.”
Most of us have never had the experience of being in captivity, yet there are some in and around us that have.
But that is not the captivity that Paul is considering. We think of captivity in geographical terms, or in physical terms.
Paul is thinking much broader than that.
We are captive to our own selfish desires, to our own desire to choose good and evil for ourselves.
When we do that things turn out bad. We create experiences that mimic the evil around us. We try to control others and end up oppressing them. We are selfish, wanting to keep everything for ourselves, and get more and more.
We receive these gifts from God, and we want more, and like the youngster at dinner, we will wrap our arm around our plate and guard our food from a sibling.
We turn into something like an animal, and treat each other with evil.
That is the experience we know.
Yet, the text is teaching us that it was Jesus that took you from your captivity to these evil, selfish, abusive ways, and is teaching you how to receive and give love to others.
And for that, he is leading those who follow him to the “heights.” An ancient way of saying he is leading people to God. He is bringing heaven and earth together once again.
Paul does not want us to miss this point.
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Notice that it says “he ascended.” This clearly means that Christ also descended to our lowly world. And the same one who descended is the one who ascended higher than all the heavens, so that he might fill the entire universe with himself.
Jesus took on this role to descend into our lowly world. Paul sees two worlds. One that is low and one that is high. One that is earthly and one that is heavenly.
One that is seen and one that is unseen.
There is tension there. Between the good blessing that God wants to bring and the evil that opposes him.
Jesus is leading a crowd of captives to the place that God dwells.
This crowd of captives have been held captive to their own desires, choosing good and evil for themselves.
When you go through the Hebrew Bible you find all these references to Mountains. And you will see over and over that the Mountain of God, Zion, is higher than all others.
In the ancient world Mountains are where the gods live. They live in the heights.
In the Hebrew Bible, Eden is referred to as the Mountain of God.
Jesus is leading people to that place.
But it gets better!
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And the same one who descended is the one who ascended higher than all the heavens, so that he might fill the entire universe with himself.
Do you follow the link that Paul is drawing?
Knowing love is more than just doing it because you have to.
Experiencing love is what makes humans complete.
And what Jesus has done is create a way for that love to go higher than all the heavens.
It fills the universe with it.
And according to Paul, you and I, and every human was made for this purpose.
That is why you are here.
When you bring the experience of God’s love into the world, you are fulfilling your purpose.
That is what it means to image God.