Have you ever noticed that sometimes the church seems a bit lame? There never seems to be enough money. There always seems to be somebody fussing about some really petty thing, trying to make a mountain out of a molehill. Sometimes it seems to take forever to get everybody agreed and working together to do something new. (New? Why?) Do you know the feeling?
There’s a collection of bloopers from church bulletins and newsletters that can express very well the image of bumbling triviality that the church often has.
Supposedly a church newsletter once actually ran this notice: “Ladies, don’t forget the rummage sale. It’s a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Don’t forget your husbands.”
“Don’t let worry kill you off – let the Church help.”
“For those of you who have children and don’t know it, we have a nursery downstairs.”
Barbara remains in the hospital and needs blood donors for more transfusions. She is also having trouble sleeping and requests tapes of Pastor Jack’s sermons.”
“At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be ‘What is Hell?’ Come early and listen to our choir practice.”
“Eight new choir robes are currently needed due to the addition of several new members and to the deterioration of some older ones.”
“The pastor would appreciate it if the ladies of the congregation would lend him their electric girdles for the pancake breakfast next Sunday.”
“The church will host an evening of fine dining, super entertainment and gracious hostility.”
“The eighth-graders will be presenting Shakespeare’s Hamlet in the Church basement Friday at 7 PM. The congregation is invited to attend this tragedy.”
Is this really what the church is like, an endless stream of rummage sales, boring sermons, deteriorating choir members, pancake breakfasts and fundraisers, often on the verge of becoming a tragedy, all too often laced with the insincere smiles of “gracious hostility?” What a telling slip of the tongue that is, “gracious hostility.” Is that really the church of Jesus Christ? Sometimes those are all there. But can we do a better job than this of articulating what we are here for?
The Apostle Paul paints a very different picture of the church, a noble and glorious picture of the church having cosmic importance. Our text for this morning is Ephesians 3:1-13. Please stand for the reading of God’s word.
1 This is the reason that I Paul am a prisoner for Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles 2 for surely you have already heard of the commission of God's grace that was given me for you, 3 and how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I wrote above in a few words, 4 a reading of which will enable you to perceive my understanding of the mystery of Christ. 5 In former generations this mystery was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: 6 that is, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
7 Of this gospel I have become a servant according to the gift of God's grace that was given me by the working of his power. 8 Although I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ, 9 and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; 10 so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. 11 This was in accordance with the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our lord, 12 In whom we have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him. 13 I pray therefore that you may not lose heart over my sufferings for you; they are your glory.
When you set out to understand a passage of scripture, one of the tricks is to watch for words or ideas that are repeated over and over again. If you recognize repeated ideas, then you probably have a good start towards understanding the passage.
This passage uses a lot of words for communication. There is a mystery of God that was “made known" to Paul by “revelation”. This mystery has now been “revealed” by God to his apostles and prophets. It’s Paul’s job to “make everyone see” God’s plan that used to be hidden in this mystery. And the church has a very important role in bringing this mystery out into the light.
And this mystery is something about God himself. In verse 4, it’s described as “the mystery of Christ,” in verse 8 it is “the boundless riches of Christ.” In verse nine the mystery has, in the past, been “hidden in God.” In verse ten, what is being revealed is “the wisdom of God.”
And that’s why we took a side trip last week to look again at the nature of God. God is a God of relationship, three persons totally united in one God, loving each other, honoring each other, deferring to each other, totally trusting each other. The Bible tells us that God is love. One person alone can’t be love. You need somebody else to have love. But God is, in himself, love. And he can do that because he is three persons in one.
And the world needs to know about this God of love so desperately. And the place they will see it is in the church. I can’t explain how the trinity works. But when I see God’s children loving one another, I can feel it. It starts to make sense. I can dare to dream that a community of real love might just be possible. And it’s so right. It’s what we are created to be because we are created in the image of this God of inherent relationship, this God who is love in his very being.
In Ephesus there were big divisions between groups of people. There were slaves and there were free people. And their social differences were a huge obstacle to real human relationships. They might live in the same house. They might be polite to each other. They might even do nice things for each other. But they were never really united. There was always a distance.
Sometimes males and females found it hard to get along. We’re still working on that one today, too.
The issue of the moment in the church was that there were people from Jewish families and people from Greek families. And they spoke different languages. They ate different foods. They had grown up in families that had prejudices against each other. Can you hear one of the Jewish moms saying, “Over my dead body you’re going out with a Greek boy!”
And the gospel came to Ephesus, the good news of this God of love. And Jews responded. Greeks responded. And they found themselves sitting in church together. Sometimes it was downright awkward, like if a Greek family met a Jewish family at church, invited them over for dinner, and then served their best pork recipe. They didn’t know that Jews weren’t supposed to eat pork. And I’m sure there were moments when they didn’t handle it well.
But Paul insisted that they press on until all the barriers are gone. In verse 6, Paul told them that God’s plan was that Jews and Greeks would be “fellow heirs” of God’s blessings, “members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus.”
Can you think of any parts of the world today that need to hear that people from different cultures can get along? If they don’t see unity in the church, they may give up hope that it’s possible.
You know the Civil War broke out shortly after the Methodists split over slavery into the Methodist Church and the Methodist Church South. Some historians have suggested that when the nation saw that the Methodists couldn’t hold it together, they concluded the nation couldn’t hold together either. The nation was watching the church to see what God could do.
The world needs to see God’s love here. People are questioning. Isn’t this love stuff a bit naïve? Aren’t the Bible’s rules too narrow and restricting? What makes you so sure God even exists? And if they look at us and they see love working among us and the see us living out God’s rules together and they see that it is something beautiful, then they’ll believe, too.
Some day a young woman who has been really abused by someone and has chosen to close herself off and give up hope may walk in this door. And if she sees us loving one another, she just might reconsider and open up and let go of her pain and find new life. She’ll be watching.
Some day a man may walk in this door who has been crippled by guilt for a long time. If he sees us giving grace to one another he may come to believe that God has grace for him, too. He’ll be watching.
Some day a person who has given up his dream of doing something with his life that would really be a benefit to the world and replaced it with a selfish quest just to get stuff for himself may walk in this door and see his dream lived out and dare to trust again that God has a plan for his life and can use him. He’ll be watching.
The way we treat one another is so important: the respect we show in the way we speak to one another, our openness and honesty with each other, the priority we give to spending time together, whether we notice one another’s needs and chip in to help. The world sees and the world judges God by what they see in us.
Kathy and I made some posters of key Bible verses of what relationships should look like in the church. You’ll see them hanging in the fellowship hall when you go into the coffee hour. Read one and see if you can put it into practice today after church. Let’s become experts and building God’s community here.
But there is someone else watching us, besides our human neighbors. Paul said in verse 10 that it’s through the church that the wisdom of God in its rich variety is to be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.
We don’t know the whole story, but the Bible tells us that there has been a cosmic rebellion against God among his angels. Some have chosen to live selfishly rather than in love. Some have chosen to rebel rather than work together. Some have challenged God’s goodness and wisdom.
You hear it in the way that the snake challenged God as he tempted Eve. Did God really say that? Don’t believe that you will die if you disobey. God doesn’t really want the best for you. He wants to keep you ignorant and dependent. Stand up. Assert yourself. Go your own way. God’s way is no good.
Those same powers of darkness have done their best to recruit the human race to side with them against God. Their dream is to say that God’s great work of creation and redemption was a failure. It didn’t work.
But every time we choose to serve others rather than ourselves, we are making a demonstration that it is working, that the accusations of the rebels against God are lies.
Every time we recite the creeds together we are taking our stand with God. And the creeds help us learn God’s principles, to keep loyal to the ancient faith. Those are important. But it may be that they are most important because we are stating out to all the spiritual forces, we’re on God’s side here.
Every time we stand together through a challenge we expose the bankruptcy of the devil, who bailed out when he didn’t get what he wanted.
Some day there may be a great trial in the sky. The devil will try to say that God was unfair and unjust and his plans were flawed. It all sounds nice, but it just doesn’t work. Rich and poor will never get along. Men and women will always fight. Greeks and Jews and every ethnic and social group are just never going to get together. It won’t work. It’s better to have everyone watch out for themselves.
And God will point to the church and say, that’s not true. And to prove it I enter into evidence the church, exhibit A. Sure they bumble around a lot, but people of different economic situations, different genders, different cultures and different personalities are working together and loving one another in spite of the bumbling. And if it can work in them, it can work anywhere.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, for the world’s sake, for God’s sake, love one another. Let the wisdom displayed within the very nature of God, three persons totally united, unity in diversity, be lived out here.
Next week we move into Ephesians 4, where Paul will start to fill in the nuts and bolts of how that works. AMEN
