In 1978, I returned from a life-changing missionary trip in Milot, Haiti a changed person. Not only had I lost 65 pounds but, more importantly, I committed my life to some sort of full time Christian service. But having worshipped in grass hut squalor among the poorest of the poor, I had a hard time returning to the wealthy American church. Robert Schuller was building his wildly expensive Crystal Cathedral in California, megachurches and televangelists with weird hair were talking an awful lot about money and carpet colors. I got mad and I stayed mad. I carried an angry prophet’s perspective about the church and American Christians along with me into my freshman year of college. I grew my hair out and prided myself on my unique ability to wisely distinguish real Christians from all the simply religious people in the “established church.” I wrote off an awful lot of people until I made my Dr. Walter Wessel mistake. I won’t repeat the story yet again this morning; just suffice it to say I was wildly surprised to discover a profoundly tender spiritual heart beating in a man I previously considered dead. I was dead wrong about a dear brother! Utterly and completely wrong! In my efforts to judge, critique and separate myself from all the terrible flaws of the “established church” around me, I almost missed a glorious opportunity to meet someone who even now redirects and refocuses my life.
A few weeks ago, I was discussing a critique of the American church with some Elim friends. As always, the author raised many perfectly valid concerns. But for some reason, the article rubbed me the wrong way – the straw broke this camel’s back. I have been reading critical arguments like his for thirty years. I have been struggling with harsh attitudes about the church since I was a teenager; acutely so since becoming a pastor. But suddenly, completely out of the blue, it occurred to me I have shelf after shelf after shelf after shelf of books in my library with arguments just exactly like the tired ones raised in the article, many of them almost childishly vicious, unfair and superficial in their critique of the church. But I can’t think of one book in my entire library saying the opposite. Can you? I can’t think of one book written in the last thirty years that walks through the church in this country and “thinks on good things.”
Why is that? Some say it is because the church is stuffed full of hypocrites and failure…
Okay, but we are all, by doctrine, hypocrites and failures. Even the very best among us are still only stumbling toward glory. When the Apostle Paul admitted in Philippians 3:12 that he has not yet attained Christlikeness or been made perfect, when he talked about his struggles against the flesh in Romans, he made utterly clear we are all still in process. None of us has as yet completely found what we’re looking for. We all still see through a glass darkly. We all still stumble. We are still stuck in childbirth. So if you want to dwell on failure and bad moments, have at it! Trust me - you will never lack for anger and disappointment. Criticism is easy.
But we’re supposed to be a people who think on good things. We’re supposed to be a people who see value in the lost coins, sheep and prodigals of the world. We’re supposed to be miraculously able to love even the most unlovable, even the elder brothers and Pharisees like Nicodemus coming to us in the night. These are the ones to whom we offer no condemnation.
Later on in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul was glorying in his new life and our wonderful oneness in Christ and, in chapter 3 of the book of Ephesians (page 1068), he said:
For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles--surely you have heard about the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you, that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets. This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.
I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace given me through the working of his power. Although I am less than the least of all God's people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence. I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory.
For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
It is the easiest thing in the world to see what is wrong with Christians. Any idiot can do that, especially since we’re constantly putting bullets in the enemy guns! That stuff is easy! No – we need to do the harder job. We must find and focus on the good. And we need the help of the Holy Spirit to do that – to see and fully understand the mysterious and utterly good glory of the church. We need to kneel before the Father and pray for eyes to clearly see His glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all the generations, for ever and ever. Amen.
It is my prayer this morning, as we’ve gathered as a community around His table, that the Spirit would help us more deeply understand four distinct mysteries related to the church.
The Mystery of The Body
The first mystery, according to the first six verses, is the body of Christ itself. May God help us understand what it means that we have been joined together as a body! LORD, what does it mean that we are being joined together as heirs? What does it mean that we are “members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus?”
According to 1 Corinthians 12 and other places, it means we are not just some random circle of like-minded friends. We are a body. And as a body, we may think our eyes, nose or toes ugly and unpresentable, but at some point, we must learn to love and accept people for whatever they are. There is only so much brutal amputation, rearrangement and cosmetic surgery a body can stand before the end result begins to look off, odd and abnormal. Don’t you think? Don’t you think the church has spent an awful lot of time, over the last thirty years especially, trying to do cosmetic surgery on itself, brutally cutting itself up, instead of learning to appreciate the parts of the body for whatever they are, for better or worse? I think so.This body of Christ thing is a mystery we need God’s constant help to fully appreciate.
The Mystery of Our Calling
The second mystery Paul mentions here is the mystery of his own calling. Although I am less than the least of all God's people…grace was given me. Although I am the chief of sinners, God has loved, accepted and called me to preach His unsearchable riches and to make plain the mysteries of His plans for the planet. LORD, help me understand how I might find your strength in my weakness. Help me fulfill your plans for me in spite of my unworthiness.
Unlike other organizations, the church mysteriously advances only to the degree we fully understand our own weakness, not simply their strengths. God is not glorified through my life until I fully and joyously appreciate my own weakness and begin to move in the grace and power I have received from God. Almighty God is glorified when stuff happens through us that is obviously God’s doing. We’re not gathered here as a body because we’ve arrived at some stellar point of perfection. We’re gathered here as a body because we’ve arrived at a common point of need. We’re gathered because we’ve experienced and been called by a common grace.
So don’t expect me or anyone else here to be perfect. God’s gracious calling on my life is a mystery I myself don’t completely understand. May God help us understand this mystery!
The Mystery of God’s Intent
The third mystery we need help understanding is a mind-blower and the centerpiece of our study today. In verse 10, Paul says: “His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Wait a minute, Paul. Do you mean to say Almighty God intends to use this messed up, goofy looking body and all these stumbling, bumbling saints to make known your wisdom to the universe??
Yup! That’s pretty much it exactly.
Well, this is a stunning mystery! And the brutal question left hanging in the air by this particular church mystery is that either Almighty God has failed in his intentions and the church is not manifesting his wisdom in the world or, as I’m beginning to suspect, God is succeeding gloriously in his intentions and I’m so busy looking for failure, I’m just not noticing his glorious handiwork. Do you think that’s possible? Might it be possible that the manifold wisdom of Almighty God is gloriously on display in the church all around us and we’re so obsessed with fault-finding, blame games and petty cosmetic issues in the body, we just aren’t seeing it?
I think that is precisely what is happening. Just think about it for a moment…
There was a church here in the Twin Cities area years ago in the midst of a building program that discovered another church needier than their own. So they took a huge chunk of their already scarce building funds and gave them away! Huh? What is that nonsense?
Two weeks ago, over 40 Christians showed up at Loaves and Fishes on Christmas Day to help feed dinner to some homeless and poor people in North Minneapolis. And we didn’t have any big, hard sell recruitment campaign here to get them to do so. Why would they do that? And did you know the Loaves and Fishes ministry has been feeding people over there five days a week for over 30 years? Their current director has been there over 14 years. Why?
Somebody here at Elim decided she really didn’t need any Christmas gifts at all this year and so she insisted her family and friends instead give her hats, mittens and other stuff to donate to our Hope Avenue clothes closet. Isn’t that great? What motivated her to do that?
My younger sister and family took a year of their lives, a huge amount of money and went to Cameroon to serve as medical missionaries in a needy area. My older sister helped to partially bankroll the whole deal and then took time off from her busy pathology practice, went over to Cameroon herself and provided free lab training and services for a while. Why?
Last year around this time, a friend of Pastor Becky’s in another church preached a sermon mentioning our Hope Avenue homeless ministry here at Elim and challenged their congregation to donate the shoes they wore to church that day. The congregation responded beautifully and I’ll bet we’re still giving away shoes from that donation! Remember that?
How many hospitals, prestigious academic institutions and social service agencies in the entire world have Christians and Christian principles somewhere in their foundational story and design? How many helping, socially sensitive, wildly important sheltering ministries exist right here in Minneapolis run almost exclusively by Christians of one sort or another?
My friend Tony Weedor, against staggering difficulties and disappointments, has worked for years to see Liberia’s church have a place to learn and grower closer together. Why?
My friend Jesus Flores, who called as I was writing these very words this week, is now dodging bullets in Juarez, Mexico trying to build a church and make a difference. In a city with the highest murder rate in the world this year, a city with an average of seven murders a day, he wants to know who will help. Jobs are impossible to come by when the drug lords battle.
My friends Todd and Karen Indehar, gave up their home and security in Ely and moved their family to Bangkok, Thailand to care for sex trade workers, the working poor and all sorts of broken people living in truly unspeakable conditions. Why would they do that?
My friends Randy and Donna Weets have given their lives to the people of Panama – at one point their home in Colon was burglarized 20 times in just one year! Eventually, it became almost liberating for them! But they care about the people of Panama and so they continue to serve year after year; their sons are now preparing for ministries of their own. And countless Christian churches all across this country, across all denominational lines, are giving sacrificially so all sorts of useful, Christian missionaries like these can continue to do all they do.
I can look out across just this one congregation, this oasis body we call Elim Church, this very imperfect group of people, and I can attach ministry work of one sort or another to a huge percentage of you. While we are a relatively small group of people, while we have a relatively small amount of money and resources, our neighborhood is different because we’re here.
Almighty God’s intent was that now, through this church, through struggling, stumbling, imperfect people somehow grounded and motivated by Christian concern, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known in the world. This was and is God’s mysterious intent.
And it is happening. It is happening constantly all around the world. The stories I tell here today are only the stories I know about. Wherever Christians are, wherever the church is, the glorious wisdom and ways of God Almighty are being revealed to the world. We can pay attention to all this beautiful stuff, we can rejoice in all this, we can participate in all this or we can ignore all this and continue to write yet more utterly obvious books about our failures.
May God give us eyes to see his wisdom and ways being revealed all around us! May God help us see and rejoice in his mysterious intentions for the church gloriously fulfilled!
The Mystery of God’s Glory
But I wonder if the fourth and final mystery section of this Ephesian passage isn’t the most important. Look at the last section of the passage, the Apostle’s prayer for us beginning in verse 14. What is Paul praying? He is praying we would more fully understand the great mystery of God’s glory. He is praying we would see and fully experience the fullness of God – that we “together with all the saints, [we as the stumbling, bumbling body of Christ – we as the church] might grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” May we fully understand the impossible depth and gracious mystery of God’s glory!
Do you suppose it is possible there is so much nay-saying, judgment, superficiality and harsh criticism of the body of Christ simply because people spend too much time evaluating the body, instead of focusing on the Head? We look at flawed people instead of looking at the fullness of our Savior? How might our perspectives on things be different if we stopped unfairly looking for human perfection and instead started intently focusing on God’s perfection?
When I was in the Army, there was a military cadence we used to sing as we ran along or marched together in formation. I don’t remember all of it, but there was one line that sure seems relevant here. In an effort to keep our heads up, our breathing right and properly facing forward at all times, we all used to sing very loudly to each other, “Ain’t no use in lookin’ down, ain’t no discharge on the ground!” There is something very profound in that, isn’t there?
Don’t get me wrong. There is certainly value in looking down occasionally as we walk along. We certainly don’t want to stumble and fall over obstacles. Of course we need to be constantly aware of things. But at the end of the day, looking down isn’t where the discharge is, is it? That isn’t where our freedom is. Looking down doesn’t help us breathe well, run fast or fight properly. That isn’t ever where the best view of the action and the battlefield really is. And that certainly isn’t where our Commander is, is it? What might we be missing because our eyes are constantly, almost obsessively, looking down instead of looking up? I wonder.
May God help us understand the profound mystery of this body; what it means that we are all stuffed together in this thing. May God help us understand the gracious mystery of our calling; exactly how our weakness more fully displays his glory. May God help us see the great mystery of his manifest wisdom revealed through the church; may we see and rejoice in what he is obviously revealing through the church to the heavens. But more than anything else, may God help us delve deeply into the most profound and wonderful mystery of all – God himself.
May God raise our eyes, may God raise my eyes, ever heavenward! Big picture people!
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!
Amen.
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