Community United (Ephesians 4:1-6)

Transcription

1 Community United (Ephesians 4:1-6) As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. Community is something hard to find in the world we live in and yet something people are desperate for. On the whole we see a fragmented society fragmentation between ages, races, classes, division within families, religions, nations there is little in the way of community, unity and harmony. And what happens is that as fragmentation occurs and groups start to distance themselves from each other they put the walls up around them - it leads to misunderstanding each other which can easily spark conflict between these different groups which pervades our society from small-scale family conflict through to large-scale national conflict that climaxes in nations warring against each other.

2 Sometimes community is hard to find in the church as well. We take the fragmented individualistic, walls-up attitude of the world around us and import it into church life. The church is called to be distinctive in this key verse in the passage we just read what could be called the goal to which Paul is aiming at in this passage v.3: Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. The preceding phrases in v.2 build up to this goal i.e. for there to be the unity of the Spirit we need humility, gentleness, patience and a bearing with one another in love. We will take a closer look at these qualities that lead to unity later but first I want to focus our attention on that goal of unity of the Spirit (will be a bit theological looking back at the preceding chapters) but for us to understand WHY we should put the effort into keeping the unity of the Spirit we need to understand what is so significant about this unity of the Spirit it s not like Paul is saying here that a bit of unity here and there is a nice thing for us to do. Harmony and unity in the church are of crucial importance for Paul. In v.1 he has just urged the church to live in a manner worthy of their calling and then the first thing he speaks of is how we live with one another as a community to ensure we keep the unity of the Spirit. In other word, Paul is saying in v.1 that God has got a hold of your life, he has saved you/called you/adopted you as child not simply to get a ticket for heaven and pass the time away until you get there but to live in the here and now in the light of what he has done for you he has made you his son/daughter/ one of chosen people/holy people now live out who you are (not perfectly but increasingly changed by his Holy Spirit). And then the very first thing he focuses on for us to live up to this calling is how we live together as a community so that the unity of the Spirit is maintained. Not evangelism, not sexual morality, not reading your Bible and praying but how you live together with your brothers and sisters in Christ. That is significant it shows how important our relationships with one another are as the body of Christ. This emphasis on unity and harmony within the body at the start of chapter 4 makes lots of sense given the context of what Paul has been saying in the first three chapters of the letter. Notice the Therefore in v.1 which marks the transition from the first three chapters of doctrine to these last three chapters focused on practice. In other words, Paul is saying: In light of all the doctrinal stuff that I ve been going on about in the first half of this letter, with that in mind, this is how you ought to live with one another. So the question we need to ask is this: What has Paul been going on about in the first three chapters?

3 He has basically been unpacking the gospel - all that God has done for us in the death and resurrection of Jesus particularly looking at it in two dimensions vertically and horizontally. So vertically it has dramatically affected our relationship with God e.g. 2:4-6. Because of what Jesus has done the divide between us and God has been demolished and now we are united with Christ. But also what Jesus has done has a horizontal dimension and this is what Paul really picks up on in chapter 4. Not only has Jesus broken down the divide between people and God but also between people and people particularly in the first century context between Jews and Gentiles (non- Jews) e.g. 2: ONE NEW MAN. We are now part of the same family with the same one heavenly Father. And then in chapter 3 Paul goes on to explain the profound significance of this new unity in Jesus he calls this unity between Jews and Gentiles in one body on equal terms a mystery in v.6 and then says something astonishing about this mystery in vv The church is very very special. It has been designed by God to be the masterpiece of his goodness to be a display of God s manifold wisdom. Manifold basically means multi-coloured (used to describe things like flowers and woven carpets) and so the church is meant to be a multi-coloured display with its whole mix of people from different backgrounds a bit like a beautiful tapestry or a bouquet of flowers. Actually, there is even more. This multi- coloured display is pointing towards what one day will come to pass fully when Jesus returns and brings in the new heaven and new earth. You see, Paul wrote earlier in 1:9-10 that God had an ultimate purpose of uniting all things together in Christ and now in 3:9-10 he writes of how God wants to point towards that ultimate future in the here and now through the multi-coloured unity displayed in the church. The church is a bit like a pilot episode of a TV series There is an amazing thing here when we gather together as church, as family we are not just here as an institution or club to sing songs and listen to sermons but as we do these things together united even though we are multi-coloured - Jews, Gentiles, black, white, young, old, southern students, Durham locals, upper class, middle class, working class all united in Christ we are displaying the multi-coloured wisdom of God to who? V.10 to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms (cf. 6:12 principally evil demonic forces) - declaring defeat to the hostile forces of the heavenly realm who want to bring division and separation (and are consequently wreaking havoc in the world around) we are declaring, Jesus has won and he is

4 bringing unity among us in place of your division - we are pointing towards the ultimate reality that Christ has already won on the cross and will one day bring to fullness of all things being united under Jesus, in Jesus, for Jesus. With that in mind (i.e. the context of what Paul has already been saying in the first three chapters of Ephesians), as we go back to chapter 4 and Paul s key/goal command of making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit, it suddenly has a lot more urgency and significance doesn t it? There are two things in particular about this command that I find striking: i.) Make every effort this multi-coloured unity thing takes effort it s so much easier to be united with those who are just like me. Claire and I are just starting to get to know our neighbours (Claire has led the way in this baking cakes for them which has the great bonus of me also getting extra cakes as the taste tester it s a hard life!) on both sides live an older couple who have lived in Durham all their lives (one of them on the same street for most of that time just moved a few doors along) in terms of age, accent, culture, time lived in Durham, they are completely different to us and yet we have resolved to put in effort to get to know them and maybe one day we may be able to share with them about Jesus. We should be making that same sort of effort in the church to get to know those who are different to us, not to stay in our cliques and keep our distance from others. Particularly those who are new among us/on the fringes/feel overlooked move to a key part of the family life here if that s you please let us know we want to put real effort into helping you feel a united part of what is going on here. ii.) to keep unity is not something we are creating but rather this is something that the Holy Spirit through the death of Jesus has already done he has pulled down those normal worldly dividing walls and made us one new family BUT human tendency to re-erect those walls humans are great wall-builders think of the Great Wall of China, Hadrian s Wall, Berlin Wall, in the height of the troubles in Northern Ireland a Protestant estate built a brick wall to stop Catholics from the next-door estate taking a shortcut to school. So my encouragement is for us to be a walls-down

5 church the truth is we are all one/equal in Christ and so the walls are down please let s not re-erect them. Let s be a truly united community which doesn t just mean we attend the same church but actually there is increasingly a depth of relationship across the normal walls that divide people in the world around us and as that happens we are displaying the unity that Jesus died for, that the Spirit is now seeking to bring and one day we will experience fully when Jesus returns. So I ve spent a long time on the goal of unity in the church that Paul is seeking, rooting it in the doctrine and theology of chapters 2 and 3 the aim has been to show that this is important unity in community is not something Paul commands because he feels like it but is profoundly motivated by the gospel (vertical and horizontal barriers removed by death of Jesus) and the purpose of the church (to display the new one united equal society to the world around but ultimately to the heavenly authorities). So now I want to explore a bit more how in practice we can achieve this unity within the church community by looking at those community virtues Paul lists as he builds up to stating the goal of keeping the unity of the Spirit these are the virtues Paul gives that enable unity and harmony within the body. The reality is that if we really want to achieve the goal of keeping the unity of the Spirit within the church community it ultimately comes down to the moral qualities of the people in the church. There are four of them, they are actually two sets of two:

6 i.) Humility and gentleness are combined together just one with all for both closely related Jesus is our great example of humility (Phil.2:6) it was never used positively by the Greeks and then Jesus came along and redefined it as a positive word he modelled it himself (God become man, become servant, become crucified) and he then told his followers to do the same (deny yourself and take up your cross/become like a little child). And gentleness/meekness (he said of himself that he was gentle of heart in Matt.11:29 and Paul speaks of the meekness of Christ as characteristic of his behaviour towards humans (2 Cor.10:1). I think that particularly for men it is easy to see words like gentle and meek as qualities we don t really want to aspire to. However, it is not weak when you read about Jesus you discover he was not weak. It s about being considerate of others and being willing to waive your rights for the sake of others. The word was used for domesticated animals so it s particularly a word for those of us who have strong personalities or those who are in positions of strength and authority, to ensure that strength is under control and is used in the service of others not for your own personal gain. In other words, both of these terms humility and gentleness/meekness are pointing away from the common way of treating one another which is full of pride where we find faults in others to make ourselves feel better (it s much easier for us to point out the things that we don t struggle with in others) so maybe: we talk negatively about others behind their back to bring them down while at the same time elevating ourselves we get bitter when we don t get our own way in some decision that is being made in church life Let s move away from this way of pride to humility and gentleness becoming like Jesus and considering the interests of others above our own. Unity is surely not far away in a community where all its members are seeking to do that.

7 ii.) Patience/long-suffering the meaning of which is unpacked further by the phrase bearing with one another in love. Patience is so hard isn t it? I had firsthand experience at how impatient I am this week I ve been doing a lot of DIY this week followed the instructions carefully and still managed to put a shelf in one of the bookcases the wrong way round which meant the whole thing had to come apart and start again - easily impatient! But that s with things sometimes with people it s even harder after all, a nail can t do anything about being a nail whereas a person can change! Maybe: you think this or that person should be becoming like Jesus a little quicker than they are they should have given up that sin or taken up this quality by now. someone in the church has hurt you in the past and you have been angry and annoyed with them ever since (maybe you ve kept that anger quiet just avoided them but bitterness is still there in your heart). Sometimes we just need to bear with one another the reality is that I am weak and flawed and full of failures and so I am going to annoy and upset some of you from time to time. And I hate to say it but you also are weak and flawed and full of failures and so you are going to annoy and upset me from time to time. That is just the reality of community life consisting of imperfect people let s not pretend we are all perfect acknowledge plank before speck!

8 As a married man I am amazed even after a year of marriage how Claire puts up with me her patience and bearing with me in love are astonishing as I fail her often. But Claire s patience with me is nothing compared to God s patience with us this word is used in OT and NT to describe God - makes allowance for us endures wrong rather than flying into a fit of rage - how many times did he have the right to get angry with you for not becoming like Jesus quicker or for hurting him by rejecting him, and yet he continues to be patient with you. That is why Paul adds the little words in love at the end of the phrase (agape) if we are immersed in the unconditional love of God that we are receivers of, the more we grasp that the more we can be unconditionally loving and patient to others. To finish, I just want us to have a time of quiet I m going to read the passage again slowly and then leave a few minutes of quiet for us to do business with God ask Holy Spirit to bring to mind specific people/situations/groups in the church that you know you have not acted towards in a way that is making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit resolve to change your attitude with the Spirit s help may involve going up to someone and saying Sorry for a word, thought, or attitude that is out of step with the unity of the Spirit that Jesus died for. With apologies that the recording of this sermon was interrupted and so not available as a download / broadcast.