Reflection on Ephesians 4:1-16

 

The world is out of balance.  I feel it, and I know that you feel it too. 

Not only is our world still divided over this COVID thing…this virus and the divisive reactions that it causes, which just will not go away no matter how much we wish it would; and not only is the world divided over issues of race and what we should or should not do about it; and not only is the world divided over climate change…if it even exists…and what to do about it; and not only is the world divided over whether or not the most recent Star Wars trilogy is a fitting end to the series…(What?  The world does not care about Star Wars; just geeks?)…but the world is so imbalanced that you do not even need to turn on cable news, and witness the world stage, in order to see the divisions. 

Local leaders are caught doing the immoral, and then are seen gathering supporters and justifying their immorality.  The divisions are right here; just open the paper and you will see it.  But, I can bring the imbalance of the world even closer.

When I was 12, my brothers did something so horrible…so horrendous…so immoral that I quite frankly cannot remember at all what it was, but it was so bad that I decided that I was never going to engage with them ever again…ever.  They probably wouldn’t share gum or something terrible like that.  In any case, if I could have, I would have built a wall to push them into an entirely separate section of the house. 

But, the reality was that I was 12, and had no access to wood and sheet rock, or hammers, or money, so I did the next best thing.  Everyone in the house heard the noise of moving furniture across the cracking linoleum floors upstairs as I moved all of the dressers in our shared bedroom to the center, creating a wall of separation. 

The thing is that my older brother still cooked lunch for me, and I could not go without lunch, so I decided that I would go down and eat, but still refuse to talk.  “That will show them.”

I do not know if you have ever tried this tactic…prolonging the hatred and building the walls as high as possible…but I have to tell you, the imbalance that it creates in your soul starts to eat at you.  They say that good walls make good neighbors, and though that may be true to some degree, good walls also make for very lonely people and a very imbalanced world. 

Our world is terribly imbalanced, and so are we. 

Feeling depressed yet? 

The world may be imbalanced and our lives may be imbalanced, but I did not mention it in order to depress you.  Rather, I mentioned it because we have this glimmering gift in the Holy Scriptures that is written just for imbalanced people in imbalanced worlds such as our own.  The second half of Ephesians, which we will be delving deeply into the next few weeks, is going to be our guide and our hope as we seek a balanced world.

We are going to jump right into Ephesians 4:1.  Paul says, “I beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called…” and we are going to stop right there because there is a lot to unpack there.  First, I want to point out that this verse is precisely about that balance that we so desperately seek for the world and for our lives.  Let me translate it better for you.  “I beg you to lead a life that is at balance with the calling to which you have been called.”  “Axios” is in there in the Greek.  Think: axis.  Think: a balancing point.  Think: a two sided scale that weighs and measures and balances. 

We are urged to lead lives together, which balances the life God makes real.

Let me make this really simple.  On one side of the scale we have the grace of God given to us through Jesus Christ, and this grace pushes the scale down with the words of Ephesians 2:8-10.  In those words we are told, “for by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God – not the result of works, so that no one may boast.  For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.”

So, on one side of the scale we have God’s goodness through Jesus Christ which loves us and gathers “up all things in him,” not because we deserve it but because God desires it.  On one side of the scale we have this image of Jesus stretching out his arms and gathering up wayward children together in a parental sort of love, not because the children were good kids, but because he loves them.  And, somehow that love is going to make a difference.

Now this love is so full and so heavy that it pushes down one side of the scales.  It is an eternal, everlasting love that will always push down that side of the scale, no matter what.  But, would it not be nice if we had a similar sort of love…a similar sort of disposition…that would push the scale down on our side also.  What if we were the people of good works that God create us to be?  If that were to happen, then all creation would be at balance; the love of the world balancing beautifully with the love of God.

What Ephesians is trying to preach to us is that our world is out of balance because we are not matching up to the love of God seen in Jesus the Christ.  The imbalance is because we build walls of division in order to keep away differing people, and we push dressers into the center of the bedroom rather than forgive. 

In Paul’s time, walls separated the children of Israel and everyone else: walls of laws, walls of cultural differences, and in some cases actual walls.  But, maintaining walls of separation, picking up the stones and restacking them again and again after every storm, can in no way give us balance.  Refusal to love and refusal to forgive cannot save.

And, it will give you a terrible headache.  After just three hours of totally ignoring my brothers, who were outside having the time of their lives…without me, I was physically feeling rotten.  God said, “It is not good for man to be alone,” and God is right.

But, starting at Ephesians 13, we are enthusiastically told, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.  For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is the hostility between us.”

In other words, the love of God through Jesus, the undeserved grace…the forgiveness…the hope found in trusting in Christ draws us together.  And, God does all of that, as a gift.  That gift weighs down God’s side of the scale.

So, on our side of the scale, Ephesians urges us to make “every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”  Rather than pushing others away, how about we try to be the forgiven people that God has told us we are?  How about we try to be one, since God has declared that we are one?  After-all, as Ephesians enthusiastically declared, “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all...” 

I wonder if God wants us to be “one?”

In a world of walls that divide, what if we decided to take up Ephesians’ challenge to be one?  Would the scales start to even up?  Would the world start to be at balance?  What if we loved each other with all “humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”?

What if, rather than assuming that everyone is somehow evil and against us, we trusted that Christ “descended to the lower parts of the earth” so that being both low and high, he fills up all things?  What if we assumed that there is a spark of the divine in others rather than just a stain of evil?

What if, rather than putting others down when they have fallen short we “equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ”?  What if, rather than going the other direction when there is resistance, we walked with people until they too might “find unity of the faith” and find “maturity” in the body of Christ?

I guess what Ephesians is trying to say is, what if we viewed everyone as Jesus views us, children who need to be gathered close?

Do not get me wrong, it is fun to pull the chains of those who disagree with us regarding the best Star Wars movie, or the wiser political party, or the better economic plan, but when you start to lose very real friends over this stuff, something is out of balance.  And, I’m willing to bet that it is out of balance because you are not focusing on what is truly important.  Being out of balance is forgetting God’s side of the scale.  It is forgetting God’s pure, undeserved grace which gathers us wandering children together. 

Maybe, just maybe we will find balance in the world when we discover that we are all a part of one body, different functions, but one body in Jesus Christ our Lord.