I’ve preached this series before (well, planned it and shared it with a few others), and this time around I’m even less convinced of the sermon titles. But, for what it’s worth…
June 13 • Ephesians 1:1-14
Bank On It
The gospel finds its origin in the extraordinary generosity of God, and in this generosity lies a security that goes beyond the financial realm…
June 20 • Ephesians 1:15-23
Seeing Some Interest
…but God’s investment in us is ongoing; we are a term deposit that continues to grow until we reach maturity…
June 27 • Ephesians 2:1-10
From Out of Bankruptcy
…for God has paid out our debt, and we are his…
July 4 • Ephesians 2:11-22
The Merger
…and not us alone, for God is at work all over the world, building a company of richly diverse yet complementary assets…
July 11 • Ephesians 3
Whose Profit?
…until finally, the glory of God’s grand design is revealed, and we fall at his feet in praise and thanksgiving!
6 comments:
Your dates seem a little warped.
July??
Ok, so I was a bit slack about getting the post up in advance. So sue me!
Interesting. Can you explain the thinking behind the money theme?
Well, at the time I was coming up with this series (a couple of years ago now), it seemed like a good idea.
By default, we are taught that our security is a financial thing. Over and over. So I wanted to explicitly challenge us to relocate security into the 'religious sphere' (though I don't wish to concede to any wrinkly old German philosopher in saying it that way).
Security, in other words, is connected to how we relate to the creator rather than the creation.
But I'm still not sure it was the right call!
Ah, fair enough. So it was a whole series framed as a critique of the love of money? I don't think that's a bad framing.
It was framed that way, but I think I failed to explicitly make it so when I preached it ... and if I had done, I'd have been in danger of taking the point I wanted to make to the text, rather than letting the text speak about far grander things. I think my reservations lie in this area: by using these titles, I elevated the material issue more than it deserves (though maybe not more than it warrants!)
Well, done now.
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