Pentecost +11
Rev. Doug Floyd
Ephesians 4:1-16
The book of Ephesians presents this glorious vision of God pouring grace upon grace into His people so that they become the very icons of grace. The Jew and the Gentile are gathered as one family, as one bride, the Beloved of God. In and through this Beloved, He will fill all the heavens and the earth with His glory, His immeasurable love, His beauty.
This is a magnificent vision especially when we look around at ourselves. We are weak, meager, and fall short of His glory. This makes me think of the house churches in and around Ephesus. By embracing faith in Christ, they are cut off from the commerce and social life of the pagan community. They are poor, despised, and appear insignificant.
Paul looks at the same people and declares, “You are to the praise of His glory.” That is, your very life is a song of praise to our glorious God. And your song will echo into the heavens, bring awe to the principalities and powers, and rise above all rule and authority and power and dominion.
Listen to how Eugene Peterson characterizes this glory in The Message:
All this energy issues from Christ: God raised him from death and set him on a throne in deep heaven, in charge of running the universe, everything from galaxies to governments, no name and no power exempt from his rule. And not just for the time being, but forever. He is in charge of it all, has the final word on everything. At the center of all this, Christ rules the church. The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church. The church is Christ’s body, in which he speaks and acts, by which he fills everything with his presence.[1]
Breathtaking! Especially when we consider how we often feel defeated, struggling, and even our culture seems to be turning from the faith of our fathers.
How does Paul move from this glorious vision to the place where we live? As Fr. Les explained last week, the first three chapters of Ephesians focus on our vertical relationship with God and the last three chapters focus on the horizontal with other people. How do we live into the reality of this grand vision?
Ephesians 4:7 says, “Grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.”[2] Christ’s gift. Christ pours His life into His people by His Spirit, and He is raising us up. Or as some have said, “Christ is Christing us Christward.” Let us not think of this as an individual journey though we participate in our own particularity, but at the same time we participate in the family of God, in the church. In this case, we are not thinking about the universal church though it plays a role, but we are participating in a living community with people we can face and must serve. Love is not abstract but takes shape in relation with the people whom we worship together, grow together, live and love together.
Paul reiterates several times that this is a life of love together:
with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,[3]
speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. [4]
Christ works this out in His body through people. Markus Barth reminds us, “The distribution of royal gifts and ministries (4:8, 11) is not a substitute for the Messiah’s presence but the mode of his being present.”[5] Every person in the body plays a role. In 1 Corinthians 12, we read about a variety if gifts given through the body. Comparing these gifts to a human body, Paul reminds all parts of the body must work together. One part of the body cannot discard another part of the body. The foot is not less important than the hand. The body needs the eye and the ear and the nose. All members are part of one another.
This image recurs throughout the New Testament. All members are part of one another. In our culture that celebrates individual achievement, we must realize that we are only a part of the whole, and yet, here is the mystery, by the Spirit, each of us reveals the whole because the Spirit works in us through the whole. What I am trying to say is that when we are here together, we can see that we are part of the whole. But when we are alone or away, we are still part of the whole. And the gifts of the whole that come by the Spirit are still sustaining us and working through us to bless the world.
Even as the Lord has revealed Himself in the body through each member, He also raises some people in speaking offices: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. These are not exalted above the body but serve the body. Once again, Markus Barth reminds, “[T]he task of the special ministers mentioned in Eph 4:11 is to be servants in that ministry which is entrusted to the whole church. Their place is not above but below the great number of saints who are not adorned by resounding titles.”[6]
What are these speaking offices doing? They are bearing witness to Christ. Last week, Fr. Les talked about how Elijah and Elisha speak the Word in their world. They travel all across Israel, speaking and acting out the Word of God. Israel is under judgment with King Ahab who has married a Baal Worshipper, Jezebel. She sheds human blood for spiritual power. Judgment is coming. Eventually Israel will be swept away by Assyria. But before this happens the Lord will raise up a faithful remnant through His prophets. This remnant of God fearers will also go into exile but they will help prepare the way for the coming Gospel throughout the pagan world.
This brings us to the New Testament and the present world. In Ephesus, the church appeared powerless. In the church today, many Christians feel powerless. Think of all the Christians who suffer for the faith or live in war zones. We don’t live in these places, but we still feel the threat through a growing pagan society.
The offices of Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers proclaim the Gospel. In the New Testament, apostles have been sent by Christ to lay the foundation of a community rooted in Christ Jesus. Some form of this office operates today when individuals are raised up to lay the foundations of the church in regions where the Gospel has not penetrated the culture.
It does not appear that we have prophets like Elijah or Elisha, but we do have people who speak the truth of the Gospel in a way that speaks directly to current conditions and may point the way forward in Christ.
Each of these offices are rooted and founded in Christ Jesus. For in Christ the fullness of God’s revelation has been made known. In one sense, these offices guard the Gospel Proclamation. They guard us from ideas and patterns that are antithetical to the goodness of God revealed in Christ Jesus. In first John, we see John guarding the flock against those who left the community and now preach a “deeper truth” that is antithetical to the Gospel.
The Gospel is such good news that we tend not to believe. God’s grace is too good to be true. So humans tend to add additional requirements. The Galatians begin thinking that Gentiles needed to be circumcised. They begin thinking Gentiles need to become ritual Jews before they can become Christians. Paul tells them that they have fallen from grace.
The images of God in our culture can easily permeate our imaginations. We may find ourselves trusting in human effort over God’s grace. Then again, we may be tempted to make Jesus part of our world and fail to grasp the full implications of Him being fully God and Fully Man.
The Pastor, Teacher, and even Evangelist are called to return again and again the source of our faith in Christ Jesus in seeking answers to the challenges of our age. In order to remain faithful, we seek listen to ancient voices from the church as well as contemporaries. We consult one another. As we speak, we acknowledge our frailty and trust that Christ will guard us those we serve, so that we may lead no one astray.
The gifts of the body and the offices of the church are two tangible ways Christ is building up His body in love. Together we all acknowledge that Christ has called us together in one body. We turn toward one another in humility and gentleness and patience, bearing with one another in love. This will mean laying down our lives before one another and trusting the Christ is working in those around me even now. The Scripture does not say that we create unity, but we seek to maintain that unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
This unity reflects our one God who we know as Father, Son and Spirit. Even as there in unity in three persons, we seek to maintain that same unity in the diverse expressions of people all around us. We are gathered around one God in one faith through one baptism, trusting that the one God and Father of us all is over all and in all and reveals Himself through all in all.
In this seemingly small way, we are participating in the grand work of Christ. As we unite in Christ by the power of the Spirit, we are anticipating that great day in the fullness of time when all things will be united in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth. [7]
Come Holy Spirit, may we grow up together in the immeasurable love of Christ.
[1] Eugene H. Peterson, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2005), Eph 1:20–23.
[2] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Eph 4:7.
[3] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Eph 4:2.
[4] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Eph 4:15–16.
[5] Markus Barth, Ephesians: Introduction, Translation, and Commentary on Chapters 4-6, vol. 34A, Anchor Yale Bible (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2008), 434.
[6] Markus Barth, Ephesians: Introduction, Translation, and Commentary on Chapters 4-6, vol. 34A, Anchor Yale Bible (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2008), 481.
[7] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Eph 1:10.
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