Christ Within
Ephesians 3:14-21
Rev. Monte Marshall
In the opening lines of the prologue to his book, The Underground Church, United Church of Christ pastor, Robin Meyers, writes: “First the bad news: the church of Jesus Christ in the Western world is in terrible shape. Mainline churches are dying on the vine. Cathedrals in Europe have become museums. A whole generation has written off the church as hypocritical and obsolete. The Catholic Church has been shaken to the core by widespread sexual abuse of children by priests and wounded itself even more deeply by covering up the crimes. Organized religion in our time is reeling from a lack of credibility….Of all the reasons given for the decline of the church in our time, the number one reason is often left unsaid: no one really expects anything important to happen.”
Renowned preacher and author, Barbara Brown Taylor, amplifies Meyers’ observations. She writes: “I do not know why Christians act surprised when we read about our declining numbers in the newspaper. While we argue amongst ourselves about everything from what kind of music we will sing in church to who may marry whom, the next generation walks right past our doors without even looking in. If they are searching at all, they are searching for more than we are offering—for a place where they may sense the presence of God, among people who show some sign of having been changed by that presence…and they are not finding it with us.”
Taylor then illustrates her point by citing a recent interview in Common Boundary magazine with novelist Reynolds Price in which he discusses why he, a devoted Christian, does not go to church. “Part of it, he says, is disillusionment dating from the civil rights era, when the white southern Christian church, he says, ‘behaved about as badly as possible.’ But that is not the only reason.
“’The few times I’ve gone to church in recent years,’ he says, ‘I’m immediately asked if I’ll coach the Little League team or give a talk on Wednesday night or come to the men’s bell-ringing class on Sunday afternoon. Church has become a full-service entertainment facility. It ought to be the place where God lives.’”
As depressing as these observations may be to some of us, Robin Meyers actually finds hope in our situation—and he speaks of this hope using a metaphor that should resonate with the youth and adults of our church who just yesterday, held a garage sale that included a number of items they had spent the week cleaning out of the church. Meyers writes: “Now for the good news: the church of Jesus Christ in the Western world is in terrible shape. That’s right—the good news is the bad news—and that’s good news. Why? Because according to the distinguished scholar of religion Phyllis Tickle, apparently about every five hundred years the church holds a sort of giant rummage sale. It must decide what goes and what stays, what is dispensable and what is irreplaceable. Five centuries after the Protestant Reformation, we find ourselves passing through precisely such a time.”
In a time such as this, it seems to me that the church needs all the help that we can get, which brings us to this morning’s scripture reading. The text has the Apostle Paul on his knees before Abba God, praying for the church. The motivation for the prayer is suggested in the verses immediately preceding the reading. Ephesians 3:10-12 identifies the church’s mission as revealing the wisdom of God “to the rulers and powers of heaven.” This mission is linked with the mission of Jesus Christ. Christ is also identified as the one “in whom we have boldness and confident access to God through…faith.”
But then, in Ephesians 3:13, a plea is uttered with an implied concern: “So I beg you, never be discouraged because of my sufferings for you.” The sufferings referenced here are related to Paul’s imprisonment and indeed, in an earlier portion of the letter, Paul is identified as “a prisoner for Christ Jesus.” When we look at Ephesians 3:10-13 as a whole, the concern expressed in 3:13 seems to be that discouragement will hinder the church’s mission.
Now in our context, the sufferings of Paul in prison are no longer a reason for discouragement, but the realities noted by Robin Meyers and Barbara Brown Taylor certainly can be. To my mind, this makes the prayer of Ephesians 3 as relevant for us today as it was when it was first written.
The Ephesians prayer is offered to a God whose sovereignty is universal. In a preface to the prayer, the text uses powerful, metaphorical language to proclaim God as the one who names “every family in heaven and on earth.” The prayer that follows is focused on the church, but the preface is intended to establish the cosmic reach of the Creator from whom every race, tribe, clan and nation draws its identity. And in the words of one commentator, it is this God “who calls, equips, and sends the church on its mission to that whole wide world.”
The petitions of the prayer itself seek from God the essential characteristics that not only protect the church from discouragement in difficult times such as these, but that also contribute to the revitalization of the church in our time.
The Ephesians prayer petitions God to pour out upon us “the riches of divine glory” to strengthen us inwardly with power through the working of the Spirit. In other words, our own strength isn’t enough to empower the church’s work. The Spirit is required.
The Ephesians prayer petitions God to so deepen our faith that our hearts will continue to open ever more widely, and to cooperate ever more fully, with the Christ who dwells within us. As we come to trust this presence of Christ more deeply and radically, we will find ourselves rooted and grounded in love. We will find ourselves able “to grasp fully the breadth, length, height and depth of Christ’s love for us. We will come to know ourselves filled “with all the fullness of God.”
And all of this not only fulfills God’s dream for us to live as human beings fully alive— embodying and sharing divine riches, loving and being loved, and being filled with the fullness of God—but all of this also motivates our mission. I love the way Barbara Brown Taylor writes of this: “Imagine a four-tiered fountain, if you will, in which God’s glory spills over into Christ, and Christ’s glory pours into the church, and the church’s glory drenches the whole universe.”
Now I have a hunch. To the extent that the Ephesians prayer is answered in us, so that others are able to see in us a people strengthened inwardly by the power of the Spirit—a people in which Christ dwells—a people rooted and grounded in a love that passes understanding—a people filled with the fullness of God—the church will not only survive these difficult times, but the church will thrive!
So is there still be a need for the church to hold a huge rummage sale? Well, yes, I think so. But here’s the deal: If we’re able to decide what goes and what stays, what’s dispensable and what’s irreplaceable, so that the Christ within us is made more visible to ourselves and to the world, people will be receptive.
I find it interesting, for example, that even though the church as we know it is “in terrible shape,” people are still drawn to Jesus. Author Dan Kimbrall has written a book entitled They Like Jesus But Not the Church. A description of the book notes that “Many people today, especially among emerging generations, don’t resonate with the church and organized Christianity. Some are leaving the church and others were never part of the church in the first place. Sometimes it’s because of misperceptions about the church. Yet often they are still spiritually open and fascinated with Jesus.”
Several years ago, a blogger named Benjamin Corey identified 10 reasons why people leave church. This was Corey’s number 1 reason: “People leave church when they don’t find Jesus.” He then writes: “This sounds silly on the surface, but it’s not. Church of all places should look like Jesus! Church should be a place where people are busy loving the unlovable, embracing the outcast, serving the widow, immigrant and fatherless….I think we need to just start by being honest with ourselves and admit that a lot of people reject our churches because they’re too interested in Jesus to accept a counterfeit version….I am convinced that if we built loving communities of faith that were raw and authentic, that embraced the excluded, and were known by how well they loved others, there wouldn’t be an empty chair in the sanctuary.” Now in my estimation, filling the pews in a sanctuary is not necessarily the best measure of what we’re about as the church, but I get his point nonetheless—and I think he may be right.
Now as far as I’m concerned, there are continuing signs in the church today, that the Ephesians prayer is still being answered. Barbara Brown Taylor cites an example:
She writes of “the woman with a recurrent cancer who is told she has six months to live. The church gathers around her and her husband—laying hands on them, bringing them casseroles, cleaning their house. Someone comes up with the idea of giving the woman a foot massage and painting her toenails red, which does more for her spirits than any visit from the pastor. She give jewelry away, she lets her driver’s license expire, she starts writing poetry again. She prepares to die, but instead, she gets better.
“On Christmas Eve she is back in church for the first time in months, with her oxygen tank slung over her shoulder and a clear plastic tube running under her nose. After the first hymn, she makes her way to the lectern to read the lesson from Isaiah. Her tank hisses every five seconds. Every candle in the place glitters in her eyes. ‘Strengthen the weak hands,’ she reads, bending her body toward the words, ‘and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are of a fearful heart, ‘Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God.’ When she sits down, the congregation knows they have not just heard the word of the Lord. They have seen it in action.”
In other words, the Ephesians prayer is still being answered. Even though the church is “in terrible shape,” the Ephesians prayer is still being answered.
And I see evidence of it at this church all the time. In so many ways, I see Christ dwelling within you. I see signs that we are indeed rooted and grounded in love. There is an inward spiritual strength within this community of faith that I’m so grateful for. I am learning from you, and I am learning with you, “to grasp fully the breadth, length, height and depth of Christ’s love for us”—a love that’s so profound it passes human understanding.
But I’ve got to tell, as grateful as I am for the signs of the indwelling Christ that I see in this congregation, it still seems to me that we’ve only scratched the surface of what is possible. But God is not done with us yet.
These are indeed challenging times in which we live and we may be inclined toward discouragement. I am often inclined toward discouragement. But then I remember this prayer from Ephesians, and I see again the way forward. I remember to seek the Christ within. I remember to love. And I remember that God’s “power now at work in us can do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine. So “to God be glory in the Church and Christ Jesus through all generations, world without end. Amen.”