Please note – I do not normally post my sermons partly because they are seldom worth posting. But I got strong positive feedback yesterday so decided to share it.
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“Perfect and Continuously Becoming”
(Ephesians 4)
Richard M. Wright
Church of the Nations
Tenth Sunday Pentecost (B)
August 09, 2009
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What is this? [Indicate piece of bread. Now tear or cut off one corner.] This is bread. It has certain properties and characteristics.
What is this? This too is bread. It has the same properties and characteristics of bread – the whole and the part. [Now tear or cut off a different corner.]
Is this bread? Does this also have the same properties and characteristics of the whole and this different part?
Let me begin with another question. Can something that is perfect change – and still be perfect? If bread is perfect – is this piece of bread also perfect? If I add these pieces together – are they perfect? If I break one of these pieces in two – is it perfect?
Can something that is perfect change – from place to place and/or from time to time?
In our Bible reading from last week the book of Ephesians chapter four the apostle Paul writes:
“There is one body, and one Spirit – just as you were called to one hope when you were called – one Lord, one faith, one Baptist; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all”.
I want to go back to this other Bible reading from the book of Ephesians because what the apostle Paul says about the Christian church is so important. I am convinced that when we talk about the good news of the Christian faith the good news of Jesus the good news that God loves us with an infinite love and offers us salvation forgiveness eternal life through Jesus Christ his Son – the Christian church is an essential part of the good news of God.
The Christian church is an essential part of the good news of God.
This is not always easy to believe or understand. Because individual Christians are not perfect – we too are sinners. Often we are indeed what we want to be what God wants us to be and calls us to be – holy beautiful and powerful. Sometimes we are not. But as we talked about a few weeks ago the apostle Paul describes the Christian church as the living temple of God – and we are the living stones. And the apostle Paul also describes the Christian church as the body of Christ.
We can even say one more thing about the Christian church. Miroslav Wolf is a scholar of the Christian faith from Eastern Europe who teaches at Yale University. Several years ago he wrote a book called In Our Likeness: The Church as the Image of the Trinity. The Christian faith teaches that the one God that we know and love and worship and serve – this one God is somehow also three persons. God the Father God the Son God the Holy Spirit. Not three gods but three persons.
What God is – one but somehow three / unity and diversity – so is the Christian church. Unity and diversity / one but somehow many even infinite.
Several months ago I read something very interesting that Kallistos Ware wrote.
“The Church is accomplished on earth without losing its essential characteristics. There is not only an ideal Church that is invisible and in heaven. This ideal Church exists visibly on earth as a concrete reality” [The Orthodox Church, 242]
Perhaps another way to say that is this. The Christian church is the body of Christ – Jesus Christ the Son of God who is perfect. The Christian church is the image of God the Trinity – who is (are?) perfect. The Christian church is perfect. This is not only an idea – perhaps in heaven. This is a reality – here and now.
This also is not easy to believe or understand. Let me pause for a moment to explain what we mean by “perfect” in this context. At the very least it means “complete, the way it is supposed to be”.
Kallistos Ware also writes:
“The Church on earth lives in a state of tension. It is already the body of Christ – therefore perfect and sinless. But because its members [us] are imperfect and sinful – the Church must continually become what it is”.
Perfect – but we the Christian church must continually become perfect.
What does all of this have to do with us – with Church of the Nations on the tenth Sunday in the season of Pentecost?
We are not a large church family. We do not own our own building. We do not own our own buses. This month we will see several people leave. But also we hope and pray and believe we will welcome even more new people. Church of the Nations is perfect – just the way we are. With the people who are here. With the nations that we represent. With our different ages and backgrounds and languages and cultures and personalities. And we are perfect – just the way we will be. With the people who will come. Perfect even though we change – from place to place and from year to year. Perfect even though our members are not – we are people who are hurt and who hurt who are sinner and are broken. But together – together – we become something different. We become the body of Christ. We become the image of God the Trinity. [Ware, ibid., 244]
When you come to Baton Rouge and become part of Church of the Nations. When you come to Baton Rouge and become part of some other church family that is smaller or larger. When you leave Baton Rouge and become part of another church family in the United States or another country.
We are bread. No matter when. No matter which part. Because bread is perfect.
