Covenant
United Methodist Church
Sunday School 9:45 Worship 8:30 & 10:45 am
Epiphany 1 Ephesians 3-1-12 Unlocking the Access
I read several years back about this young man who during the Christmas season got stuck in his family’s Chimney. He’d locked himself out of the house, so he simply decided to play Santa Claus while his family was away. He climbed up on the roof and tried to shimmy down the chimney… he made it most of the way down, but then got stuck… well, to make a long story short rather than tear down the chimney the firefighters simply lowered down a rope and the pulled the boy out of the chimney… the boy lost his pants on the trip out, but only had a few bumps and bruises otherwise.
Have you ever been locked out! Periodically it happens to me. The last time I was locked out was the very worst time for it to happen. Ya’ll may remember when I had that sinus infection that ended up working into a staff infection. Well, while having some tests done at a local hospital, I locked myself out of my car. It was raining outside and about 40 degrees. So I was sick, it was cold and rainy and I was stuck outside locked out of my car with no way to get into the car. I ended up waiting about an hour for a locksmith to come out and unlock my car. It was miserable, and I was miserable…
In our scripture lesson today Paul talks about being locked out. The mystery of our faith the mystery of God had been locked and sealed and only a small group of people new the answer to the mystery. Only the Chosen People knew the key to the lock and they weren’t sharing it.
Now what Paul wants us to know is that because of Christ, because of his birth, we now have open access to God. Paul writes, “We have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
The key to unlocking the door to our relationship with God is faith in Jesus. We are no longer locked out. Jesus gives us the key to opening the door between us and God. All we have to do is trust Jesus forgiving love and share that same forgiving love with others.
There is a beautiful story told about a soldier in the union army during the Civil War. The soldier was the youngest of two sons. The family had lost both the older son and the father in the war. He went to Washington to get an exemption from the war from President Lincoln, so he could go back and take care of his mother and sister and run the family farm. When he got to the White House he asked to see the President but was told, “You can’t see the President. Don’t you know there is a war going on. Get back out there and fight the Rebs like you are supposed to.” So he left and went outside the White House. He sat on a park bench not far from the White House. A little boy walked up to him and thought the soldier looked sad. He came up to the soldier and said, “Soldier you look unhappy. What’s wrong?” The soldier looked at the little boy and began to spill out his heart, telling the little boy all of his problems, telling him about losing his father and brother and about his mother and sister who were having to take care of the farm by themselves.
So the little boy took the soldier by the hand and led him back to the White House. They went through the back door, past the guards, past the generals and all the high ranking government officials waiting to talk to the president. As the little boy would enter a room they all would stand at attention as the boy and this private would walk by. Finally, they got to the Oval office where the president was and the boy walked right into the room without even knocking on the door. The president was with the secretary of state talking important business, but when the private and the little boy walked into the room Lincoln stopped what he was doing and with a smile said, “What can I do for you Todd?”
The boy said, “Daddy, this soldier needs to talk to you.” Right then and there, the soldier was able to plead his case. Lincoln recognized the hardship the soldier was going through, and the was exempted from any more military service.
That is exactly what Jesus does for us. We have access to the father through Jesus his Son. Jesus walks into the presence of God and says, “Daddy here is someone who wants to talk to you…” the key to the Christian faith is that we have unrestricted access to the presence of God! We have this Access because of the birth of a child, the child of God. The lock has been opened between us and God by Jesus’ birth, life, and death. Praise be to God!