Sermon Text: Ephesians 2:11-22
23 Jul 06
Remember the old Burger king slogan -- "have it your way." Hold the pickles, no mayo made you feel like you had choices, even at a fast food restaurant.
These days we've gone way beyond simple choices. If you go to Starbucks they say there are more than 19,000 ways you can order up your cup of coffee. It might be urban legend, but supposedly there is a 22-page guide out there that gives you everything you need to know to order your cup just the way you like it. Listen sometime when you're standing in the Starbucks line. You might very well hear something like "I'll have a tall no whip nonfat decaf mocha latte with two shots and extra foam." Now personally I have no trouble ordering at the Varsity -- even though they talk fast there -- but I just stumble over all the options when I get to Starbucks.
We live in a culture where we are formed and shaped in ways that we sometimes don't even recognize. One of the forces at work on all of us is what is almost a cult of individualism in the U.S. We prize individualism so much that we have taken it to all kinds of extremes. We come to believe that our individual desires are and should be the #1 Thing. We bring that expectation to the church. We think the deep longing for purpose and meaning that each of us experiences in this life can be satisfied if we can find the right church that can meet our individual needs and wants.
We become consumers of religion -- just like we're consumers of other service organizations. Michael Foss, a Lutheran pastor, uses an analogy in a book he has written (Foss, Michael W., Power Surge: Six Marks of Discipleship for a Changing Church, Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000, p. 15). He compares the modern church to the modern health club.
He says, "One becomes a member of a health club by paying dues. Having paid their dues, the members expect the services of the club to be at their disposal. Exercise equipment, weight room, aerobics classes, an indoor track, swimming pool -- all there for them, with a trained staff to see that they benefit by them. Members may bring a guest on occasion, but only those who pay their dues have a right to the use of the facilities and the attention of the staff."
He goes on, saying "many of the people who sit in the pews on Sunday have come to think of church membership in similar ways to how the fitness crowd views membership in a health club. . . . In the church, "the role of the clergy is to meet the spiritual needs of the members, keep the members happy, and generally do ministry in a ways that make as few waves as possible. If the members' perceived needs are adequately met, if they are happy with the services provided by the professional staff, and if conflict is avoided or minimized, then the membership can be counted on to do their part. Their part, of course is to pay their dues to keep the offering flowing that pays the bills, salaries, and costs of ministry.
In this way of thinking, the focus is not on Jesus Christ. We become the focus. Our needs, our wants, our desires, our vision. But the vision God has for us in Jesus Christ is so much bigger than our needs, our desires, our vision. The vision God has for us in Jesus Christ is so much bigger than any of us can imagine.
In today's reading from Ephesians, God has brought together the most divided folks there were in the first century -- the Jews and the Gentiles. Christ himself has made both groups into one, the writer claims. This was a big struggle for the early Christians. Peter and the other apostles agonized over whether the message of the gospel was for the gentiles -- the uncircumcised -- or just the Jews. It took decades -- and probably quite a few board meetings -- to figure it all out. You can see these struggles throughout the entire book of Acts.
Today's reading from Ephesians reminds both the Jews and the gentiles that the hope and the peace they have is a gift from God to both groups. Christ is the peace that has broken down all divisions. The Ephesians text today gives us the vision that Christ has brought -- a community where everyone is in. Not only in, but no longer divided into us and them, he and she, black and white, gay and straight, liberal and conservative, citizens and immigrant. In Christ, there are no insiders and outsiders. Everyone who claims Christ as Lord and Savior is IN. <>The vision God has for us in Jesus Christ is so much bigger than any of us can imagine.
This vision is God's vision and it takes more than us to achieve it. Christ is the power that can do this reconciling work. We can't do it on our own. It was a huge theme of the early church that the Spirit of God was the power among them to enable changes and create relationships that no human beings could do on their own. That verse from Paul's letter to the Galatians -- Neither Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female -- was not the norm. Being in Christ -- being dependent on Christ's spirit and power among us -- led them into this way of being.
The Ephesians text we heard today is a resounding reminder of the vision God has for the church: an interdependent community gathered together with Christ as its cornerstone, built into a temple of the Holy Spirit -- a place where God dwells in us and with us and guides our every move. We let ourselves be formed by God's spirit, rather than the spirit of consumerism. Or the spirit of individualism. The spirit of "meet my needs." The spirit of "I'll do it myself."
I know of a church that is in the middle of a search process for a new minister. There are quite a few of our Disciple churches in this region that are in some kind of transition with their pastors. This particular church is very concerned that they find someone who can satisfy the needs and wants of the congregation.
Is that what the question is? What do we want and need?
Or is the question bigger -- like what does God want from us? Because if we just focus on the little things -- what do I want -- our vision is way too small. We'll never be able to see the bigger things -- the things God sees.
What if this church -- any church -- claimed the promise of today's scripture and let itself be a dwelling place for God, reconciled together in Christ, guided by the Holy Spirit? Would we think less about "what do I want?" and instead ask, "what does God want from us?" Would we talk about, think about, pray about, work towards solving the big questions:
It's God's spirit that has the power to break down walls and cause miracles to happen. It is God who has brought all of us together with Christ as the cornerstone, creating a dwelling place for God. Together we make the presence of Christ real in the world.
This is a big vision. It's God's vision for us. Maybe you think it's too big -- too big to even know where to start. Where does anybody start living out God's vision?
There is an old story told about a small monastery in the mountains of France (Standish, N. Graham, Becoming a Blessed Church: Forming a Church of Spiritual Purpose, Presence, and Power, Herndon, VA: The Alban Institute, 2005), p. 77-78. At one time, it was a place of inspiration for all, alive with the spirit of God. People came from all over to discover God in this place.
But then the monastery began to change. The brothers became too confident. They took credit for their success. And then they became self-centered. They began to turn to God less and to their own ways more.
So began their decline. Fewer and fewer pilgrims came. Few monks joined their ranks. The brothers became more and more rigid. They worshiped the past. They feared the future. They were spiritually and physically dying. In another generation all the monks would be dead, and the monastery would die with them. One day a scraggly stranger came to the door, asking for a place to rest for the night. He was invited in. The monks thoroughly enjoyed this visitor at dinner, and sensed a spiritual depth to him, even though he was outwardly rough and smelly.
The next morning, as he was leaving, the stranger thanked the abbot. Then, taking the abbot's hand, he leaned forward and softly whispered. "I need to tell you a secret, one that God has given me for you. Christ is here in your midst. The Messiah is masquerading as one of your brothers." The abbot was shocked. "The Messiah? Here? In this place? No -- it isn't possible." And the stranger left.
The abbot told the other brothers what the stranger had said. They couldn't believe it. Then they began to think:
They went through all the monks, but couldn't imagine that brother being the Messiah. But what if the stranger was right?
So they started to pay more attention to each other, and treat one another as though each was possibly Christ, just in case. As they did, the monastery changed. Worship was no longer routine, because they found themselves looking for Christ among them as they prayed, sang their hymns, and shared in holy communion.
Their study of the scriptures became deeper, for if Christ was among them, they didn't want to miss something important. Their acts of service became more genuine, for what if that strange brother they were helping was Christ himself?
And do you know what happened?
They began to grow spiritually. Their prayers, their teaching, their service, it all took on a new life. People started to come again, to learn their spiritual secrets. The monks had believed that Christ was among them, and they became a dwelling place for God.
That is God's vision for us. We won't see it in our own needs and wants. We don't have to see it all at once. We can see God's vision little by little, in the faces of our sisters and brothers, those we know and those we have yet to meet.
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