Several years ago, well before the
demise of the former Soviet Union, you may have watched a television miniseries
called Amerika (spelled with a "K"). It told the story of life in the
United States after the nation had been taken over by the Soviets. We were
never told how it happened; we just know it happened.
Some of the characters in Amerika
were uncertain about what it means to be an American. One of the younger
characters said, "I'm an American but I really don't know what that means.
"
In my imagination I can hear some
in our churches saying, "I'm a Christian but I really don't know what that
means.”
Here’s the deal, through Christ a gracious God
has created one new people. This new
identity is so significant that some of the old markers of identity no longer
mean anything: “All distinctions between Jew and Greek, slave and freeman, male
and female, have vanished—for in union with Christ you are all one.” (Gal.
3:28) That much we know. But what are these new people like? How are we to
imagine them? What images best describes them?
Here in Ephesians 2:19-22, Paul
uses three images to help us understand the nature and character of God's new
people, the church. One of Paul's goals
in writing to the Ephesians must have been to help them define their new
identity as it emerged through their relationship to Christ.
Each figure of speech he used
showed both the singularity and the solidarity of Christians within the church.
Baptism says to the world "I
am a Christian." That's wonderful but sometimes we're not really clear
about what that means; our thinking is muddled about who we are.
Since Christ allows us to enjoy new
relationships, new rights, and new spiritual reality we ought to live as new
people in the real world.
To try to clear up any confusion, let's
look at the word-pictures Paul draws:
I
AS A CHRISTIAN,
YOU ARE A CITIZEN OF
GOD'S NEW NATION
Here are two examples of a very
significant document. You may have one;
if you do, you know how important it can be.
They are passports. Your passport identifies you as a citizen of
the nation issuing the document. In our
world, being able to establish your citizenship is increasingly important.
Picking up a theme from earlier in
the chapter, Paul depicts a transition from exclusion to inclusion. They had
been "foreigners and aliens"--that meant they had no civil rights.
Now they possessed full citizenship. Paul tells us that Christians have become
citizens of God's new nation.
What does this mean for us?
You
have the right of petition. (“For through him we both have access to the
Father by one Spirit.”)
Remember how Gentiles were once
forbidden to enter the temple. Now Gentiles who were formerly excluded now have
access to the Father who is a King, to the King who is a Father.
In its noun form, the Greek word prosagoge (translated 'access') refers
to an official in the royal court whose duty was to conduct visitors into the
king's presence. Paul is saying the Holy Spirit brings us into the Father’s
presence. Later in the epistle Paul will
call on Christians to pray. We can pray with confidence because we have the
privilege of access.
You have the right of protection.
In the Roman world citizenship
often carried a degree of protection. In the Book of Acts Paul escaped a
flogging because he was a Roman citizen.
Again, later in the letter Paul
will speak of the spiritual forces arraigned against the Christian. Our identity in Christ gives us protection
from these forces.
You
have the right of participation.
There are no second-class citizens
in the church. The church must be a place of equal rights.
You all share in the blessings of
being part of God's new nation.
Alphonse Legros, an artist of the
last century, was born in France but became a British citizen after taking a
teaching post at University College in London. Another French artist, perhaps
incensed at Legros's decision, asked him what he hoped to gain by his
"defection". Legros responded, "To begin with, I win the battle
of Waterloo!"
Because of your new citizenship you
share the victory Jesus Christ won over the power of death and you will share
in his victory in the final battle with evil.
II
AS A CHRISTIAN YOU
ARE
A MEMBER OF GOD'S NEW
FAMILY
Maybe you’ve seen something like
this on the back window of a car.
It’s a little “stick figure”
family. Sometimes they vary, two boys or
two girls, three children or more; sometimes they even include the dog or the
cat. The driver is celebrating being
part of a family.
"You are a part of God's
family," one translation renders the last phrase of verse 19. We live in a
world that can be cold and lonely. Maybe you’ve seen some of those other signs
on the back windows of cars, signs saying things like “I hate your stick figure
family” or worse. I find it troubling
how someone can be so agitated about another person’s happiness. Maybe it reflects a heart that has no reason
to celebrate family.
(Janet Bernardi, is co-author of A Generation Alone, a book about those
born between 1961 and 1981. She says
that the defining feature of that generation may be summed up in the word
"aloneness". She describes the experience in these terms:
"Aloneness is
being alone and not being able to trust anyone. It carries over from family
life and friendships onto the job. My own job situation is fairly typical. I am
expected to be there, but I am not really needed. This was made clear to me
recently when one of my coworkers, who has about the same training and experience
as I, was replaced by an eighteen-year-old high school graduate-who can be paid
less. Like many people my age, I work at a job where I could be easily
replaced. We know that no one really needs us. We could disappear and nothing
would change.
Aloneness is not
loneliness. While loneliness is a state of emptiness, in aloneness one's life
is full of activities but without the aid of family or friends. It encompasses
a basic distrust of people and a fear of being hurt. Aloneness is largely about
fear.
It stems from
abandonment or neglect and leads to alienation from friends, family and
society. Aloneness separates this generation from every other. "[1]
Against this backdrop the notion of
the new people of God being a family is particularly appealing.
This feeling played out in the day-to-day
lives of the Christians. One of the most
frequently used words to describe Christians is "brothers".
Most churches have members for whom
only family they have ever known is the church.
God's new family is marked by a
sense of community.
We have communion with God. (Romans
8:15 "You received the Spirit of adoption, and by him we cry, 'Abba,
Father."')
We have communion with our brothers
and sisters in Christ.
God's new family is marked by a
spirit of compassion.
The family of God ought to be a
place of understanding and restoration.
The family of God ought to be a
place where those wounded by the world can come for healing and recovery.
III
AS A CHRISTIAN YOU
ARE A STONE IN GOD'S NEW TEMPLE
Here is a brick like the ones used
to build this building. Thousands were used in the building, each one carefully
fitted with others to make the walls surrounding us. Remove one of those bricks
and nothing much might happen--at first--only when the elements began to find
their way into the opening it left would we realize how much that brick
mattered, remove three or four and we would notice the ugly gap in the wall and
the damage would be hastened; remove many more and the integrity of the wall
would be compromised. Each brick is important.
Listen to Paul’s last word-picture
of the new people of God. He says you
are …
…built on the foundation of the apostles and
prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole
building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And
in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives
by his Spirit.
As Paul opens up this analogy he
has some important things to say about the church, the people of God.
The
new temple of God is built with stability.
The stability is there because of
the "foundation". The teachings of the "apostles and
prophets" (as embodied in the Bible) form the foundation of the church.
No building can be stable if it
slips from its foundation. In an age of relativism we are in danger of
forgetting the foundation on which the Christian Faith was built. Christians
may differ about styles of worship, music preference, and even on matters such
as dress, but most Christians have recognized there are certain core beliefs
that the church cannot abandon without losing its identity as a church.
The stability is there because of
the "cornerstone".
Lutheran New Testament scholar R C
H Lenski points out that “the angle of the cornerstone governs all the lines
and other angles of the building, "
Jesus is the Church's cornerstone. It
is crucial for us to understand Who he was and why he came.
Philip Yancey has written a book
called The Jesus I Never Knew that
explores the ministry of Jesus in depth, stressing such matters as Jesus’
Jewishness and his radical approach to the world. Some of the new books on
Jesus could be called The Jesus No One
Ever Knew. With little or no evidence to support them, some writers are portraying
Jesus as a magician, a traveling healer, a political rabble-rouser, as anything
but the incarnate Son of God. Why is it important what we think of Jesus?
Because he is the cornerstone, because he links us with what God is doing in
history.
If we want the new temple of God to
remain stable we had better make sure we are on the right foundation, aligned
with the right cornerstone.
The
new temple of God is built with solidarity. (21-22)
Paul here is speaking of the unity
of Jews and Gentiles, but there is a broader picture of the unity that comes
from our relationship with Christ. Though many "stones" go into
building the temple, there is a fundamental unity.
Every stone has its place. No stone
is unimportant. The purpose of the temple was to be a place where God could be
found. The church is to be a place where God is to be found.
Unlike a temple of granite and
marble, the new temple of God moves into the world, carrying the presence of
God with it. You have a part of bringing God into your world.
The language suggests an ongoing
growth or building. The new temple isn't finished yet.
Christians of every race and nation
are constantly becoming a part of that building,
The new temple of God is marked
by sanctity. (21a, 22)
In Israel there was no more holy
place than the temple because that was the dwelling place of God. The church is
the dwelling place of God. Where God is the Spirit is, His Spirit is in the
Church--his HOLY Spirit.
In some ways the church has lost
sight of its call to holiness. The church is not to withdraw from the world as
if it fears contact. Christians
certainly are not to exhibit a spirit of superiority as it they were better
than their neighbors.
When my wife taught in New Orleans
one of her students learned she was a Baptist.
“I’m a Baptist, too,” the student said.
“Oh,” my wife said, “which church
do you go to?”
The girl said, “I go to the
Sanctified Baptist Church.”
“I’ve not heard of that one,” my
wife said and asked, “How is it different from the other Baptist churches?”
The student casually answered, “I
guess we’re just more sanctified than the others.”
The church ought always to aspire
to holiness but be ever aware she has a long way to go before she has attained
it.
That’s why Christians should be
welcoming to sinners because Christ was welcoming to them. The church is not
the church if it does not welcome sinners; the church is not the church if it
does not model for those sinners a different way of life.
From the earliest centuries the
church has been described as "One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic". We
can't forget to be holy.
CONCLUSION
You don't have to say, I'm a
Christian but I really don't know what that means. In Christ you possess a new
status. I want you to enjoy that new status.
You are a citizen of God's new
nation.
You are a member of God's new
family.
You are a stone in God's new temple.
Do you ever feel like you are on
the outside looking in?
Come in from the powerlessness.
Come in from the loneliness.
Come in from the meaninglessness.
[1] William Mahedy and Janet Bernardi, A Generation Alone:
Xers Making a Place in the World. Downers Grove, Illinois: Inter Varsity Press,
1994. The book uses "Generation X" and "Baby Busters" as
synonymns. Some are beginning to use Generation X as a reference to those born
after 1979. Bernardi does not necessarily view "aloneness" as a
completely bad condition, believing that it might open a door to greater
spiritual depth.
