Ephesians 1:3-14

I saw a bumper sticker once that said, "Big Bang Theory: God said it and BANG it happened!" I like that. I believe that. I like it but don't misunderstand me. I'm not one of those people who thinks that religion and science are opposed to each other. I believe that they complement each other. I believe that science glorifies God.

The fact that God created the heavens and the Earth is an article of faith. It's a given. But acknowledging that God created the heavens and the earth leads one to wonder at them in awe. Well, the heavens tell forth the glory of God, so we look to the stars as God's handiwork and the world around us to examine and marvel at the Master's handiwork.

God said, "Let there be light" and there was. What happened when the universe responded to God's command. What did it look like as that first photon of light came into existence and every photon since then? The resultant exploration led to an understanding of the miracle of nuclear fusion. And the same process that produces light produces all the elements that make up the universe.

That line of exploration also led to the theory that the universe originated some time around 15 billion years ago in a big bang. How awesome is God that all of the trillions of stars and thousand of galaxies and the miracle of life all had their origin in a point of light! That same God that spoke worlds into creation has numbered the hairs on my head and measured my tears in a jar. God said it and BANG it happened, and science gives us a deeper appreciation of just how big and awesome God's bang is.

-This has particular meaning for the passage we read from Ephesians. Paul said that God "chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world." Greek science was pretty advanced for its day. Millennia before Christopher Columbus the Greeks had concluded that the earth was round, but they though it was at the center of the universe. Basically the world was their universe. So when Paul was inspired to write the words "before the foundation of the world" that was the context.

Since then we have discovered that the universe is a much bigger and grander place. Our Sun which seems so big and powerful to us is categorized as a "yellow dwarf" star. There are trillions of other stars in the universe most of them bigger. Some much bigger. Our solar system is just one among trillions of such systems of stars and planets. In recent years astronomers have been able to find planets orbiting other stars so it appears that most stars have planets.

And the universe contains so many other wonderful and beautiful things: Quasars, black holes, nebulas, super novae. Using the Hubble Space Telescope scientists recently took a look at patches of sky where there are no visible stars and they looked with the strongest magnification that they could and you know what they found? They found whole unseen galaxies of stars. All of them playing a roll in God's intricate design of the universe.

But before any of that, before God said it and BANG it happened, God had a plan for you. God chose you in Christ before the Big Bang! More than 15 billion or so years ago. That's 15 with 9 zeros after it, God planned for you. He made arrangements for you to know him and have a relationship with him.

Before the first ray of light, God had a plan. God arranged for a small blue planet to orbit a small yellow star at just the right distance for you to live on. God planned for the proper climates and plants and animals to make your life livable. God also made arrangements for you to be forgiven and saved.

God planned before anything was created to send Jesus to die for your sins. God called Abraham and Sarah and gave them a child even though they were barren and elderly. Then from that child God created a nation of people who served and worshipped the one true God of the universe. Then God led that people out of slavery and to a promised land where eventually he sent his only begotten Son born as one of them. And Jesus lived and loved and taught and then died and rose again.

God planned all that before anything existed.

God chose us before the foundations of the world. But he didn't choose us so that we could just sit on our closeness. He chose us "to be holy and blameless before him in love." God's plan before creation included us living for Him. It included us living out His love for the world. God's plan was for us to know and love and serve Him.

But God's plan doesn't end there. He also has "a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth." Just as God had a plan to reach beyond the boundaries of Israel with Jesus, God has a plan to call all people to him. But God's plan encompasses all things. It is not just for people but "all things."

In all that God planned for you to play a role. It is God's plan that you live for Him. It is His purpose that you worship and glorify him. It is God's plan that you witness for him and spread his love through acts of charity and kindness and mercy.

The psalmist said, "When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?"(Psalm 8:3-4) What are we that God should consider us? How do we know that in the vastness of the universe God really is mindful of us? How can we tell that we are not lost among the quasars and galaxies and nebulas? As some consider that stars and heavens they wonder is it just wishful thinking that God is mindful of us?

But we have a seal and sign of God's true presence: the Holy Spirit. In ancient times rulers and other powerful people had seals. To show the authenticity of a document they would use their own personal seal. That seal was proof that the words on that document were actually the words of the ruler of person of power.

The Holy Spirit is God's seal on us. We can know that God is mindful of us because the Holy Spirit lives in us. We can feel and experience the living presence fop God. You are an authentic, certified and sealed child of the Almighty. God chose you before the foundations of the universe!

God said it, and BANG you happened!

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Lectionary Sermons of Rev. Alex Stevenson: Revised Common Lectionary based sermons from previous years written for the next three upcoming lectionary dates.