"Spending Our Inheritance": Sermon for July 15, 2012

Rev. Patti Money

Ephesians 1:3-14

Cheriton/Travis Chapel UMC

July  15, 2012

"Spending Our Inheritance"

I have a confession to make. I am a huge Harry Potter fan. I’ve read all the books, seen all the movies, and own them to boot. If this fact upsets you, because there are Christians who think Harry Potter is evil, then we can certainly have a conversation about it and I’ll listen to your perspective and I’ll share mine with you. Chances are though, that we will part agreeing to disagree because I’m fairly unrepentant in my love for The Boy Who Lived. 

One of the reasons that I love the Harry Potter series so much that I have consistently seen scriptural themes throughout the series, although it is clearly mired in fantasy. For those of you who may not be familiar with the storyline, here it is in a nutshell: Harry Potter was orphaned as an infant and raised by his aunt and uncle, the Dursleys. For the first ten years of his life, Harry is barely tolerated by his relatives, scorned for being different, forced to live in a cupboard under the stairs in their house, and given his (much larger) cousin’s hand-me-down clothes to wear. However, as his 11th birthday neared, things begin to change. He receives a letter, but before he can read it, his uncle intercepts it. More letters begin to arrive...through the mail slot, then through the chimney, no matter what his aunt and uncle do to prevent Harry from receiving this letter, it doesn’t work. The sender of the letter keeps finding new ways to reach Harry. Whoever is trying to reach Harry is very persistent, and eventually Harry finds out what the fuss is all about: magical blood runs in his veins, he is the son of two powerful wizards, and that weird lightning-shaped scar on his forehead is not an ordinary scar from the fictional car accident that his parents allegedly died in, but a sign of who he is, a sign of someone gifted with abilities and called to be more than who is currently is. Harry is invited to train as Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, invited to become who he was born to be. He accepts the invitation, and discovers his identity, his gifts, and his calling. He also discovers that his parents left him a small fortune, and inheritance, if you will, in addition to the gifts they passed down to him. And with those discoveries come freedom...freedom to be who he was created and gifted to be, and freedom from a life that he found to be fairly miserable. We see, as the series unfolds, how Harry is a key part of a plan, a prophecy, to make his world right again. To, in a sense, work with others to help redeem his world. 

I thought of Harry’s story as I was reading and praying over today’s scripture. In this passage, we hear a similar but more powerful message of our identity, our calling, and the freedom and hope that come when we realize who we are. God, the creator of the world, in whom all things and people find life, created us in God’s image. Even before we knew who or cared who God was, God was working in us, drawing us into a relationship with Him, and calling us to be more than we had become and to become more than we could ever imagine. God gave us an identity, gave us gifts, and is calling us to use those gifts to share His transforming love with this world. We have been adopted as beloved children by the creator of the universe, and it is in Jesus, God made flesh, that we can find out who we are. When we discover God’s love for us, when we find out who we really are...not people living meaningless lives but children of the creator and redeemer of heaven and earth...we are given a ticket to freedom, a ticket to a life beyond anything we could ever imagine. We have the opportunity to not just experience eternal life, but to experience an abundant and fulfilling life right now, while we are still here on earth. We are invited to partner with God to share God’s love with this world and change this world. We are invited to become the hands and feet of God, to help redeem this world. And God will keep extending that invitation, keep persistently working in us until we accept our spiritual inheritance, our identity, our gifts, and the freedom and joy that comes from knowing whose we are, who we are, and living that out on a daily basis. God wants us not to just experience life eternally, but to experience life and freedom in the here and now. 

There is a key difference between United Methodist theology and that of some other denominations, such as the Baptists. I’m not trying to knock the Baptists by any means; they are our brothers and sisters in Christ and God does amazing things through them; I’m just pointing out one of our differences. While Methodists believe in salvation and judgment, in heaven and hell and all that stuff, eternal salvation is not our primary focus in evangelism and in mission work. We don’t do mission work primarily to save people from the fires of hell: we do it so that people can experience God’s transforming, freeing love RIGHT NOW and so their lives can become more abundant RIGHT NOW. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, used to say, “there is no holiness without social holiness.” In other words, the only way we can be holy, to be like God, to be who God is calling us to be, is to love and care for others, those who are on the margins of society; the hungry, the homeless, the sick, the orphans. Jesus gives us freedom NOW. Jesus gives us life NOW. Yes, heaven exists and it will be wonderful when we get there...but before we get there we have a life to live NOW. And an inheritance to spend NOW...God has a purpose for us an individuals and us as a church. A way for us to work with God to transform our lives, transform the lives of others, and transform our world. And our mission, our job, is to find out what that purpose is and live into it with everything we have. 

Harry Potter had parents who loved him, who had a plan for him, who provided for his future.  Once he discovered his identity, it became a way for him to be free, because he was no longer the unwanted orphan living in the Dursley house. He had a purpose and a calling, and lived into that calling with everything he had. Before we were even born, before we were even conceived, God loved us. Before our parents knew us or loved us, God knew us and loved us. Before our parents began dreaming of whose traits we would inherit and who we would grow up to be, God gave us a calling and purpose and then gave us everything we need to fulfill that purpose, to become who God is calling us to be. When we discover who we are in Christ, we experience freedom. God is asking us to share His love and join Him in transforming this world. 

The questions for me and the questions for you are...who is God calling you to be? Who is God calling us, meaning the body of Christ here at Travis Chapel/Cheriton, to be? How can we become who God is calling us to be? Once we begin asking those questions, seeking the answers, and fulfilling our calling, we will experience the freedom that we hear about it today’s scripture. Let’s find our identity. Let’s claim our inheritance. Let’s become the people that God created us to be. Let’s partner with God to transform this world.