Sermon Text : Ephesians 4:1-7,11-16; Psalm 139:1-6,13-18
15 Jan 06
I don't watch much TV. But when I do I watch either the news or -- you'd never be able to guess this -- Animal Planet. It's a cable station where they feature animal shows and stories year around the clock. Remember Wild Kingdom growing up? Wild Kingdom anytime you turn on the television.
I am particularly fascinated by animals that form strong connections with each other. Like wolves, and geese. I was reading something about geese last week. Did you know that geese fly in a V formation because as each bird flaps its wings, it creates an uplift for the bird right behind? By flying in a V formation, it adds at least 71% greater flying range than if each bird flew by itself. Then, when the head or the point goose gets tired, he or she rotates back in the wing and another goose flies point. So they take turns. And the reason they honk when they fly over seems to have something to do with encouraging each other. Sounds like a pretty good system. Maybe what we human beings need is some goose sense.
We human beings seem to live in a world where any kind of permanent bonds with others seem to be optional. Yet, at the same time, we need those bonds with others. The whole is often greater than the sum of the parts. We are often more together than we can be by ourselves. That's true of any community, whether you are talking about your family, your neighborhood, or your church.
There are many scriptural images for the church. But my favorite is the one we hear about in today's reading from Ephesians. The body of Christ. That's who we are. That's what the church is. A living, organic, dynamic sum of the parts, all knit together to be Christ in the world. This letter to the Ephesians was written to the early church to encourage them to understand this idea. The church there had been going on for awhile, because the letter was probably written in the last part of the first century. This was probably a group of Gentile Christians, and the letter was to remind them about their purpose. To encourage them to grow up as Christians.
Paul tells them and us the reason we are here is to use our God-given gifts to build up the Body of Christ so that it can do Christ's work in the world. This letter is advice and much of it is in the form of active verbs. You'll see this if you take out your Bibles or look at the scripture in the bulletin. Walk the walk. Bear with one another, keep the oneness of the spirit. Equip, work, build up, grow up, speak the truth, build up in love.
This love is not a feeling. It is a requirement -- an obligation -- a discipline for anyone who claims to be a disciple of Christ.
While you've got your Bibles out, take a closer look at vs. 15. "But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ." Sometimes we grab a hold of that verse -- Oh, I'm just going to speak the truth in love -- and what we really mean is "I'm going to give him or her a piece of my mind and let 'em have it." And THEN what happens is we don't speak truth or love.
In my study for this sermon, I called Stan Saunders, who is a member of this congregation and a New Testament professor at Columbia Seminary. Dial a prof instead of dial a prayer. We talked about that verse. And the sense of the Greek word for speaking the truth has more to do with being genuine, being transparent, being real with each other. It has nothing to do with thinking we are right -- and then trying to convince somebody that we are. If this church needs anything, it needs us to be real with each other. But always, always, always wrapped in love.
The other sense of this verse has to do with truth. Sometimes we make the mistake of thinking that we alone have the truth. We need to listen to other people's truths. That is one of the reasons we are going to have listening and dialogue sessions coming up at the end of January here in this church. You should have received a letter about it and there is a table set up in the gathering area. The only way to get at the truth in the body of Christ is to listen to each other. No single person here is capable of having the truth all by themselves.
But that doesn't mean just because we are Christians that you can do or say anything. According to a couple of theology professors who have studied congregations, churches too often are guilty of never confronting difficult behavior in the church. We let emotionally and spiritually weak people dominate the church - in order to avoid the hard work of naming and working out problems (Paul R. Stevens and Phil Collins, The Equipping Pastor, Bethesda, MD: Alban Institute, 1993, p.33). We've done that here. We have pushed problems under the rug.
Another church consultant, Peter Steinke, says, we try to be nice, and all we end up with is what he calls sloppy agape (Peter L. Steinke, How Your Church Family Works: Understanding Congregations as Emotional Systems Bethesda, MD: Alban Institute, 1993, p.59). You know the Greek word for love is agape. It's the unconditional, undeserved kind of love God has for us.
We Christians tend to distort God's kind of love. We want the easy way out:
So, we have a problem in this church. And as the Presbyterians like to say (and since Disciples are so ecumenical we'll borrow from them) we are addressing it decently and in order. Your letter was also about the ways we are doing that. We are addressing our problems and we're going by the book -- by our own bylaws and constitution and more importantly by The Book. There is a process in place that you can be part of and it involves carefully and prayerfully discerning God's will. God WILL lead us. We have to trust that. You know, the problem with problems in the church is NOT the problem. It is how we behave while we handle the problem. How mature we are as Christians.
Yes, we start out knit together by God in our mother's wombs. We heard that beautiful imagery in today's psalm. But we're not supposed to stay "Babes in Christ." We're supposed to be "Grown Up in Christ." Being a grown up Christian means we care about the body -- and we put that ahead of ourselves.
Whenever the youth go on a mission trip or a retreat like Epworth which is where they are this weekend, the one thing I repeat to the youth over and over is this: we are a community. Because we are a community, you may have to sacrifice your personal desires for the good of the group. Classic example of this is that when we stop for lunch, we don't stop at 17 different fast food restaurants. A community -- a church -- a youth group -- cannot survive if everyone always thinks "ME First."
When we care about the body, we use our gifts, talents, and who we are as individuals to build up the body. Why do we do this? To equip the saints for the work of ministry. We are to equip ourselves and each to do the work of Christ in the world.
In this world, everywhere you look there's work to do. This weekend there's a group of church folks and others in Washington gathering together to work for an increase in the minimum wage as part of MLK weekend. A minimum wage worker working full time earns $10,700, which is $5000 below the poverty line for a family of 3. There's work to be done here. In Pakistan, there's an effort underway among Christian relief agencies to bring blankets and kerosene heaters to remote parts of Pakistan, where people have been living in tent cities because of the October earthquake there. It's all the work of ministry.
There's work to do and it takes the Body of Christ -- working together -- to do it. That's why Paul wrote that letter to the Ephesians.
Here at this church we've also got work to do. Hard work. We've got to be grown up in Christ to do it. Cut out the sloppy agape.
But we could use a little encouragement here at this church. If Paul were to write a letter to us, what do you think he would say? What advice would Paul offer us?
(Well I just so happen to have checked the mail box on the way in. Look here. A letter from Paul).
From Paul, called to be an apostle by the will of God, to the saints in Tucker, those joined together in Christ at First Christian Church of Atlanta. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
For so many years, I have longed to see you. For I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, who is the source of all of our strength. For it is through the power of the Spirit, a gift from God our Father, that you have been able to be and to do far more than all you could ask or imagine. It is that power that has given you the strength to do the work of ministry that you have been called to do as disciples of Christ.
I have heard of your work done in the name of our Lord, of your care for the sick and the lonely in your fellowship; your mission trips that witness to Christ's name in places far and near; the dedicated teaching of your children and young people, that they might grow up fully into the body of Christ; your efforts to help the least and the lost by collecting food, and health supplies and clothing for all those whose lives are hard; your work with other churches in Tucker to do ministry among the poor through NETWorks; your ministry through blood drives and Habitat for Humanity; your wittness to the presence of God in worship.
Therefore, I encourage you -- I beg you -- to continue to lead a life that is worthy of the calling to which you have been called. You have been called to unity in the One Body of Christ, so that you might show the world that which is possible when the Body builds itself up in love.
Let there be no divisions among you, but be united in the same mind and the same purpose. Don't let the crisis of the moment -- this moment or any moment -- tear down the unity that you have built up over so many decades - the unity that the Spirit has brought among you at First Christian Church of Atlanta. For it is only when the Body is strong that the work of ministry is strong.
Trust the gifts among you, for there are many. There are some who teach, lead youth, visit the sick, sing, lead the congregation, serve as deacons, shepherd, serve meals. Not everyone has the same gift, but all gifts are for the same purpose. In the name of Christ who has called you, work together with all your differing gifts to continue to build up -- not tear down -- the body of Christ at First Atlanta.
It is Christ who gives us the power to be the Body. Each of you has a part in that body, a part that takes discipline. Be patient and gentle with each other, and humble. Speak the truth, but be willing to listen to the truth of others. Use your God-given gifts to grow up in Christ and to build up the Body of Christ. Above all, love one another.
Greet every saint among you. May the grace and peace of the Lord Jesus Christ through God the Father be with all of you, brothers and sisters in Christ. Amen.
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