The Highest Bidder
Sermon
Sermons On The Second Readings
For Sundays In Advent, Christmas, And Epiphany
An auction is a fun event, especially when you are the highest bidder for an item you really want to purchase. You register for a number and examine the merchandise that is "up for bid." Then the auctioneer begins the chant and cards with numbers on them start popping up and heads nod at price increments. When the crowd ceases to bid, the item is sold to the last highest bidder. "Last chance. Going once. Going twice. Sold."
A delightful cable television show is the Antiques Roadshow. Professional appraisers travel to large cities giving appraisals to people, like you and me, who bring their valued family heirlooms. It is entertaining to watch someone find out their grandmother's old painting is estimated to bring five figures if it were "put up for auction." In a perverse way, it is also entertaining to witness someone find out that their "valued" heirloom is a fake and isn't worth the effort to carry it around the corner. The television host tries to soothe the latter's feelings. The host maintains: "Of course, we can't put a price on the sentimental value it holds for you."
The context, or image, for today's text could very well be an auction. It speaks of the value of all people. Every society, human or angelic, owes its origin to God and has its divine prototype in God. We kneel before this crafter of all things as the shaper of every family. The family analogy in Ephesians was drawn from a Jewish background in a Roman world. Given that world's universal acceptance of the primacy of male descent, the male analogy would have made sense to its initial readers.
We no longer assume families to be father headed and can be, rightly so, free to use more inclusive language. God's love surpasses knowledge, including that of human attempts to write or record sacred scripture.
The writer of Ephesians prays that we "might know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge" (Ephesians 3:19). That Greek verb which means "to surpass" or "go beyond" can also mean "to outbid at auction."1
It is a wonderful image. God, through Christ, is in the market for the hearts of human beings. The love of Christ will always pay more for our hearts than anything else in heaven or earth that competes for our devotion. Knowledge will never be able to outbid God. There is no predetermined limit2 that God is held hostage to in God's bidding. Imagine an auction house where all human and heavenly powers are gathered to bid and up the ante for your life's devotion. Christ enters the room to represent God in the bidding process. The arm of Christ stays in the air throughout the entire process, never coming down as knowledgeable competitors keep increasing the bid. For all practical purposes the auction is over. God will never be outbid. God is always the highest bidder for the human soul.
This wonderful imagery in Ephesians overlaps3 with the list in Paul's letter to the Romans concerning the heavenly powers:
I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers, neither things present nor things to come nor powers, neither height nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. -- Romans 8:38-39
Not only is God through Christ and the church the high bidder for now, but for all generations. This is not a one time, single event, auction. Quite the contrary. Every generation will find the same glory and lavish love expended on it.
This is a message our world needs to hear. Our fullness is not an isolated hiccup on the world's stage. Our completing our God-given task extends to all the future generations. This is a clarion call for indefatigable, confident leadership and work in God's behalf. If we are freed from the worry that some competing claim or power will outbid God for our souls, then we can feel a sense of obligation to the future ages.
The great American historian, Henry Steele Commager, was asked why we have so few great leaders today as opposed to the many that came forth in the eighteenth century. With all our wealth, education, and population, why haven't we been able to produce leaders like Franklin, Jefferson, Washington, Monroe, and the like?
Commager said that the one common denominator of all the great eighteenth century leaders was that they had a sense of obligation to posterity. In short, they were animated by the belief that they were acting for the benefit of the whole world and for the future ages. They were motivated by a moral obligation to serve the highest that they knew so those who came after them would know the full and completely good life.
Doesn't that same attitude come through to you in this text from Ephesians? "High purpose. Power together. Knowledge of a love that is never outbid. A divine power inside us."
These words and images look deeply and listen deeply. They see a strength and beauty that rise above a society turned in upon itself where seeking pleasure is lifted up as the highest purpose in life.
Ernest Becker won a Pulitzer Prize in 1974 for a book he wrote titled The Denial of Death. One particular passage speaks to me: "The distinctive human problem ... has been the need to spiritualize human life, to lift it onto a special immortal plane, beyond the cycles of life and death that characterize all other organisms."4
Indeed, the Ephesian calls to spiritualize human life, to lift it beyond the cycles of human and emotional bids for recognition, are a great religious challenge.
That religious experiences come and go is so much a part of our culture. Our religious experience has a way of losing its bite. We sweep evil out for awhile and have a clean, fresh taste. Then the empty condition returns and we wonder how to approach wholeness. Again, the concept of spiritual growth and fullness speaks to us. We humans were created with a capacity for the Holy Spirit. We were given the capacity not to become a moral cork which bobs up and down with every bid of social freedom that comes along. We were given the capacity to build institutions which do not financially and programmatically bob up and down depending on whether or not our attitude at the time is one of commitment or lethargy.
Moses, Jesus, and Paul spoke of willing hearts, of full people, bringing what they have got and offering it before the Lord. The encounter with the living God is not a casual one. We come to this place because we seek fullness. We are free and independent, to be sure, but there is something more to life than freedom and independence. There is fullness.
Gerald Kennedy tells the story of a boy who found a dime in the road. He was so impressed at getting something for nothing that for the rest of his life, he walked with his eyes on the road. After forty years of his precious life he had picked up nearly 35,000 buttons, 50,000 pins, approximately four dollars in loose change, a terrible disposition, and a bent back. That's not much reward for making a career out of looking downward.
You and I sit in this church because we are heirs of a universal vision of the early church which viewed God as the highest bidder for human life. We look up to a vision, not downward at nickels and dimes. We are heirs of that glorious news of the unsearchable riches of Christ that the Ephesians heard. No human limit can be set upon this church. God outbids the human divisions, and resources that would threaten it. Heaven and earth are complete and you and I are called to be complete as well.
Certainly any true religious completeness must consider all three of its dimensions: length, breadth, and height. One of the favorite sermons of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was titled "Three Dimensions of A Complete Life." It was the first sermon he preached before his future wife, Coretta Scott, in a little church in Roxbury, Massachusetts. It was also the initial sermon he preached in Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, where he began his pastoral work that was to have such a positive effect on civil rights in our country. And it was the sermon he chose to preach in St. Paul's Cathedral in London when he was on his way to receive the Nobel Prize.5
It was King's contention that the troubles of the world "were due to incompleteness." Just as great cities, nations, and civilizations have suffered from incompleteness, so have many great leaders. King contended that the first dimension of a complete life is the development of a person's inner powers. The author of Ephesians hammers this point home from the beginning of his prayer for the Ephesians: "I pray that (God) may strengthen you with power through (God's) Spirit in your inner being" (3:16).
The second dimension of a complete life, said King, is concern for and identification with one's fellow human beings. The author of Ephesians followed his prayer with a plea in chapter 4 for unity in the church through "bearing with one another in love" (4:2).
Finally, posited King, there remained the third dimension, the height, the upward reach of humankind.6 Loving God with heart, mind, and soul is the height of life.
No one can outbid God for control of human destiny, not now and not ever. God can do more than all we ask or imagine. That is, indeed, the glory that can be the church in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen.
____________
1. The verb hyperballo is defined in David J. Williams, Paul's Metaphors: Their Context and Character (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 1999), p. 170.
2. The notion that God has no numerical limit may be contrasted with the idea in Jewish thought that there is a predetermined divine number. The number of the "sealed" in Revelation does not originate from the same Greek word, pleroma, as the author of Ephesians uses to denote "fullness" or "completeness." See Manfred T. Branch, Hard Sayings of Paul (Downers Grove: Inter Varsity Press, 1989), p. 68.
3. The author of the later lists in Ephesians certainly is keeping with Paul's views as expressed in Romans and 1 Corinthians, undisputed letters from Paul's hand. For more information consult James G. Dunn, The Theology of Paul the Apostle (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1998), pp. 104-110.
4. Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death (New York: The Free Press, 1973).
5. Coretta Scott King, My Life With Martin Luther King, Jr. (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1969), pp. 5-8. Note that King used as his text Revelation 21:16, "The length and breadth and height of it are equal."
6. Ibid.
A delightful cable television show is the Antiques Roadshow. Professional appraisers travel to large cities giving appraisals to people, like you and me, who bring their valued family heirlooms. It is entertaining to watch someone find out their grandmother's old painting is estimated to bring five figures if it were "put up for auction." In a perverse way, it is also entertaining to witness someone find out that their "valued" heirloom is a fake and isn't worth the effort to carry it around the corner. The television host tries to soothe the latter's feelings. The host maintains: "Of course, we can't put a price on the sentimental value it holds for you."
The context, or image, for today's text could very well be an auction. It speaks of the value of all people. Every society, human or angelic, owes its origin to God and has its divine prototype in God. We kneel before this crafter of all things as the shaper of every family. The family analogy in Ephesians was drawn from a Jewish background in a Roman world. Given that world's universal acceptance of the primacy of male descent, the male analogy would have made sense to its initial readers.
We no longer assume families to be father headed and can be, rightly so, free to use more inclusive language. God's love surpasses knowledge, including that of human attempts to write or record sacred scripture.
The writer of Ephesians prays that we "might know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge" (Ephesians 3:19). That Greek verb which means "to surpass" or "go beyond" can also mean "to outbid at auction."1
It is a wonderful image. God, through Christ, is in the market for the hearts of human beings. The love of Christ will always pay more for our hearts than anything else in heaven or earth that competes for our devotion. Knowledge will never be able to outbid God. There is no predetermined limit2 that God is held hostage to in God's bidding. Imagine an auction house where all human and heavenly powers are gathered to bid and up the ante for your life's devotion. Christ enters the room to represent God in the bidding process. The arm of Christ stays in the air throughout the entire process, never coming down as knowledgeable competitors keep increasing the bid. For all practical purposes the auction is over. God will never be outbid. God is always the highest bidder for the human soul.
This wonderful imagery in Ephesians overlaps3 with the list in Paul's letter to the Romans concerning the heavenly powers:
I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers, neither things present nor things to come nor powers, neither height nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. -- Romans 8:38-39
Not only is God through Christ and the church the high bidder for now, but for all generations. This is not a one time, single event, auction. Quite the contrary. Every generation will find the same glory and lavish love expended on it.
This is a message our world needs to hear. Our fullness is not an isolated hiccup on the world's stage. Our completing our God-given task extends to all the future generations. This is a clarion call for indefatigable, confident leadership and work in God's behalf. If we are freed from the worry that some competing claim or power will outbid God for our souls, then we can feel a sense of obligation to the future ages.
The great American historian, Henry Steele Commager, was asked why we have so few great leaders today as opposed to the many that came forth in the eighteenth century. With all our wealth, education, and population, why haven't we been able to produce leaders like Franklin, Jefferson, Washington, Monroe, and the like?
Commager said that the one common denominator of all the great eighteenth century leaders was that they had a sense of obligation to posterity. In short, they were animated by the belief that they were acting for the benefit of the whole world and for the future ages. They were motivated by a moral obligation to serve the highest that they knew so those who came after them would know the full and completely good life.
Doesn't that same attitude come through to you in this text from Ephesians? "High purpose. Power together. Knowledge of a love that is never outbid. A divine power inside us."
These words and images look deeply and listen deeply. They see a strength and beauty that rise above a society turned in upon itself where seeking pleasure is lifted up as the highest purpose in life.
Ernest Becker won a Pulitzer Prize in 1974 for a book he wrote titled The Denial of Death. One particular passage speaks to me: "The distinctive human problem ... has been the need to spiritualize human life, to lift it onto a special immortal plane, beyond the cycles of life and death that characterize all other organisms."4
Indeed, the Ephesian calls to spiritualize human life, to lift it beyond the cycles of human and emotional bids for recognition, are a great religious challenge.
That religious experiences come and go is so much a part of our culture. Our religious experience has a way of losing its bite. We sweep evil out for awhile and have a clean, fresh taste. Then the empty condition returns and we wonder how to approach wholeness. Again, the concept of spiritual growth and fullness speaks to us. We humans were created with a capacity for the Holy Spirit. We were given the capacity not to become a moral cork which bobs up and down with every bid of social freedom that comes along. We were given the capacity to build institutions which do not financially and programmatically bob up and down depending on whether or not our attitude at the time is one of commitment or lethargy.
Moses, Jesus, and Paul spoke of willing hearts, of full people, bringing what they have got and offering it before the Lord. The encounter with the living God is not a casual one. We come to this place because we seek fullness. We are free and independent, to be sure, but there is something more to life than freedom and independence. There is fullness.
Gerald Kennedy tells the story of a boy who found a dime in the road. He was so impressed at getting something for nothing that for the rest of his life, he walked with his eyes on the road. After forty years of his precious life he had picked up nearly 35,000 buttons, 50,000 pins, approximately four dollars in loose change, a terrible disposition, and a bent back. That's not much reward for making a career out of looking downward.
You and I sit in this church because we are heirs of a universal vision of the early church which viewed God as the highest bidder for human life. We look up to a vision, not downward at nickels and dimes. We are heirs of that glorious news of the unsearchable riches of Christ that the Ephesians heard. No human limit can be set upon this church. God outbids the human divisions, and resources that would threaten it. Heaven and earth are complete and you and I are called to be complete as well.
Certainly any true religious completeness must consider all three of its dimensions: length, breadth, and height. One of the favorite sermons of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was titled "Three Dimensions of A Complete Life." It was the first sermon he preached before his future wife, Coretta Scott, in a little church in Roxbury, Massachusetts. It was also the initial sermon he preached in Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, where he began his pastoral work that was to have such a positive effect on civil rights in our country. And it was the sermon he chose to preach in St. Paul's Cathedral in London when he was on his way to receive the Nobel Prize.5
It was King's contention that the troubles of the world "were due to incompleteness." Just as great cities, nations, and civilizations have suffered from incompleteness, so have many great leaders. King contended that the first dimension of a complete life is the development of a person's inner powers. The author of Ephesians hammers this point home from the beginning of his prayer for the Ephesians: "I pray that (God) may strengthen you with power through (God's) Spirit in your inner being" (3:16).
The second dimension of a complete life, said King, is concern for and identification with one's fellow human beings. The author of Ephesians followed his prayer with a plea in chapter 4 for unity in the church through "bearing with one another in love" (4:2).
Finally, posited King, there remained the third dimension, the height, the upward reach of humankind.6 Loving God with heart, mind, and soul is the height of life.
No one can outbid God for control of human destiny, not now and not ever. God can do more than all we ask or imagine. That is, indeed, the glory that can be the church in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen.
____________
1. The verb hyperballo is defined in David J. Williams, Paul's Metaphors: Their Context and Character (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 1999), p. 170.
2. The notion that God has no numerical limit may be contrasted with the idea in Jewish thought that there is a predetermined divine number. The number of the "sealed" in Revelation does not originate from the same Greek word, pleroma, as the author of Ephesians uses to denote "fullness" or "completeness." See Manfred T. Branch, Hard Sayings of Paul (Downers Grove: Inter Varsity Press, 1989), p. 68.
3. The author of the later lists in Ephesians certainly is keeping with Paul's views as expressed in Romans and 1 Corinthians, undisputed letters from Paul's hand. For more information consult James G. Dunn, The Theology of Paul the Apostle (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1998), pp. 104-110.
4. Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death (New York: The Free Press, 1973).
5. Coretta Scott King, My Life With Martin Luther King, Jr. (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1969), pp. 5-8. Note that King used as his text Revelation 21:16, "The length and breadth and height of it are equal."
6. Ibid.
