One of the big events where we lived before coming here was the annual Tucson Gem and Mineral Show. Vendors and collectors would come from all over the world to sell and buy all sorts of precious and semi-precious stones, and they would pretty much take over the whole town for a week or so. Some vendors would have tables full of uncut, unpolished stones for sale, often at very cheap prices. One year, a fellow paid one dollar for nondescript little rock that turned out to be a sapphire worth $10,000.00! I don’t know if the seller of that little rock ever found out what he had done, but the buyer was sure happy. Obviously, the seller did not know what he had.

One of the most unfortunate phrases in the English language is, “If I had only known.” If the rock seller had only known that he had a valuable sapphire sitting on his table of more-or-less worthless rocks, he would have ended up a richer man. “If I had only known.” How many times have you and I used that phrase? If I had only known that dotcom stocks were going to go bust, or that the company would declare bankruptcy, or that a tsunami was coming. It I had only known that she would have married me had I asked, or that there was a truck coming down the wrong side of the road, or that I would never see him again, or that…well, all of us can fill in the blank with some version of our own, I’m sure.

“If I had only known” is not a phrase that we want to use in conjunction with matters that have to do with God. Paul wanted to make sure of that as he wrote to the good Christian folk in Ephesus. Paul has been reminding them of the peace that they have with God and the good life that they have through God because of God’s grace. He has been reminding them of the incredible blessings they possess. And in today’s lesson, he continues to highlight the amazing gifts that are ours through our relationship with God.

Part of the source of Paul’s incredible impact in the life of the early church was his deep pastoral concern for people. Constantly he spoke of his prayers for people, and here he tells the Ephesian Christians that he is praying for them. His prayer is specific: that God would give the people the gift of wisdom and revelation.

The gift of revelation must come before the gift of wisdom, because we can learn wisdom only as it is revealed to us. How can we know anything at all about God? How can we look at the world around us, at the people who live in it, at the events and facts of life, and learn anything of God? Why is it that some people see nothing of God in that which is around them, and others see evidence everywhere of God? Why is it that some people seem never to grasp the reality and presence and love of God, and others seem never to have doubted it? We do not fully understand why some people have faith and others do not, but we do know that it has something to do with revelation. The Bible witnesses to two dynamics of faith. One dynamic is that God reveals himself to some people and seemingly not to others. But another dynamic is that some people seem to choose to see what God is revealing and others do not. Paul himself had been overwhelmed by the revelation of Jesus Christ as he traveled to Damascus, but perhaps Paul could have chosen to ignore Jesus, or explain him away. We do know at least this much: that you and I cannot see God unless God wants to be seen. God does reveal himself, and it is up to us to look. And so Paul is praying that God will reveal himself to the Ephesians, that God will cause that mysterious transaction to occur in which the people there would accept and believe.

What God reveals about himself and about the nature of reality is what Paul calls wisdom. Wisdom is, simply put, deep knowledge about the things of God. All of us know, I hope, people who are wise. All of us know, most certainly, people who are not wise. I hope you know more wise people than foolish people, but I fear that wisdom is a rather rare quality in people. None of us are wise in all things, nor foolish in all things, either. But we want to be wise in the most important things, especially the things that have to do with the ultimate concerns, like God.

When the deep things of God are revealed to us, when we finally understand what God is all about, it is, in Paul’s terminology, like having the “eyes of our hearts” enlightened. When I was a kid I read a lot of comic books. The back page or two of a lot of comic books were actually advertisements for cool stuff like decoder rings and such. One of the neatest things that they always advertised, but which I never bought, was x-ray glasses. If I could buy a pair I would do it now, but I don’t even know where to buy comic books anymore. Everyone I knew wanted to have x-ray glasses so we could see through things, just like Superman.

Most kids learn as they grow up that there are many ways to “see” things. Ocular vision is only one form of seeing. We can learn to see things with our minds, with our imaginations, and with our hearts. To see with the heart is to see with that part of us which is spiritual, and the things we see are things that have to do with the spiritual. Some things are better understood, better appreciated, better known, when we look with our hearts rather than with our eyes or our intellects. Perhaps the best things are seen with the heart, things like beauty and love. Intellect cannot describe beauty and love, but the heart knows exactly what they are.

Paul already knows that God has revealed his wisdom to the Christians in Ephesus, and indeed that they have seen the deep things of God in that way which is like seeing with the heart. And he wants them to grow more and more in this wisdom. He wants this for them, he says, “so that…you may know.” Marius Victorinus, a Latin bishop who lived and wrote in the fourth century, said about these words of Paul, “Let us understand that we arrive at the full mystery of God by two routes: We ourselves by rational insight may come to understand and discern something of the knowledge of divine things. But when there is a certain divine self-disclosure God himself reveals his divinity to us. Some may directly perceive by this revelation something remarkable, majestic and close to truth…. But when we receive wisdom we apprehend what is divine both through our own rational insight and through God’s own Spirit. When we come to know what is true in the way this text intends, both these ways of knowing correspond.”ⁱ Knowing is the key here. I wish I had only known. When it comes to the things of God, Paul says, we never have to say, “I wish I had only known.”

Somewhere back in the Dark Ages I learned this little aphorism: “Freshmen don’t know, and they know they don’t know. Sophomores don’t know, but they don’t know they don’t know. Juniors know, but they don’t know they know. Seniors know, and they know they know.” If you don’t know, it is good to know that you don’t know, so then maybe you will learn. If you don’t know that you don’t know, you are to be pitied, and you will likely make a fool of yourself. If you don’t know that you know, it is a tragedy, because you are missing out. To know that you know is the goal.

What does Paul want us to know? What does Paul know that we already know, even though we may not know we know it? He lists three things here, and they are powerful things. The first thing we know is, “the hope to which he has called” us. We know that there is reason for us to hope. We can hope with the certainty of faith that there is life after life, that this life has meaning, that in this life we can find great blessing, even in the midst of suffering and pain. We can hope that, no matter what obstacles we face, what setbacks we suffer, what agonies we endure, still God is God and we are his. A recent movie was titled Hope Floats, and it was about a woman who returned to her hometown after her marriage fell apart. The tagline of the movie was this: “When life fell apart, love fell into place.” The woman finds love again, and life gets better than it ever was. That’s what we all need isn’t it, the assurance that when life falls apart, it can come back together again? We want to know that hope doesn’t sink, instead, hope floats.

The second thing Paul wants us to know is, “the riches of [God’s] glorious inheritance.” Lots of folks in this room know about inheritance. Occasionally I have this flight of fancy that someone I don’t even know is going to leave me a lot of money someday. I suppose that’s my own little game because it is for sure that the folks I do know are not going to leave me a lot of money! All of us have inherited something, even if it was only our mother’s good looks or our father’s sharp mind. An inheritance is something we can already have or something to which we are looking forward to possessing someday. I think Paul understood our inheritance from God in both ways. We have already inherited from God a history of faithful people who have taught us the wisdom we need to know, and we have inherited from God a Savior who still lives and still leads us into the abundant life. One day, we will inherit from God the gift of eternal life and the gift of living in the glory of his eternal presence.

The third thing that we know through the eyes of our hearts is, “the immeasurable greatness of [God’s] power.” Like hope and inheritance, power is something that we all want, in some fashion or other. We talk of horsepower, the power of persuasion, the power of the presidency, and our good friend Bob Schuller who preaches up the road at the Crystal Cathedral calls his worship “The Hour of Power.” We want more power in our golf swings, more purchasing power, and for some of us, all we want sometimes is enough power to get up off the couch and go to bed. We always try to measure power, to quantify it. We can hardly imagine the power of a hurricane, or the power that makes the planets revolve around the sun. We cannot begin to grasp the power that made the universe. But Paul reminds us that God’s power is simply immeasurable. Perhaps more amazing than the fact of God’s infinite power is the fact that Paul says this power is, “for us who believe.” God is a God of infinite power, and this infinite power is available to you and me. God uses his power for our sakes. That’s a powerful thought, isn’t it?

And so, we know. We know hope. We know inheritance. We know power. And knowing makes all the difference. If you do not know hope, then you do not know how to keep on going when the going gets tough. If you do not know inheritance, then you do not know that you have a great tradition of faith to inform you and that you have a great future ahead to comfort you and that you have a Savior to walk with you along the way. If you do not know power, then you do not know that God has the power to forgive your past and to remake you into who you want to be. But we do know. And knowing gives us two things: It helps us chart our course and it helps us have confidence for the journey.

“If I had only known then what I know today.” The old saying goes, “If I had known how long I was going to live, I would have taken better care of myself.” Some of you, perhaps, had a hunch a long time ago, and you bought a few shares of the little retail business that Sam Walton started, or you bought into the risky new technology that Bill Gates was developing. Knowing the reality of the way things are and knowing the shape of things to come helps you decide what your course will be for today. You already know, Paul says, about God, and about the hope and riches and power that already belong to you. You already know what your eternal future will be.

Knowing helps you set your course, and then it helps you steer that course with amazing confidence. When you know the answers you are not afraid to take the test. When you know the outcome you are not afraid to make the decision. When you know you are going to sink that 15-foot putt, you are not afraid to step up and hit the ball. Not knowing is a fearful thing. Do you remember the scene and the song from the movie that is 40 years old this year, when Julie Andrews, playing the role of Maria, the failed novitiate, leaves the convent and is walking to the estate of Captain Von Trapp, where she will become the governess of his children? “What will this day be like? I wonder. What will my future be? I wonder. It could be so exciting, to be out in the world, to be free! My heart should be wildly rejoicing. Oh, what’s the matter with me? I’ve always longed for adventure, to do the things I’ve never dared. Now here I’m facing adventure, then why am I so scared? A captain with seven children…what’s so fearsome about that? Oh, I must stop these doubts, all these worries. If I don’t I just know I’ll turn back! I must dream of the things I am seeking. I am seeking the courage I lack. The courage to serve them with reliance, face my mistakes without defiance, show them I’m worthy, and while I show them, I’ll show me! So, let them bring on all their problems, I’ll do better than my best. I have confidence they’ll put me to the test, but I’ll make them see I have confidence in me! Somehow I will impress them. I will be firm, but kind. And all those children, heaven bless them, they will look up to me and mind me! With each step I am more certain, everything will turn out fine. I have confidence the world can all be mine! They’ll have to agree I have confidence in me. I have confidence in sunshine, I have confidence in rain. I have confidence that spring will come again! Besides which, you see, I have confidence in me. Strength doesn’t lie in numbers. Strength doesn’t lie in wealth, strength lies in nights of peaceful slumbers, when you wake up, wake up! It’s healthy! All I trust I leave my heart to, all I trust becomes my own! I have confidence in confidence alone! Besides which, you see, I have confidence in me!”ⁱⁱ

I love Julie. And I know what she meant. But I don’t have confidence in me. My confidence is in the God who, as Paul wrote, “is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine.” I know the treasure I have. I know, because of God’s gift of spiritual sight, that I have a hope, an inheritance, a power, that come from God alone. I know my course, and with God’s help, I walk it with confidence. Do you know what you have?

Amen.

ⁱ Marius Victorinus, quoted in Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, New Testament VIII, Mark J. Edwards, editor, InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois, 1999, p. 121.
ⁱⁱFrom The Sound of Music, Rodgers and Hammerstein, 1965.

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