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Monday, November 6, 2017

Now Playing: The Story of the Church! (Ephesians 4:1-16)

Sunday, November 5, 2017




            As the movie begins, we hear the main character say, “Let me tell you about the time I almost died.”  The story is thrilling, but why?  Everything after “Let me tell you about the time,” is flashback.  When we see him hanging off the edge of the building with the bad guys shooting at him, we know he escapes.  We know he doesn’t fall.  We know he doesn’t die.  How? He’s the one telling the story.  Let me tell you about when I almost died.
            Today we step into a story - the story of the church as told in Ephesians.  This tale is not so death-defying as the hero escaping from some impossible scenario.  It’s not James Bond evading 10 gunman with bad intentions and falling into the arms of a woman.  It’s not Captain America and a handful of Avengers staring down hordes of aliens who threaten all life on earth.  This is not that kind of story.  This one is better.
            The story we find in Ephesians is better than the action film.  Even more, it is better than the stories on the evening news, stories of racial tension, terrorism, violence, and political strife.  This Ephesians story is better than the dream America holds before us where people are treated as commodities, consumers to be wooed by false impressions of beauty, success, and happiness.  The story in Ephesians is richer than the lies advertisers try to sell and Americans are too often too eager to buy.  The Ephesians story offers greater meaning, more permanent satisfaction than any nation’s ideals, and a better ending.
            The ending of the Ephesians story – a Father, Son, and Holy Spirit story – is that God wants to build up the body of Christ, which is the church.  The body is the gathering, the united sense of identity and shared life of all who follow Jesus into the Kingdom of God.  You, me, all of us together make up the body of Christ and God the Father, known through the Son, and at work in the world through the Spirit gives what we need to be His people, worshiping Him and helping others come to saving faith in Him.  God equips us in love so that we are united and are His people, His church.  That’s the story.
            Why is this good news?  And how do we get there?

            The beginning involves the Jewish rabbi, the carpenter’s son, the long-awaited Messiah, God-in-the-flesh; this Jesus, the Jesus, is crucified by Rome at Jerusalem’s insistence and each one of us is complicit because of our sin.  He gets tortured, killed, and buried, but after a few days, the tomb is discovered empty.  In the month following, his followers meet him and in these meetings discover he has been resurrected.
            His still bears nails holes in his hands from the crucifixion.  He can be touched and embraced.  He eats with the disciples.  Yet, when he so desires, he can pass through closed doors without opening them.  He can seemingly transport from one place to another in bodily form.  Finally, he ascends, stepping out of this realm and into a heavenly one.  A short time later, his Holy Spirit fills His followers, and the age of the church begins. 
            Within a few years, some Jews in Jerusalem become steadfast in their devotion to Jesus and to helping others come salvation in His name.  Other Jews in Jerusalem are equally determined to crush the Jesus movement.  One of these is a Pharisee named Saul.  The risen, ascended Christ returns in a blinding light to confront Saul on the road.  Saul, overwhelmed, repents of all the evils he has carried out against Jesus’ church.  He begins going by the name Paul and is commissioned an apostle. 
            Then he travels to, Antioch, around the Greek-speaking world, and finally he makes his way to Rome.  At every stop, Paul tells Jews and Gentiles alike about salvation in Jesus.  He is flogged by those opposed to his message.  People who come to believe are also roughed up and ostracized, precisely because they decide to follow Jesus.  Paul, finally, is imprisoned and tradition tells us he died while imprisoned for Christ. 
            Before death reached Paul, he started churches in numerous cities, and the letters he wrote back to those communities were saved and circulated so all the churches could have the word God had given Paul to give to the church.  A few generations later, those letters were compiled and in the 4th century, the entire New Testament, including Paul’s letters, were collected into the volume we now have in the Bible.  Ephesians has been our entry point to this story for the past month. 
            This story of salvation from creation to Jesus to the church to Paul to HillSong in 2017, this news, is good because it shows that in Jesus Christ, we have relationship with God.  We have freedom from sin. We have love beyond explanation, joy that does not diminish, and joy that does not fail.
            Last week in focusing on Ephesians 3, we looked at what God does and noted that our primary act is prayer.  In Ephesians 4, we see what we do in addition to prayer.  “I … beg you,” the author says, “to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called” (4:1).  We know we have been called to follow Jesus, to accept God’s invitation to be his sons and daughters, and to be his witnesses in a fallen, lost world.  The phrase “to lead a life,” in verse 1, means to be ‘in Christ’ in our walk through daily life.  Daily life is the arena in which our faith becomes real. 
            Following Jesus, as we care for our families, go to our jobs, shop in the marketplace, pay our taxes, and live in the cultural world of 21st century America, this walk happens in a specific way.  Humility.  God is great and we are servants.  Gentleness.  People around us are lost, and we must be safe, welcoming, representatives of our Lord.  Patience.  Inside the church and out, we are confronted with the pain of the world because sin hurts.  In spite of it, we welcome others into our embrace.
Bearing with one another in love.  Jesus’ great commandment is that we love God and then go out of our way, inconvenience ourselves, in loving each other.  Making every effort to maintain unity of the Spirit.  This is not unity for unity’s sake, but rather the unity of people who have died and been raised again in Christ. 
Verses 2-3 list the way we go about living into the salvation God has given:
·         Humbly
·         Gently
·         Patiently
·         Bearing one another’s burdens in love
·         Maintaining unity in the Holy Spirit

Imagine the story of the church that receives Paul’s Ephesians urging!  In a distorted view of church, some select certain behaviors to be the standard by which we are measured.  In one church, only men can be ordained.  In another, all the deacons have to sign a document written in 1963 or 2000.  In yet another, the leaders must be alcohol-free.  If a deacon is caught a deacon with a beer, he’s banished to some sort of ecclesiastical purgatory for a while.  In another, certain sexual behaviors are the measure of whether or not someone is following Christ.
I readily acknowledge a Christian ethic that relates to who should and should not lead, to the appropriateness in relationships, and other matters.  The Word of God speaks to all these things.  But, what if we paid attention when Paul says, “I beg you to lead a life worthy?”  And what if in paying attention, we realize that in the church story God is writing, humility is the measure of the leader?  What if our loving critique comes down to, “Pastor, you haven’t been gentle?”  “Small group leader, you need to bear with those in your group – stand beside them; support them; help them through the crisis they’re experiencing!”  “Deacon, your actions are hurting our unity in the Spirit.”
These blunt words aren’t spoken to shame people.  Rather, the intent is to help the pastor grow in his discipleship by helping him learn to be gentler.  The idea is to help the small group leader deepen her commitment to Christ by helping her go the extra mile in caring for those in her group.  The aim is to help that deacon strengthen his own testimony by helping him know how to work for unity in the family.  In the Ephesians church story, gentleness, humility, and unity matter as much as the issues that take up so much of our time today. 
Our work is to lean in to this way of following Jesus.  God’s work is to shower us with grace.  Of course grace means our sins are forgiven and we have new life in Christ.  Grace is also the source of the gifts God gives.  The Greek word ‘grace’ and the word translated ‘gifts’ or ‘spiritual gifts’ come from the same root.  The only kind of gifting Paul writes about is spiritual gifting.  In 1 Corinthians 12 and in Romans 12, there are representative, not exhaustive, spiritual gift lists. 
Here in Ephesians 4, the grace given by God specifically refers to leadership.  Verse 11 names apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers.  In our church family, we don’t have roles for apostles – but we know we are sent.  We don’t have prophets on the church staff – but there are times when people in the church are given a prophetic word from God and that word must be spoken.  We don’t have ‘evangelist’ as a formal position, but we know we are called to tell the good news of Jesus Christ.
We do have pastors and teachers.  All the gifts described in Ephesians 4, those we have in formal title and those we exercise by function serve the same purpose.  These gifts are given by God, to be used by leaders in the church to equip everyone in the church to do the work of ministry and build up the body of Christ.  Ephesians 4:12 shows why all the people in the church are ‘ministers.’  God gifts the leaders, and the leaders respond by humbly, gently training and encouraging the members of the church family.  The church family responds by committing to unity in the Holy Spirit, giving full-bodied support to the other members of the church family, and sharing the good news in the community.
It’s good news because it is a story of salvation, a story of second chances, a story of belonging, and a story that never ends.  In this story, God never gives up on you.
How do we get there?  By commitment and trust.  We commit to grow as disciples.  We trust God’s promise of forgiveness and grace when we fail to do our part.  And realizing our shortcomings, we try again.  And again.  And again.
Know this.  We’re not there yet.  In chapter 4, verse 14, it says “We must no longer be children tossed to and fro and blown about by every [crazy idea that comes along].”[i]  This was written because sometimes the people of the church allowed themselves to be deceived and fell prey to false teachings.  They were easily swayed by bad ideas. 
The next verse says, “by speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.”  We build ourselves up in love, as the end of verse 16 says. 
I have seen churches fail to be gentle with members.  I have seen followers of Jesus ignore the Ephesians call to humility and unity.  I have seen it in the church and in myself.  God doesn’t give up on me or on his church.  This story is not yet complete.  In fact, we see the power of this story as we grow in Christlikeness. 
We see it when the grieving widow is comforted. 
We see it when the nervous young adult whose never traveled before signs up for the overseas mission trip, and then confesses all her fears, and then allows her church family to encourage her and the family does exactly that.
We see it when the small group, showing love and mercy, walks through the divorce with him, sitting with him in his brokenness. It’s a story that’s happening now, happening among us, happening in your life.  The title of the sermon is “Now playing!  The story of the church.”  Together, looking to Christ, and sharing his love with one another, we see this show as it unfolds and through the church, the world hears and sees the good news of life in Christ.
AMEN 



[i] Here I substituted “crazy idea that comes along” because I think that’s clearer than the phrase “every wind of doctrine” which is what the NRSV says.

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