Eph 4:1-16 “Letter to the Ephesians: Let Us Be One”

 Kenneth Carder in his book Living Our Belief writes this powerful statement: “Without a memory of what the church is called to be, the church becomes what the people want it to be.” Let me repeat that: “Without a memory of what the church is called to be, the church becomes what the people want it to be.”

While folks may claim that we need to know more about God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, few would wonder think we need to discuss what it means to be the Church - who we are as the Body of Christ. Yet, we need to remember what it means to be the Church - remember the purpose and mission God has for us, so we do not become just another organization.

We talk about Church a lot, but how many people actually know what the Church is supposed to be? Let me ask you a question, if the Church is the tool that God uses to transform the world, how would our neighborhood be different if this church wasn’t present? Would our community even notice? Another way to phrase this question would be to ask why we need this specific Church? Adam Hamilton often speaks about the vital questions that we need to be able to answer as people of the Christian Faith. Two include - why do we need the Church universal and why do we need this specific church?

We need the Church universal because it is the way God has chosen to fulfill the mission of Christ in the World. In fact, the Church is called to be the very sign of God’s presence to the World. But sometimes we forget that. We forget that the Church, both universal and local, isn’t about us. It isn’t about what style of worship we like. Or how we prefer to spend our money. Or even about what we do or do not get out of Sunday worship. Because the Church belongs to God, not us. Its about making the mission of God visible in the world by being the light in a very dark world. 

But as a denomination we take the mission of the Church Universal one step further. We are a missional church. Which means, we exist chiefly for people who do not yet know God. We exist to do good for all people - to reach out and be an alternative community to neighbor and stranger alike. We exist to serve people in the world in order to further the mission of Christ. 

             I want you to think of something this church does - anything. Do you have something in your mind? Great. Now how does that thing, be it an activity or a place we donate money to or a study we participate in, whatever it may be, serve people who do not yet know Christ or grow people who know Christ into deeper disciples. In other words how does it fulfill the mission of the United Methodist Church to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the World? Or even more locally, how does it fulfill the mission of this parish? f you can’t answer that question, we may have a problem. If you can answer that question, do you think your neighbor next to you could answer it about the same thing and give the same answer? If not, we are not on the same page with the mission and vision of God’s Kingdom that we are working towards as this local church. And that stings a little. 

        In this morning’s scripture lesson we hear that the Church is the body of Christ, knitted together under the leadership of the Lord. Carder writes, “the Church is our very identify, not an organization we belong to in accordance with our preferences or connivence.” Sometimes the Church looses its way and losses it memory about who we are and whose we are. When we make it about petty things its evident that we have forgotten who we belong to.  Just whose Lordship we are under. Just who we exist for. 

          But even when we remember whose we are, we may still forget what we are supposed to be doing. Paul tells the followers in Ephesus that they are to live a life worthy of their calling. Here’s the thing about calling - we all have one - we just sometimes choose to ignore it. While pastors may have a very specific calling to lead the church, everyone who calls them-self Christian are called to some time of servanthood and ministry by way of their baptism. Its just that the calling varies. But in this scripture passage we are told that we all have gifts - its just that the gifting and calls vary. 

Have you ever taken time to pray about why you are part of this local body of Christ? Because you aren’t here by accident. You are here, because Christ gives us every gifting we need in each local body to thrive, THRIVE, for the Kingdom of God. Not just get by. Not just meet the budget. But to make a difference in transforming the world.

Whenever I start to talk about the church universal, I get passionate. Because the Church universal is both visible and invisible. Is here in this place and around the globe. Its any place where the Word of God is preached, the sacraments are administered, and there is a presence of people of faith. Not just people but people of faith. People who faithfully want to be the Church. Want to be about something bigger than themselves. Want to be about the mission and work of God. Want to be about reaching new people about Jesus Christ - and move past want to action. In fact, people of faith live a life of holy, active expectancy, meaning that we are aware that God is using us to work in the world for something so much bigger than we could ever grasp.

Then when I start to talk about how local churches are living into that mission, that vision of being the Church of Jesus Christ I get really excited, and often really loud. While there are many places and organizations that do good in this world, the church is the only one that exists to transform lives both here in the present and in the life to come. Amen! That’s why we reach out beyond our walls - not make more members, but to make more disciples. To connect more people to the person and message and power of Christ! 

But the Church universal and the local church can also break my heart when we put the wrong things first. My dad was telling me when they were up to visit a few weeks ago that he teaches his Sunday School class that its not about them - there may be months when they do not get anything and thats when people sometimes give up and stop coming. But they need to be present because their neighbor may be in a fruitful season spiritually and their presence is a part of that. It breaks my heart when we forget that. When we make it all about us. When we make it about what we want instead of about the heart of God.

There is an older contemporary worship song entitled the Heart of Worship that contains powerful lyrics that I often pray for the Church universal, may we make it “all about You Jesus. I’m sorry Lord for the thing I’ve made it, but its all about You.” May we remember that we exist because of Jesus Christ. And that our mission isn’t about us, or what we get out of being the Church, but is all about furthering the mission and ministry of Jesus Christ. Our Leader, Head, and Lord. Amen. 

“Letter to the Ephesians: Christ Has Broken Down the Wall” Eph 2: 11-22

 In seminary we sang this song by our musician and choir director, Mark Miller, that went like this “Christ has broken down the wall. Christ has broken down the wall. Let us join our hearts as one, Christ has broken down the wall.”

That hymn has been playing through my mind all week as I’ve been reading this text from the letter to the Ephesians. Paul is writing to a Gentile church that is being told that they are not good enough by some folks because they are not Jewish. So Paul needs to put a few things straight. Chiefly, that there is no longer any distinction between Jew and Greek, because all of that has changed in Jesus.

Paul needs to direct this part of the letter in particular to the Gentile believers because for so long they have been called “uncircumcised.” Now to our modern ears, that may just seem like a fact. Jews were circumcised and Greek’s weren’t. But this was a slang word used by Jewish people when referring to the Greek’s that meant pagan. 

Paul calls this slang term and its meaning out - saying that yes, Gentiles were once far from God, but that isn’t who they are any more because of the blood of Jesus Christ.

Oh friends, how often do we get caught in this trap? We refuse to see people as who they truly are, we only see them as they once were. When we are in this place we say hurtful things and act in damaging ways. We can cause so much pain.Case in point, that Paul has to write this section of the letter at all - reminding the Gentiles who they truly are in Jesus Christ.

When I was in seminary I took a class inside of a state correctional facility. The class was part of a pilot program to bring religious education to women and men on the inside. However, there were some rules. One, we did not refer to any of the women we interacted with as prisoners. Instead, we called them inside students and we were outside students. Second, we could not ask what crime they were charged with. Now normally this would come out in the course of our conversations. You may say, Michelle, those seem like really odd rules, but they had a purpose. So we would truly get to know our classmates, like we would in any other class setting. And friends, it was transformative. These rules helped us shift our mindset to not label these women and men by their crimes, but instead to see who they were because of the blood of Jesus Christ. 

While this particular example is an extreme example, we continue to put people into boxes in their every day lives as well. Have you ever heard of cardboard box testimonies? Essentially you take a piece of cardboard and write on one side how the world sees you or labels you and on the other side how Christ sees you. I’ve done this in various settings, and every time it brings me to tears. Because these are truly things that people have heard said about them and they have to set all of that aside in order to step into the truth of who they are in Christ.

For the Jews, such a devise label was used to make themselves look better. It became a mark of pride, similar to “at least we aren’t like those gentiles.”  But that isn’t what God meant the covenant to do - to divide and make one group of people look down upon another. So Christ came to bring completely new life, including a new relationship to God, and new citizenship in the Kingdom of Heaven.

If this was the cardboard testimony challenge, for these folks one side would say “uncircumcised” and the other would say “child of God.” In the word of Christ Has Broken Down the Wall: “We’re accepted as we are. Through God’s love all is reconciled. We’re accepted as we are.”

This was something that Christ alone could do. Jesus is the only one who can take two groups who are hostile and in opposition and bring peace. Have you ever been part of mediation?  For years I was a peer mediator and took classes on how to bring such approaches to the church. But mediation will often fail if people cannot arrive at common ground. For those of us who place our hope and trust in Christ he is our middle ground. He is what draws us together, the source of all peace. But even when we say that with our lips, we don’t always live it out in our lives.

Instead, we put up these walls that divide us. One of those walls is sin. Now when I say that often the first thing that people will think of is how someone else has sinned against them and how that created a wall. But brothers and sisters, we also sin against other people. Probably a lot more than we realize. Sometimes we may intentional hurt another person, other times we may not even realize what we have done, but that sin divides us from other people, people whom God created and loves.

Another wall is tradition. This was a big one for the Ephesians. Folks were coming and telling them that they weren’t really part of the covenant because they weren’t circumsized. The tradition of circumcision actually blocked the truth of the Gospel! Tradition is not a bad thing, but we need to be humble enough to not let it block us from the new thing that God is doing. Both tradition and new things are spoken about throughout scripture and we aren’t to pit one against another, especially because of our preference or to make ourselves look superior. In those instances, the tradition can become a wall in our hearts and lives.

A third wall is the law. Rules are not bad, brothers and sisters, but when we care more about the rule or law, than the author of the law, it can cause us to stray. Paul reminds us that we can never be saved by the law. In fact, all who seek for salvation through following the rule of the law will be disappointed, for we are incapable of keeping the law in our sinful selves. We are need of one to come and bring forth a new way of being - knocking down these walls in our lives. And that can only be Jesus Christ.

Jesus took those walls, and instead invites us to come to an understanding that he is the foundation and cornerstone of our faith. What’s the difference? Walls divide and foundations give us a firm place to stand. The cornerstone marks and holds together instead of becoming a stumbling block. In this way, Jesus is both the pioneer and perfecto of our faith and the one who can reconcile us to God and each other.

If we take this teaching to be true - that Christ came not to divide as the world divides, but to bring us together as members of the family of God, then how are we to change? How can we step aside from our behaviors that bring harm and be people who point to the abundant life of Christ?

It’s not just about not building walls, friends, its repenting of the hostility that causes us to build them in the first place. Here’s the thing, you may not like everyone in the family of God, but some day, the believer that you like the least, is going to be standing beside you praising God in glory. So let us make the Kingdom of God that is to come, be made known in the Kingdom of God that is already here amongst us in how we speak about one another and treat one another.

That becomes markedly easier when we examine our own hearts and speech. When we take time to remember when we, too, were once far from God and how Christ has changed us. We wouldn’t want to be held captive by who we once were, so why would we do that to anyone else? And once we realize this in our own lives, we ask God to give us the Peace of Christ in our speech. 

The peace of Christ isn’t just a nice greeting. It’s the peace that unifies us under the Lordship of Jesus. In my own life, that means praying that God helps me see people as he sees them. I have hundreds of colleagues in this Annual Conference. Now, I by no means known everyone, but I make it the desire of my heart to be able to say something true and positive about each person and their ministry that I do know. That doesn’t mean that we always agree or that I don’t get frustrated, but it reminds me that they have a purpose in God’s Kingdom, which helps me keep my heart in check.

We live in a world, brothers and sisters, that is all about building walls. But, in the words of Mark Miller, as the children of God, “We will tear down every wall, because Christ has broken down the wall.” Amen.

“The Letter to the Ephesians: Saved by Grace” - Eph 1: 1-14

 July 11th, 2021

Devotional

“The Letter to the Ephesians: Saved by Grace”

        Eph 1: 1-14

Keep the sermon topic and Biblical text preaching all week by following Pastor Michelle on twitter @tinypastor and reading her sermon blog www.revmichelle.blogspot.com

Monday: “The Saints” - Eph 1:1-2

  I love to write letters. To send cards with encouraging notes. During most of college and seminary I would try to send at least three letters or encouraging cards per week and I would sign them with one of two things “You are Loved” or “You are worthy.”

If I had to describe the letter to the Ephesians I would use the same phrases - worthy and loved.  Our scripture this day is found right at the beginning of the letter, as the greeting the greeting issued by the author to the church. The author didn’t waste any time jumping right in and boldly proclaiming the word of God, that Christ and God are to be blessed and worshipped. While we worship God for who God is and not just what God has done for us, the church in Ephesus is reminded of all the love that God has lavished on us through Christ. We know that we are loved by God because we have been adopted into the family of God - not because of anything that we have done or we have earned on our own merit, but because of Christ freely giving himself for us on the cross. It is because of that gift that we have life and have it abundantly. We are forgiven and redeemed and given new chances because of God’s lavish love for us. 

How do you connect being a saint and being loved by Jesus Christ?

Prayer: God, we thank you for loving us and claiming us. Thank you for calling us yours. Let us lean into that love this day and beyond! Amen!

Tuesday: “Chose” - Eph 1: 3-4

The problem is that too many people still haven’t heard about this love. They think that God could never love them, that they would never be welcomed into the family of God because of things that they have done in their past. The truth is we all have done things that we regret. We have all sinned. And God doesn’t view one sin as worse than another. That tends to make church folks a little bit nervous - that a lie or gossip is the same in the eyes of God as stealing. But that’s the way it is. Sin is anything that separates us from the love of God and it all pains the heart of God. We also cannot fix our sin issue on our own - we cannot will ourselves to stop - instead we need a Savior that breaks the power that sin holds in our lives. Enter Jesus. 

God knew that a plan was needed to cancel the power of sin and death in our lives, so God fashioned Jesus, completely God but in human form to walk on the earth and teach us how to live. And when the time was right, Jesus gave his life for us, shedding his own blood as the price for our sin. This is the greatest gift we could have ever been given and because of it we are welcomed into the family of God and called the Beloved.

What does the gift of Christ’s saving love for us mean to you? How did it change you life?

Prayer: Lord, allow us to not just know about your love, but live into it. Let us not keep this love to ourselves, but allow us to go forth and share it for the power of your name. Amen. 

Wednesday: “Beloved” -  Eph 1: 5-7

I graduated from a Christian college. To be accepted you had to write a statement of faith and covenant to grow in your faith while you attended. I transferred from a large liberal arts school with these ideal notions of how much easier it would be to live out my faith surrounded by other Christians, especially these ones who had to write out a statement of what their faith in Christ means to them to even be accepted. I was shocked the first year there, when I found that so many people were struggling with their faith. Shocked that so many people understood in their head that Christ had died for them, but couldn’t quite let it sink into their hearts. 

  During the summer session after my first year I found a book that radically changed by life, Henri Nouwen Life of the Beloved. The book was written by Nouwen, a priest, to one of his non-christian friends about how much God loves them. Friends, Christian or non-Christian, we all need to be reminded about the lavish love of God. So I started to hand that book out to everyone I met who was struggling with the question if God could really love them, really forgive them. I wanted people to know that they were the Beloved of God, not just in their heads, but in their hearts as well.

How do you share with people that they are Beloved by God?

Prayer: Almighty God, you are so good to us. You sought us out, even when we were far from you. You loved us more than we can ever fully know. Let that love shine forth from us! Amen and amen. 

Thursday: “Mystery” - Eph 1: 8-10

Too many Christians are walking around with an unneeded since of shame and feeling like their life is worthless today. If anyone should be singing a song of hope and God’s love, it should be us! But when our faith is all in our head, it makes it really hard to accept with the author of Ephesians is talking about - a God who loved us enough to make a way through the cross. A God who loves us enough to adopt us into the family of God, no matter what we have done in our past. That brothers and sisters is the grace and mercy of God. That is why we are in awe and sing songs of wonder and praise.

  But this love, this Belovedness, is not something that we are to keep to ourselves. Instead we are called to the specific task to serve God and neighbor out of gratitude for what Christ has done for us. Church, will we be remembered as people who shared the lavish love of God? Will we be the people who tell others about the God who has made a way to be set free from the power of sin? Will we be a people who remind people that they are worthy, not because of what they have done, but instead they are worthy because of what Christ has done?

How is the love of Christ made known to us?

Prayer: God of Grace, let us be people who put you and your love first in our lives. Let us be people who seek first your Kingdom and your will. We love, you, Lord. Amen. 

Friday: “Inheritance” - Eph 1: 11-14

Sometimes it can be so hard to rest in the fact that we are the beloved of God. We live in a world that tells us that we need to earn our accomplishments and accolades. But the truth is, we could have absolutely everything that it is possible to earn or that we would want, but still not have the peace of God in our hearts because we haven’t fully accepted the love God is trying to offer us in Christ. Being the Beloved of God isn’t something you can earn, its a gift freely offered by God.

At camp one summer, one of the student’s favorite songs to sing was “How He Loves” by the David Crowder Band. Receive these words, “I don’t have time to maintain these regrets when I think about the way Oh, how He loves us, Oh How he loves us. How he loves all.” Have you accepted that love in your life, yet friends? If so, may you find peace today in the assurance in your heart that you are the Beloved of God and may you go forth and live a life that proclaims to others that God is waiting on them with the best gift ever given. If you haven’t yet accepted that love, may you consider doing so this day, praying to God to accept Christ in your life, finding forgiveness for your sins,  and beginning to that voice of love that is saying to you that you are the Beloved of God. 

What is the inheritance we receive as a child of God?

Prayer: God, we thank you that the inheritance we receive is not just what is to come, but is also right here and right now. Continually reveal to us your glory, we pray. Amen. 

Saturday: Preparing for the Word

You are invited to read and pray this week’s text and topic to prepare for worship: Ephesians 2:11-22 

“The Letter to the Ephiphans - Saved by Grace” Eph 1: 1-14

 Sometimes the most profound truths are the simplest to say, but the hardest to sink in. A few examples: If I said, “Jesus loves you” what comes to your mind? Maybe its the song from childhood. But do you know that Jesus loves you? Do you feel it in your soul? We say the words so quickly because they are deeply true, but all too often we can brush them off and not let them fully sink into who we are.

Another example: “You cannot do anything to make Jesus love you any more or any less.” Sure - that makes sense, but do you believe it? And do you act like it? Because there are a lot of folks out there trying to prove to Jesus that they are worthy of his love when Jesus is saying, ‘just come and let my grace set you free and change you.’

One last example, “Even if you were the only person on earth, Jesus still would have went to the cross to save you.” Yet, how often do we disregard such a precious gift?

I give us these examples because today we are going to start a summer sermon series on the letter to the Ephesians, and I’m not going to lie to you, sometimes the writing in this letter is hard to follow. It has these long, dense sentences and chapters, but I promise you this - underneath all of that are deeply true statements. Statements about who we are as the church. Statements about how we are to act as those who bear the name of Christ. And above all, statements about the love that God has for each and every one of us. 

If you have studied some of the letters in the New Testament before you will notice that there are some ways that this letter is similar and some stark ways that it is different to those that proceed and follow it. That’s because this letter wasn’t written to one specific church with specific issues or in need of personal encouragement. Instead, this was a circular letter - one that would be passed from church to church because its message was so universal. And friends, that message has held up against the test of time.

But it starts out in this familiar way, naming the author and their credentials. Now there’s some speculation if Paul wrote this letter, because it doesn’t sound like his wording from other letters he has written to particular churches. But for the purpose of this sermon series, lets’s assume that it was Paul who wrote this letter since it bears his name. Paul starts out by making two really important statements. First, he is an apostle. An apostle is one who is sent. And second, the one who is sending him is God. He is writing this letter for a purpose - the will of God.

Friends, we could have a whole sermon series just on that half a verse. I wonder how you identify yourself to folks. You probably start with your name. “Hi! My name is ____________.” But what comes next? Maybe your occupation or where you retired from. Maybe you introduce your spouse or children next to you. Maybe you talk about where you live. But how many of you say, “Hi! My name is Michelle and I am a follower of Jesus Christ”? Any takers? Probably not - but that is exactly what Paul says because it is the most important thing to him. That he is sent by God and that he is faithfully following the will of God.

Oh to have that be the desire of all our hearts and lives as well!

And it is because of this central desire of Paul that anything that he says matters. They aren’t words about him or how great he is - this is all about God and connecting other people to God through the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ. 

Then Paul continues, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, this letter is written to you, churches, but let’s not forget who this message is ultimately about - its about God. About who God is and what God has done. This isn’t a letter coming to you because of anything you have done - it is being sent to you by the love of God.

Friends, that is just as difficult for us to swallow today as it was the day this letter is penned. Even if we say that we are saved by grace, we can spend a whole lot of time acting like it is us who does the blessing. Or acting like its us who can tell others if they are blessed by God - as if we are the creator and judge of the universe. No. We like to act as if our work defines us, but it is the love of God that truly defines every single life on this earth - even if they don’t realize it yet. 

It would be really easy to get caught up in the wording of this chapter being used, especially that as being chosen. We love childhood tales of people being chosen. Chosen for some adventure. Chosen for a purpose. Chosen for a team. But what comes to mind when you hear the word “chosen”? That there are some who are not chosen as well. 

Friends, we know that in the Gospel of John we are told that God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever lives and believes in him will never die but have eternal life.

That isn’t some people in the world. Or just a few people. It is for all who live and believe.

So then, what does it mean to be chosen? I think about it in terms of Jesus when he walked this earth. Jesus chose 12 apostles - twelve men who walked with him day after day and then after his death went to go spread the Good News to the very ends of the earth. But were they they only people who believed? The only people who lived as disciples? The only ones who proclaimed the Good News? By no means. Other people walked with Jesus day after day as well. And other people spread the Gospel. Goodness, Paul was one of those people!

So don’t get caught up on the word “chosen” here to the point of thinking that it means that others are not - think of chosen as an invitation. Are you going to be one who follows Christ and shares his light and truth so that others may come to know as well?

But when we accept that we are chosen for a purpose, church, that can change it all. It opens us up to realizing that we are loved by Christ with a love unlike any that we will know on this earth. I want you to think of the person that you love the most. Or maybe the person who loves you the most. Friends, that doesn’t even begin to compare to the love that Christ has for us - the love that claims us and changes us.

The love that says not only “you are mine” but you are family. I chose you to be adopted into this family and you get to share in the inheritance of this Kingdom. Not a kingdom of flesh and blood of this earth, but a kingdom that goes on from age to age in eternity.

And God chose to do all of that for us. For you and for me. Even though we don’t deserve it. Even when the first words out of our mouth may not be “Hi! I’m a follower of Jesus Christ”. Even when we were yet far from God. That my friends is what it means to be blessed by God with a blessing that is beyond anything that we could ever earn or deserve. That my friends is grace.

I just want us to sit with that this morning and let the love of Jesus really sink into you. Maybe this is the first moment you’ve ever truly considered the love of Christ - we would love to pray for you. Maybe you have known about the love of Christ with your head, but it hasn’t had the opportunity to sink into your heart - we would love to pray for you, too! Friends, let us sink into the life-changing love of our Savior - let us be marked by his abundant grace. Amen.