(5 January 2003)

The Church: Completing God's Project

EPHESIANS 3:1-12

Some of the most daunting words for Christians are 'divine plan" or "divine purpose". I had a member of one church continually ask me how he could really know God's will and how could he determine that what he was doing was according to God's purpose. He was a sincere, dedicated man, one who had returned to the church after struggling with his own identity and with various addictions. He sincerely agonized over knowing what God now wanted from his life, and desperately sought to understand the direction God desired his life to take.

I, in turn, struggled with Richard's incessant and insistent questions. I wanted to help him to hear and to know God's voice and to claim it for his life, yet I also struggled to find ways to transfer how I knew God into ways he could know God for himself.

I cannot today tell you that I have one set answer that will work for all of us. I have learned, though, some things about God's purpose for our lives. I do understand that committing my life to Christ means the beginning of a project, a project that will never be completed by me, but rather I participate in the project, preparing my life for God's completion. I do understand that I have certain responsibilities in this project, ones that demand my full attention, devotion, and action. I also realize that I am not simply an individual project of God's, like an inventor's invention, a scientist's research, or a graduate student's dissertation. Rather, I belong to God and am only one of all of God's children who inhabit this earth. My responsibilities are not only, then, to myself, but they also lie in my communion with God's people.

God's plan, then, is first of all to find us a united people. Paul reminds the Ephesians and us today that we are all "fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel" (3:6). An image that comes to my mind is from the early commercials for Reese's peanut butter cups, where one person would be eating a chocolate bar and another would be eating out of a jar of peanut butter. Inevitably, one of these people would trip and fall, and the chocolate bar would stick in the peanut butter jar, thus convincing us that instead of choosing one of these foods over the other, they really should be eaten together-and we have enjoyed their union ever since.

In Paul's world, the mixing of Jew and Gentile was unprecedented-a miracle. These two disparate groups, one often persecuting the other, found themselves united in living out a new faith, one based in Jesus Christ. Yet, the mystery of the power of God is revealed in bringing together these two entities to form a way to God that is unique among all others. 

It probably would have astounded any Old Testament prophet were he told that there would one day be a special bequest of grace in which the Jew and Gentile would be fellow-heirs, and of the same body and partakers together of the promises of God. And yet, this is the mystery of which Paul speaks. Certainly Abraham, who believed God, knew that in his seed all families of the earth would receive the blessing of the promise. But, what he and the rest of the Old Testament saints did not know was that God purposed and planned to create this new person out of Jew and Gentile, thus constituting them one body, the Gentile being co-equal with the Jew in every respect. The distinctive feature of the gospel in this bequest of grace is found in the words of the angel of the Lord, who announced to the shepherds: "Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people" (Luke 2:10). Gentiles as well as Jews are to receive this good news. The mystery is not that the Gentiles should be saved, although the Jews might well have been mystified. Rather, it is that in the creation of a new entity, Gentiles and Jews would share equally in the good news.

In our day, bitter divisions still remain, with their resulting hatred, prejudice, and bloodshed. Yet, God's project of unity remains our responsibility, as, Christians in our world, we must seek to find ways to bring peace between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, between Israelis and Palestinians, between warring tribes throughout the continent of Africa, between gangs in New York City and Los Angeles, and between blacks and whites throughout our nation. 

God's call to each of us may not be one to make such unities a reality; perhaps other social and political entities are better suited for such work, but I am convinced that it is our responsibility as Christians, each one of us individually, and each church corporately, to help build a foundation based on the ethics of love, compassion, and community responsibility, so that unity and peace among the most diverse groups in our world might one day, in succeeding generations, become a reality.

For instance, Martin Luther King, Jr. and leaders of the Civil Rights movement in our country held meetings in churches, where they gathered their base of power and educated people to their rights and privileges as Americans. Yet, they knew that legislation and political action would be needed for substantive and permanent change. The realm of God is ethical change; the realm of humanity is following God's will to make meaningful social change.
In our world today, where we find ourselves surrounded by and threatened by war and violent revolution, we must seek the most peaceful and Christian resolutions to our differences. Indeed, injustice abounds and evil is rampant. Yet the love and grace of God far surpasses all of these inferior powers. We are not revolutionary by taking lives; we are revolutionary by changing lives.

God's plan is nothing short of a revolution among humankind. If we are making positive changes in our own lives and in the lives of others, then we must be following God's will. Such revolution involves action on our part, Christian actions for a Christian revolution. First of all, we must confess. Our confession must be Christ above all. As Paul writes, every knee must bow and every tongue must confess that Jesus Christ is our Lord.

We must also confess our need for Christ. We cannot change the world or ourselves on our own. We must recognize our need for the power of God for positive change, and we must accept God' help and guidance.

Revolution also requires conviction-dedication to Christ as his true disciples. We must be convinced of God's love for us, shown through Christ: God so loved the world that God sent Jesus to be among us. This is the beginning of our celebration of epiphany-the light of world came to dwell among us; and now the light of world must continue to dwell in us and among us if we are to make a difference in our world today. We must point ourselves and others to Christ. Paul himself may not have been fully aware of the cosmic significance of his actions; he was too busy pointing away from himself to Christ.

Finally, God's project is characterized by grace. Paul writes: "of the gospel I have become a servant according to the gift of God's grace that was given to me by the working of his power" (Eph. 3:7). The greatness of his task and the sublimity of the trust must have humbled Paul. His divinely given ministry he calls the gift of the grace of God. He marveled that God would choose him and make him a messenger of so deep a mystery. That such a persecutor and blasphemer as Paul was entrusted with so lofty a mission is a clear demonstration of divine grace.

It is to the Ephesians from his jail cell that Paul wrote his words expressing his humble servanthood to the One who revealed Christ to him and revealed his mission in this world. It is also to the Ephesians that Paul imparted his wisdom that Christ 'is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one…He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it" (Eph. 2:14-16).

God's plan is a move from revelation to revolution by the grace of God. It is a knowledge that leads to faith that leads to transformation. It is a journey, a process that never is an end unto itself, but always a path to union with Christ. We know we are doing God's will and working on God's project when we are an active part of a revolution of grace.

Our unity is witnessed most profoundly each time we gather around our Lord's table. It is here that we understand God's project. God binds us together in one communion across the boundaries of race, creed, culture, language, and nationality. This unity does not depend on whether Christians who gather like each other or agree with each other. Our unity is rooted in one God-Creator, Christ, and Holy Spirit-the one who communicates a healing, reconciling love for the church and the world.

This peace, this unity, this transformation, and this grace are found in the Christ whom we meet at this table and in each other at this table. At this table we experience the presence of the living, risen Christ; his love and power are revealed to us once again. Here we are renewed and find the power to overcome our divisions, the power to transform our sinfulness to faithfulness in the cross and the resurrection. At this table we discover anew that Christ's sacrificial love makes all Christians one body, giving new hope to the church and reviving each member.

God's project is awaiting the next steps toward its ultimate completion. We must willingly and unwaveringly step forward to accept the challenge laid before us by Paul and seize each opportunity to move from revelation to revolution. God uses a Jewish man who persecuted Christians; God uses a recovering addict; and God can use each of us, sinners all, to create a revolution of grace in our world. Thanks be to God for this power, this privilege, and this divine project. Amen.


Go to the list of sermons
Go to the First Baptist Homepage