Sunday 15 May 2011

Walking Worthy - Ephesians 4. 1-16. Sunday 8th May

Paul urges the Ephesians to "Walk worthy of the calling" to which they have been called.  How do you define Walking Worthy?  There are three things in this section that define walking worthy of what we are in Jesus...

Unity
There are two unities in this section:
1. Unity of the spirit in the bond (ligament: it's a body word!) of peace - maintain it!
a) If it is to be maintained, it is there already...  If I say to Sandra, or Val, or Len, "make sure you maintain your car properly, they would say "Don't be daft, I haven't got a car!"   We don't have to go looking for the unity of the Spirit. It is something that already exists.  Because we follow Jesus, because we have the Spirit of God living in us, we have the unity of the Spirit.
b) Unity in the body isn't a pragmatic thing, where we sort of ignore our differences to make something happen (a bit like the coalition government!) It is a theologically derived thing.  "One" seems to be God's favourite number.  There is one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord Jesus, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father.  Consequently, you've got no choice in the matter. Will we be one with other Christians? Well, there is one body. Will we be one with the people sitting around us this morning? Well, there is one Body.
c) How do we maintain the unity of the Spirit? How do we keep it in good working order?  By walking the walk as we act and speak with humility, gentleness, patience, tolerance.
2. Unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God.  Our unity isn't perfect.  We will sometimes struggle. There is a unity still, to be attained. It is something we grow into as our level of understanding develops, our character is shaped and our ministry develops, until we all attain to it, when we are all the same in the perfect Kingdom. Until then we are all growing towards that and we can help each other.

Ministry
1. Grace was given to each of us
a) It's grace, given through Christ.  Not just an undeserved favour (that's mercy) but God's Redemptive Activity Continually Expressed in our lives. Ministry like unity is first and foremost God at work; it isn't something we have to do but something that comes down.  The problem with earthly ministry is that it is so much hard work.
b) Grace is given to each of us.  You have a share in ministry... God's redemptive activity is at work in your life.

2. Like unity, ministry is rooted in theology. It isn't just something that we have to do (because the Church will go down the pan if we don't!)  Sharing ministry isn't something Pastors do because they are too idle to do it al themselves. It's rooted in the two big journeys Jesus made: he descended to earth and showed us what ministry is all about, serving other people, healing and teaching in the power of the Spirit, and he ascended to the highest place: and led a whole crowd of captives, giving gifts to men and women (?????p??).   Ministry is about Jesus.

3. It's shaped through the five-fold leadership of Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and teachers. Not the five-fold ministry; the ministry is for everyone.  Paul is talking about a five-fold leadership.
a) Apostles - those who maintain the sense of being sent out in the Church
b) Prophets  - those whose call is to hear from God and speak for him
c) Evangelists - those with a particular task of speaking the good news
d) Pastors - "Shepherds" who keep people safe and care for them
e) Teachers - who help people develop, understand and apply their faith.
Spiritual Leadership is about these things: mission, hearing God, good news, spiritual security and growth. Management, finance, etc., though important are not leadership!
4. Leadership equips the Saints for the work of ministry for building up the body of Christ. We sometimes think that is a list of things that leaders are to do: equipping the saints, the work of ministry, building up the body of Christ.  But it's not a list it's a chain reaction.  Leaders equip the saints for the work of ministry for building up the body of Christ. It's what the saints do in the Church and the world.
5. Ministry - the ministry we all have -  builds up the body of Christ, so we can grow more like Jesus, and be making a difference in the world.

Maturity
What does Christian maturity consist of? What does it taste like and smell like and look like?
1. Christ-likeness.  The ultimate "Mature man" is Jesus himself. If we are mature, we are like Jesus.  People will see the character of Jesus in our character; people will see us responding as Jesus would respond. People will see the works of Jesus being done in our lives.
2. Conviction. Part of maturity is knowing what you believe and why you believe it.  But we are not to be blown around by every wind of doctrine.
a) It isn't mature just to accept "The official teaching" of the Church without thinking it through.
b) It isn't mature to think you have nothing more to learn.  We should always be ready to develop our understanding; we should always be humble enough to admit that the way we understand God's word is incomplete. (1 Corinthians 13. 12 says "For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.")
c) But it isn't mature, either, to be ruled by what is trendy.  It's a characteristic of the world we live in, to reject the idea of absolute truth.  In the postmodern world, you can mix up your beliefs from different faiths; you can decide what God is like then reject anything in the Bible that doesn't fit; in the postmodern world , what matters is looking cool and feeling good.  We need to understand that world, and to begin where people are as we share the good news with them. But we need to know and as best we can understand what we believe.
3. Compassion.   Love. Conviction without compassion is not maturity it is bigotry.  "Speaking the truth in love" is one of the most abused verses in the whole Bible.  It is used to excuse all sorts of unkind and ill-thought-out outbursts.  You are only speaking the truth in love is you are speaking the truth (theological truth not just how you see things) and you are only speaking the truth in love if you have submitted what you saying and the way you say it, to the test of 1 Corinthians 13. 4-8. You're speaking the truth in love if you are not being arrogant, or boastful (maybe about you superior knowledge); if you are not insisting on your own way, not in the least irritable or resentful; not gloating over the other person' error, but still believing in them and prepared to stick with your relationship with them.
4. Community   v. 15-16.  "Speaking the truth we grow un into Christ.  from whom the whole body, joined (harmonized) and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working (energizing) properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love". We get closer to, deeper in love with and more like Jesus.  And we experience the reality of Jesus through the reality of his Body, the Church.  You can't claim to be a mature Christian if you are living outside of the Community of the Church. To be in Jesus is to be in the Church.   And in the Church - in the challenging and stretching experience of finding your place within the body, joined together, being a kneecap or a big toe that is working properly - we grow as individuals, we contribute to others' growth and to the growth of the Church - which is the Body of Christ in the world.
a) In a fragmented world, a united Church, a real community.
b) In a harsh and selfish world, a loving Compassionate Church;
c) In a confused and relativistic world, a Church with Conviction.
d) In a self-indulgent world, a church of growing, mature, unselfish people.

© Gilmour Lilly May 2011

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