a good time to thank you all for being so gracious and kind to me over the last few days.
Mostly because Tommy says that he preaches for 30 to 40 minutes,
and I don't have that much content, so this counts.
So I've at least managed to spend 17 seconds saying thank you.
And by way of further stretching, I think it's important for us to remember
where we've been so far this week.
We began in chapter 2 in Ephesians,
and we talked about how in the first part of verses 1 and 3 especially,
Paul gives this comprehensive analysis of the human condition apart from God
that we link to the baptismal idea of rejecting both the world, the flesh, and the devil.
And Paul talks about how different ways spiritual powers and forces
and our own desires in the world lead us away from God
and create this unstable community and rebellion against him.
And then we talked about how he moves from that,
one of the glorious conjunctions that you have in the New Testament,
but God who is rich in his mercy.
And he talks about who we have now become in Christ Jesus.
And then he talks about the unity that arises from the work of Christ,
that the Gentiles who were once alienated from God are now a part of one family.
And then we talked about in chapter 3, Paul's own description of his ministry,
that Paul was a prisoner of Jesus Christ for the Gentiles.
And we talked about how Paul's lauding his prison ministry is an example to us of the fact that this gospel cost us something,
that proclaiming the full gospel of Jesus Christ always carries with it opposition and oppression.
We moved down through the second half of chapter 3 relatively quickly on Saturday,
and we talked about the stewardship of the mystery,
the fact that we have been given this precious gospel of which we're stewards.
And this glorious gospel that involves the triune God,
bring us into fellowship with him and one another,
reconciling us both to God and to man,
to create this church that is a picture of or a witness to the watching world,
seems like much too big of a gospel for us to actually hold.
And so Paul concludes the section that we read with a prayer that the congregation would actually believe
or have the strength to grasp what he's just told them.
And the part that we actually didn't get to is at the very bottom,
verses, chapter 3, verses 20 and 21.
So he concludes this section.
Now, him who is able to do abundantly more than all that we can ask or imagine,
according to the power at work within him,
to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever.
In other words, Paul is saying God can do more than we can even possibly conceive.
And so one of the things, and I understand,
like when people say you need to come to a church,
you need to have a vision, you need to have a plan,
you want to say in five years we want our church to be here,
we want to have this building, we want to do these things, right?
We think we know what Advent might be in five years.
And it's Tommy's job and the staff's job to pray for that.
But we're told that God can do that which we cannot even imagine.
That it's possible for God to do things in and through this church
that were actually unthinkable before they occurred.
So when we talk about, you know, one of the things we've had happen here with the staff,
we've had discussions of multi-ethnicity and diversity,
and we want, you know, this church to be a possibly more diverse place.
And we may think it would be great if we made it to 10 or 20 percent.
But what if God actually would do the unimaginable?
What if God could use this church to begin to transform not just this one particular parish,
but the ACNA's approach to ethnicity and diversity?
That's unimaginable.
But that's within the scope of what Paul talks about here.
So now we're into chapter four, where Paul has, in some sense,
in the first three chapters of this epistle, he has focused, not exclusively,
but a lot on getting them to understand who they are in Christ,
the glorious riches they inherit that they have as followers of Jesus.
And now he focuses on how they should live.
You've heard this wonderful gospel.
And what does it look like to actually live?
And he says this,
I, therefore, a prisoner of the Lord,
urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.
What does it mean to walk worthy?
Let me give you a brief example.
So Tommy sent me a text message
that some of you might have seen on the internet
telling me not to wear my collar
until Sunday because, you know, you guys are a little bit more of a casual tradition.
And I come from the tradition where Jesus only hears your prayers if you wear them in a collar.
And I remember when I first came into the Anglican tradition
and I put on the collar.
And it was actually during the time where there was a lot of the abuse crisis going on in the Catholic Church.
And I would go out into the city, especially in Boston,
and sometimes people would, like, yell at me.
And I wanted to say,
you know, no, no, no, no, that's not me.
That's not me.
Like, we're innocent.
But what happened, though,
what happened,
what became clear to me,
even in that context,
when you put on the collar,
people watch you carefully.
And I do enjoy wearing the collar
because it reminds me of who I represent.
And when I'm wearing the collar,
especially as a parent,
my sanctification level has to go much higher.
I said,
in the name of the Lord,
if you don't put that candy back,
I will rebuke you sharply.
Wait.
So when Paul,
when Paul talks about,
you know,
you do that,
I'm sorry,
you do that parent where you're like,
you're whispering in a key that only your children can hear.
If you don't stop this right now.
Okay.
Walk.
Some of you are like,
I never do this.
You're better parents than I am.
This is not,
it's not total sanctification here.
So when Paul,
Paul uses the language of walk,
people,
it points to a way of life.
It actually first appears when his discussion of when we used to live in rebellion against God,
right?
When we were the walking dead,
we talked about this zombie language.
And now,
now he has in mind,
instead of walking along with the sons of disobedience,
you walk in a manner that looks like someone who's gone from death to life.
Walking worthy then is always a matter,
of discerning the will of God in a particular situation.
It's not a series of rules,
right?
It says live in such a way that you honor God.
And let me tell you,
I am a priest and I'm a New Testament scholar.
I have a relatively confined understanding of what that means.
I'm not a business person.
I don't work at Capitol Hill.
I don't work in a secular context.
So my expression of what it means to walk worthy is much different than yours.
And so what Paul is asking you to do then is for each one of you to become contextual theologians.
Where you ask yourself,
what does God require of me as a parent,
as an employee,
or as an employer in this situation?
Walking with humility means walking with this acknowledgement of your status,
vis-a-vis God,
not people.
So one of the things that can happen is,
especially in the language of humility,
it can get attached to often women or people of color to like humble yourself.
And when you're in a society that is consistently telling you to take up less space,
humility becomes a cipher for oppression,
right?
So when Paul talks about walking with humility and gentleness,
it is not you denying the gifts that God gave you.
If you're the best singer in the congregation,
you don't say,
oh,
I just sing a little bit.
And then you come up and you like blow the congregation away.
You've just lied to the people.
But it does,
it means this,
whatever gifts you have are precisely that.
They're gifts of God.
And in comparison to what God can do,
your gifts are ultimately not that impressive.
You can sing,
you can preach,
God made the whole world.
You see it?
And that actually does humble you.
Listen,
let me tell you,
there's like the worst person in the world.
Like,
you can imagine like the most degenerate,
horrible person in the world.
There's that guy who's probably,
and then there's everybody else.
So everybody else is above that person,
right?
There's always someone that you can find,
who is worse than you,
who you can use to exalt yourself over,
right?
Unless you're at the very bottom,
there's always somewhere.
You're like,
you know,
I'm a bad pyramid.
Those people over there,
they're the worst,
right?
So when Paul talks about humility,
he is saying that as you walk through life as a Christian,
and you exercise your gifts,
you exercise them as things that are offered to the community for their good,
not as a means of exalting yourselves over others.
But it also means that if you have these gifts that God has given you,
it is incumbent upon you to exercise them.
So humility is not burying what you have because you don't want,
because you're so worried about your pride.
Have sufficient trust in God that he will humble you.
Exercise the gift that God has given you.
He talks about,
later on here,
and I don't want to take too much time,
because the first verses of every text always enthrall me.
He speaks about bearing with one another in love.
And one of the things that is tricky
is when you move from doctrine to practice in Christian community.
So Paul is giving this wonderful picture of the Christian community
as being united across race and class and the end of hostility,
the dividing wall,
the manifest of the powers and the age to come,
the glorious nature of God's kindness towards us in Jesus.
And that sounds wonderful
until you have to actually do that with other people.
And then one of the things that,
one of the signs of kind of Christian maturity
is if you've gone through that process
of becoming deeply, deeply disappointed in your church
and loving it anyway.
Because every church will fail you.
Every one of them.
None of them are perfect.
And there is a kind of Christian immaturity
that can lead us to go from place to place
looking for utopia
and discovering in the place that you go, sin.
So bearing with one another in love
means that we will disappoint one another.
But it also assumes that we will forgive one another
and love each other as often as it is necessary.
We don't get to throw away other Christians.
And I have no idea how many of you all spend your time on the internet.
But I will at least say that like social media teaches us
to hate other Christians.
Christians who are different than we are.
Because you're rewarded for hating the right things.
Like if you tweet,
my pastor gave me a wonderful sermon
that edified me and wanted me to love my neighbor better,
you get like two likes.
If you go, here's this horrible prosperity gospel preacher
who wanted a thousand dollars from me,
tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet, you're viral, right?
Now, what I want to say is when you hear this,
it could easily lead to this idea that
because you're bearing with one another with love,
that it rules out truth-telling.
It actually assumes truth-telling.
There's like false visions of unity.
One of the visions is we bear with one another in love,
which means I don't tell you the things that I don't like
and I keep an interior record of resentment, right?
So like I don't like the fact that we do this in church
and it basically perpetually bothers me forever
and I kind of, I consider it my version of sanctification
not telling the church about the things that it does wrong, right?
But it actually assumes
that you're going to tell the truth,
someone's going to receive the truth,
and then you're going to get to the other side of that.
Everyone knows that true friendship
is only true friendship on the other side of an argument.
And what I want to encourage you to say,
you're mature enough as a church
to go through disagreement,
come through the other side of it,
and still be a part of the community.
So walking worthy here in the first section
involves community.
It involves us doing this together.
And community assumes accountability.
That's what community involves, accountability.
And accountability involves forgiveness.
Let me explain something to you.
The accountability would never be done perfectly.
And then it assumes continued community
on the other side.
Paul goes on to talk about
there's the unity that we have
arises from the gift of the Spirit.
He says there's one body,
and there's one Spirit,
just as you were called to one hope
that belongs to your call.
One Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God and Father of all.
The unity of the church.
In diversity.
This is what Paul has talked about
this entire letter.
The unity of the church.
In diversity.
Is a manifestation of the unity of God.
You see it?
Unity across difference
is a manifestation on earth
of the triune unity of God.
And so I think
it is time for the church,
and this may not be you,
it is time for the church
to get over all its fears
as to what diversity
is going to bring.
And trust that the gospel is true.
That our unity together
across difference
will bring a particular manifestation
of God's glory.
And you ask,
how is this possible
in our context?
He talks about the same Spirit.
The same Spirit
that draws us all
into the body of Christ
allows us to live together.
I have heard,
if one more person
asks me how to reach black people,
like there's a different spirit
that you need to evangelize,
that you need to call upon
in the proclamation of the gospel
to reach ethnic minorities,
that is a faulty anthropology.
And it's a low doctrine
of the Holy Spirit.
Paul says,
we are all baptized
into the same Spirit,
by the same Spirit
that draws us all
into the community.
How do you reach
ethnic minorities?
So part of it involves
preaching the gospel.
There's not a gospel,
like there is no gospel
for the Jews
and gospel for the Gentiles.
There's one gospel.
How that gospel is enculturated,
yes, it matters.
Yes, it matters.
But there isn't like
this magical set of tools
that's going to result in,
now here come the black people.
He also speaks
about the same hope
that functions as our foundation
and the fact that we confess
the same faith.
This is important
because diversity
as a mere social good
is insufficient
to maintain community,
right?
Why should we be together
because diversity is good?
It's not worth the suffering
that diversity brings.
But the confession
of the faith,
the doctrine
of the church
matters.
The fact that we all agree
that Jesus Christ
is Lord
is sufficient
to make the suffering
worth it.
I cannot correct,
I have four children,
four children.
And for the most part,
they've grown up
much different
than I have.
I grew up in Alabama
in the shadow of Jim Crow
and there was a strong
black-white binary.
And from kindergarten,
I was very,
very race conscious.
My first, like,
racial slur
was throwing at me
in first grade.
And so my life
was marked by this.
My children have lived
a much different life.
They lived on three continents,
at least the oldest has.
The others have lived on two.
And for the most part,
they don't have
the same racial consciousness.
My son,
when he was in,
we first went to Scotland,
and I asked him,
how many black people are,
you know,
this is probably,
I knew it was probably
going to be many,
how many black people
are in your class?
And he goes,
well, the only kid
is kind of like,
my color is,
you know,
this other kid
who is Korean.
And I was like,
as close as he could get.
And like,
for him,
like,
him and Korean
were like the same team.
I was like,
buddy,
America's going to be complicated.
But,
here's the truth.
Here's the truth.
Right now,
he's cute,
and he's not dangerous.
And the church loves him.
But the church,
at a certain point,
is going to begin to see him
as a danger.
And they're going to be
skeptical towards him.
And he's going to get frustrated.
And he's going to get angry.
He's going to want to leave.
Trust me,
it happens to all of us.
And I cannot say to him,
when that happens,
son,
it's simply good
that we're together.
But what I hope to be able
to say to my sons
and my daughters,
that Jesus Christ
died upon the cross
so that we might be
reconciled to one another
and created one family.
And as those who are
built upon the foundation
of this sacrifice,
we are stuck in this together.
And I think that the sacrifice
of Jesus
at least makes our suffering
somewhat worth it.
So,
this confession of faith
builds a unity
that is unshakable.
The last thing he talks about here
is the fact that we have
all sharing one baptism.
And forgive me,
my low church brothers and sisters.
I try to be ecumenical.
But apparently,
the apostle Paul
believes that collars
and slacks are important.
No.
That's not what Paul says.
That's not what Ephesians says.
Esau, stay in the text.
Okay.
Apparently,
Paul believes
there's something
about what happens
in baptism
that involves
a real participation
in the life,
death,
and resurrection,
and actual ascension
of the Lord
to reign on high.
It actually happens
not in the sense
that baptism is magical,
but it's not nothing.
I'll say that.
It's not a mere symbol.
Paul doesn't say
you're unified
because you've all
done the same ritual.
But in the same way
that we encounter
the living God
and the preaching
of the word,
and we encounter
the living God
and the word
and the sacrament
of the table,
I think Paul believes
that we encounter
the living God
in the waters of baptism,
and the waters of baptism
unite us
as one family.
I think Augustine
said that
even those
who are in hell
are marked
with the sign
of baptism.
You're sealed
and marked
as Christ-owned
forever.
So,
we cannot be
anti-sacramental.
When my sons
and my daughters
tend to despair,
I will say to them,
remember your baptism.
If you look at
this entire section,
you've seen
the discussion
of the Spirit,
right?
Drawn together
by the Spirit,
the Lord
and God the Father.
You have once again
a Trinitarian argument
for the unity
of the church
across difference,
walking together
in love
as a manifestation
of his glory.
He goes on
to talk about
in the second part
of this
that in this church,
the grace
is given
to each of us
to use our gifts
in accordance
with what Christ
has given us.
And he uses
this psalm,
and I can only
talk about it
really briefly.
He says,
he ascended on high
and led a host
of captives
captive,
and he gave gifts
to men.
Now,
one of the problems
is if you're
one of these
Bible people,
which I would hope
that you are,
that the psalm
seems to be speaking
about God's victory
over his enemies.
And Paul seems
to be using it
to refer to
God,
Jesus,
giving gifts
to us.
You see this?
There seems to be
a disconnect
between what
Psalm 68 says
and what Paul does.
Some people say
that Paul adjusts
this reading
and simply uses
it to his ends,
right?
That when Christ
ascended into heaven,
that he then gave
gifts to us.
But I think
the better way
of looking at it,
if you actually
read the entirety
of Psalm 68,
I think it's better
to look at this
not as a direct
quote of the part
that you see
here in verse 8,
but a summary
of the entirety
of the psalm.
Because in the psalm,
God defeats
his enemies.
And I think
what Paul is getting
here is that
because Christ
has defeated death
and ascended on high,
we receive the gifts
to do the things
necessary.
Jesus Christ
is the one
who has bound
the captives.
And here you once
again in this place
where the Christian
is faced with this call
or this reality
that the things
that we battle
are not simply
the things that we see,
but in a real sense,
Jesus has defeated
the spiritual powers.
And why does he do so?
He does so
so that we might
receive gifts
and the church
might be able
to function
as the Christ body
in the world.
And he begins
with the apostles
as the foundation.
Here I get to be
Anglican again.
The apostles
are seen
as foundation.
And those who,
what do the apostles
actually do?
And I don't think
we like take this
seriously enough
as Anglicans
and how it relates
to our polity.
You have people
going around
planting churches
in different places,
right?
And then when there's
a problem,
the people
in those churches
write to the apostles
and the apostles
write back.
And you have
the apostles
taking money
from one church
and delivering it
to another church.
So from the beginning,
even within
the New Testament itself,
there is a,
there's a communion
across cultures
led by people
who are trans-jurisdictional.
It was not simply
that the local church
did what they wanted
to do
and there was
no accountability.
So the good news
then is that
our polity,
I think,
is broadly speaking
biblical.
The bad news
is that our polity,
broadly speaking,
is biblical.
We're stuck
with our bishops.
And I do think
it's important.
I do think that
the fact that
we believe
that when the apostles
passed away,
they passed on
both apostolic faith
and what became
the New Testament
and apostolic authority
and what we now know
as the episcopate
as goods for us.
And I know that,
and I have no idea
actually what your experience
of your bishops is,
but I'm going to speak broadly.
We love our bishop.
We love your bishop
because Bishop Reed
love is wonderful.
But I know that sometimes
it feels like,
in general,
that authority
is inefficient.
That there are things
that we could do
on a local level
that would be more effective
than what the national church,
what our bishops
may say to us.
But I think
that there's something
of the bearing
of one another
in love
that is manifested
in Episcopal government
as it relates
to a global communion.
I think that we need
one another,
even if that means
we're a slightly
more inefficient bunch.
He then goes on
to speak about the prophets.
And I think that
these are the people
who build up believers,
the shepherds
and the teachers.
And I don't want
to actually go through
and exegete
each one of these gifts
because I don't think
that this is like the point,
that we find
these six gifts
and then we have like
a biblical
instead of a heretical thing
like the Enneagram.
Sorry, I shouldn't have said that.
The Enneagram
is super in the Bible.
Okay.
So I don't think
that the purpose of this
is to create
these spiritual gifts
that we then
fit everyone into.
And then if you feel
like my gift
is not articulated here,
then I don't have
a use in the church.
What I think
that Paul is saying
is that every person
in the church
has been gifted
for the sake
of the building
up of the body.
And that we need
each other
to thrive.
What does
the mission
of the church
look like here
then according to Paul?
It is the entire church
using the gifts
that God has given them.
Not exalting
one gift
over the other
but not engaging
in false humility
so that the mission
of God
might go forward.
Here's one more thing
that I want to highlight
and then I will
sit down.
How long
does this work
last?
One of the things
that is great
about my wife's job
is that she is a doctor
and so she can see
a patient,
diagnose the patient,
the patient can get better
and she can like go home
and like her weekend
is done.
Right?
But when you are a priest
and your vision
is the evangelization
of the world
and every Christian
reaching full maturity
it never ends.
Right?
It's not like
my entire congregation
is spiritually mature
all of the DC
is effectively evangelized
I'm going to take a nap.
How long?
Paul says
the ministry
of the church
continues
until all attain
the unity
of the faith
and the knowledge
of the son of God
to mature manhood.
Here he's talking
about adulthood
mature womanhood
it's just fine.
Okay?
Till we all reach
the measure
of the stature
of the fullness
of Christ
so that we're
no longer children
tossed to and fro
by the waves
and carried about
by every wind
of doctrine.
Rather speaking
the truth
than love
we are to grow up
in every way
in him
who is Christ Jesus.
The ministry
of the church
continues
until the unity
called for
in the gospel
rooted in faith
is actually
achieved.
until we get
the full knowledge
of the son of God.
Here's the reason
why this is such
a complex thing
because Paul
has said repeatedly
that the knowledge
of God
is actually
inscrutable.
So you keep going
until you understand
the understandable.
But I do think
that this part
is important.
I do think
this is a sign
of maturity
that even though
that the work
that Paul speaks
about here
is ultimately
eschatological.
The church
never reaches
its fullness
until Jesus comes.
but I do think
that what Paul says
in verse 14
is relevant
to the church
here
and I may end
with this.
So you no longer
be children.
There's a difference
between having
struggles
in your faith.
I mean we all
have our ups
and downs.
It's actually
the same thing
in a relationship
right?
There's the like
dating phase
like I'm not sure
this is going
to work out.
Then there's
the like
we're together
phase.
I'm assuming
this is going
to work out.
There's the
marriage phase
and I wish
I could say
that the marriage
phase means
no that's not
it either.
There's a point
in the marriage
where you're like
too old to start
over.
We're like
we're in this
together.
And so
no fight
has stakes
that are too high
because no matter
what like
the mortgage
is really high.
No you Christians
you're Christians
is not the mortgage
you're Christians
so you're going
to be together
no matter what.
And that's
when I think
the real
genuine
sincerity
of love
manifests itself.
And anyone
who
and this
is
understand
this is
the analogy
not the judgment.
I understand
that marriage
is complicated
and all of you
have different
histories.
So do not
hear me
as a judgment
on anyone.
Hear the analogy
for its intent.
We have all
anyone who
has been a Christian
long enough
have seen
relationships
fall apart.
It's a part
of the human
experience.
And then
there is
kind of like
the people
who you begin
with.
Maybe there's
seven or eight
couples
who you think
we're going to
do life together
forever.
And you see
the things
that kind of
happen in those
relationships.
And like
now I'm 14
years into
my marriage.
And a lot
of the people
who are married
at the same
time together
like they're
no longer
together.
And me and
my wife
talk about
this.
Like what
did we do
that was right
and what
did we do
that was wrong?
We don't know
it's actually
the grace
of God.
But what we
can say is
that there's
a sense in
which at
this point
we know
that we're
in this
together.
And I think
it's the same
thing as it
relates to
the Christian
faith.
Like you
start off
with these
people.
And I'm
telling you,
I have people
who I'm with
the seminary
with who are
no longer
walking with
the Lord.
But I also
know people
who've gone
through real
suffering and
have come
through the
other side
and they
are Jesus
people.
And I hate
to be like a
stereotypical
Anglican and
refer to C.S.
Lewis when it
talks about
the ones who
are no longer
friends of
Narnia.
Is it Susan?
Susan's no longer
a friend of
Narnia.
The saddest
line in
children's
literature.
But I do
think that
even if we
don't reach
the full
maturity of
understanding
who we
are as
Christians,
I think we
can come
to this
place as
Christians
where I
know in
a way that
I can
articulate that
Jesus is the
one who will
be with me
until the
very end
and I'll
be with
him until
the very
end.
And I
think that
is what
Paul is
calling the
church and
Ephesus to
do in a
culture that
we talked
about earlier
was exerting
extreme
pressure for
them to
abandon the
faith.
And I
will say
this too.
I think
there's
something to
be said
for making
a similar
commitment to
a local
church.
I think
there's
something to
be said
for that.
That I
can say
these are
my people.
That whatever
Tommy does,
and I'm sure
he'll do
something,
that gets
on your
nerves,
short of
him
apostatizing,
right?
These are
my people.
We'll work
through it
together.
Because unity
has developed
through relationship
over time.
Rather,
right,
speaking the
truth in
love,
we are to
grow up
in every
way into
him who
is the
head,
into
Christ,
from whom
the whole
body,
joined and
held together
by every
joint which
is equipped,
when each
part is
working properly,
makes the
body grow
up so
it builds
itself up
in love.
My prayer
for you all
is that the
gospel will
be a sufficient
worth to
you to
engage in
the sacrifice
of living
together and
growing at
the full
maturity as
Christians.
In the name
of the
Father,
the Son,
and the
Holy Spirit.
Amen.