WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.900 --> 00:00:02.800 The church 2 00:00:03.900 --> 00:00:06.800 which is his body, the fullness of him 3 00:00:07.700 --> 00:00:10.000 who fills all in all. 4 00:00:11.800 --> 00:00:13.100 Thus far as the text. 5 00:00:16.500 --> 00:00:19.000 The sixth grader, who lives in our home 6 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:23.000 Hhas recently, discovered science. 7 00:00:24.500 --> 00:00:26.900 Thanks in no small part to Mr. 8 00:00:26.900 --> 00:00:27.300 Heber. 9 00:00:28.600 --> 00:00:33.500 A very good science teacher at Christ Community Lutheran School, CCLS, 10 00:00:33.500 --> 00:00:35.700 right down the road from here. 11 00:00:38.300 --> 00:00:45.100 And so, I hope you'll indulge me as I share a few simple facts, about 12 00:00:45.100 --> 00:00:51.200 the two hydrogen atoms, and the one oxygen atom that when combined are 13 00:00:51.200 --> 00:00:54.200 otherwise known as water. 14 00:00:57.100 --> 00:00:58.000 Did you know? 15 00:01:00.100 --> 00:01:03.800 The same amount of water on Earth exists right now 16 00:01:05.400 --> 00:01:07.800 as on the day when the Earth was created. 17 00:01:09.500 --> 00:01:10.500 Which means 18 00:01:12.100 --> 00:01:14.600 the water from your faucet 19 00:01:15.500 --> 00:01:18.900 just might contain molecules 20 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:21.900 that Jesus held in his hand. 21 00:01:25.700 --> 00:01:26.500 Did you know? 22 00:01:28.200 --> 00:01:34.700 Nearly 97% of the world's water is salty or otherwise undrinkable 23 00:01:34.700 --> 00:01:41.400 and another 2% of the world's water is locked in ice caps and 24 00:01:41.400 --> 00:01:43.100 glaciers. Which means 25 00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:49.900 that of all the world's water, there is only 1% for all of the needs 26 00:01:49.900 --> 00:01:52.000 of every living mammal on earth. 27 00:01:55.700 --> 00:01:56.400 Did you know? 28 00:01:57.500 --> 00:02:04.300 75% of the human brain is water and 75% 29 00:02:04.300 --> 00:02:05.200 of a living 30 00:02:05.200 --> 00:02:07.700 tree is water. 31 00:02:10.500 --> 00:02:11.200 Finally. 32 00:02:12.300 --> 00:02:13.100 Did you know? 33 00:02:14.800 --> 00:02:21.900 780 million human beings on Earth, lack access to a clean water 34 00:02:21.900 --> 00:02:22.400 source 35 00:02:22.400 --> 00:02:23.100 and 36 00:02:25.200 --> 00:02:31.200 unsafe water kills, 200 children every hour. 37 00:02:33.600 --> 00:02:34.400 And 38 00:02:36.300 --> 00:02:41.900 in one year, the average American household uses 100.000 gallons of water. 39 00:02:47.100 --> 00:02:52.200 It is all too easy to forget that water is simultaneously, the most 40 00:02:52.200 --> 00:02:57.600 ordinary and at the same time, the most extraordinary thing on earth, 41 00:02:57.600 --> 00:02:59.700 life doesn't happen without it. 42 00:03:01.900 --> 00:03:07.000 And I mention it because it is also the only substance on Earth that 43 00:03:07.000 --> 00:03:14.500 when dispensed will feel all in all of any container into which it is 44 00:03:14.500 --> 00:03:15.000 poured. 45 00:03:20.100 --> 00:03:24.300 No small wonder that we are baptized with it. 46 00:03:28.400 --> 00:03:31.200 Which reminds me, you know, what happened 47 00:03:31.200 --> 00:03:33.700 when Paul went to Ephesus, right? 48 00:03:33.700 --> 00:03:38.900 It's right there and Acts chapter, 19, Paul goes to Ephesus, and he 49 00:03:38.900 --> 00:03:42.800 runs into a few disciples and he says to them, have you received the 50 00:03:42.800 --> 00:03:45.200 Holy Spirit and they say, no, 51 00:03:46.500 --> 00:03:50.300 We haven't even heard of the Holy Spirit and he says, how were you 52 00:03:50.300 --> 00:03:51.000 baptized? 53 00:03:51.000 --> 00:03:55.300 And they say with John's baptism and he says, well then have I got 54 00:03:55.300 --> 00:03:56.300 something for you. 55 00:03:57.200 --> 00:04:01.700 And right there, they are baptized into Christ. 56 00:04:04.700 --> 00:04:05.800 And right there 57 00:04:07.100 --> 00:04:09.700 they are filled all in all 58 00:04:10.900 --> 00:04:14.200 with the spirit that Christ gives. 59 00:04:17.399 --> 00:04:21.800 The Apostle Paul must have been so struck by the event that he can't 60 00:04:21.800 --> 00:04:22.800 forget about it 61 00:04:22.800 --> 00:04:26.900 when he writes his letter to the Ephesians. He doesn't mention it by 62 00:04:26.900 --> 00:04:31.500 name but it comes up in the lines actually right before today's 63 00:04:31.500 --> 00:04:33.800 reading. He writes in him 64 00:04:33.800 --> 00:04:37.900 you also, when you heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your 65 00:04:37.900 --> 00:04:41.700 salvation and believed in him were sealed with the promised 66 00:04:41.700 --> 00:04:42.300 Holy Spirit. 67 00:04:42.300 --> 00:04:45.800 The only way you write a line like that is, if you're thinking about 68 00:04:45.800 --> 00:04:46.700 baptism, 69 00:04:50.800 --> 00:04:55.500 And upon hearing of the faith and the life that has now arisen from 70 00:04:55.500 --> 00:05:00.200 that baptism, among these disciples water has a way of doing that, you 71 00:05:00.200 --> 00:05:00.300 know. 72 00:05:01.500 --> 00:05:04.700 With water life can't help but happen. 73 00:05:06.500 --> 00:05:09.100 Paul can't help but pray. 74 00:05:12.300 --> 00:05:17.700 In a way, I imagine that writing to the Ephesians was for Paul one 75 00:05:17.700 --> 00:05:20.700 long exercise in contemplatively prayer. 76 00:05:23.400 --> 00:05:27.600 Until he gets to this point where our reading ends. 77 00:05:27.600 --> 00:05:32.100 The point that this water and word of baptism and the life that comes 78 00:05:32.100 --> 00:05:35.600 from it is never just about me and Jesus. 79 00:05:37.000 --> 00:05:41.900 Matter of fact more than a few theologies have gone haywire by 80 00:05:41.900 --> 00:05:45.300 turning, baptism into a me and Jesus thing. 81 00:05:48.400 --> 00:05:49.700 It's about who we are together. 82 00:05:51.500 --> 00:05:57.200 About how Christ the fullness of God, Paul calls him, 83 00:05:58.200 --> 00:05:59.400 makes us to be 84 00:06:00.500 --> 00:06:01.200 together. 85 00:06:04.800 --> 00:06:09.700 Or to say it in the way of the immortal African proverb, I am 86 00:06:11.000 --> 00:06:12.200 because we are. 87 00:06:14.200 --> 00:06:17.600 And we are because we are in Christ. 88 00:06:21.900 --> 00:06:26.700 When I witnessed the baptism of another, my own baptism is made more 89 00:06:26.700 --> 00:06:27.300 full. 90 00:06:30.400 --> 00:06:35.100 When I see faith and love at work in the life of another, a life made 91 00:06:35.100 --> 00:06:36.400 possible by water 92 00:06:36.400 --> 00:06:40.100 my own faith and love are made more full 93 00:06:42.400 --> 00:06:43.600 and vice versa. 94 00:06:46.600 --> 00:06:51.400 I am because we are and we are because we are in Christ. 95 00:06:51.400 --> 00:06:57.500 This is how the fullness of who I am as a baptized child of God, is 96 00:06:57.500 --> 00:07:01.400 filled full by who we are together, 97 00:07:01.400 --> 00:07:03.400 all in all. 98 00:07:07.200 --> 00:07:08.700 Anything that diminishes 99 00:07:08.700 --> 00:07:10.800 you diminishes me. 100 00:07:12.800 --> 00:07:16.300 Anything that builds you up, build me up. 101 00:07:18.300 --> 00:07:23.900 This is how we begin to multiply each other's joys and to divide each 102 00:07:23.900 --> 00:07:25.500 other's sorrows and 103 00:07:26.900 --> 00:07:29.200 that's why it can be so painful 104 00:07:32.000 --> 00:07:39.800 when that fullness is violated or broken by deceit, or deception or 105 00:07:39.800 --> 00:07:40.700 betrayal. 106 00:07:43.700 --> 00:07:45.100 And that's why this baptism 107 00:07:47.000 --> 00:07:51.800 this water that makes it all possible is always a death. 108 00:07:53.200 --> 00:07:57.100 A daily death before it can ever be life. 109 00:08:01.200 --> 00:08:02.700 We share in it all 110 00:08:04.100 --> 00:08:04.800 together. 111 00:08:06.700 --> 00:08:07.600 Even the pain. 112 00:08:09.600 --> 00:08:14.900 We share it in the fullness of the one, whose life is a life, filled 113 00:08:14.900 --> 00:08:20.400 more full than any life we could ever imagine, or dream, a life could 114 00:08:20.400 --> 00:08:20.600 be. 115 00:08:23.400 --> 00:08:30.000 The life that now ascended, fills all in all. 116 00:08:35.799 --> 00:08:40.100 On a final note, I confess that I'm quite taken by the idea that the 117 00:08:40.100 --> 00:08:43.799 Apostle Paul didn't write this letter, just to the Ephesians, 118 00:08:45.500 --> 00:08:52.200 but that likely perhaps it was circulated to the several churches of 119 00:08:52.200 --> 00:08:52.500 Asia 120 00:08:52.500 --> 00:08:53.200 Minor. 121 00:08:53.200 --> 00:08:55.400 I'm quite taken by the idea because 122 00:08:56.800 --> 00:08:59.000 well, it's been circulating ever since 123 00:09:01.700 --> 00:09:03.500 and it has finally reached us 124 00:09:04.700 --> 00:09:05.200 here 125 00:09:06.200 --> 00:09:06.800 and now. 126 00:09:08.700 --> 00:09:10.600 A letter to the Concordians 127 00:09:11.700 --> 00:09:13.000 of North America. 128 00:09:16.900 --> 00:09:21.300 The Apostle has remembered you and me in his prayers too. 129 00:09:23.700 --> 00:09:27.200 I'm thinking especially of the graduating students among us 130 00:09:28.700 --> 00:09:29.800 and your family's. 131 00:09:32.700 --> 00:09:37.500 The Apostle has prayed his prayer for you and I don't mean that in 132 00:09:37.500 --> 00:09:41.900 some figurative metaphorical way, I believe the Apostle, Paul hasn't 133 00:09:41.900 --> 00:09:45.200 literally prayed his prayer for you. 134 00:09:49.600 --> 00:09:51.500 Listen, again, to the words he wrote 135 00:09:52.700 --> 00:09:53.400 to you. 136 00:09:56.600 --> 00:09:58.900 I do not cease to give, thanks for you. 137 00:10:00.100 --> 00:10:04.700 Remembering you in my prayers, that the god of our Lord Jesus Christ, 138 00:10:04.700 --> 00:10:08.900 the father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of 139 00:10:08.900 --> 00:10:13.400 revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts 140 00:10:13.400 --> 00:10:14.200 enlightened. 141 00:10:15.800 --> 00:10:18.900 That you may know what is the hope to which he has called you. 142 00:10:18.900 --> 00:10:22.000 What are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the Saints. 143 00:10:22.000 --> 00:10:26.800 And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us 144 00:10:26.800 --> 00:10:32.000 who believe, who believe. 145 00:10:35.300 --> 00:10:37.900 Who believe in the name of Jesus 146 00:10:39.800 --> 00:10:44.200 the risen and now ascended, Lord of us all. 147 00:10:46.400 --> 00:10:48.000 The fullness of him 148 00:10:49.600 --> 00:10:50.700 who fills all 149 00:10:51.900 --> 00:10:53.100 and is in all. Amen.