Another hurricane? Nate it’s called. Having blown through the Yucatan peninsula causing some damage and death, now menacing off the gulf coast moving toward New Orleans. I know there are those who doubt, who speak of cycles and patterns, but the idea that our lifestyle hasn’t had an impact on the world around us seems harder to deny day by day. By catastrophic event. By the winds that blow with unrelenting power and regularity.
I got an email from my brother today, reporting on a visit to dad to the rest of us. But also letting us know that he won’t be in touch for a while. He’s heading to Redbird Mission in Kentucky with a church group to work for a while, and then from there he is going to Texas to help with the clean up for a week or longer if he can stay, he says. I don’t know his opinion on climate change, I’ve never asked. He might have one. But then he might not. He does, however, see a need and he rolls up his sleeves to help. He doesn’t ask who made the mess, who caused the problem, he just helps clean up.
We’re leap-frogging around our discipleship path (Connect – Grow – Serve – Give – Go) and landing on Serve this week. We did it for reasons. Trust us. But serve. Yeah, kind of a no-brainer really. No one questions whether we ought to serve. Everyone knows that. It goes with the territory. My first inclination was to make this the shortest bible study / sermon ever: Just do it! The Nike approach. Just do it. We’d all nod and say, yeah, we know that. Gotta serve somebody. Even Bob Dylan knows that. “Well it may be the devil or it may be the Lord, / But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.” Thanks Bob, we got it.
At least the concept and on occasion the reality of service. We’ll do it. Sometimes with enthusiasm, sometimes with a sigh and a roll of the eyes. Like our mom told us to clean our room or take out the trash when we’re on level 34 of Destiny 2. “All right, all right, get off my back, will ya?” But we’ll do it. And most of the time we’re better than that, right? Most of the time we see a purpose and even feel good that we are able to help. Which is an extra little bonus, we don’t do it for that. We don’t serve for the high we get from serving. But it is there. Sometimes profoundly so. It’s a bonus, gravy, the cherry on top of the ice cream sundae of service.
So then, why? I mean, really, why do we do it, this service thing. Because we’re told to? Well, yeah, in part. It comes with the territory. It’s part of the package. Just do it. Quit analyzing everything, will ya? Except that’s what we do. Well, I do anyway. I keep asking. I was an early member of generation why. Why serve?
Ephesians 4:11-16 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.
Commentators tell us this is one of the most theologically dense passages of Paul’s writing. As if we needed to be told that. We can read after all. But this is a transition chapter, which makes it even more complex. The first part of the letter to the Ephesians is a theological explanation of what it means to be claimed by Christ. It is a foundational piece designed to give us handles on our faith. The latter part of the letter is about living it out, designed to be practical information about how to live as a follower, or as Paul says at the beginning of chapter four, how to live a life worthy of the call.
So, these verses were designed to help us answer the why question. Why do we do what we do? Why do we serve in Jesus name? And there are basically two answers in these verses. First of all, we’re made that way. There is some debate as to whether this is made from birth or made at our baptism. The Spirit gives gifts, Paul tells us in more than one place. Do we always have them and sometimes use them and sometimes not and only really understand when we are gathered into the Christian faith and told about spiritual gifts? Or do we receive something when we say yes to Jesus, when we claim the faith are we gifted with inclination and abilities that are then shaped by living in community and following our Lord? Is it something latent in us, or a new gifting? And the answer is ... yes! Or, I dunno, maybe both, maybe one. It doesn’t matter. It’s just a given that you are gifted by the Spirit for something. And Paul wants to help you find out what it is.
One way to look at the list in this passage is to identify various offices of the church. This is the traditional understanding of what Paul was trying to do, set up a structure, even a hierarchy to those who would have leadership in the church. And this theory says that the power and authority starts at the beginning with Apostles and works it way down to the pastors and teachers who were the lowest on the totem pole. And maybe that is how it did work out in practice. But it isn’t the only way to read these words.
It could be instead that Paul was talking about inclinations, about attributes that church needed in order to fulfill the mission of going into all the world to make disciples. Offices and organization, yes, certainly. But maybe more importantly these were the types of servants that the church needed. An apostle is one who is sent, someone willing to go where the need is greatest, to meet folks where they are instead of always asking them to come to us. An apostle carries the message of hope with them, the credential of the church to establish a new outpost, a new beachhead on the campaign to spread the good news. An apostle will go.
A prophet can see the big picture. Can discern truth in difficult situations. And can tell us the consequences of our actions. It isn’t about telling the future, except like your mom used to. She would say “you keep doing that, here’s what going to happen!” That’s a prophet. A prophet loves you enough to tell you the truth. That’s what the Spirit has gifted some to do, says Paul, there are those who will tell the truth, even when it is hard, even when it doesn’t make friends, even when it isn’t what anyone wants to hear. Truth-tellers are hard to come by these days. When this news doesn’t fit our news we cry fake news, when it just might be the truth. A prophet will tell you the truth.
Some are called to be evangelists. I’m sorry. Sorry for them. Sorry that we’ve so polluted that word that it isn’t even useful any more. That climate has changed for sure, and it is definitely a result of our actions. An evangelist is one who wants you to know the good news. What’s you to know the hope that is within you. The forgiveness that is offered you. Wants you to know that the brokenness you’ve gotten used to because you’re being told that just is the way it is, isn’t all there is to life. To your life or the life of the world. An evangelist is an angel. Really. It’s a Greek word eu-aggelion. Eu is a positive prefix. It means good. Ooooh! That’s good! Aggelion - pronounced angelion, means message or messenger. An angel is a messenger of God, they don’t speak for themselves but for the One who sends them. They don’t come to condemn, but to redeem. To give hope. To lift up. We all need more angels in our life. An evangelist brings good news.
A pastor is one who cares for us, as broken as we are, is more concerned about our wounds than our theology, more concerned about our scars than our doctrine. A pastor meets us where we are and loves us. And a teacher then helps us become more than we are. That’s why these two work together. Pastors and teachers are listed together because it is a tag team. We need more than just soothed, we need healed and made stronger. We need more than just the surgeon, we need the therapist who will help us walk again. We need pastors and teachers who care and lead.
That’s one, one reason for service, because we are made to do these things. But the other is to build up the body. Not the individual body, but the body of the church, build up the family, create community. Our service may seem small and specific, but in fact all service in the name of Jesus is bigger than we can see. It ripples, it transforms, it welcomes and invited. When you help another, I am made stronger, when I serve in Jesus name you are built up, even if you aren’t there. We are build up, made more mature by service, what we do and what we receive. We are equipped with withstand the winds that blow, to endure the disappointments and deceptions. We are made stronger, more whole. And being stronger we can serve more. Just do it. You need it. We need it. Thanks bro.
Shalom,
Derek
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