Sermon: Hope, Unity, Freedom, Vocation, and Maturity

 

              Today’s reading from Ephesians is the bridge between Theology and Exhortation
—the midpoint between the idea and the deed.

              Before it Paul insists that:
the life of the Church
points the whole world
—that which is seen and that which is unseen
—to the Gospel.

              After it Paul goes into detail about
how Christians ought to live together.

              And this bridge, today’s lesson, is built upon the stuff of Baptism:
Hope, Unity, Freedom, Vocation, and Maturity.

Let us pray.

 

              The multi-nation prisoner swap has been in the news the last few days,
and the focus has been on its complexity…
but it is worth considering quite simply the people involved.
A marine imprisoned for almost six years, two journalists sentenced for a combined 22 years, and so on.
Imagine the pent-up worry and the back and forth of despair and hope rattling around in these folk’s souls!

              Paul knew a little something of that,
that’s why Ephesians is littered with captivity language.
As Paul Scholar NT Wright reconstructs it,
the highest and lowest point of Paul’s ministry both took place in Ephesus.
For 3 and a half years he ministered to a growing gathering of Christians there…
and then the locals took notice.
They imprisoned Paul and dragged the leaders of local congregation into the Amphitheater and the whole place erupted in denunciations and beatings.
Paul could probably see the whole thing,
impotent to do much of anything.
—some of the pillars of the church in Ephesus publicly renounced their faith.

(Riff on actual persecution, instead of crying wolf)

              And Paul is again imprisoned, likely writing to some of those same folk who crumbled under pressure.
And he reminds them to have hope,
for Christ has captured captivity itself!
Have hope, even on the other side of the silencing storm of persecution,
even on the other side of failure
—there is hope!

 

              In the ancient world there was an assumption about the structure of the universe
—that it consisted of dualities (Antimonies)—this not that.
Jew/Gentile, Free/Slave, Man/Woman, etc.
—you can’t have one with out the other,
 and unity ought to be founded on being this, not that.

To this framing of the world Paul points to Baptism,
Being in Christ as a different foundation for the Church
—a church united in its diversity,
encompassing all those things folk think are fundamental divisions,
Unity in Diversity is “God’s multifaceted wisdom.”

              And today, the Church is Great when it is united in its diversity,
when it scrambles the antimonies we still construct as a society
—class divisions, racial categories, age brackets, political silos…
nothing shows off the Gospel like:
-political rivals kneeling at the same altar,
-elders and elementary school kids sharing about their week at coffee hour,
-poor and rich singing the same hymn,
-African American and European American at the same communion table…
one body, one Lord!

 

              Paul understands that these little Christian communities he’s writing to are more than Mystery Cults
—self-serving religious organizations, helping members get ahead in the world with winks and nods
—instead it is, we are, the Body of Christ.
If Paul was a chemist, he might say that Christ’s body has the property of gas,
it expands to fill the room. It seeks to go out into the world and be all in all.
Freed FROM sin, death, and the devil,
FOR the sake of our neighbors.

              As Deitrich Bonhoeffer once wrote, “The Church is the Church only when it exists for others.”
Christian Freedom is a journey that starts at from and moves to for! Freedom for others.

 

              Paul describes some of the roles in the Church:

Apostles: Firsthand witnesses of the Resurrection.

Prophets: Those speaking in Jesus’ name to guide the whole group.

Pastors: There to look after the church.

Teachers: Training people’s minds to focus on Christ.

              If I was Paul, I’d describe those gifts as vocations
—the spiritual aspect of all the Roles, Relationships, and Responsibilities we have.

              Then he points out that these roles are meaningful, not for their own sake,
but in so far as they build up the Body of Christ,
creating mature and loving Christians.

Our vocations ought to promote thriving and love!

 

              Finally, Paul warns the Ephesians about something he experienced at Corinth in spades,
communities caught under the spell of Charismatic preachers
and pushed to embrace those very divisions the world offers.
An immaturity irreconcilable with the Christian faith.

He insists the Christians in Ephesus ought to embrace maturity by being
rooted in communities of care,
where trusting Jesus
and the truth of the Gospel
are evident.

 

This movement from theology to praxis, idea to deed, being to doing
—are all rooted in what the Spirit is about to do through water and word for you, little Andrew!

In Holy Baptism you will be:
-captured by hope,
-united into the one body of Jesus Christ,
-freed from sin, death, and the devil for your neighbor,
-called to a baptismal vocation,
-and started on a journey toward Christian maturity. A+A