CHRIST CHURCH

August 2nd 2009

Ephesians 4:1-16

Paul has spent the first three chapters of this short letter to the church in Ephesus outlining their calling as Christians; as Christian disciples. You believed, he tells these saints, after they heard 'the word of truth', the 'gospel of (their) salvation' ( Eph 1:13)

Now he is to devote as much space again in telling them how they should then live as Christians; how they should live in the hostile environment of a major port, with all the pagan cults and practises associated with such a place. So in verse 1 of chapter 4 there is that abrupt change of tack. He wants them to live lives in such a way that they are worthy followers of their Lord.

And that surely goes for us in a society which is increasingly hostile to its Christian roots, and where all sorts of spurious teaching and ungodly living is taking ever firmer root. Paul immediately goes on to outline various qualities which should be hallmarks of those who name the Name of Christ: lowliness, meekness, patience and forbearance in love, and along with that an eagerness to keep the bond of peace, and surely there he has in mind words he had written earlier (Eph 2:14,17-18). Here he looks to the core foundation of belief in the Cross of Christ. Then he goes on next to speak about the Church-the 'one body' and the 'one Spirit'

This raises a matter of some importance. In this day and age of the individual, we readily come to think of our being Christian as a matter of 'God and me'. So often we see our Christian life as our standing with God. We see it in terms of living a life where sin in gradually overcome; where the Christians matures in his or her victory over sin, and growth in Christlikeness. These are important and necessary things, but- and I may shock some by saying this; That is not the be-all and end-all of being a Christian. 

It is equally true that we are baptised by the Spirit into the one Body (1 Cor 12:13) This emphasizes that our Christian walk is never just 'God and me'. Thank God it is not! And not because a daily walk with God is not important, but that in that walk we need one another. So it hardly any surprise that Paul confronts his readers with the Church at the outset of this hortatory section of this latter and will now go on the speak of those things which are the key features of the community of faith.  

All believers have the same hope, which is part of our calling: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1 Peter 1:3), the one Lord who called us, the one faith and the one baptism and the one God and Father.And to that church and by his Spirit, God gives each one gifts; and let's be sure and remind ourselves-EACH ONE OF US HAS A GOD-GIVEN GIFT! , not just for our own edification, but so that we can play a full part in God's church. And I want to suggest that it's as we play our God-intended role in the church that we live lives which are worthy of our calling.

It comes back to 'God-and-me' or the Church- or actually both. There is business that each person needs to do with God, or more correctly that God does with us, and which he does with a purpose. If we go back to chapter two and verses 8 to 10 we read this:

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God --  not because of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Eph 2:8-10) There need be that individual birth to faith, that awakening by God's Spirit. But God's intention is not simply for your or my salvation. God has a bigger picture in view. It is that we are by baptism incorporated into God's redemptive community-the Church. So, when in verse 7, Paul speaks of each of us having received grace, he speaks not of 'saving grace' (as in verse 8 of chapter 2), but of grace given to serve the church- both are of course, free gifts. It is God who enables us to play our role in his Church

In chapter 3 Paul (the Jew by birth and by circumcision) had the revelation of how the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. (Eph 3:6) The Church was born at Pentecost with the message of 'Jesus and the Resurrection'. It was the resurrection of Jesus which carried God's plan to its climax (though not final fulfillment) in One Man.

Everywhere Paul desires to see a mature church, a stable church, not tossed hither-and-thither by fashion; nowadays by being swayed by wordly values and lifestyles. No! If both as individual Christians and as a Church, we need to be mature Christians, not as Paul had towrite to the Christians in Corinth to reprimand them on just such matters; some following one leader or teacher, some another. In chapter 3 and verse 3 he has to reprimand them for being worldly; of the world, which is very different from having a mission in the world. We can never change the world by being 'of the world'. And as someone has recently said, "The God of Mission has a Church", and his mission has its endpoint where...? Surely God's mission is fulfilled at the end of the Bible in the establishment to a new earth and new heavens. God's mission will be complete when he declares "Behold, I make all things new." (Rev 21:5). Our mission is in seeing that God's will is done on earth as it is in heaven.

The Church is now charged with carrying God's redemptive plan forward. So you see now how it's not just 'God and me'. My church-membership is more than just one addition to all those who share in the salvation won by Jesus Christ-precious and essential though that be. We each have a part to play-something 'worthy of our calling' I leave the last word to Bishop Tom Wright:

"No one individual can attempt more than a fraction of this mission...Mission is the work of the whole Church the whole time." Bishop Wright goes on by outlining some of the ways and roles we have within this mission from working (e.g.) with handicapped children to artistic projects, but then says, "All will need one another for encouragement and support. All will need to be nourished by the central, worshipping life of the Church and that central life will itself be nourished and renewed as friends of Jesus come back to worship from their mission in the world"

Amen