Called to Be Builders of
the Body of Christ
Ephesians 2.10, 19-22; 4.10-12; 3.20-21
Psalm 67
1 Kings 8.54-61
Matthew 9.35-38; John 4.34-38
Prayer of Invocation
Father, you have given your
only Son to be for us a sacrifice for sin, and also an example of a life in
faithfulness as it was meant to be: Give us grace to receive thankfully the
fruits of his redeeming work, and to follow daily in the blessed steps of his
most holy life; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns
with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Prayer of Illumination
Father, strengthen us with power through the
Holy Spirit so that Christ may dwell in us, so that we, being rooted and
grounded in love, may have strength to build your church, and to know the love
of Christ; equip us to walk in the good works that you have prepared for us in
Christ. Amen.
Proclamation
I’m not sure if you noticed, but it has been
kind of a strange year! It’s been a hard year as well in a number of different
ways. And in this particular church community, where we try to live by the
rhythms of the church calendar, we are in a sense faced with a new year within
this strange year of COVID. It is at this time of the year when we feel the
pinch of a new school year that will present us with all kinds of challenges
and frustrations.
This past week, as I readied myself for the new
academic year, and as I wrestled with the strangeness, disruption,
discouragement, and divisiveness of our times, I felt the nudge of the Spirit
to return to one of the charter texts for us at One Hope--Paul’s letter to the
Ephesians. (You may not be aware that it is from Ephesians 4.4 that we get our
church name, One Hope. If you don’t like our church name, know that it could
have been worse! We could have been One Baptism Presbyterian, or One Lord
Presbyterian, or One Faith Presbyterian. Those don’t sound nearly as good as
One Hope!)
There are a number of important themes in
Ephesians, topics like election, predestination, adoption, salvation by
grace through faith alone, the reality of spiritual powers working to divert us
from God’s will, etc. As wonderful as all of those themes are, they are
there in the letter to support and frame the primary theme of the letter: we
are God’s building project, joined to his life so that we may participate in
His work in the church for the sake of the world. Ephesians is ultimately
about being created in Christ to work, to labor, to join with God in building a
temple that mediates God’s life to a hurting, lonely, frustrated, disappointed,
thirsty, hungry, angry, confused, over-confident, scared, fragmented, dying
world.
Amid the disappointments, disruptions, and
divisive spirit of this pandemic, God says this to us through Ephesians: You
are my building project. Get to building; focus on joining, supporting,
edifying, and growing. Become a laborer in my harvest; join me in the work I am
doing in and through Jesus and the Spirit.
As Paul details in Ephesians 1-3, God is the
great planner, arranger, and assembler; he is the construction
manager. In wisdom and love, he selects the materials that will go into his
temple project. He is also the one, who by the power of the Spirit, equips and
empowers his chosen stones to build by loving others in the way in which God
has loved them.
Jesus is the gift that keeps on giving; his life
not only grants us redemption from our sins, but it unites us to God and
gives us access to good works that have been prepared beforehand for us that we
should walk in them.
The climax of all that Paul says in Ephesians
1.3 - 2.9 underscored the main message of the letter: We are his workmanship,
his poiema, created [built] in Christ Jesus for good works that we are
called to walk in (Eph 2.10). This term poiema, which is translated
“workmanship” in most English texts, is a common word used in the first century
to describe a building project under construction. We are his “building
project”. And the project produces workers, who in turn build up this “building
project”.
As has been highlighted in our Epistle readings
for this morning, Paul draws on several building metaphors and images to
underscore that we have been joined to the life of God for the sake of
building. For Paul, election is for edification; adoption is for
aligning with God’s master plan; predestination is for participating in the
truth of the gospel by embodying the Lordship of Jesus; salvation is for the
sake of good works—for building up the body of Christ into its head, Jesus
Christ.
What Paul emphasizes in his letter to the
Ephesian church is that we are all individually chosen, called, saved to
be part of something bigger than ourselves; to join in what God is doing in the
church for the sake of the world. As Ephesians 2.19-22 instructs us, we
now belong to God’s household, which is built on the cornerstone, Jesus Christ.
The whole structure of that house is being joined together, built together,
into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. This is what God is doing! This is
what He is building in and through us.
But how does God build, how does God accomplish
this plan? The primary way in which God builds is through his gift of people.
People, empowered by the Spirit, to do the mundane work of ministry--they join
together and build up the body of Christ in ordinary, quotidian ways. Paul
says that in his ascension, Jesus gave gifts to the church—women and men who
exercise their roles as prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers. Their
endowed calling is to equip the saints, the people of God, all those who have
been adopted and saved, for building up the body of Christ, until we all
reach the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God (4.11-13).
Paul emphasizes the importance of everyone doing her or his part, when he says
in Eph 4.16 that this body grows when each joint, each stone, does its part, to
build itself up in love.
But it is important to see that he pivots to
this exhortation in Ephesians 4 by first reminding everyone that it is
ultimately God who does the building: He is able to build (“do” is too weak)
far more abundantly than we can even ask or imagine. But the building that He
does is in keeping with the power that works through us (by the Spirit); it is in
the church and in Christ Jesus that God is glorified, manifested,
shown to be great in power, mercy, and love throughout all generations (Eph 3.20-21).
So when we turn to Ephesians, our charter, we
hear God say to us: Be builders; continue to walk in the good works that I
have prepared for you. But we might ask, What are those good works that God
has prepared for us?
The foundational good work that Paul is
underscoring is what we might call joining; gathering;
belonging--maintaining the unity produced by the Spirit. It is not too much to
say that for Paul, the church is not an accessory or an accoutrement to
spiritual formation. Neither is it an abstract idea; he’s not just talking
about some Platonic form of church. For Paul, your participation in a local
church body is foundational; it is what you are saved for!
Church is not a place where customers come to
consume religious experiences and wares; we are not passive recipients of
spiritual inspiration. Instead, we are called to receive and then produce
or we might say work God’s love for the world. We have been saved to be
active participants in God’s work of loving others. What are the good works
that we have been created for?
They are simple, quotidian, mundane things:
watching out for one another--these others that have pledged to belong;
nurturing one another in Christ; belonging to one another; rolling up our
sleeves and sharing life together. “Ask not what your church can do for you;
ask what you can do for your church”. It is singing loud; praying; professing
like you really mean it; read Scripture; helping others pay attention to
God--and paying attention to what God is doing in our midst.
These are the good works that God has
prepared for us. They also include certain dispositions or new postures
that orient ourselves in this world: humility (we are not the center of things;
our opinion is not the only one that matters), gentleness, patience; bearing
with one another in love; maintaining the unity produced by the Spirit
The good works that God has prepared for us include
speaking the truth to one another in love; imitating God’s love towards us; not
letting corrupt talk come out of our mouths but only that which builds up
others; singing songs to one another, being grateful and giving thanks.
So, let’s build. Let’s be the builders we have
been made to be. Let’s labor in God’s field, here at One Hope. Let’s do the
ordinary, everyday, unspectacular good work of joining, belonging, loving,
caring, pay attention to one another. Let’s “one another” one another. This is
what we do when we volunteer to lead a Bible study, when we offer our talents
in worship; when we read Scripture for worship, when we set up and clean up,
when we move towards new people, when we send a text or an email to a member to
check in on them, when we pray for one another, when we point one another to
Christ, when we forgive one another, when we overlook and forbear one another,
when we take the initiative to welcome and belong to one another, when we seek
to bring others to our table, those who don’t look like us, when we acknowledge
that God is at work in others, especially others who don’t come from our
background.
Teresa de Avila, a sixteenth century Spanish
theologian and writer has famously and provocatively said:
Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on
earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this
world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands
through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the
feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but
yours.”
There are a few clarifications
and qualifications I might want to make about this statement from Teresa if we
had more time; but for the purpose of helping us reflect on the message of
Ephesians, this statement is illuminating: our good works are rooted and
founded in Jesus Christ. We are his body. We are his body. Where
we go, what we see, and what we do are all shaped and directed by the
head, Jesus. And we are called to be laborers, to continue the mission
that Jesus has been about since his incarnation.
The good works that God has
prepared for us are really a new way of doing life, a new way of being people
in the world:
The church is not a club for religious people.
The church is a way of living together before God, a new way of being human together.
What Jesus and the apostles proclaimed was not a new ideology or a new
religion...What they proclaimed was salvation, and that meant a new human
world, a new social reality... The gospel is the announcement of the
Father’s formation, through His Son and the Spirit, of a new city, the city of
God. (Peter Leithart, Against Christianity.)
Now, perhaps more than ever, we need to labor
for the Lord, together; we need to encourage one another in the midst of a
plethora of disappointments and in an age of divisiveness; we all need to be
about the work of ministry; we all need to be producers of God’s love.
Questions for Reflection
1.
How can you be a
producer of God’s love this week? Who can you encourage this week in the One
Hope Church body?
2.
What did God speak to
you personally as you heard the Scripture readings and as you reflected upon
the message of Ephesians?
3.
What are ways in which
you can more faithful belong to One Hope? What are ways in which you can build
into the lives of others at One Hope?
Benediction
My dear brothers and sisters,
stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of
the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
Comments
Post a Comment