The Church at its Best

The following video transcript has been lightly edited

You know, sometimes when we think about a church, we think about the building. Other times when we think about church, we think about programs. Like, what are the programs that, for me and my family, and how can I get involved, and what are the things? Sometimes we think about the pastor, how entertaining or educational they are.

Sometimes it's like, oh, it's, you know, it's all about the music. Sometimes we think about the church, we think about how it's an organization. That, you know, is legally formed. And then we think about the committees and how often a church feels dysfunctional. I'm like, yeah, church. Here's the incredible thing is that the vision of a church that Paul paints in his letter to the Ephesians is quite incredible.

It has some of those elements, but it's not really what he's talking about at all. In fact, in Ephesians 2, what he sketches out is that the church is the dwelling place of God. Here's his message. His message is that Christ has come and brought peace between God and humanity, human beings and one another, and has united two groups of people, the Jews and the Gentiles, has brought them together.

In another place, he talks about how there's no longer slave or free or Greek or Jew or male or female, but we're all one in Christ, he says. And in Ephesians, he says that we're knit together with Christ as the cornerstone, but we've become a building. We've become the dwelling place of God. And this is really fascinating because the Jewish worldview in the ancient world was that God was in the Ark of the Covenant, and that resided in the temple.

So if you wanted to be in the presence of God, you had to go to the building. But what Paul sketches out is something entirely different. That's no longer how it works. The way it works now is this new humanity that encapsulates everyone in Christ is now the dwelling place of God. It's the spiritual community.

And so the question for us is how do we be that kind of spiritual community, that living, breathing spiritual community? Well, I want to offer up three reflections.

First, we want to be a place of peace, and I'll tell you more about what that means. Second, because it's for everyone, we have to figure out how do we make connection so that everyone can belong. And then lastly, we have to see how the call of this new humanity is to work on unity versus division.

So, place of peace. In this passage in Ephesians 2:14-22, Paul talks about peace over and over and over again. He came so that they would have peace. He came to those who were near to bring peace, those who were far off to bring peace.

Peace is a big deal. Now when Paul is talking about peace here, he's, he's talking about harmony. So when you think about harmony, what's wonderful about it is that harmony is not the same notes, but harmony and music are different notes that complement each other, that resonate, that somehow bounce off of one another and make a fuller, more complete sound.

And so Paul's vision for the church is that it would be harmonious, that in the midst of the division, in the midst of the differences, that those differences would create harmony. Harmony between the world and God, the world and one another, and that that would then be this harmonious place. And so for us, we have to always be thinking about how do we do that? How do we extend harmony into the world?

And I think that that requires us to be engaged with one another, to know each other, to share in life together. And so if we want to be a people of peace, a people of harmony, we have to focus on how is it that we live life together versus how do we consume services? How do we get what we want? How do we help the organization function properly? Because Paul's vision for the church is much greater than that. It's a place of peace. It's a place of harmony that others can come and find connection with god and humanity.

Secondly, we need to look at connection. So this new humanity is for everyone. The divided world has been brought together in the person of Christ. To experience togetherness requires connection. So for you and I, when we're in relationship with one another, there are various factors. We share our lives. We share funny things. We share sad things. We share hard things. We have conversation about life.

We also work together. As we share work and commit to a common task, that brings relational unity. And so as a church, we have to always be thinking about that too. You know, we're a relatively young church, and it used to be just coming and being here, you were just naturally caught up in the things that helped us be a church.

As we've grown, we need to figure out new ways. New ways to help make connection for everyone so that no one feels alone. And in order to do that, we have to have teams that you can join to work on, whether it be music or family or logistics. We need to have groups that you can connect to other people. In order to create all those things, we need you, we need your help. And so I hope that you're able to, this fall, take a step with us as we begin to create these new structures. And to remember that these structures are not just for themselves. It's not to be an efficient organization. It's not to create great programs, but it's to create space for people to connect with people so that no one has to walk alone.

Lastly, we see in Paul's vision for the church is that it's a place of unity in the midst of division. And so here he, Christ has brought together the Jews and the Gentiles. to form one people. You know, there are a lot of things in the world that just tend to draw us apart, to pull us away from each other.

You know, my experience is when I get behind the reason that people believe the things they believe, that most of us at the end of the day, we want the same thing. Nobody thinks, you know what I want? I want just to be in misery. I want things to not work. I want all there to always be sort of biting and fighting.

Nobody wants that. What we want is we want a chance to flourish. We want connection. We want to feel loved. We want to have an opportunity to have good, valuable work that creates. We want our children to be safe. Everybody wants that. And so one of the things that we have to do in our mind is find common ground. Because with most people, we actually share more in common than we have in disagreement. So we need to be a people that look at what we have together, what we're unified on.

Here at Grace, we want to be united around a few simple things about Christ's life, death, and resurrection, and how that allows us to travel through the messiness of life together, choose hope and love God in our world. That's it. That's our simple thing. That's the things we want to be about.

And so I invite you in the conversations you have with people, get behind the surface and connect with their dreams and their hopes and their imagination. And what you'll find is that there's a lot there that you resonate with.

And so we can be these people. This community of harmony, this community of connection, this community of unity in the midst of a world that often is divided. Let's be the church. Let's be the dwelling place of God rather than a building, a program, or a system.

I hope this was helpful for you, and I hope you have a great week.

We'll see you soon.