One of the challenging and frustrating things about being a Christian is that doing the work of the church—even coming to worship—often doesn't feel very spiritual. We may wake up on Sunday morning full of hope that it will be a day of Sabbath rest and communion with God, but just the hassle of getting the kids out of the house can put us into a decidedly unspiritual frame of mind. The stress of preparing a Sunday School lesson or recruiting an usher or finding the cookies for coffee hour can keep us from focusing on God. Even if we have no Sunday responsibilities, the heat in the sanctuary or the noisy chairs and squeaky microphones—not to mention our inner distractions—can push out loftier thoughts. During the week, at board and committee meetings, we spend hours talking about elevator repair, the leaky roof, the budget, and food shopping. These are necessary conversations and hours well spent, but it can feel more like being at the office than being at church. And, let's face it, we don't always behave, you or I, in the most spiritually edifying ways. We're impatient or bossy or thoughtless, or at least we notice that other people are. I had a friend (in a different church) who said that going onto Session was like watching sausage being made. It never tastes quite the same again. So we long for a more spiritual experience. It's one of the reasons classes and books on spirituality are so popular. Clergy feel it is as much as lay people. It's one of the reasons that classes and books on clergy self-care are so popular.
In the letter to the Ephesians, we have a different view of the church than the messy, concrete, sometimes boring one that is familiar to us. Tradition says this letter was written by Paul, and I'll call the writer Paul, even though it was probably written by a follower of his after his death. Scholars think it may have been passed from church to church, encouraging those early believers. In the beginning of this letter, Paul speaks at length about the church, and his is a very exalted vision indeed. The church was not simply various folks who met in different houses, preaching the good news of Jesus and trying to follow in his footsteps. The church, the true church, stretches from earth into the heavens. Christ, seated at the right hand of God, is both the head and cornerstone of the church, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, with all things under his feet. The prophets and apostles of old are the foundations of the church, with everyone else the body—built together spiritually as a holy temple in the Lord, a dwelling place for God (1:20-23; 2:21-22). And even now, Paul says, at the same time we're the body of Christ here on earth, God has raised us up with Christ and seated us with God in the heavenly places.(2:6-7). The church is part of the plan by which God saves all humanity, rescuing us who were dead through sin to life in Christ. It is through the church, says Paul, that even those rulers and authorities in the heavenly places learn the wisdom of God. And it's one church: one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God of all, who is above all and through all and in all. Paul says to us as well as to those early Christians: the church is much greater and more glorious than it may seem in the day to day reality. It is the body of the cosmic Christ.
So we have two faces of the church: Christ as the cornerstone, above all rule and dominion, and the leaky roof. Revealing the wisdom of God to rulers in the heavenly places and a scratchy sound system. A holy temple and dwelling place for God and our family squabbling. The one, universal church and the thousands of branches and denominations arguing with each other across the globe. Bringing sin into it, we have the church where Paul says everyone is a member of the household of God and the church where gays and lesbians are turned away. The church that is to put to death the hostility between Jews and gentiles, and the church which has persecuted Jews through the centuries. Paul's language about heavenly rulers and the one church may seem strange to us, but we can recognize the difference between this exalted view and our daily reality. In technical language, we can see the difference between Paul's high ecclesiology and our lived experience. And we long for our experience to be a more holy and spiritual one.
So what are we to do? Often Christians have tried to live into a greater holiness and spirituality by separating into a purer, simpler church, less burdened by wordly concerns, or so they hope. Sometimes Christians have formed contemplative communities or become ascetics, cultivating a detachment from goods and material comforts. Others give up on church altogether; we've all heard people say, "I'm spiritual but I don't go to church." They see church— or any organized religion—as incompatible with spirituality because it is organized. They see institutional life as incompatible with spirituality.
Now, there are times when new and simpler Christian communities are needed. Contemplatives who spend a life in prayer serve the whole church. And of course, people can be spiritual outside of organized religion. But most Christian teaching says that none of those choices are necessary for the church—to the church to be its most spiritual self. That the church lives into its highest and most exalted calling through the concrete, the imperfect, and the everyday. That the church is called the body of Christ because God came to us in the body and life of Jesus of Nazareth. That the solution to our longing for a deeper spirituality is not only to pray more or to carve out time for meditation, although both those things are helpful. The solution is to remember that when we serve dinner on Thursday night, or sing to God in our most out of tune voices, or offer hospitality to visitors at coffee hour, we are creating a dwelling place for God. It is to ask every time we think about how to spend our money or use our buildings, what decision will bring us to towards maturity and full stature in Christ? And if Paul's talk about heavenly places and powers and dominions is too grand or too abstract to be helpful, we also have the words of Jesus that we read this morning. I am the bread of life, he said. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. So we ask: how are we the body of the one who said whoever comes to me will never be hungry? And we pray to be the body of the one who said whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
This is a high calling, and it's daunting for the early Christians and us to live into it. But Paul assures us that Christ has given all that the church needs to be his body on earth. We aren't expected to do it alone. Each of us—not just clergy, not just certified Christian Educators, not just officers—each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ's gift. The gifts Christ gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors (shepherds in the Greek) and some teachers. So some of us build up the body of Christ through teaching: not just classes on Sunday morning, but through example. Some of us build up the body of Christ through evangelism: through proclaiming the love of God in both word and deed. And some of us build up the body of Christ through pastoral care: by making casseroles, praying for others, visiting the sick. We each are invited to do all of these things, so that we build up the body in love.
The calling to be Christ's church is a high calling indeed. It's a high calling to live into the full stature of Christ, the Christ who dwells both in the midst of us and in the heavenly places. It's a calling worthy of our lives, a calling that we can answer because of the grace and love of Christ Jesus.
Please join me in a prayer from Ephesians 3:15-21.
Holy and Gracious God, we pray that, according to the riches of your glory, we may be strengthened in our inner being with power through the Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith, as we are being rooted and grounded in love. We pray that we may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge, so that we may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to you who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to you be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.