Letting Go to Serve – Ephesians 4:1-16

A text – Ephesians 4:1-16

4:1 I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called,
4:2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,
4:3 making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
4:4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling,
4:5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
4:6 one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.
4:7 But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
4:8 Therefore it is said, “When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive; he gave gifts to his people.”
4:9 (When it says, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth?
4:10 He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.)
4:11 The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers,
4:12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
4:13 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.
4:14 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.
4:15 But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
4:16 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.

A reflection:

This passage of the Letter to the Ephesians is pretty well-known by most church folk. It is a call to use our many different gifts in unity, building up the body of Christ, and it makes some predictions that that unity will mature us into the full stature of Christ.

I think we know that in Jesus’s day the Jewish faith was not unified, and that the various subgroups and sects fought amongst each other about Jesus and his ministry. The only thing they agreed about was that he should be stopped. The Christian church today is also not unified. It is heartbreaking to see the suffering that results from deep disagreements over theology and policy and even worse to see the suffering that results from power struggles within congregations. Unity would be a good thing if it stopped this suffering in the church and built it up instead. But unity is also a gift that helps us do the mission God has given us. It isn’t unity just for ourselves but so that we might live in service to others. 

The crowds in this week’s gospel text want a lot – feeding, works, miracles, proof – and for what? That each person might be confirmed in his or her faith? Yes, but for what? So that those confirmed in faith might love and serve the neighbor. Which in itself brings a kind of unity – the unity that comes from admitting that we are all dependent on God’s gifts, that we are all God’s children with a mission to do. Maturing into unity and the full stature of Christ isn’t some upward movement into perfection. It’s letting go of what separates us so that we can love and serve God and the neighbor. Unity doesn’t dissolve away differences. Unity makes us into something more able to follow God’s calling. We need one another, just as we need God, the giver of the gifts in the first place.

A prayer:

God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for giving us a job to do in the world you made. Help us to remember our place in it and strive to set aside what separates us from our neighbor so that we may serve one another and so do your work.  Amen.