Today we begin a series on the book of Ephesians. While there are many rich theological treasures to discover in this little epistle, we will be focusing our attention for the next weeks on the church as the community where we all belong to Christ and to each other. Today on Ministry Sunday, I want to skip ahead to Ephesians 4 where we rediscover the foundations of our unity and the grace of our diversity.

Prayer

I love the story of the woman leading a Vacation Bible School class. A new boy joined the group. He had only one arm. Trying to be sensitive to the child, the teacher silently hoped that none of the other children would refer to the boy's handicap. Somehow she managed to get through the class without incident and was coming to the close, so she began to relax. She asked the class to join her in their usual finish, saying, "Ok children, let's make our churches," referring to the churches children make by placing their hands together, with pointing index fingers for steeples. "Here's the church and here's the steeple," she began. Then she realized that the very thing that she had hoped the other children would not do she herself had done. As she stood there speechless, the little girl next to the boy reached over with her left hand and placed it on the boy's right hand. She said, "Davey, let's make the church together!"
" Let's make the church together." What does that mean? I think it means realizing that we all belong to each other and need each other if we are to discover what it means to be church. How do we experience such a community? Let’s begin with the oneness. What is immediately striking in this passage is that Paul repeatedly uses the word 'one' -- seven times here in Ephesians 4:4-7: “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.”

This preoccupation with the idea of oneness characterizes Paul's perception of what the Church is and how the Church should function. Three of those "one’s refer to the Persons of the Trinity. There is one Spirit, Paul writes in Ephesians 4:4. There is one Lord, we see in verse 5, as he refers to Jesus Christ as Lord. Verse 6: there is one God and Father of us all. The remaining four uses of the word "one" have to do with Christian experience. If I were to summarize what the apostle is attempting to say in this passage on oneness, I would say this: there is one body because there is one Spirit. You and I have a common possession. Despite what disagreements we may have, we are not divided as a Christian community. We have one Spirit. Then in verse 4, Paul writes that we have one hope and later we have one faith, one baptism. Why? Because there is one Lord Jesus Christ who is the object of our faith. One hope, one baptism, one faith. He is the One in whom we have believed. Into Him we have been baptized and it is for His coming that we await. Verse 6 tells us that there is one Christian family because there is one God and Father who is above all and in all and through all.

The essence of Paul’s argument is that we all belong to The Lord. Our lives are inextricably bound up in Him. But the immediate question to ponder is this: how can we reconcile what Paul is saying to what we see is the present state of the church? There is disunity in the church around the world, both within congregations and among those who claim the Name of Christ. Many of us even disagree about worship, the nature of the church, the meaning of The Gospel, or who should be our elders. So how do we live out this unity?

We're told in these verses to keep or preserve the unity of The Spirit. It doesn't say, "Create unity." The unity already exists; we are already joined to one another because of what Christ has done. Our responsibility is to “make every effort” to hold on to the oneness – to the unity that already is ours. We must value the unity, hold on to it, commit ourselves to experiencing it, and resist everything that would drive wedges between us, stop listening to the innuendoes and the complaints and all that pits one against another, group against group. We should be diligently, anxiously, seriously committed to the preservation of unity. For a church that is in the midst of choosing its next leaders and the tensions that go along with it, that is a good reminder.

Of course, unity does not mean unity at any cost. Unity does not mean diluting the rich theological ideas of chapters 1, 2 and 3 of Ephesians; convictions about God’s purposes, the church, the cross and the love of Christ. But unity also does not mean agreement about a single church structure, a method of worship, or a particular tradition. Church unity does not mean that we must agree on everything with our brothers and sisters at a church in the next town, or with the faith of a church in Texas or Tennessee. But church unity does mean that we emphasize the things that we have in common, that we value one another, and that we declare a common commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ. The old Restoration plea said it well: "Unity in essentials, liberty in incidentals, and in all things love."

Living in unity means exercising our role in The Body. If you want to see a church in disunity, look for a church that isn’t engaged with each other and with the world in ministry. Something about engagement, mission and service enables us to discover unity where it might be missing if we simply live in an intellectual bubble. Ephesians 4:7 tells us that God gives grace to each of us, literally according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Romans 12:6 helps us to understand this. We have different gifts, writes the apostle Paul. We have different gifts according to God's grace. The Greek word charis describes the grace that has been given to us. We have different charismata because of the charis that has been given to us.

This is something that never ceases to amaze me as a minister. I am sometimes blown away by the diversity of our gifts. Some of you enjoy serving in ways that I can’t imagine being enjoyable. The range of gifts is breathtaking. Some of you are gifted to work with numbers and computers, and others to manage people and take leadership. Some are gifted to speak and teach, and others to communicate through music or visual arts. Some work well under stress, and others are gifted to work in quiet places. Some of you are gifted to cook, others to work with children and teenagers, and some of us definitely are not. These all are gifts that you have been given to serve the people God has given you to love. So your gifts don’t belong to you. They belong to the Body of Christ. And if you don’t use them for the community, you are stealing from the Body of Christ.

Quiet, anonymous service is admirable. I often hear people tell me that so and so serves in quiet ways. I applaud service wherever and however it happens. But that quiet service shouldn’t be an excuse for service not performed in and for the community. Often times, because of schedules, disagreements with those in the church, or difficulty working with others, some people choose to do ministry alone and on their own time. But the New Testament never conceives of lone ranger ministry. Ministry is always done in, through and for the church. I think Jesus envisioned this because we learn to love when we serve and minister together.

Our gifts are the means by which we experience the gracious love of God among us. They are sacraments and windows of God’s grace. Gifts are not talents that you possess – they are graces you have received. They are sacraments because they are the tangible ways for others to experience the grace and love of God through you. Your hands, feet and mouth are the visible Presence of God to those who benefit from your gift.

So how do you find your gift? What if you feel that you have nothing to offer? I suggest that you pray for insight, ask others to discern your gift with you, pay attention to the things that bring you energy and joy. Listen to your self, for God created your self and your desires for a purpose. Sometimes people will say, “Oh, he is so gifted.” Or “she has such wonderful gifts.” If no one is saying that about you, it only means that they are not paying attention. All things in God’s creation are gifted to glorify God. How does a squirrel glorify God? Not by looking at the elephant and saying, “That’s a big gift.” But by running around trees and swiping food. It doesn’t matter if you are a great speaker, or a great artist, or if you serve by making coffee – God has gifted you to serve others. You discern that gift not by looking at others and applying for their gifts, but by paying attention to God’s unique creation in your own life.

The purpose of all gifts, according to Ephesians, is “for the building up of the Body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:13). The diversity of our gifts exists to lead us back to our unity – into unity of faith, unity of purpose, and to unity of character. In short, we all are gifted so that, at the end of the day, this church looks like Jesus Christ. When we all passionately give our gifts to the Body of Christ, this church is growing into the character and knowledge of Jesus.

In The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (Book 3), one of C. S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia, four children travel to Narnia, a land of talking animals, where Christ is the great lion Aslan. As he does in our world, he dies for the sins of his people and is raised again. After his resurrection he says to Susan and Lucy, "We have a long journey to go. You must ride on me." The children climb up on Aslan's back, and Susan holds on tightly to Aslan's mane, and Lucy holds on tightly to Susan.

It's a wonderful picture of the church. We hold on tightly to Christ, and we hold on tightly to one another, and that's how we become the One Body of Jesus Christ. As we share the One Spirit and express our many gifts, we wake up one day to discover that we are starting to resemble Jesus Christ.

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