Remembrance Sunday, 12th November 2017

Today, one of our Lay Readers, Trevor Tayleur, preaches. The reading is from Ephesians 4: v 1-7  

Live up to Your Calling!

There’s a well-known story about Groucho Marx, the famous American comedian. He was persuaded by a friend to join a Hollywood club. But he didn’t like club life, and, after a few months, he dropped out. The club was disappointed to lose him, and wanted to know why he was resigning. Its membership secretary wasn’t satisfied with his original explanation – that he just didn't have time to participate in the club's activities. He must have another, more valid reason, he felt.

"I do have another reason," Groucho wrote back promptly. "I didn't want to tell you, but since you've forced the issue, I just don't want to belong to any club that would have me as a member."

In today’s reading, Paul is encouraging harmony and unity in the church, and the church is a body that should be open to all. Sadly, that’s not always been the case, but if we heed what Paul said to the Ephesians, the church will indeed be a very welcoming place.

Paul gave the Ephesians advice on how to live in harmony and unity, advice that is still relevant to us today in London. Now of course Paul was writing nearly 2,000 years ago to Christians in Ephesus, the capital of the Roman province of Asia, some 1,600 miles away from where we are now. The people of Ephesus, at all levels of society, had a huge obsession with the supernatural. Now, in London today there’s some interest in the supernatural, the occult. A lot of people now mark Halloween, but interest in the supernatural is hardly mainstream; it’s not really part of the establishment the way it was in Ephesus. So separated by 2 millennia, 1,600 miles and a cultural chasm, how can what Paul wrote be relevant to us today?

We do, in fact, have a lot in common with the Christians of Ephesus. We both meet as people who believe that the God of the universe has revealed himself through Jesus who defeated all the forces of evil and death itself. The impact of God breaking into human history means that all these apparent differences fade and pale into insignificance. Ephesus was obsessed with the supernatural; London is obsessed with material things. As Christians our focus is on Jesus, not the current obsessions of society. So there is much that we can learn from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.

This morning’s reading marks the start of the second half of the letter. Some translations of the Bible start Chapter 4 with "therefore", indicating that Paul’s argument here follows logically upon the previous chapters. Paul has spent three chapters spelling out in glorious detail all that God has done for us, freely - by His grace. Now Paul reminds his readers of three basic things:

First, he reminds them of their calling and what it means.

Secondly, he gives them guidance on how to live up to their calling; and

Thirdly, he reminds them of the unity that they already have, and which they must guard with all their might.

Let’s start at the beginning with the Ephesians’ calling. In verse 1 Paul writes; “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” What then, was their calling? And what, indeed, is our calling?

Paul isn’t thinking about the different ‘callings’ or ‘vocations’ that different Christians may have; for example, to be a teacher, a nurse, a lawyer, a homemaker or a priest. Paul is referring to the even more basic calling of the gospel itself, the good news of Jesus.

And as we come to what is probably the midpoint of a vacancy, the time without a vicar, it’s an opportune moment to reflect on our calling. Five weeks ago, at the start of the Ephesians part of our current series, Adjoa reminded us of what we pray in the post-Communion prayer on Communion Sundays. We ask God to fill us with his power, to take us out into the world and by our thoughts and action to praise him and show his glory in the world. We ask God to send us out into the world in the power of Christ’s spirit to live and work to His praise and glory. It’s part of our calling to let other people share in Christ’s light, in his power, in the unimaginable power of God’s eternal fullness.

“Eternal fullness.” A key part of the calling we have is Christian hope. Jesus himself has conquered death through the resurrection, and we too can share in his victory. 

Four weeks ago, we looked at Ephesians 2 and saw that through God’s grace we’re saved from a life of self-centredness to a life based on God’s grace. We can’t save ourselves by our good works. No matter how hard we try, our efforts can never be enough. The faith we have is a gift of God, and another key part of our calling is to rely on God’s grace, the mercy God has shown us even though we don’t deserve it.       

And last week Ben encouraged us, in the words of Ephesians 3 verse 18, “to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know [Christ’s] love that surpasses knowledge…” Allowing Christ’s love to live in us is also a key part of our calling.

And this isn’t all that Paul says in the first three chapters. There’s so much more that it’s hard to summarise. We are going to be part of God’s new community – a community that starts in this life and will continue for all eternity.

Paul is very keen that his readers should live up to their heavenly calling. And one of the reasons for that is that as the disbelieving world sees God’s people, they should see something of the wisdom and love of God and of his plan for the world.

When I was a student in South Africa in the dark days of apartheid, there was a lot of discussion of the church as an alternative community. In contrast to the racial divisions that the apartheid regime forced on the country, the church should be a community embodying true Christian values. Of course, Herne Hill is very different to apartheid South Africa, but let’s not lose sight of the fact that part of our calling is to be distinctive, to show that we live by different values. Paul then goes on to give the Ephesians guidance on how to live up to their calling. So, what does he say?

Well, after the great build-up of the first three chapters, the answer is a bit anti-climactic. “Be nice to each other!” Of course, it’s a lot deeper than that, but Paul drills down on how the Ephesian Christians should relate to each other. In verses 2 and 3 he writes; “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”

The fact that relating well to each other within the church family fits with the amazing plan and amazing purpose of God emphasises the importance of good relationships.  Good relationships within the church express the unity that God has given us in Christ and shows that unity to a fractured world.

Let’s have a closer look at how Paul encourages the Ephesian Christians to build good relationships.  In verse 2, Paul urges them; “Be completely humble.” Negatively this means not being arrogant and not being harsh with other people. Positively we can say that this is the attitude we need to serve other people, to truly serve each other. It means recognising that we all fall short of God’s standards. Philip Yancey, a well-known Christian writer once wrote; “Christians get very angry toward other Christians who sin differently than they do.”  But the truth is that we all equally need forgiveness.

Just because we may have a more prominent role in the church doesn’t mean we’re more important. God loves us all equally. We have all been called by God to the same hope.

“Be…gentle;” Paul continues: “[B]e patient, bearing with one another in love.” This means compassion and self-restraint in how we relate to each other, abstinence from anger, harshness and revenge. If this sounds rather weak-willed, listen to the words of Tom Wright, a well-known biblical commentator: “Have you ever seriously tried to forgive someone who has wronged you? Have you ever seriously tried to be compassionate and patient? Have you ever tried to let Christ’s peace…be the reality around which you order your life? If you have, you’ll know it’s not easy. It takes serious prayer and real moral effort. And people who engage in that effort tend to be people who are also capable of taking difficult decisions and engaging in challenging activities in other spheres as well.”

Let’s be patient and forbearing in our relationships in church. Sometimes things will happen in church that annoy or upset us. At some event we might feel ignored or left out.  Do we make things worse by responding in kind and by storming off in a huff? Or do we act to limit the damage by being patient, as Paul would have us be? Let our aim be to bear with one another in love, persevering in the face of upsets and difficulties.

Paul has reminded the Ephesians, and us, of their calling and what it means. He has also given them, and us, guidance on how to live up to their calling through their relationships; and then he goes on to remind them of the unity that they already have, and which they must guard with all their might. Paul reminds us in verse 4, 5 and 6 that there is one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all. It’s very striking the way Paul puts it - this seven-fold repetition of ONE. It points to the sort of unity we should be displaying to the world. It emphasises what we as Christians have in common; there is much more that unites us than divides us. We’ve perhaps become too used to the divisions that exist in the world-wide church: between Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox, Pentecostals and others.  Paul emphasises the basic beliefs we all share and makes Christians distinctive.

I read an interesting article by Tim Stanley in The Daily Telegraph on 31 October, the 500^th anniversary of the events that started the reformation - and also Halloween. Stanley is a Catholic Christian and he wrote, “Protestants and Catholics were divided by theology. Now we're united by the fact that no one goes to church anymore.”

He also wrote about a visit to the graveyard of St Mary’s Church in Whitby, where Dracula bit Lucy in Bram Stoker’s novel of that name. “When I was at Whitby,” Stanley wrote, “I heard one school child say to another: “Who do you think would win a fight? Dracula or Jesus?” For all their differences, Catholics and Protestants both have a stake in that question.” Yes, indeed, we all have a stake in that question, because as fellow Christians we trust in Jesus as our Lord and Saviour.

I’ll conclude with some more words from Tom Wright again: “[W]e can’t pretend that [unity] isn’t a central and vital issue. Unless we are working to maintain, defend and develop the unity we already enjoy, and to overcome, demolish and put behind us the disunity we still find ourselves in, we can scarcely claim to be following Paul’s teaching.”

Let’s pray: Lord, help us to maintain the unity you have given us – to maintain that bond of peace with each other.  Help us to demonstrate your wisdom and love to a watching world. Help us to love each other, we pray. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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[i] 12 November 2017