Continue

This past Sunday we wrapped up The Rumor series. We hope that our take of the gospel through Paul’s Ephesian letter has been of help to you. We close the series with a consideration of how we might let these ideas live forward. And that is the key, isn’t it? The talk on Sunday was entitled “Continue”, and it was based on Ephesians 6.

At the heart of Paul’s closing statements are these words:

Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armour of God’s righteousness. For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News... hold up the shield of faith... put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (v. 14-17)

Paul creates a visual image that can be of real use for us. But before we consider its meaning, we should simply remind ourselves that the gospel is not an end point but a beginning, a beginning which calls us to become more than we are. The gospel is a call to grow up (Eph. 4:15), a power in which to realize our possibilities and potential (1:19-20). And, because of Jesus, everything has been put in place for this to happen. To use an agricultural metaphor, the soil is good, there are plenty of nutrients to draw on, there is a sun to reach toward, and deep down moisture to send our roots after. Everything is there for us to grow. To shift the metaphor to an educational one, there is a library of books ready to be read. Or to shift the metaphor once more, there is a place cleared for us to build and all the materials we need to make a beautiful house. Whatever your favourite metaphor, the gospel “has provided all we need for life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3).

But the metaphor Paul actually does choose is a military one. Unlike other worthy metaphors, the image of the armour recognizes that this life we are given is a life that meets opposition, even hostility. The image of the armour recognizes that this life we are given needs to be protected.

Paul’s Ephesian letter was written from prison. Some imagine Paul sitting in his jail, meditating on the spiritual life, and looking at the guard attending him; he thinks about how all the pieces of armour fit together, what their function is, and how appropriate armour is to the preservation of spiritual life.

So we could take Paul’s image this way: there are crucial and life-vital aspects of our being that we must protect. Among these are the protection of connecting to the really real (belt of truth), the protection of personal integrity (breastplate of righteousness), the protection of peaceful intention (shoes of gospel peace), the protection of believing in what we cannot see (shield of faith), the protection of a mind focused on God’s purposes (helmet of salvation), and the only weapon we have, the gift of words and ideas that originate in God himself (sword of truth). Such is the armour that allows us to continue.

Although I believe that the New Testament ethic is thoroughly non-violent, the realism of Biblical faith does not view spiritual life as an achievement without struggle. We should not be naive about this. So Paul tells us that truth, faith, peaceful intention, personal integrity, and worthy words, are ways we protect the life that is given to us. And although this life is robust – very robust – we understand that this gospel life we are given is to be protected as we move towards the completion of our spiritual journey.

This coming Sunday we begin our journey towards Christmas. Join us at 9:29 or 11:11 if you can; or tune into the podcast through the week.

Bob Osborne

Re-Order

Last Sunday our talk at Westside was entitled “Re-order”, the fifth installment in “The Rumour” series. So far we have heard the whisper of significance (Eph 1), seen a glimpse of how the good news of Jesus might translate into a different world (Eph 2), heard the invitation to personally touch what is beyond us (Eph 3), and were encouraged to decide on a way to meaningfully connect to all of this (Eph 4).

Where to next? In an extended passage from Ephesians 4:17 through 6:9, Paul begins to work out (or walk out) the implications of the Jesus story for our ethical and social lives, that is, the implications of the Jesus story for how we live, what we do, how we relate, and the rest of our practical lives.

One of the ways we could think about how Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is constructed is to see it as theology, followed by ethics, or as the big ideas followed by the practical ideas. It is important for us to see how big ideas and practical ideas are intimately related to each other, and how practice is always built on theory. Get the first part wrong (the theory or theology) and you will surely get the second part wrong (the practice or ethic). Paul uses the common image of walking for the ethical life. As we heard this past week, walking suggests that ethical life is not life built in one large or defining moment, but life built through many small and ordinary steps.

Most of us would know ethics as the consideration of right behaviour. They are the large and obvious ethical markers: speaking truthfully (not lying, 4:25), working and not stealing (4:28), sexual propriety (5:3ff). But there are also the smaller, less obvious ethical markers that can carry a very large impact. I would like us to consider the ethics of how we talk.

Consider how important language is to our ethical lives. A quick survey of this passage will show how words are basic to the well-lived life. “Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what helps, each word a gift.” (4:29) “Though some tongues just love the taste of gossip, those who follow Jesus have better uses for language than that. Don't talk dirty or silly. That kind of talk doesn't fit our style. Thanksgiving is our dialect.” ( 5:4) Paul continually engages the idea of ethical speech in all of his writings.

Find this difficult? Then bring these two things together: talking and breathing. In 5:18, Paul tells us to resist the degraded life by being filled up with the Spirit, that is, with God himself. We are to breathe in God’s breath (Spirit) so that we can speak out grace (v.19). We have no power to speak gracious words if our lungs are not filled with the power of grace, with God himself.

This is a strong reminder that the ethical life is rooted in and expressed through our ordinary talk. And the life of following Jesus will be evidenced in the transformation of how we conduct ourselves in the most ordinary of human ways, our conversation.

Writing to the Colossian Christians, Paul makes a statement that sums up this point well. He says, “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt...” (Col 4:6). The word translated “conversation” is logos, which carries rich meaning beyond the idea of simple speech. An educated or aware person in that time would have recognized that logos, commonly understood as “word”, also meant the organizing principle of things, the core logic of life and reality. It seems that the ancients had a greater appreciation for how ethics were related to speech than we do.

So try it this week: monitor your words. And realize that the Spirit of God in us is to be exhaled in gracious and meaningful speech, the center of our ethical life.

This coming Sunday we complete The Rumour series with “Continue”, our take on Ephesians 6. Join us at 9:29 or 11:11 if you can; or tune into the podcast through the week.

Bob-O

Decide

Last Sunday our talk at Westside was entitled “Decide”, the fourth instalment in “The Rumour” series. Let’s remind ourselves where we have been: Ephesians 1 showed us that our significance begins in God’s good purposes for us (“Whisper”), while Ephesians 2 showed how this purpose took root in the historical events of Jesus and his church (“Glimpse”). Then, in Ephesians 3, we considered the invitation to personally experience all of this (“Touch”).

Now, in Ephesians 4, we are called to move past personal experience and to decide on a way of life that meaningfully connects to the story we are part of. There are three words I would like to highlight: walk, one, mature.

First, what it means to “walk”. Paul begins the second half of this letter by encouraging his listeners to “walk worthy” (4:1). In other words, this is a moment to decide. We could paraphrase Paul this way: don’t live disconnected from the largest of realities (God and purpose), but walk out your life as if you are connected to what is really going on.

A very large value of Westside King’s Church is the desire to push past the cliché assumptions that usually prescribe Christian faith, and to try and hear this good news again, as if for the first time. We try to do this because we admit that a cultural-experiential gap exists from 2000 years of institutional Christianity. We try to do this because we want to recast Christianity as a way of life, a “walk”. To call Jesus “the way” (as he did of himself), is to mean that he is – among other things – the model of the connected life. Paul is reminding us of this.

Second, the idea of “one”. While it is obviously true that this Jesus-way-of-life has many faces, many ways it dresses itself up, many perspectives, instead of accentuating the differences, Paul wants to remind us that we are defined by the perspective of “one”. Some have called this the “logic of monotheism”, that if there is only one God, than all of the human searching and striving can only be directed to one possible resolution. Paul says it this way: “There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father, who is over all and in all and living through all.” (v.5-6) Again, will simply have to decide what this one represents: does it represent the narrowest slice of Christian faith (those people who think just like me), or does it represent the largest of groupings possible (all those who orient themselves towards Jesus and put their trust in him)? The best answer is the later.

And finally, what it means to “mature”. A common Biblical motif is the idea that serving is important to the process of maturation. We become by being served (to be sure) but we become more by serving others. In this one faith we belong to, the process of maturation requires us to notice the obvious differences we have, but the obvious ways we compliment each other as well. Consider how it is you can make a difference for others, and how it is that others make a difference to you. Then move forward, believing that God is working all this out. Decide to be part of the largest reality there can be. Live connected to it.

This coming Sunday our talk will be called “Re-order”, our take on Ephesians 5. Join us at 9:29 or 11:11 if you can; or tune into the podcast through the week.

Bob-O

Touch

Last Sunday our talk at Westside was entitled “Touch”, the third instalment in “The Rumour” series. What began in the eternal mind of God (Ephesians 1, “Whisper”), took root in the historical and tangible events of Jesus and his church (Ephesians 3, “Glimpse”), is now open for us to enter as our way of life and experience (“Touch”). To touch something is to personally experience it for oneself. Let’s consider how Ephesians 3 invites us to do that.

Paul is actually beginning to pray in v. 1, when he decides that he needs to fill in a few more details for his readers. In other words, vs. 2-13 is actually a digression. And, as most of us have come to experience, digressions can be wonderfully illuminating. And so, before Paul prays, he wants his audience to know what they are praying for, and with what hope they can pray.

Paul points out that the gospel has brought together that which was formerly separated, that there is a healing in the world begun through Jesus. Now, says Paul, two groups of people hopelessly at odds with each other – Jews and Gentiles – are now “heirs together”, “members together”, and “sharers together”. And this is a sign that the whole of the cosmos has begun to heal. The first place this takes root is within the community of Jesus (however imperfect). It is Paul’s calling to make this message plain to everyone (v.9), with the hope that as they gain understanding they will also move closer to God.

I sometimes think that greatest enemy of prayer is the smallness of our understanding. Or, to put it differently, when we know little we pray little. One way to understand prayer is that it is our reflex response to a greater understanding of God. So, what could happen if we were given more insight into the mystery of life? What if we got an inside peak on God’s plans? Would we be inspired to pray? That is what this text is seeking to do.

In v. 14, then, Paul actually does get to his prayer. And what is the prayer about? Simply that each one would know for themselves this faith and hope, that each one would touch it for themselves. He says, “I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord's people, 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.” (Eph 3:17c-19)

Here is an idea: for the next few days, try carrying this prayer with you and rehearsing quietly in the different places you find yourself. See if you are able to touch something that you never touched before. See if this prayer doesn’t bring you further into this wonderful mystery that is “Christ for us”.

This Sunday our talk will be called “Decide”, our take on Ephesians 4. Join us at 9:29 or 11:11 if you can; or tune into the podcast through the week.

Bob-O