Ephesians 4:1-7,
11-16 “BUILDING
THE BODY OF CHRIST”
This past week, I had a plan to meet Margaret and Joe Austin
before she had her heart cath procedure.
But before I found them on Thursday a.m., I went to the wrong place.
I did eventually share a prayer with them at a cardiac diagnostics office,
but not before I paid a visit to a brand new hospital –
This hospital has only been open just about 2 weeks. And is it ever nice.
I felt like I was walking into a 4-star hotel instead of a hospital.
And instead of an information desk, they even had a concierge desk–
just like the fancy hotels.
Since I was lost, someone then very kindly directed me to the right location.
But it occurred to me while I was there that how we think of ourselves
influences how we act.
There’s a difference between having an information desk and a concierge desk.
How we name ourselves can limit us or help us grow.
Start from the very basics -- with children in school.
Children are deeply affected by labels.
Those who think “I’m not that smart” or those who think “I can do that”
tend to live out whatever they have been labeled.
The same is true in
the church.
How we think of
ourselves here at Peachtree Corners
will influence how we
are the church.
For the last couple of weeks
we have been talking about growing here.
What it means to grow our hearts and our church for Christ.
We have used the mustard seed as an image
for God’s big possibilities in little packages.
We have talked about Jesus as the vine and us as the branches.
But there is another way to think about growing that comes from the scriptures -- building.
But when we talk about building the church,
we are not talking about building an institution or an organization.
We are talking about building something much more dynamic,
much more organic, much more alive than that.
We are talking about
building up the Body of Christ.
That’s how the apostle Paul thinks of the church –
a living organism, not a static organization.
In today’s reading from the letter to the Ephesians,
the unity of the Body of Christ is emphasized.
But unity doesn’t mean uniformity.
The Body includes a variety of gifts, with Christ at the head.
Although some of Paul’s letters address specific problems,
this letter seems to be more general in nature.
This passage is an encouragement to the church,
about what it takes to build up the body of Christ.
What it looks like to
be the church.
The church is not just a bunch of individuals all trying to push through their agendas.
What we make of the church,
is how we help make
Christ real in the world.
You can think of today’s reading as almost an instruction manual for the church.
The instructions are simple to understand and hard to live.
Humility, gentleness, patience. These are some of the fruits of the spirit.
The Sunday School class was studying this today.
These are some of the signs of God’s spirit among us.
There are other instructions. Bear with one another in love.
Maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.
But just what does this mean in the church?
Too often in the church, we are so anxious to avoid conflict
that we either cut off from people or we give in.
We walk away or we let ourselves be bullied.
It always takes COURAGE to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.
It takes courage to
work through the inevitable differences
we human beings have,
even here in the church.
The letter goes on to tell us that we are to use the gifts we have in the church.
One of my wise pastor friends gave me an article he wrote
which I have kept posted in my office:
“The 10 things I wish someone would have said at my ordination.”
# 2 is “Work with whomever God sends.”
The author of the article goes on to say that his father, a schoolteacher,
often heard other teachers moan,
“If only I didn’t have so and so in my class, everything would be perfect.”
This wise older teacher would always respond,
“Work with whomever God sends into your space. That child really needs your love.” The same is true of any church.
“Work with whomever God sends.”
The scripture also instructs us to speak the truth in love.
Here is another one that is easy to misunderstand.
Too often in the church or families or workplace,
we justify our hard words with each other by saying,
“I was just speaking the truth,” but the truth is, we’re speaking neither truth nor love. We are to prayerfully discern the truth before speaking and always wrap it in love.
But more often than not, we don’t confront difficult behavior,
maybe especially in the church
We let people get away with things because it’s just easier to avoid conflict.
It’s like Thanksgiving dinner with that same difficult relative
who comes year after year and
everybody learns to
avoid the topics that will set him or her off.
But that is not a
healthy family.
A church consultant, Peter Steinke, who has written and taught extensively
on the church as a family system, says we try to be nice,
and all we end up with is what he calls sloppy agape.[1]
You know the Greek
word for love is agape.
It’s the unconditional, undeserved kind of love God has for us.
But we humans can distort God’s kind of love. And it becomes sloppy agape.
If we never TALK it out with people when we disagree with them,
that’s not God’s love, it’s sloppy agape.
It’s sloppy agape when we allow difficult behavior
that speaks neither truth or love.
It’s sloppy agape when we avoid certain topics because we think it will rock the boat.
It’s sloppy agape when we sit on the sidelines
and are afraid to speak up because we think no one will listen.
Most of all, it’s
sloppy agape if we walk away from each other.
But when we learn to work through our disagreements,
when everybody does their part to promote not themselves, but the Body,
we begin to get closer to the vision the writer of this letter had for the church:
we begin to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.
We begin to build the body up in love.
Love is what measures the kind of body we are,
whether you are talking about individuals or the church.
The late William Sloane Coffin said, “Love measures our stature.
The more we love, the bigger we are.
There is no smaller package in all the world
than that of a man all wrapped up in himself.”
The body of Christ is big. Much bigger than anyone of us.
The body of Christ
includes anyone who has been, was, or will be in this church.
The people you agree with and the people you don’t.
The unity of the spirit of Jesus Christ is bigger than any of us here.
It makes us more together than we could ever be on our own.
This past week I have been having some interesting conversations
with people both inside and outside this church.
One of them was Dr. Richard Hamm, the former General Minister and President
of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).
I had met him at the regional assembly in November
and called him this past week.
He is a coach who works with churches that are willing to change in order to grow.
In our conversation, he said a critical question for a church must be,
“What is God calling
us to do?”
He distinguishes between democracy and discernment in the church.
Democracy – which we are all familiar with – is determining the will of the people. Discernment is understanding the will of God.
Churches are much better at democracy that discernment.
In fact democracy helps to keep order, to prevent conflicts.
But to be the Body of Christ requires
that we also look towards God’s guiding in our decisions.
One of the reasons I am here is because your search committee
took this discerning very seriously.
When I met for the first time with that committee,
they told me they had spent the first 2 months meeting weekly
both to compile necessary information but also to pray for God’s guidance.
Now that made me pay attention. . .
Sometimes we wonder how we know for sure God is speaking to us.
I think we learn that, together, as the church.
I had another conversation this week with Pam Callon,
a member of that search team, who told me that even now,
members of the group are in awe at how God guided the process.
She said, “It was heavy on our hearts – what we had to do,
and so we prayed for God’s will to be done.
We sought God’s guidance and we made that the central focus.”
This is what
discernment looks like.
Sometimes we may wonder whether we know for certain what God’s will is.
One important question to ask as we sort through decisions in the church is this:
Does this build up
the Body of Christ?
This decision, this new project,
this way of acting towards each other, this use of money?
Another conversation I had this week was by email
with someone who has been one of our regular guests in Sunday worship.
I contacted him, told him we were glad to have him with us,
and offered to answer any questions.
He replied with a most interesting email and I have his permission to quote:
He said, “I am intrigued by PCCC.
It just seems like such a special place, with really nice people.
(I really like the way my kids participate in service, too.)
I do feel comfortable there, which is important to me as we search for a church home. I tell my wife that this feels like a foundational opportunity.”
I liked his use of that phrase “foundational opportunity.”
Everywhere you look inside and outside these church doors
there are foundational opportunities.
To serve more of the families in this area.
To reach out to people who are lost and looking for answers.
To be the distinctive Disciple witness that is needed in this community.
To grow our hearts and our church for Christ.
At the very beginning of my message today, I said,
How we think of ourselves will influence
how we are the church here in Peachtree Corners.
I invite each of you here today
to begin thinking of this church and this time as a foundational opportunity.
In fact, tell all your friends that we’re building something here --
The Body of Christ - right here in this church!
[1] Peter L. Steinke, How Your Church Family Works: Understanding Congregations as Emotional Systems (Bethesda, MD: Alban Institute, 1993), 59