Ephesians 4:1-7
A few weeks ago, a
colleague remarked, “I am hearing really good things about your church.” That
inner voice within, you know the one that always gets us in trouble, wanted to
say, “It’s not my church, it is the church of Jesus Christ”. But I refrained
from sarcasm, smiled and thanked him. I knew that was not going to be the end
of the conversation. The right reverend continued, “To what do you attribute
your success?” Again my inner voice wanted to shout, “It’s not my success, it
is our success, if success is even the right word.” Again, I quelled my
thoughts and instead responded, “We all seem to really like each other.”
“Well”, my inquisitive
friend replied, “That is interesting but I am more concerned about your theological
roots. What is it that your church believes?” My inner voice is screaming, “He
is trying to trap you into saying something stupid.”
I smiled and
responded, “We believe Jesus said first and foremost we should really like each
other.”
My colleague, who was
becoming less of a friend and more of a pain in the you know what, gave me one
of those preachy smirches and retorted. “I believe Paul said, “Faith alone.”
How does you church respond to Paul?”
Before I could take a
deep breath, my inner voice spoke loud and clear, “You are mistaken. It was
Martin Luther who said, “Sola Fides, Faith Alone.” What Paul said was, “Faith,
Hope, and Love, and the greatest of these was Love.”
Sometimes we get so
enthralled by what people think Paul said we fail to give the Apostle the
credit deserved concerning what he believed it meant to live as a disciple of
Christ and how that effects our interaction with others.
Ephesians 4 is an
extraordinary passage. Paul writes, “I beg you to live worthy of your calling.
With humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another in love,
maintaining unity in the Spirit, in the bond of peace.”
This is where my inner
voice correctly reminds me, “You cannot say anything more profound than what
you just read.” (stop)
It is such a shame
preachers seem predestined to attempt the impossible task of perfecting on
perfection, but that seems to be our calling. So forgive me as I try to shed
light on on what Paul has so perfectly written.
In
the first three chapters of the Book of Ephesians, Paul attempts to persuade the
folks in this small community that God loves them and God saved them by grace
through the death and resurrection of Christ. The people were overwhelmed by
this good news and wanted to know how they might respond to God’s generosity.
Paul replied, “Since you have been raised by Christ, live like Christ. In
everything you do, glorify God and glorify others.” The message was clear.
Because God has accomplished our salvation, we should live together as one in
Christ.
How
might those words apply to us? Part of the joy of this community is we are an
eclectic collection of radically different people. We are Yankees and Crackers,
sophisticated and redneck, straight and gay, salesmen and farmers, golfers and
fisherman, Republicans, Democrats and Independents. For the most part, the only
two things we universally have in common are our age and our love of this
valley. But here we are, many spirits, multiple minds, singing at the top of
our lungs, The Church’s One Foundation is
Jesus Christ our Lord.
Jesus,
perhaps better than anyone in all of human history, preached unity does not
mean uniformity. One moment Jesus was spending his nights with learned scholars
such as Nicodemeus, whispering in the shadows to protect the reputations of the
elite and then Jesus was sitting by a well with a woman with a horrible
reputation, in plain sight, much to the disgust of both the townsfolk and the
disciples. Jesus hung out with everyone. There was no cost of admission to his
sermons. Jesus was the originator of the affordable care act. He healed
everyone. Rich and poor came to hear him speak. Famous and infamous asked to be
touched by his healing hand. He told stories everyone could understand
sometimes even made a Samaritan the hero of his tale. Jesus was a strange man
who crossed social and economic boundaries as easily as we cross state
lines. Everything he said, and
everything he did, could be wrapped up in his glorious testimony, “Love God and
Love your Neighbor.”
You
would think this would make the task of being a church rather easy. We confirm,
one Lord, one faith and one baptism. We love our neighbor and life is good.
Right?
Ah,
if it were only that easy. Ever attempt a serious study in theology. Calvin’s essential
belief was in one sovereign God. Luther claimed first and foremost we are saved
by grace. You would have thought the two could have discovered commonality
within their two statements, but that wasn’t quite the case. For centuries
Lutherans and Calvinist argued over which man’s writings were more important to
the Reformation. And then there were the followers of Zwingli, Knox, Erasmus
and Wesley.
Such is the study of
what we believe. Some folks chiefly celebrate the All-powerful, All-knowing Omnipotence
of God. Others suggest worshipping an all-powerful God might hinder us from
having a relationship with the One who brings the sojourner out of darkness and
exile. Add Jesus to the mix and things get further complicated. Do you worship
the Jesus of glory or the Jesus of the cross? Are you an Easter or Good Friday
kind of guy? Do the words, “This is my body, broken”, leave you shaking your
head?
The question is, can
the church be a place for the discussion where God can be seen differently, or
must there only be one vision and to hell with everyone else? Then what really
complicates things is the God discussion is a piece of cake compared to the
question, “Who is my neighbor?”
Paul said to the folks
in Ephesus, and to anyone who claims God as Lord, “While we claim One God, that
same God gave us different gifts.” Simply put, we are not the same. We think
differently, we look differently, we talk differently and we probably have
different priorities. On the surface, there would seem to be no way we could
work in concert to accomplish anything. Yet when the different gifts mesh
together toward one goal, amazing things happen.
Most of us can hold a
tune……. if we are the only one singing. If our note is the only note that
matters than the concept of flat or sharp is not relative. Once singing in key
becomes part of the equation, the sound may improve but in the process, many of
the voices are eliminated.
Some folks are blessed
with ears which hear a collection of notes in harmony. Often the difference
between the congregation singing and the choir singing is simply an
understanding of harmonics. Most simple choral music is based on stacking one
note on top of another until a pleasant sound is achieved. If the bass is
singing a C, the other musicians are singing a combination of E, G and the
octave C. For many of you what I said makes absolutely no sense. Let me
demonstrate.
I am going to ask to Pat
play a C.
Now play a C Chord.
If we all played one
note, or if we sang in harmony off our one note, we would sound great. But we
would not be utilizing the gifts of the whole community. We would be silencing
voices that could give the piece some real color.
My favorite pianist is
the late great Thelodius Monk. His best known composition is a piece titled, ‘Round About Midnight. Monk would start with a very simple,
yet haunting line and wrap it around chord structures that would amaze Johann
Sebastian. People stood in line to play with Monk. Many of the greats in jazz
never became great until Monk freed them from their conventional way of reading
a chart. My favorite piece of advice from Monk was, “Music begins when you
trust the ear of the person sitting beside you.”
The human community is
in desperate need of churches where faith and practice become one by trusting
the person beside them. This means sometimes we play more than one note and
occasionally we even dare to venture beyond a simple chord. We place our gifts
next to, below, and on top of someone else,
creating a unique intersection where God’s sovereignty and our brokenness are
held together by the wonders of grace. (stop)
That sounds really profound
but how on earth is it possible? I guess we are back where we started. “Live a
life worthy of your calling. With humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing
with one another in love, maintaining unity in the Spirit of God, and in the
bond of peace.”
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment