Church Beloved - Ephesians 5:25

EPHESIANS 5:25        “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her . . .”

This statement in Ephesians that “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,” does not mean that Christ loved the church only or loved the church instead of the world or loved the church more than the world. The passage in Ephesians does mean that Christ gave himself to his disciples in a unique way. Jesus gave up his ministry of physical presence on earth so that the church, empowered by the Holy Spirit, could begin its work of taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth. In this sense the church is beloved. The church is not loved more than the world. The church is beloved by its being entrusted with the Gospel.

In John’s Gospel we find these remarkable words of Jesus “. . .whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these . . .” (John 14:12) No one could take these words of Jesus to mean that the church would do anything greater than the cross and the resurrection. Jesus brought salvation to the world. Through Jesus we come to know God in a personal relationship, and through his gift of the Holy Spirit we are transformed from death to life eternal. So, these words, “greater works,” mean something else.  

In only one way is the church greater. The church has taken the Gospel, the news of Christ’s redeeming sacrifice on the cross and his resurrection from the dead to the world. Jesus went to the Father. He ascended after the resurrection. To the church he gave the ministry of evangelism. To the church was given the work of spreading the Gospel to people who never heard the voice of Jesus or saw his wonders. This truth recalls the encounter between Thomas and Jesus in one of the post resurrection appearances. Thomas made the declaration before Jesus, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus responded to Thomas, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29) The church has received the blessing of faith, and the church has been the means by which God has given this blessing to the world.

Nothing the church does is more important than giving witness to the death and resurrection. Nothing the church does is more important than calling people to repent and to believe. Nothing is more important than being the means by which people come to know God.

The passage in Ephesians chapter five belongs to Paul’s instruction on family life, specifically, the relationship of husband and wife. As Christ gave himself up for the church so a husband is called to give himself up for his wife.(Ephesians 5:25) However, Paul can never talk on any subject without moving to the Gospel, so he wrote in verse 32 that “this is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.” We know that the relationship between a husband and wife is for this life only. One day we will be related to one another as the angels are—without marriage. Our love will transcend the limits of this world and individual families. So said Jesus. (Matthew 22:30) So, the work of the church is for this world. Like marriage it is a blessed institution between the beloved, husband and wife, which serves the purposes of God until each believer moves from this life to the next. Similarly, the church will one day fulfill its purposes and no longer be needed. It is an institution for this time only.

The relationship between Christ and the church is as mysterious as the intimate relationship of a husband and wife or better we can say that marriage should strive to be like the mysterious union of Christ and the church. As the wife is beloved of her husband so the church is beloved of Christ. As husband and wife have a special relationship in this world, so Christ and the church have a special relationship in this present time. The church exists to serve Christ by giving witness to the Gospel. Evangelism is the great work of the church; it is the “greater” work which Jesus charged his disciples to perform upon his ascension. When the church fails its “greater” work the church becomes like a wandering spouse who fails to love faithfully the one to whom the spouse has been united for God’s purposes. The faithful and beloved church will be true to its “greater” work of evangelism. In fulfillment of this purpose the church is, indeed, beloved. Christ gave up his life, his earthly ministry, for the sake of the church and its call to bear good news to the world.

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Grandchildren - Occasionally, we allow Sweetie Pie (age 7) and Mr. Happy (age 5) to watch a movie at our house. This week they watched one entitled, "A Bug's Life." At one point the movie became scary to them. I usually sit with them during movies so that they can crawl into my lap during any scary moment in a movie. This time I had gone into the other room to answer the phone, and when I returned I saw brother and sister hugging each other, cheek to cheek, as they endured the scary part. Sometimes they fuss at each other, but mostly their love is beautiful to behold.

Thanks - On Thanksgiving Day I was hospitalized in Farmville, VA with an infection. It was, as we say around here, "sub-optimal," but I am much better now, and I am grateful for all the expressions of love and all the prayers offered on my behalf. Thank you. My family, as always, was most supportive. I didn't get a big meal on Thanksgiving Day, but I did feel much loved.

Books. There is not enough time to read all the good books available to us. I find it more and more difficult to recommend books, because a book that helps or inspires or entertains us at one point in life may not be useful at all for another time in life. However, if you like literature and enjoy knowing about writers then consider reading The Autobiography of Anthony Trollope. He was a contemporary of Charles Dickens. Trollope wrote more than forty novels. Some of them provide laugh-out-loud moments and unforgettable characters. His insights to the church and to politics are amazingly contemporary.

John 6:35, 41-51 Church Growth

John 6:44  “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them . . .”

Many years ago when I was a young minister who had only recently arrived in San Francisco to take up my first pastoral assignment, I went to a state wide meeting of Baptists that was being held in Southern California. This meeting attracted me because I hoped to gain information and insight on pastoral ministry from the people I met in the workshops and conferences. In particular I felt the need to learn all I could about church leadership. 

I remember sitting in a diner in Oxnard where the meeting was being held. It was breakfast time, and many pastors were gathering at this diner. In walked one of the more prominent ministers. He sat down beside me at the counter. I took the opportunity to introduce myself and to ask him how he had been successful in leading his church to grow so large. He looked at me with what I took to be a measure of disdain, and he said, “I suppose we pray a lot.” 

His remark ended our conversation, and at the time I felt rebuked, but I wasn’t sure why. I had asked in all innocence and sincerity for his insight, but I felt I had said something wrong and that I had offended him. Looking back, now, after many years in the ministry I understand better his “disdain” if that’s what he meant to communicate; his abrupt answer made me think, and it helped me to reflect on what I was asking. It came to me that, perhaps, I was approaching the subject of leadership and church growth in the wrong way. I was asking the wrong question.

In the passage from John 6 the people who followed Jesus to the other side of the lake after the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 were, like me, asking the wrong question. In their case the wrong question led them to grumble among themselves and eventually to complain about Jesus and to depart the circle of discipleship. The miracle attracted them to Jesus. They liked the easy access to food and drink and the possibility that such a miracle worker could lead their nation as a king who would insure prosperity for the people. However, as Jesus pointed out to them, the most important attraction was not prosperity but the pull of God’s Spirit into relationship with the Father and Son. 

New pastors, or at least new pastors like me, are often caught up in the desire to see the institution of the church expand. That desire is understandable. Numerical growth for a church, like food and water for an individual, is necessary. If a church never replaces its membership then the institution of the church will die. However, putting emphasis on institutional survival is the same mistake that the people in John 6 made; it is the mistake that brought a rebuke from Jesus. It is the mistake that caused me to earn the pastor’s disdain in that Oxnard cafe. 

When we put our mission first then institutional growth will come as it should. Even if a church does not grow numerically it can still be used of God for purposes that we may not see. Prayer, faithful witness to the Gospel as revealed in Scripture, worship, giving and service will produce the food that lasts forever. The churches Paul served no longer exist institutionally, but their witness continues. God still draws people to himself through the witness of these churches. No church faithful to God ever dies. Individually and as churches we live in Christ, and our witness continues beyond our historical moment and brief life on earth because the work--the true work of the Gospel--belongs to God. He is the one who draws people to himself.

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Grandchildren. This week has been momentous--the birth of a third child to our son and daughter-in-law. Sweetie Pie and Mr. Happy have given the new addition his nickname (which he will no doubt insist on changing as he gets older.) The temporary nickname is “Squeaker.” He is a healthy boy of more than eight pounds, but he does squeak to signal his needs and wants. For the Fiona and Freddy stories the new addition will go by the name, Frazer; however, Fiona and Freddy have decided that Frazer does not get to go on any adventures until he is old enough to sit in Pal’s lap and listen to the stories. Until then he is “Squeaker.”

A Reflection on Mark 1:29-39 and Some Personal Additions

Mark 1:29-39  “. . . Let us go somewhere else . . .” (Verse 38, NIV)

“You think I am a demon; that’s because I am living in Hell, and I want out.” Those words were spoken by a character in the movie, “Blood Diamond,” a man who was trading diamonds to finance warlords and had hopes that his illicit business would help him escape from the civil war in Sierra Leone. This movie character was far from innocent, but he was desperate for deliverance. He sought it in the way he knew. It was the wrong way, a way certain to extend his own suffering and the innocent suffering of many others. As depicted in fiction the reality is that the fires of Hell continue to erupt into our world bringing evil and making demons of people. 

Jesus felt the urgency of his mission: to preach a message that could silence demons and drive them from the world. In our text the disciples look for Jesus who has slipped away for a time of prayer. When they find him they urge him to return to Capernaum where people were flocking to hear him and to be touched by him. Instead, he left Capernaum under the urgency he felt to take his message on to the next needy place. “Let us go somewhere else--to the nearby villages--so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” (Verse 38)

Students of the Gospel of Mark have long noticed its urgency. The word “straightway” in the KJV or in the NIV the words “at once,” (1:12, 18) or “without delay” (1:20) or “just then” (1:23) or “as soon as” (1:29) or “immediately” (1:30) occur multiple times to push the action forward. Jesus has a mission to fulfill and time is short. Mark throbs with the missionary imperative. All the Gospels, each in its own way, has this same urgency. Matthew recorded the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-2); Luke continued his Gospel with the book of Acts and the Spirit pushed spread of the Gospel into the world. John made it clear that his Gospel was written so that people would become believers. (John 20:31) An urgency for evangelism and the missionary movement are essential elements of the Gospel of Christ.

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A Prayer. Learned by Dorothy Day when she was a child, remembered and quoted in The Long Loneliness. “Enlarge thou my heart, O Lord, that Thou mayst enter in.” 

Grandchildren. Mr. Happy, although only 3 years old, has been helping me with accountability. Recently, I went back into the kitchen to get seconds on the delicious meal Judy had cooked. As I came back to the dining room table, Mr. Happy cried  out in genuine distress, “Pal (that’s what he calls me), Pal, don’t eat two meals!” Chagrined, I took my plate back to the kitchen. He made an observation that had never come to me before: second helpings are actually a second meal. 

A Lectionary Reflection on Mark 1:17 with Some Personal Additions

Mark 1:14-20 “ . . . I will send you out to fish for people.” (Verse 17, NIV)

This metaphor “to fish for people” when taken seriously can make us uneasy. Just as a fish does not want to be caught, so people do not want to be caught either. They certainly do not want to be consumed, even figuratively.

Another word picture used by Jesus works better for those who resist the metaphor of fishing. Jesus said that those who are well do not need a physician, and he explained that he had come not to call “the righteous but sinners.” (Mark 2:17) If you don’t want to be designated a sinner then Jesus accepts your freedom to say no to his call.

Still the fishing metaphor is there in Mark 1:17. In that picture the fish does not have the freedom to say no, and by implication those who fish for people do not expect people to want to be caught. 

One way to resolve the issue is to say that Jesus simply meant that he wanted the disciples to change vocation. Once they worked in fishing boats, but now they were being called to work with people, helping them to enter the kingdom of God through their preaching. That’s an easy solution, and easy solutions usually fail to be helpful. Worse, they avoid the truth.

Although the Gospel is good news we can expect people to resist it as vehemently as a hooked fish resists getting caught. What’s more we can expect, as Jesus taught, that many will oppose and even persecute those who persist in proclamation of the Gospel. They will make this opposition because they do not want to be caught. They do not want to be changed, and the Gospel demands change.  Just as the sick need healing so the sinner needs confession, repentance, forgiveness and the Lordship of Christ.

There are many good things that the church can do to help people. Most of those good things are well received. Ministry to the homeless and the hungry will be appreciated by the larger community. However, proclamation of the Gospel will meet resistance. To “fish for people” will be decried at a minimum and in some places it will receive deadly opposition. Yet, those who have been caught by the grace of God through proclamation of the Gospel will praise the Lord, and they will give thanks for the preacher who dared to face their opposition. 

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Books. The Parables of Kierkegaard, ed. Oden., 1978, p. 3. Here is an excerpt. “It happened that a fire broke out backstage in a theater. The clown came out to inform the public. They thought it was just a jest and applauded. He repeated his warning, they shouted even louder. So I think the world will come to an end amid general applause from all the wits, who believe that it is a joke.”

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Grandchildren. Fiona and Freddy are fictional characters who regularly appear in bed time stories that I tell Sweetie Pie and Mr. Happy. If the story gets a little scary at some point, then Sweetie Pie stops me and whispers in my ear, “What’s going to happen?” I assure her that it will be okay. She then allows me to continue though she has made clear that Fiona and Freddy stories can have no bears, snakes or stink bugs.