Ephesians 5:15-20

I.                     We are back with Paul and his letter to the Ephesians.

A.                  This is a small congregation somewhere near Ephesus.

1.                  In many respects this church is not at all like us here at Central; but in some respects it is also very much like us.

2.                  The Christians Paul is writing to are not in the big city with all its pagan distractions. They are at the edge of the city, or some distance from the city.  Many of the people who live there and now are coming to this church–new families–are not Jewish.  They are the locals, Gentiles whose culture is Greek.

3.                  Leadership is an issue.

a.                  Learning more about Christianity is an issue.

b.                  They are not an affluent church. They are among the marginal in society, not wealthy. These are the storekeepers, farmers, blue-collar Greek speaking people. How to reach out and relate to the affluent and practicing Jews, and other city folks, is a hot topic of discussion.

4.                  Curiously, nowhere does Paul ever identify these people. He does not ever mention the word Ephesus or a church of the Ephesians.

5.                  What is not at issue, and what Paul does mention,  is the friendliness and warmth of the people in this wonderful congregation, their love for one another that is so obvious every time they gather,

a.                  They are a committed small group of believers.

6.                  There is a tremendous outpouring of love for their former pastor Paul who started the church and this is surprising, because this man  is now in jail, waiting for almost certain execution, because of his beliefs!

a.                  Their former pastor also is praying passionately for those Christians  in this small church.

b.                  He reminds them that together as one family, they have one church, one faith, one Spirit, one God and one Lord Jesus Christ.

c.                  Paul writes, or says in his prayer in chapter 1, “For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of glory may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know the hope to which he has called you...”

 

B.                 Paul says, you are a healthy congregation,

1.                  And because you are a healthy congregation,

2.                  you are not focused on yourselves and your struggles,

3.                  but on that mission God has given you.

 

II.                   How do they  as a healthy congregation  realize their mission?.

A.                  Paul says two things in our text this morning, and these two things may strike you as a little odd.

1.                  First, don’t get drunk;

2.                  Second, be filled with the Spirit.

3.                  This may be a play on words: The Greek word for spirit  is pneuma:

a.                  do not get filled up with worldly spirits so that you have no direction and are careless and irresponsible.

b.                  But allow yourselves to be filled up with the Spirit of God, that at all times in all things you do everything in the name of Jesus Christ!

c.                  PNEUMA= it is your breath, your wind, your energy, that which gives you spirit and meaning and drives you in life.

d.                  It is the one thing in the church’s life you cannot control or predict!

(1)               But without Spirit you are dead!

e.                  In Luke 9, after the Transfiguration, when Jesus drives out the evil spirit from the mentally ill boy,  in the Greek Jesus says to the disciples, he  wants to know “what manner of spirit you are made of.”

4.                  In a healthy congregation, it is not the issues or the temptations the church faces–not the lack of money or lack of children in Sunday School– but how the people in the congregation respond to any problem, in a healthy, loving, energetic manner– in the Spirit!

                                    a.         Our mission is to .... 

are you able to tell me what our mission is  ... what our mission statement says ...?

                                     b.        Look at the bulletin, and let’s read it together now:

“We at Central Presbyterian Church seek to be a welcoming, nurturing, inclusive family of all ages, reaching outward to others in our community and the world. Our desire is to love and serve God by loving and serving others as we spread the Good News of the Gospel in Jesus Christ, while learning and growing together in the faith God has given us.”

           

            B.         Former Presbyterian pastor and scholar Dr. William Willimon in his exegesis of this passage, Ephesians 5:15-20, compares the situation of this church in Ephesus to the plight of Jean Valjean in Victor Hugo’s novel, “in Les Miserables.”

                        1.         I had to read part of this novel in third year French in high school, so I have a kind of intimate miserable relationship with “Les Miserables”!

                        2.               Jean Valjean was sentenced to 5 years of labor for stealing bread to feed his family. It was extended to 19 years at  hard labor in a French galley ship. Victor Hugo writes, “He entered the galley ship sobbing and tremblin; he left hardened. He entered in despair; he left sullen...his soul dries up in him...

      Finally the man is released. “Nobody will talk to him or give him work or shelter... Embittered, exhausted, Jean Valjean comes to the house of an old bishop, who greets him courteously and treats the ragged beggar as an honored guest.”

     He is dumbfounded, startled by the generosity and graciousness. “He cynically lurks away from the house,” stealing two fine silver plates from his host’s cupboard, fleeing into the darkness. The following morning the police arrive at the bishop’s house; they have caught the thief.

                                          Now comes a strange scene indeed! The old bishop says, “I’m truly

                                    glad to see you. But you must have misunderstood. I gave you the candle

                                    (page 2)

                                    sticks too, which are silver like the rest and would bring 200 francs. why                                         didn’t you take them along with your cutlery when you departed?”   

     “Jean Valjean opened his eyes and looked at the bishop with an expression no human tongue could describe.”          (page 2)

      This elderly bishop sends him out with these words: “Jean Valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to evil, but to good. It is your soul I am buying for you. I withdraw it from dark thoughts... and I give it to God.”

                                        The thief weeps as he considers the horrible depths to which he has                                          sunk.“ He not only weeps, but begins to comprehend the new world that

                                    the Bishop has released him to.”  He has been given a precious gift: his                                         own life.

                        3.         In a real sense we can say that the figure of Jean Valjean is the church congregation, the Ephesian Church, that has been given back its life. We are “The Wretched Poor,”  forgiven and restored to a new health by Christ’s incomprehensible gift.  That novel ( in 1862) came 30 years after the French Revolution and uprising, Such kindness and forgiveness was unheard of, even treated as treason and a criminal act, carrying the death penalty at the guillotine.

 

            C.        Peter Steinke wrote a second book “Healthy Congregations” after his first book, “How Your Church Family Works.”

                        1.         For those of us among the church leadership who went through that first book as a 9 week Monday night study, it was an eye-opener to learning more about ourselves at Central Church.

                                    a.         Many of us cannot wait to get into a second book study. I invite you to join us, again on Monday nights at 6:00 PM, Sept 14.

                        2.         Steinke sets out at least two premises about healthy congregations.

 

            D.        First: and foremost:  health in a church family is a resource, it is not a goal.

                        1.         What we have gained the past 12 months is not an end but a starting point.

                        2.         Church health is a gift from God, not something we work to achieve,

                        3,         It is therefore, in Paul’s words, an attitude, a characteristic, a way of life, which is reflected in

                                    a.         all of our worship, our prayers and our music,

                                    b.         in our living of life of gratitude 24/7!

                                    c.         just like Jean Valjean’s eyes being opened, being brought to his knees in tears, realizing he has been given back his life to live as a new healthy creature.

                                                (i)         I like to say that there are two giving words in the Bible,

                                                (ii)        and those two words cannot be separated–forgiveness and

                                                            thanksgiving. 

                                                (iii)       In a healthy life, one cannot exist without the other.

                                    d.         For Jean Valjean, like Paul a prisoner, that could never have happened left to his own resources!

                                    e.         Paul sets some unbelievable limits to gratitude and thanksgiving–from his jail cell as he waits to be executed!

                        4.         Have you ever been in a near-death experience and narrowly escaped or been saved from it?  What is your reaction, or response?              (page 3)

                                    a.         At first it is one of unbelievable joy and gratitude!  Why me, of all people, Lord, to receive this great gift of my life back again? 

                                    b.         But, if you are not careful, it may slip into depression, especially

                                                if not lived out in the loving support of fellow Christians. 

                                    c.         Singer Barbara Mandrell in 1984 went through such a cycle after a horrible car accident. A male driver drifted across the highway and hit her car head on with her two children in the car. It took her two

                                                (page 3)

                                                years to recover. She has shared her struggle and how she and her family overcame that in her personal testimony, a book, which she calls “A Simple Faith.”

                        4.         Steinke in his books lists 10 principles of health for a congregation.

                                    a.         First, it is a gift which we ourselves cannot achieve or ever attain,

                                    b.         It must be breathed into us by the Spirit of God, like the biological health of any living plant or animal,

                                    c.         and only that makes us active and alive–in our circulatory system - our heart.

                                    d.         The head of the body, the brain, is always Christ Jesus– in whom

                                                you and I grow up knit together in love and mutual caring.

                                                (i)         Skye Turley brought me a card she had made herself in honor of my first anniversary in your midst. So many of you have shared kind and loving words, thanks you’s with me as well.

                                    e.         Steinke says that perhaps the most important principle of church health is how we respond or react to a major stressor in the life of our congregation.

                                                (i)         It does not have to be something from the outside, it could   be something we do to ourselves.

                                                (ii)        To respond is a healthy thing–with integrity and some of the attitudes Paul talks about, even to be thankful for what we learn from this.

                                                (iii)       To react is not healthy, it is like getting filled with wine and

                                                            getting careless, focusing on self. It is what we do when we

                                                            become anxious.

 

         

E.         Second, Steinke writes that we are healthy in order to advance our mission.

            1.          He defines our mission simply as responding to Christ’s call.

            2.          Dr. Steinke sets out a preliminary thesis in his introduction. He believes the

                         mood, tone and spirit of a congregation is directly tied to having a clear purpose

                         which in healthy congregations is a focus on mission.  With a clear sense of                  

                         mission, her life is meaningful, people have more energy-and hope.”

            3.          As you learn to be a healthy congregation here in our second year together, you

                         will also learn to flesh out what the unique mission Christ sets before you

                         a.        Each committee and entity of this congregation is being given a work sheet by the Pastor Nominating Committee, to be filled out and returned. This work sheet will help you develop particular strategies and tasks related to our vision statement– Loving God, Serving Others, Sharing Faith.”

                         b.       By the time you have a pretty good idea of what your mission is, you will

                                    have your new pastor here. Rather than ask his/her help to discover a

                                   new identity and a mission, you will now be able to share those with this

                                   carefully-chosen pastor, so he or she may lead you into the future

                                   more effectively. (page 4)

                                    And may all of God’s healthy loving children say....”Amen.”

 

The Blessing: “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might, take the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, ....Peace be to all the brothers and sisters, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ

                        with love undying.”  ( Ephesians 5:10, 13, 23-24).