Background Text: Ephesians 5:15-20
St. Martin United Church of Christ
Rev. Terry Minchow-Proffitt

This morning we finish up our summer sermon series. We’ve swept across the book of Ephesians. Every Sunday we’ve looked at the mystery of God’s church and how we can participate in such a mystery.

The “mystery” I mean is the endlessly unfolding nature of what God is doing as Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. The church is a mystery in this way. God is The Mystery in this way. You are a mystery in this way. The world around us is a mystery in this way. If we think that we have all of this “down,” or all figured out, we are sorely mistaken. Because God is alive and afoot in our hearts and our world, making things new. We trust this, but not easily. We read the news, then practice resurrection. It takes lots of practice. God is our abundance. We are filled to overflowing with God’s gracious presence.

Seeing life and living life as bounded by God’s unfolding Mystery is another way of saying what we claim to believe as a part of the UCC: God is still speaking. If God is not still speaking, then all we’re doing is rehashing what’s already been said and done. There’s no surprise. We’ve “been there and done that” so let’s go there and do it again the same ole way. Ad Infinitum.  Ad Nauseum. But if God is still speaking, we have an adventure on our hands and the future is much more than scary—it is downright hopeful. We try new things; we do old things in new ways.