These
two snippets of scripture are intended to help us to recognize that Jesus took
time with and gave consideration to the leadership of the church. In the gospel lesson for the day the
apostles, those first followers of Jesus, were given instruction that the crowds,
those who followed at a distance, did not receive. And indeed Jesus told those first followers
(who are variously referred to as disciples or students and apostles or those
who are sent) that they were the recipients of the “secrets” or the “Mysteries”
of the Reigndom of God. That word of
Jesus to those first followers did not necessarily mean that they were special
in the sense of being better than those who were not privy to the “secrets”; it
meant rather that they were being given a unique role to play in the body
politic of the church and society – that people would hear them and not obey;
would listen and not respond; that they were being prepared to experience the
same rejection that Yahweh and the Christ of Yahweh had and were
experiencing. Not only that – but also
that the rejection itself had locked in it a mystery – that God was working
through the rejection to bring about God’s will in the world.
Perhaps
we ought not to be overly disturbed about rejection when it comes our way. The experience of rejection might just be the
sign that God is about to do a new thing, something far bolder and better than
we have seen or can imagine.
The
Lukan text is simply there to say to us that Jesus, even during his earthly
ministry, was concerned about the leadership of the church.
The
Epistle lesson carries a bit more weight this morning. There we find that when the risen Christ
ascended far above the heavens, he not only lead captivity captive, he also
gave gifts to human beings. There is a
sense in which those who are avid readers of scripture might expect these gifts
to be personal in nature. In Romans and
in First Corinthians where other gifts given to the church are identified they
are personal gifts – things like knowledge and faith and service and healing –
charisms or gifts of power that enable believers to be active in the body
politic of the church in a particular way.
Here in the letter to the Ephesians, however, the gifts the risen and
ascended Christ gives to the church are to leaders whose particular function is
to proclaim the word of God.
In
Ephesians 2:20, apostles and prophets are called the spiritual foundation, the
Christ is called the cornerstone, and we, the remaining members are the
household of faith who collectively comprise the dwelling place of God. In Ephesians 3:5, the apostles and prophets
are they who make the mystery of God’s will and of God’s Christ known to God’s
people. Evangelists keep pushing the
boundaries of the body of Christ outward through the proclamation of the gospel
of peace so that the body itself becomes evermore inclusive and the pastors and
teachers provide leadership and instruction to those who are constantly being
saved by the grace of God and the will of Christ.
Christ gave gifts to the Church. And the gifts Christ gave to the church were not to Republicans or Democrats, liberals or conservatives, capitalists or socialists – but ministers who represented neither democracies nor empires, but God’s Reigndom. You see, it is very likely that neither McCain, nor Obama, nor Clinton know or care about the will of God. It is likely that each of them care more about your interests and how to secure your vote than God’s will. So God has risen up prophets, not pundits, but prophets and teachers and pastors and evangelists whose responsibility is to help God’s people to see the difference between the politician’s agenda, the policies and programs of empire and God’s will.
We
ought to be concerned when the proclamation of pastors and preachers sound more
like the dominant political or economic ideology than the gospel of Jesus
Christ. We ought to be concerned when
teachers and evangelists in the church are so closely aligned to partisan party
politics that they are unable to critique and criticize what is taking place in
the public square in healthy ways.
The
function of Christ’s gifts to the church is to equip the saints for work of
service to the poor, the illiterate, the marginalized and disenfranchised
people of society; and to build up the body of Christ – to strengthen the faith
and deepen the understanding of those who, by God’s grace have come to believe
in God through the Christ.
For
141 years Johnson C. Smith Theological Seminary has been working along with
Christ to equip women and men for leadership in the Body of Christ. A simple site map illustrating the location
of African American Presbyterian congregations and graduates of Smith Seminary
would tell the story that without Smith, there would be very few African
American congregations in the Presbyterian Church (USA). Our graduates seem to go where few of the
graduates of our other nine seminaries go – to impoverished inner city
neighborhoods; to small predominantly African American rural communities; to
urban jails and prisons as chaplains and administrators, yes, and even to historically
African American institutions of higher education as teachers and
administrators.
One
hundred forty-one years ago good, well-meaning Presbyterians decided that it
was proper and appropriate to provide the same quality of theological education
to the African Americans that other Americans received. So they partnered with Christ and one another
to assure that the gifts given to the African American constituency of the
Church were thoroughly equipped for every good work in the body of Christ. We’ve come an awful long way since 1867 as a
church and as a society; but we have yet to come so far that a ministry like
Johnson C. Smith Seminary is no longer needed.
And
our text for the day says that the work must go on until there is “unity of the
faith” and “knowledge of the Son of God” and until we all reach “maturity” to
the “measure of the full stature of Christ.”
Unity, Maturity, Full Stature of Christ
- these are all lofty and worthy goals that we have yet to attain as a
church, as a denomination, as a nation of people. Somehow we continue to allow the words of
pundits and politicians to trump those of prophets and pastors and evangelists;
somehow the prejudices of the present hour prohibit growth into the sort of
spiritual maturity the writer of Ephesians has in mind and the pursuit of
profit margins over marginalized people stunt our collective growth so we have
yet to attain the full stature of the body of Christ. Christ gave and gives gifts to the church, to
the body of Christ. We must learn to
honor those gifts and we must continue along with Christ to equip those gifts –
the prophets, pastors, teachers and evangelists – for the work of ministry.
Amen.