YOU ARE THE BODY OF CHRIST

Ephesians 4: 1-14

Some words can make people cringe, or perk up their ears more than other words. One word is than. When one person says to another “You are prettier than she is, it can set up smugness or snobbery; but if someone says she is more popular than you are, it can cause hurt feelings or anger. Likewise, when one of the judges on the several dance and talent shows on television says “We thought you were pretty good, but you’re not as good as the others,” the early compliment gets drowned in the critical words. Children especially have an ear for the second half of such sentences; spirits can be crushed with what is perceived as constructive criticism or an honest remark. Some of those children become adults with the tape of those cutting comments still playing in their heads.

Ephesians chapter 4 starts with one of those hinge words; in this case it isn’t criticism, it means “to understand what I’m about to tell you, you have to know what I have just told you!” The word is “therefore.” “I therefore,” he says. To what is the author referring? He’s referring to the words that we have in chapter three. And to whom is this letter addressed? It is addressed to seekers of Christ who are either: 1) Jews who kept and knew the Law of God and who were resistant to letting non-Jews become Christians; or 2) Gentiles, who had heard about many false gods now they were seeking the true God. Our world hasn’t changed much in some respects: there are some who are atheists, not believing in any higher power, and some who are agnostics, saying they don’t have enough information to decide if God exists or if Jesus is the Son of God. Conversely we have the life-long believers, the keepers of the faith, who can sometimes look disapprovingly at all the new-believers who become Christians through their non-traditional ways: ways that lift up praise music, witnessing, and an about-face life change. Often these seekers love new paradigm worship in non-denominational churches, where the preachers are in sport shirts and running shoes with services held several times during the week in worship centers that grow dark to project images on screens like movie theatres. Oh there are still the divides in Christianity today that there were in Ephesus and Corinth in the late first century! Paul’s “therefore” is for good reason: scholars say that Paul’s “imperatives – his descriptions of how believers ought to live,” flow out of his “indicatives –his descriptions of what God is doing ‘In the church and in Christ Jesus.’” (3:21) God’s plan, as Paul describes it through chapter three, is to “gather up all things into Christ (1:10); and to let people know that Christ came to “reconcile both groups [Jews and Gentiles] to God.” (2:16) The same message can be preached today, can it not? Is not God still about bringing new seekers and long time faith-followers to a table across from each other? The news this week featured four different people on the White House lawn hopefully connecting with each other where before there had been a rift. The news over the last several weeks described people of both political parties locked in disagreements over health care and how to pay for it. The church in Ephesus, Paul hoped, and the church in America today, I think Paul would still hope, needs to not play the games that encourage smugness or cause anger. The Christ who appeared to Paul (then Saul) on the Damascus road did not want him to continue his persecuting ways, but to remember that in him “We are all one.” Can Christians rise above the fray of politics and of the infighting of unbelievers? Can we really bring peace to a world filled with conflict, or do we just add to the disagreements?

Today this letter has just as powerful a message to us as it did when it was written. And to make it extra powerful, Paul takes his worldly condition (remember he was a prisoner, locked in a cell) and he turns the image of being chained into one of glad embrace with his words “I am eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond (shackle, chain) of peace. He wants to be bound to peace! Robert Robinson in the opening hymn wanted God, by amazing grace, to bind his wandering heart to Jesus! Even as the churches like in Ephesus and Corinth had their factions, so, sadly, do some splits happen in churches today. Often it is over doctrine (church beliefs.) Some, for example, say if you are baptized in another church your baptism isn’t authentic; some communion can be taken only be members of that particular congregation; some say “Stay away from other churches, they are heretics!” (wrong believers); and some say disparaging things about other Christians. It is just such an audience that Paul writes: “For whom does the bell toll? It tolls for thee!” “For whom is this passage written? It is written for thee … and for me.” Paul puts it some clearly: you and I and all others who say they are Christians: WE ARE the “Body of Christ.” There are not many bodies, any more than there are many saviors! “There is—and here is another hinge word in the passage—one body; we are not intended to be splintered apart by doctrine or name; we are, as the 70s folk song put it “One is the Spirit, we are One in the Lord.” Paul’s earlier words in chapters 1 -3 say “Know it!” Paul’s words in chapter 4 now say “Do it!” “Show it!” and “Live it!” There is also just one hope, meaning God’s plan in Christ is to save the world, not just one congregation. When Paul says in verse 4 that there is “One Lord,” he is really meddling In Ephesus, where the huge statue of the false god, Artemis, towered over their harbor! Today we would do well to remember that if we share the Christian faith it is the one faith that is shared by other Christians. Laypeople are often better at this than clergy, who split doctrinal hairs while new seekers can get disenchanted with church quarrels and say “Can’t we just love each other?” Isn’t that what Jesus would do? He looks at those who live those words, and he is well pleased.

As Paul goes on, he shows that he does not have a Pollyanna view of the world. He knows some make better pastors or preachers, some better teachers or evangelists, and that each denomination of people possess different gifts—why?—for the building up of the body of Christ! But people need their hands for some tasks and their feet for others. And some need help with their weakened hands or feet. Sometimes we need our eyes most, and other times our ears, and some have weak eyes or ears. Some need more heart in their decision-making while others need more brain. That’s why we need each other. Ephesians has the themes that our communities, and our churches, need to hear. Verse seven overarches the three main themes with these words: “Grace is given to each of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.” And what are the themes? Unity in Christ, diversity in our gifts, and maturity in our faith. If we want to truly be mature in our faith, as verse 13 urges, we’ll need to take a lesson from the prisoner Paul, who changed bondage into a matter of his own free will. May we too, be bound through our own choices, with chains of love to Jesus Christ- the head of the church- and the Savior of our souls.

Jeffrey A. Sumner August 2, 2009