Today we continue our journey through Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. But before we do let’s pray:

Lord, please help us to understand and embrace Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. Help us to be reassured by what Paul says and help us to listen to his wisdom.

Amen

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The Scottish theologian William Barclay describes Ephesians as the queen of epistles.  The poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge said the letter is “the divinest composition of man”. And John Mackay, a former President of Princeton Theological Seminary said that he owed his life to the letter, claiming that for him it is pure music, a truth that sings, a doctrine set to music.

We can treat Ephesians as a powerful set of intellectual arguments, logical propositions, and moral imperatives – we can go a long way with this orientation. However, for me, we can go even further if we see the letter as a profoundly rich poem crafted by Paul under the spell and inspiration of God through the Holy Spirit.  It is a poem of reassurance and teaching for the faithful that we can breathe in, over and over, each time learning more about its depths and its implications for our lives together in Christ, with the help of the Holy Spirit.

The reassuring news from Paul comes in waves across chapters 1, 2 & 3.

We are reminded that all humanity needs Christ’s mediation to escape the prison house of sin, death, and law. Once we too were dead, following the course of this world, blinded by the lies and enticements offered by Satan, the ruler of the power of the air.

But Paul, again and again, reassures us that through Jesus’ death and resurrection we, as faithful Christians, have found a yearned for freedom, and have been released into God’s kingdom to grow and serve Christ. God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loves us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together in Christ. By grace, we have been saved.

Paul nonetheless tells us that even though we have been transformed by Christ, we will continue to face ongoing suffering and assaults from the world, from our own brokenness, and from all the cosmic powers of evil.

These are struggles that will continue until the full and final return of Christ and his kingdom. Today we continue to live, as the bible scholar NT Wright says, in the now and not yet of the Kingdom of God. The day is coming when the wolf lives with the lamb, the leopard lays down with the goat, and the calf and the lion and the yearling. But we are not there yet. The struggle continues and we have a mighty role to play as Christ’s light in the darkness.

Paul does not leave the Ephesians or us untutored in our struggles. He does not simply reassure us that we have been saved, despite the ongoing strife we are experiencing. Paul is not only our pastoral carer but also our teacher. He wants us to know how to survive the present fallen world and what to do as Christ’s lights in the darkness.

At the end of chapter 3, Paul reminds us of the importance of prayer, by praying himself for all Christians down through the generations. He asks God to strengthen our faith through his Spirit so that Christ continues to dwell in our hearts. And he prays that we all may come to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know that this love surpasses all knowledge.

Paul then moves in chapters 4 to 6 to guide us in our struggles here and now as we walk with the Holy Spirit towards the fullness of life with God.

In chapter 4: 1-16, Paul’s chief guidance to the Ephesians and us is to make every effort, as we face strife, to stay unified. He teaches us to make, with the help of the Holy Spirit, a bond of peace amongst us.

As we all know, across Christendom there reigns such immense diversity. This diversity is beautiful and profoundly important to the life of the universal church. We are not clones of each other but a rich mix of faces and ways of being Christian.

But we also know that this diversity can lead to acrimony, fear and, distressingly, even hatred between Christians. This can be at the level of different traditions: Presbyterians versus Catholics versus eastern orthodox versus Anglicans versus Pentecostals versus evangelicals versus liberals versus Calvinists and so on and on. And, it can be at the level of the single church community, where differences in age, gender, ethnicity, theology and even biblical interpretation can bring out the very worst in people.

Paul’s letter is thus prophetic. Through Ephesians, he urges us to embrace diversity and put away disunity by living a life worthy of the calling we have received. That is, to live a life of love for each other.

And how are we to do this?

Paul in Ephesians and elsewhere, especially in Romans, tells us that we can live a life of love and unity, by coordinating our many and different gifts and by striving to act in accord with the virtues demonstrated so powerfully by Jesus, including humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance, justice, prudence, and love.

Here, I think it is important to note that Paul is not pointing to laws, rules, or inflexible principles, but to virtues, which are habits of the heart that grow over time as we mature and which we learn to apply as new circumstances arise. He is not reeling off a list of ‘dos and don’ts’ but encouraging us in our walk with each other to be loving, humble, gentle, patient, forbearing, just and prudent.

Paraphrasing Paul, he then says if, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we can do this, if through the virtues we can grow in our unity, and if we all bring our many and different gifts to our community, then we will no longer be like sailors in a storm; blown by the winds of adversity, blown here and there by every wind of teaching, and blown every-which-way by the craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, as we grow in our unity, as we grow in Christ, we will become in every respect the mature body of Christ and His true light in the darkness.

Paul is therefore also warning us that if, as Christians, we persist with selfish agendas, be they petty or grand, we will be rent apart by the leaders, authorities, and powers that rule our world in this dark age. To use a different metaphor, we will just become noisy gongs in this already noisy world. And, if we cannot be united, if we grieve the Spirit with our anger, our resentment, our envy, our jealousy, our judgementalism, we will be seen by those who yearn for peace, meaning and a loving God as just clashing cymbals.

I suggest that Paul is, therefore, also saying that if we don’t strive, with the help of the Holy Spirit, for peaceful unity in our diversity, we will never be the light shining in the darkness that Jesus wanted us to be. Quoting Jesus, in John 17 17:20-21 (part of our second reading today):

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

 Writing about Paul’s desire for unity among the Ephesians and unity across and within the church universal, inevitably led me to reflect on Deb and my experience in the community here at St Luke’s.

Deb and I have only been coming to St Luke’s for about 8 months, so we know nothing of the trials and tribulations you have worked through over time. I can only imagine that there may have been difficulties that have mightily tested your unity in the past. And indeed, there may be undercurrents today of which Deb and I are completely unaware.

However, the overwhelming feeling we have is that there is an enormous amount of love and unity in this Christian community, and many mature and gifted disciples of Christ.

Numerous examples come to my mind.

On Wednesday I attended the weekly prayer group and bible study. Brothers and sisters were prayed for, plans were made to visit folk who are unwell, and prayers were spoken over people who are facing other significant trials in their lives. I did not sense any spirit of judgement, just a yearning to love people in their times of need and suffering. As I listened, I said to myself, this is what it is all about, this is Christianity at its best, if only non-Christians could witness this, rather than the judgementalism of some of the unfortunate souls in the wider church universal.

And the giftings in this church are profound. Every Sunday people read out the allocated bible verses with such care and reverence, some practice the night before, and all speak with eloquence. Prayers are then delivered by brothers and sisters at the lectern that, to me, are works of art that God, I’m sure, rushes to listen to every Sunday morning. We also have ministers who have so much talent, grace, and depth. On Wednesday, I felt filled to the brim because of the way Erna unpacked our bible study, and gently questioned us. And we are so blessed by Ruth who is, I am sure you agree, such a patient, caring, optimistic, and non-judgemental teacher and servant leader.

Clearly, at the moment, I am a little smitten with this church. Like a love-struck teenager, I cannot see any pimples, I can only see how beautiful you all are. Regardless, while I’m sure we all have room left to grow in Christ (I certainly do) and, undoubtedly, there are, likely, many more things we could do for each other and those outside our community, I feel Paul’s call for unity and to live a life worthy of the calling we have received, is being heeded and embraced in many ways by the folk at St Luke’s.

So, let me pray in conclusion.

Lord thank you for Paul’s wisdom and thank you for our church here in Taroona. Thank you for all our brothers and sisters in Christ, and their love and giftings, and thank you for our leaders.

 Nonetheless Lord, please don’t let us rest on our laurels, push us on to strive for more unity in diversity through exercising our gifts and developing further our Christian virtues so that we are truly your light in the darkness for all people who are yearning for your love.

 Amen.