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