1/11/15 11.00am
You can listen to this sermon here https://soundcloud.com/bloomsbury-1/sunday-morning-1-november-2015#t=38:40
Ephesians 4.1-16 I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you
to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and
gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 making every effort to maintain
the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called
to the one hope of your calling, 5
one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6
one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. 7 But each of us was given grace
according to the measure of Christ's gift.
8 Therefore it is said, "When he
ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive; he gave gifts to his
people." 9 (When it
says, "He ascended," what does it mean but that he had also descended
into the lower parts of the earth? 10
He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so
that he might fill all things.)
11 The gifts he gave were that some would
be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the
work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 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.
14 We must no longer be children, tossed
to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people's trickery, by
their craftiness in deceitful scheming. 15
But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is
the head, into Christ, 16
from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which
it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body's growth in
building itself up in love.
Exodus 19:20-25 When the LORD descended upon Mount Sinai, to
the top of the mountain, the LORD summoned Moses to the top of the mountain,
and Moses went up. 21 Then
the LORD said to Moses, "Go down and warn the people not to break through
to the LORD to look; otherwise many of them will perish. 22 Even the priests who approach
the LORD must consecrate themselves or the LORD will break out against
them." 23 Moses said to
the LORD, "The people are not permitted to come up to Mount Sinai; for you
yourself warned us, saying, 'Set limits around the mountain and keep it
holy.'" 24 The LORD said
to him, "Go down, and come up bringing Aaron with you; but do not let
either the priests or the people break through to come up to the LORD;
otherwise he will break out against them."
25 So Moses went down to the people and told them.
Do you ever wonder what the point of
church is?
I
mean church in general,
not
specifically the congregation that meets at 235 Shaftesbury Avenue.
Although, of course, for those of us
here this morning,
our
general commitment to the church universal
takes
specific shape in the here-and-now
in
terms of our commitment to be here, in this place, on this day.
But whether we normally attend church
here, or somewhere else,
whether
we attend regularly or irregularly,
doesn’t really answer my question of
what the point is of attending
church?
Why
are we here?
One of the questions I’ve been asking a
few people recently
is
why they come to Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church?
And, as you might expect, I’ve received
a wide variety of replies.
I thought it might be interesting if I
shared some of these this morning,
all
suitably anonymized of course, to protect the innocent;
although
it’s quite likely that some of us here will recognize our own opinions.
It turns out that one of the main
reasons people attend Bloomsbury
is
because of our liberal, open, inclusive theology.
Certainly this is one of the things
that drew me to want to come
and
be part of this church.
We have a long and proud history of
being a church where awkward questions
are
not merely allowed, but are actively welcomed.
We are a church which rejects the easy
answer, the superficial certainty,
in
favour or exploring with integrity the complex nuances
of
what it means to be human before God.
So we are liberal, open, and inclusive,
and always have been.
We are also politically and socially aware.
It’s
well known that William Brock, the Victorian founding Minister of Bloomsbury,
remarked
that the best tools for the preacher
are
the Bible and the Times newspaper,
and
we still seek to bring the issues of the world around us
before
God in a way that transforms both us and the world.
Which brings me to the next reason
people gave for coming to Bloomsbury:
our
culture of service to the world.
We may not be the kind of church
where
people put their hands in the air for Jesus,
but
we certainly are the kind of church
where
people get their hands dirty for Jesus.
From the night shelter to the Tuesday
lunch club,
to
the Sunday homeless lunch, to the evening service,
to
Open Doors where we welcome and care
for
anyone who comes in through the door,
to
our Communities ministry,
to
the Soup Kitchen that will be starting next year,
to
the campaigning for the living wage,
the
cancellation of third world debt,
and
for the inclusion of those excluded elsewhere
because
of their ethnicity, gender, or sexuality.
I could go on and on and on,
about
our hands-on engagement
with
the social and political issues of our city and our world.
Maybe this is why you come to
Bloomsbury,
because
you want to be part of this kind of church?
Or maybe you come for the worship?
Certainly,
this was a factor for me,
when
Liz and I used to come and sit anonymously at the back
whenever
we were in London,
never
dreaming that one day we would come to call this place home…
Well,
the worship and the preaching, perhaps.
In those days, the minister was a man
called Brian,
who
is in my view one of the best preachers we have in the Baptist family.
Although,
to my eternal disappointment,
I
never heard Howard Williams preach.
So
I may need to reserve my judgment.
Anyway, Brian had been my College
Principal,
and
I attended his preaching class.
So I’d like to say that he taught me
all I know;
but
I’m not sure it would be fair to saddle him
with
that level of responsibility.
But, nonetheless, the combination of reverent worship and thoughtful preaching
certainly
keeps many of us coming back.
We have some wonderful musicians, and a
fine pipe organ,
and
a willingness to sing the great hymns of the faith
alongside
the best of the more contemporary worship material.
We have, thankfully, avoided the
‘worship wars’
which
have blighted so many other congregations,
and
it is my hope that the music we use and the words we sing
will
continue to offer a reverent and engaging path
to
the presence of the Living God;
who
is reaching out to us in love,
to
draw from us psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs of praise.
We will continue to learn new material,
just
as we will continue to sing the old favourites.
After
all, it was all new once!
However, and I’m going to sound a
slight note of warning here,
nothing
lasts forever,
and
certainly not the cultural forms of our worship services.
And whilst evolution rather than
revolution is the order of the day,
nonetheless,
change is here to stay.
And if the main reason we come to
church is the worship,
we
will need to learn grace and patience
with
those who worship differently to us.
I wonder, are we any closer to puzzling
out what the point of church is?
Well, here’s another thing:
some
of us keep coming here because it’s where our friends are.
For some of us, Bloomsbury is like our
family,
and
we love the community, we love the fellowship,
and even when we disagree and fall out,
we
do so knowing that there is a bond of love
that
ties us to one another at a deep and unfathomable level.
It’s like we couldn’t leave if we
wanted to,
any
more than we could cut ourselves off from those we love.
But of course, this can have its
problems too,
and
we need to make sure that the way we include others
in
‘our Bloomsbury family’
is
more than a warm welcome on their first day.
What I mean by this, is:
Do
we allow new people to come and belong as
they are,
and
not how we would like them to be?
As
with all churches, we need to guard against cliques.
But the reality for many of us is that
it is the friendship and fellowship
we meet here
that
keeps us coming.
Is this the point of church?
Of maybe you come here because of our
location.
In
London terms, we are at the centre of the wheel,
with
all the spokes leading to our local tube station.
The strategic and symbolic location of
Bloomsbury is no accident,
and
it is only set to increase with the local development
associated
with projects such as Crossrail and Crossrail 2.
This church was built here, in this
spot,
as
the outworking of a vision for a Baptist church
for
the centre of the city.
In a world where most Baptist
congregations are rural or suburban,
we
remain something of an anomaly,
and so our distinctive ministry to the
city,
whether
it be that corner of it on our own doorstep
or
to the wider city where we live and work,
is
something unique and to be treasured.
Where else would we get the diversity
of congregation that we get here in Bloomsbury?
I’m
sometimes asked to describe the make-up of our congregation,
and
my response is usually that if you were to go into the street
and
grab the first seventy people who wandered by,
you’d
have a fair representation.
Of course, the thing about Bloomsbury
is
that no-one ever comes here twice by accident.
Once, yes.
It’s
quite possible to be wandering by at 10.55 on a Sunday
and
to decide to pop in.
It
may even be that we have some here this morning who fit just that category.
But you won’t be back next week by
accident.
If
you come back, it’s because something about this unique expression of church
has
drawn you back.
Of course, most of the people who visit
us for the first time
haven’t
done so by accident either.
Most of the new people, week by week,
when I ask them,
say
that they checked out our website,
or
our Facebook page or Twitter feed, before coming.
And so we do need to take very
seriously
he
ways in which we represent and communicate who we are.
We will be a lifeline for those seeking
a liberal, open, inclusive,
servant-hearted,
politically-aware, socially-engaged,
reverent, thoughtful, creative,
friendly, city-centre
church.
And, by the same token,
knowing
who we are and what we stand for
will
allow those who need something else from their church to go elsewhere,
rather
than staying here and making themselves and others unhappy.
The thing is, there’s lots of churches
out there.
We
stand as just one among many.
And the others, the conservative
evangelical Baptists, the Anglicans,
the
Catholics, the Methodists,
the
Swiss, the French, the American,
the
United Reformed, the Quaker,
and
–I-could-go-on-and-on;
all
these others – they aren’t our competitors.
They
are our friends.
They
are our wider family.
They
are our cousins, uncles, aunts,
great-uncles,
and second-cousins-once-removed.
There is more than one right way to be
a church,
just
as there’s more than one right way to be a family.
We wouldn’t dismiss our friend’s family
as invalid,
because
they have different traditions or beliefs
about
how to celebrate birthdays and Christmas,
and we should dismiss our friends in
other churches
on
the basis of their differences to us.
And so, at last, and I should think
some of you were wondering when I’d get to it,
we
find ourselves at the letter to the Ephesians.
And we find ourselves back at the
question
of
what the point of church is?
Here, in Ephesians, the author implores
his readers:
‘I
beg you, lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called.’
And here he takes us right to the heart
of the issue of what it is to be a church.
We
are here, because we have been called to be here.
And we are called to behave with
humility, gentleness, and patience.
We
are called to bear with one another in love.
Our behaviour towards one another, and
to all those we encounter,
is
to be that of mature Christian disciples.
In all of our dealings, whether with
friends or strangers,
we
are to live out the love of Christ that has called us to one another.
The writer goes on:
‘Make
every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.’
But, we might well reply,
‘How are we to do this?
What
does this look like in practice?
How
do we live this out?
How
do we know what behaviour is acceptable, and what is not?
Simply saying ‘love one another’, and
‘live in peace’, is all very well,
but
how is that going to work in the real world?
Well, if we are asking these sorts of
questions, we aren’t the first.
The
question of how high ideals work out in reality
has
plagued religious philosophers for millennia.
It’s the question that the Israelites
put to Moses
when
he led them from Egyptian slavery to freedom:
‘Being free is great’, they said, ‘in theory.
‘But,
in practice, how do we actually live
it out?’
So Moses went up the mountain at Sinai
to ask God,
and
he came down from the mountain with two stone tablets
on
which were carved the ten commandments.
‘You want to know how to live in
freedom?’ said God,
‘then
try these on for size. There’s only ten,
‘so
it shouldn’t be that hard to remember them and put them into practice.’
And so the Israelites tried to live by
the ten commandments.
But
they soon discovered that ten wasn’t enough.
And as with all those who seek to live
by rules,
fairly
soon a situation emerged
that
wasn’t covered by the ten original commandments,
and so another was needed, and then
another, and then another,
and
before very long you have the whole Deuteronomic and Levitical law codes
spelling
out exactly who could do what with whom,
when,
where, and what they could and couldn’t wear or eat whilst doing it.
But then even that wasn’t enough,
and
the Jewish legal and scribal tradition arose
to
help flesh out the many, many laws with many, many more.
And then, into this, came Jesus,
stripping
away the layers to get back to the key question:
What is all this really for?
How are we to live as humans before God
and in relation to one another?
And so we come to those strange few
verses
from
the middle of our reading in Ephesians,
where
the author quotes from Psalm 68.18.
8 Therefore it is said,
"When
he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive;
he
gave gifts to his people."
9 (When it says, "He
ascended,"
what
does it mean but that he had also descended
into
the lower parts of the earth?
10 He who descended is the same one who
ascended
far
above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.)
Here, we have a picture of Jesus as the
new Moses:
going
up on high at his ascension,
just
as Moses ascended Mount Sinai in the desert.
But what Jesus returns with is not tablets
of stone
and
a New Revised Standard Law Code.
Rather, Jesus, ever the
unconventionalist, returns from on high bearing gifts.
Almost
certainly what’s in view here
is
the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost,
when
the Spirit fell from above onto the gathered disciples,
bringing
them spiritual gifts.
The one who ascends is Jesus the new
Moses,
and
he descends back to his people
in
all the corners of the earth
by
the power of his Spirit,
bringing
gifts for them,
to
teach them how to live as his people and as his disciples.
The rather radical implication of this
is
that the gifts of the Spirit have replaced and supplanted the law of Moses
and
all that was built on it.
Even the ten commandments themselves
cease
to be binding for those who receive the Spirit of Christ,
because
the Christ-given guide to moral and ethical behaviour
is
no longer words carved on tablets of stone,
but
the living word of Jesus
carved
in their hearts and minds and souls by the Spirit of Christ
who
comes bringing gifts.
I always get a bit worried when I hear
people speaking of the Bible
as
if it is a guidebook to Christian living,
a
kind of Christian version of the Jewish law.
That’s not it at all – the scriptures
bear testimony to Christ,
who
comes to us by his Spirit, bringing gifts for faithful living.
Elsewhere in the New Testament are
various lists of gifts that the Spirit brings,
and
some of those lists have led to no small amount of disagreement
between
the followers of Jesus.
Which is a travesty and a tragedy
really,
because
Ephesians makes it clear
that
the purpose of the gifts of the Spirit
is
to enable the followers of Christ to live Christ-like lives,
in
unity and peace, and in maturity of faith and knowledge.
The fact that this so often doesn’t
happen
is
taken as an indication of immaturity on the part of believers,
and in verses 14-16, the writer of
Ephesians effectively tells his readers
to
grow up, stop being babies,
and
to act their age not their shoe size!
I paraphrase, you understand, but not
much!
But the point is clear.
Just
as a child must grow to become an adult,
leaving
childish temper tantrums and juvenile behaviour behind,
so
those who are born again by the Spirit of Christ
must
grow into peace and stability
if
they are to learn to live by the law of the Spirit that brings life,
rather
than forever hankering back
after
the law of stone that leads to death.
And so we get to Ephesians’ own list of
the gifts of the Spirit,
and
what we meet is a list of ministry gifts:
Apostles,
prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers.
Some have sought to make this a
proscriptive description of orders of ministry,
but
that is surely to miss the point.
What we have here are gifts given to
some
for
the building up of the many.
As with all the spiritual gifts, they
are corporate in intent, not personal.
These
are gifts given for the growth into maturity
of
the whole body of Christ,
which
is nourished as it shares the holy food of bread and wine,
and
shepherded into maturity and unity
by
the gifts that come from above.
This, then, is the point of the church.
It is that ‘all of us come to the unity
of faith,
and
of the knowledge of the son of God,
to
maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.
This, ultimately, is why we are here.
So, as Ephesians says:
‘I
beg you to lead a life
worthy
of the calling to which you have been called.’
1 comment:
Excellent sermon, Simon. And one to think about as my own church considers its future.
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