08/02/2009 LEANING ON ONE ANOTHER

       LEANING ON ONE ANOTHER

“... to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith & in the knowledge of the Son of God….

 Ephesians 4: 12-13a (NRSV)

          Several years ago I was asked to officiate at a wedding in the middle of New York’s Adirondack Mountains.  That was, in itself, unique.  What made things doubly interesting was that the bride wanted a nautically-themed wedding.  She wanted seashells placed in the bouquets, whales & porpoises airbrushed onto the bridesmaids’ pastel dresses, seafood at the reception, & a host of aquatic creatures appearing at the nuptial ceremonies.    It was all quite creative … but ocean life in the middle of the Adirondacks!?!  Maybe at the Jersey Shore, or along the Chesapeake Bay, even by Lake George or Lake Champlain, but not deep in the forests of upstate New York!   I mean, forgive me, but I just kept thinking of the old Saturday Night Live skit with the Land Shark knocking on someone’s apartment door!

          The day before the big event, Deb & I checked in at the bed & breakfast in the hamlet where the wedding was to be held.  Let me tell you:  the villagers were abuzz over this event.  You can imagine!  They had never heard of such an extravaganza.  Small town gossip was at its zenith.

We met the town florist who was friends with the owners of the B&B.  She sought my advice (!) because she just received her instructions the day before & didn’t know where to find seashells, & wondered what she could substitute in the bouquets.  I guess she figured preachers were supposed to be “fishers of men,” as the Bible says, & that’s as close as one could get to someone nautical in the middle of New York state.  We learned that the guitar-strumming vocalist was beside herself, too, because she couldn’t find any sea shanties sung by Michael Jackson, as requested.  And the only sealife costumes that the area seamstresses could come up with for the flower boys (not girls!) were wood nymph outfits.  I never heard of wood nymph outfits, outside of something Broadway or Hollywood could concoct, but they were in abundant supply in the mountains!  I guess mermaid (or would that have been “merman” costumes?) were totally out of the question.

What had I gotten myself into?  Deb had advised me to not do the wedding of a former girlfriend, but Kelly & I parted friends, I always liked her family, & her step-father was a co-worker of my dad’s, as well as a long-time friend & Sunday School teacher of both parents.  I had to admit, though, that this was way over the top.  Thank goodness the ceremony wasn’t scheduled for a church sanctuary.   They would have turned it into an aquarium!

The only thing I could say in my defense was that none of us responsible for putting on the wedding – the florist, the musicians, the cook at the reception, & everyone else in town whose services had been contracted – were all equally clueless.  The couple had not done their job of bringing everyone fully on board.

          How we get people on board at church is with the Bible.  Our vision, our mission, our values, & all that we’re about & are supposed to do are contained in the holy scriptures.  It’s no coincidence that God’s desire for us to know the love of Christ (Eph. 3:19), as we learned about last week, aligns with the Christ Church mission statement, “Transforming lives in the love of Christ.”

          So, then, let’s review what we learned during these past few weeks in the Letter to the Ephesians.  ---  We began by recognizing that all human beings are God’s children.  The sad reality is that we fall away from God & the things of God.  That’s bad news for us.   God, however, is not content with our falling away, & establishes a plan through Christ to bring us back.  God’s desire to reclaim us is made real in an adoption plan (Eph. 1:5), a plan which we may choose to accept.  Those of us children who want to be back in God’s family choose to be adopted.  Once back in God’s household (2:19), our task then becomes to know the love of Christ, our elder brother.  To be intentional about developing that relationship makes sense: just because we’re in God’s house doesn’t mean that we automatically know Jesus & experience his love.  Like any relationship, we need to work on it (Phil. 2:12).

          How do we do this?  How do we learn & know the love of Christ?  

Ephesians teaches that to learn the love of Christ, we rely on the followers of Christ – our brothers & sisters in the faith -- whom God appoints as the leaders, models, pastors, & teachers.  We move from being adopted children immature in the faith (4:14), to persons maturing into our full stature in Christ (4:13).  That’s why we say that Sunday School is not just for kids.  That’s why our adult education ministries exist – to help us become spiritually mature in the faith.

Last week, we noted that the goal for Christ’s followers is to make disciples.  This week’s lesson says more about that idea.  Christians are to use one another & the diverse gifts God gave us to make disciples for “the equipping of the saints for the work of service to build up the body of Christ” (4:12).

Let me go back to that opening example.  The bridal couple had corralled a group of talented persons, but we lacked the information & proper direction to accomplish such an ambitious wedding ceremony.  It was a creative, albeit crazy, concept.  If only they had told us more or explained things better or shown us what they had in mind.  Instead, folks made it up as they went along, & although that worked, it could have been much better.  It’s like the good persons at a church trying to run things without knowing what the Bible says.

There are parallels between the wedding & the church.  Knowing the Son of God (4:13) & his love sounds crazy, too.  How can one ever know such things?  We can.  Our essential text is the Bible.  How we learn those scriptures is where the pastors, leaders, & teachers come in to play.  God doesn’t just give us the Bible, but gives us his Son, & one another.  Each of us learns differently, so God provides different ways to learn though different brothers & sisters in the faith. 

Some of the academic personality types among us need to read & study the Bible for learning to occur.  To you I say, join Ken Gingrich’s Bible class Sunday mornings.  Sign up for Frieda Bailey’s daytime Jesus in the Gospels group.  Become a student in Pastor Nancy’s evening Disciple Bible Study.

If you’re not one for sitting down & listening, but prefer a hands-on approach to learning what God has in mind, we have those options covered, too.  Erin Corne can get you involved in ministries in the North Penn area.  I’d love to take you to North Philly with me the end of the month.  Bill Weir can talk with you about ministering along the Gulf Coast, where Christians continue to impact after the hurricanes four years ago.  Sue Weir & Laura Kline can tell you about overseas mission work.

If you love kids, see God in them, & believe your knowledge of Christ’s love increases as you interact with kids, get involved with Doug Ellis & how God works in Scouting.  A few of us can talk about how God works through domestic or international adoptions.  And the number of teachers & student ministry leaders who’ve grown in Christ’s love over the years fill our VBS classrooms & Sunday School & youth rooms.  You can lean on these ways & persons to learn.

Are you someone motivated by how money works in God’s kingdom & how your life & the world can be changed economically?  Engage Leroy Horst or Don Albacker or Joe Miller. 

If you want the fellowship of a men’s group or a women’s group or a youth group, if music is your cup of tea, if you want to minister to the deaf, we have people here to help you learn the love of Christ in these ways.  We love to do this stuff.  We can’t wait to help you develop your faith.  And if something else entirely is what you need to come to know Jesus, let us know.  As United Methodists say, “Our hearts, our minds, our doors are open.”  ---   I could go on. 

We have been called by Christ.  Most of us genuinely desire to “walk in the manner worthy of the calling with which we have been called” (4:1).  We sincerely aspire to those ideals of “humility & gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love, being diligent” (4:2,3a). 

Leaning on one another & the spiritual gifts God gives us, not only leads to knowing the love of Christ, but also helps us personally achieve those standards of the faith life in order to better ourselves & our world.  They do not merely remain pie-in-the-sky when we earnestly work to bring such ideals to life. Holiness is not something we magically attain or get by osmosis when we sit in the pews on Sunday, but that which we strive for with one another throughout the week as the people God has adopted. 

God created each of us to be unique, so how we learn about Christ’s love, & God’s will for our lives & world will be unique, too.  There are a variety of ways for you to work out your salvation.  What works for you?  Give it a try!

In the Name….                       Copyright 2009 by G.D.Knerr at Lansdale, Pa.  All rights reserved.