PRIEST: GIFTED AND SET FREE
Text: Ephesians 4:1, 7-8, 11-16 (adapted H.S.S.)
 

The Ephesians text says that he who ascended gave gifts to his people.

Here’s a great gospel text to go with it (John 20:19-23). Jesus, risen from the dead, appeared to his frightened disciples who had locked themselves in a room.

“Peace be unto you,” Jesus said, bestowing the gift of peace, forgiveness and the renewal of relationship.

Then he “apostled” them, sent them, which is what “apostle” means: One who is sent. “As the Father has sent me, so send I you,” he said - - quite a staggering thing to say.

Then he breathed on them his own breath, his own Spirit, and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

I

Now move twenty-five –thirty years forward. Christ is continuing to give gifts to his followers. What are they? Paul says: That some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. The early church would add deacons to the list. As we do today.

And what is the purpose of the grace-gifts given? “To equip the saints for the work of ministry.” To equip, train and empower the whole church for its ministry in the world. “Saints” means in the New Testament the whole body of Christ, not a few select holy ones going around looking for a vacancy in a stained-glass window.

Spiritual gifts are meant for ministry. The New Testament lists of spiritual gifts are suggestive not exhaustive. They include: Teaching, preaching, caring, giving, generosity, acts of mercy, administration, hospitality, leadership, prayer, faith and healing.

In the community of the Resurrection each and every person in the body of Christ is given gifts from Christ, gifts of his own grace and Spirit, that we might be Christ to the world.

It is the spiritual duty and calling of church leaders (apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, deacons) to help people discern their spiritual gifts and to exercise them. We call out these gifts in others and equip them to serve.

This is what Marney, following Luther, called the “priesthood of all believers.” And our priesthood is for the world, not just for the church. As Marney said:

Relevant Christianity requires the healing of the inhabited world of [humanity], and this demands a new priesthood: a priesthood that believes in the redemption of the world....”1

II

Paul in our text today speaks of two spiritual goals in the exercise of our gifts. One refers to the person in Christ, the other to the church in Christ.

The personal goal is that we grow up into “mature personhood.” We don’t just grow up, we grow up in Christ, who is our true identity and true destiny. He is humanity as God made us and intends us to be.

As spiritual infants we can be “tossed to and fro, blown about by every gust of doctrine,” vulnerable to “people’s trickery and their schematizing of error.”

But as we grow up in Christ we learn what is true. He is the measure: Who he was, what he taught. We learn to measure everything “by the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.”
We need measures. How can you build a house without a ruler? St. Augustine used this measure for our interpretation of scripture: Does it increase the love of God and neighbor? I think that’s what Jesus taught.

The second goal is that the whole church grows up into a mature, healthy and whole spiritual body: Bones, ligaments, blood supply, everything joined and knit together so that each part works as it should and the whole body grows toward maturity.

And how do we know we are getting there? Paul lets us know in the last word of the text: As
...the whole body grows and builds itself up in love.

Love. That is how we know.

III

Marcus Barth, in his great commentary on Ephesians, says that we the church are not building a Tower of Babel, a house and empire of world domination. We are building a house of love, a pilgrim’s inn, a halfway house with gates open day and night for all who wish to enter.2

His words took me to the Interpreter’s House in Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, which inspired Carlyle Marney in his vision for the church here at MPBC and for his Interpreter’s House ministry.
In Pilgrim’s Progress the Pilgrim meets the Interpreter, who shows him a picture of an old man on the wall. The Interpreter says:

He is called One in a Thousand; he is a begetter of spiritual children; he is a birther, he is a nurse; he knows and unfolds dark things to sinners. He pleads, he slights and despises the things that are present, and he is sure of a world to come.3

So Marney described our calling as the church:

To repair the damage. We are a shop, we are a mother, we are a
healer, and we are a teacher to make ministers of us all....
we ... would be begetters of spiritual children, birthers of whole men [and women], nurses.4

I will go on for our day: We would be justice-makers and workers for peace. We would be heralds of the world to come, that is, of the kingdom of God, which is present with us now if we can only see it. We would teach a Buddha-like detachment from the things of this world which bind us and keep us from being truly free. We would know our own dark places so we do not project them onto others and call them evil. We would teach what we’ve learned of our dark places so to help those caught in their own darkness and instead of being judges be their compassionate friends.
We would keep our doors open on all of our sides, as Abraham’s house and the heavenly temple in Revelation, so that all could come and learn with us.

But we can do none of this on our own, without Christ and the Spirit. So we lay hands on our deacons today praying that they receive the Spirit. And we invite you to discern when the Spirit is leading and gifting you. As the church lays hands on these new deacons, use this moment to ponder how Christ is calling and gifting you for his ministry of love in the world.
The laying on of hands is an ancient sacred action that symbolizes the giving of God’s Spirit. It is a meeting place between the divine and the human. Let us open ourselves to the mystery of this meeting place.

1Carlyle Marney, Priests to Each Other (Valley Forge, Judson Press, 1974), p. 9.
2Marcus Barth, Ephesians, vol.34A (Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Co. 1974), p. 451.
3As cited in Carlyle Marney, The Coming Faith (New York: Abingdon Press: 1970), p. 169.
4Ibid., pp. 159 and 171.