SCRIPTURE: Ephesians 3:1-12
TEXT: 10so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. THEME: The church community helps us to live like it is Christmas every day. INTRODUCTION Christmas should not be just one day event but lived every day. This year I needed the 12 days of Christmas to get all of my Christmas stuff done. 12 days beyond the Christmas due date helped me to relax into the grace that is there in God. I like the image of putting on Christian qualities liken to the clothes we dress ourselves with each day. Living like it is Christmas every day is relational; we are adopted as a member of the family of God. This is where we discover our identity, find love, acceptance, belonging and are given what we need to flourish in life every day. Today, from another section of Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus, is an Epiphany lectionary reading about the church. Christmas everyday means to belong to the church community where we can live out our lives corporately with God and others, including Gentiles from the East. SCRIPTURE Do you remember those math lesson, where they talked about groups and subgroups? If A equal B and B equals C then A equals C. The Israelites view the world as Us Israelites and them, everybody else, Gentiles. The Israelites equal the People of God. A equal B. What the Apostle Paul shows us is that the Gentiles are also included in the People of God because what Christ does is not only for Israel but for everyone. So, B equals C. And so, the new People of God is Gentiles and Israelites being one, A equal C. The Apostle Paul approaches this part of the letter by establishing that the Gentiles are included in the Good News of the Christmas Gift of Jesus, Son of God, incarnate Christ and Paul has been called by God to bring this revelation to a Gentile audience. Then in verses 8-10, Paul introduces the church. This is the new People of God, of Israelites and believing Gentiles. “8Although I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ, 9and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; 10so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.” The church then becomes a compelling example of inclusion, acceptance, grace, and the workings of God. I take this to mean that in order of us to live Christmas every day, we need to be part of a church that is engaged in living out what believing is Jesus is all about in real and practical ways. It can be seen in the way they treat each other, by the way they treat strangers, it can be seen in the things that they do and by the things they choose not to do. Some churches are anchored in the stewardship of their buildings and have not figured out how to listen and follow God’s call of mission in their neighborhoods. Paul is called to bring the mystery of Christ to the Gentiles. This changes the temper of the People of God from being elite to inclusive, which God has always been, but they had taken their specialness not as a unique call to mission but something that distinguished them from everybody else. The phrase that sticks out from this passage is “Rich variety”. The people of God become a rich variety of variations, fusions, creativity, expressing a love of God. So, a hula, danced by part Portuguese girl, to a Country Western song about faith in the God of Israel is possible in this rich variety. APPLICATION Whether people believe Jesus is the Christ or not, they have an expectation of how the church is to behave and what the people who attend these churches are like. Basically, they want us to be nice and not cause waves. Our County sees us as docents of a missionary history, a museum with no mission. There are some things that are beyond what we can do on our own and we will need to have the gifts, skills, talent and resources of a community of faith to do this. It is hard to get everybody all on the same page. But with open conversations, addressing people’s concerns and finding the right answers and people to help us we can come to agreement so that the desires of God, can be lived out by a church, and are not just held by a few visionaries. A church’s mission is to follow and do for God what God wants for our neighbor and in our community. Recognizing the humanity of each other with respect and affirmation, we may have to use our best practices to partner with unlikely partners to ‘accomplish this work for God’ such as the county, the state, foundations, the Federal Government and our neighbors. Again, a model of a “rich variety’. In the past we believed that we had to do things all by our self and limited ourselves to only what we had. Now we are developing broader partnerships where others are able to lend their talent, resource, and skill to fulfill this dream of God for our community. Following God’s call, we all have the opportunity to give witness to the work of God in a real and compelling way that makes God alive to those who have not considered God in this way before. I listened to a rebroadcast of Krista Tippet’s interview with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, remembering this man’s heart in the wake of his death. He talked about how the church affirmed the humanness of all people and spoke against Apartheid. Then after being a force that actively dismantling of this form of racial prejudice, they formed the “Truth and Reconciliation Committee” as a route to heal their nations with truth telling, forgiveness and amnesty. Our UCC was one of the first congregations that ordained women. Now they occupy most of the student body in seminaries. Our UCC was one of the first churches that considered members in discernment as candidates for ordination no matter what their sexual orientation might be. Desmond Tutu said that with so much that is going on in the world. Why has the church chosen to pick on this instead of focusing on something more significant. CONCLUSION As we leave Christmas time and move into Epiphany, it is the Church community that helps us to continue to live a Christmas life every day. The church is able to do this with the help of the Holy Spirit, whose work gifts us to build the body of Christ and to equip us to participate in the mission of God. The next set of lectionary passages, from Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth will help us learn about the Spirit’s work in the life of the church through us, with rich variety.
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