Title: Church?

Ephesians is a letter but it is a letter that contains a revelation about a mystery. A mystery that has been lost, tossed aside or forgotten. It is a letter containing the revelation of the mystery of God's colony in the countryside of death. When the mystery is revealed it shows us a picture of what we all hope we, the Jesus followers, the church, could be if the rich roots from this Trinitarian soil could just take over our garden, our colony of heaven, our church.

Let's prepare our hearts to receive God's Word.

Hafoke bah, Hafoke bah, Decolah-bah.

Hafoke bah, Hafoke bah, Mashiach-bah.

Turn-it and turn-it everything you need is in it.

Grow old and wax gray with it, do not depart from it

because the Messiah is in it.

Paul, an apostle of the Messiah Jesus by the will of God, to the holy ones who are at Ephesus and who are believers in the Messiah Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord, Messiah Jesus. - Ephesians 1:1-2

Last week, I introduced you to the most pivotal idea in all of Ephesians: that when God's calling and our walking are in unity we reach Axios. Another way of saying it, "we are walking worthy of the calling." And, we also saw from Paul's quote of Psalm 68 that this is humanly impossible but made possible by Jesus' powerful resurrection life living inside of us.

Last week, I also mentioned that we need a community of Jesus followers to be around if we ever hope to grow into the spiritual maturity that brings God's calling and our walking into equilibrium.  Many people find church to be the most difficult aspect of being a Christian. In the messianic movement, of which I was part for 20 years, the word church has been stricken from the record and replaced with words like synagogue, temple, congregation, or some other Hebraism. And amongst my friends whose lives exist outside of the sphere of religion, church represents something harmful to progressive society or is just completely irrelevant, invisible, just does not matter.

Amongst people who live inside of the sphere of Christianity, the views are not too dissimilar. The younger millennial generation has, by and large, dropped out of going to church. The number of millennials absconding church is astounding as are the reasons for their leaving church. According to a recent survey by the Barna Group, the top three reasons are 

I can find God outside of the church.

It is not relevant to me.

It is boring.

Some pastors have responded to this by trying to create brand loyalty and slick marketing campaigns around their church to keep millennials on board. That would be fine if the church were a business but it is not. It’s tempting to think of church as one part of the “religious services industry”—the sector of the economy that provides spiritual goods and experiences to consumers. This does more harm than good because the church is not a business it is the place God promised to overcome the gates of hell, it is the bride of Jesus. 

Other insiders to Christianity have absconded church because there are too many injuries and not enough healings. Too much fighting against one another and not enough fighting spiritual warfare. Anne Rice, the world-famous author said as such, "For those who care, and I understand if you don't: Today I quit being a Christian. I'm out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being 'Christian' or to being part of Christianity. It's simply impossible for me to 'belong' to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years, I've tried. I've failed. I'm an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else." Anne Rice and the Millennials are right, church can feel irrelevant, boring, and there are plenty of ugly warts to go around.

The leaders of the insiders, pastors/rabbis, bare witness to the problems. The attrition rate amongst pastors is astounding. According to Lifeway Research, 250 pastors a month will resign their post prematurely.

84% say they’re on call 24 hours a day.

80% say church has harmed their family

70% are battling depression alone

53% are often concerned about their family’s financial security

48% feel the demands of ministry are more than they can handle

50% say their church has unrealistic expectations of them

And, more recently in the last 5 years, it has finally come to the attention of many that the suicide rate amongst pastors is one of the highest amongst professionals in the United States. One article proposed that the suicide rate amongst pastors is only bested by the high suicide rate amongst doctors, the highest in America.

So, why church? The short answer is because the Holy Spirit is forming it to be a colony of heaven in the country of death. The church is the core in the strategy of the Holy Spirit for providing human witness and physical presence to the Jesus-inaugurated Kingdom of God in this world. Rev 3:6, ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

Revelation 3:6 HCSB

“Anyone who has an ear should listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.

He speaks to those in the church who will listen. This means not all will listen. This means It is not the Kingdom complete, but it is a witness to that Kingdom.

What happened?  How have we ended up in a situation where people are fleeing from church for every reason under the sun except for the biblical ones like heresy and immorality? I think that in the face of all the easy dismissals and concessions like its boring, it's not relevant, I can find God on a hike, and the people are not nice church leaders abandoned Paul's romantic vision of the church for a more modern Americanized business version of the church seeks to capture more consumers and create brand loyalty. 

Jesus and the Apostles shared a rather romantic and triumphant view of the church. 

Matthew 16:17

Matthew 16:17 HCSB

And Jesus responded, “Simon son of Jonah, you are blessed because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father in heaven.

At the end of 22 chapters of Apocalyptic thinking, the Apostle John hears the voice of the Holy Spirit and the voice of the Church saying, 

Revelation 22:17

Revelation 22:17 HCSB

Both the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” Anyone who hears should say, “Come!” And the one who is thirsty should come. Whoever desires should take the living water as a gift.

And, of course, Paul the Apostle painted the image of the church in broad romantic strokes,

Ephesians 5:25-26

Ephesians 5:25–26 HCSB

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word.

This is a romantic picture of a covenant relationship between Jesus and Jesus' people. A relationship where he is not only with us but refuses to be apart from us. His history is not just his history and our history is not just our history. Our stories are now intertwined and we know from John's Revelation that at the end of all times, Jesus does not divorce his Bride for another but the Bride is still standing and calling out with the Spirit to all to "come" regardless of relevance, or excitement, or the nastiness of broken people. The Scriptures, at least the New Testament, scratches its head at the idea that God can be found outside of the church because His voice through the Holy Spirit comes to and is within the church.

This romantic picture has problems. First, younger Americans do not understand what a covenant relationship really means. They think a covenant is like a mortgage. You can get into and when the time is right get out of it and trade-up or trade-down. Second, Paul's words are too mundane and stink up the whole image like a laundry mat. Who wants to be washed and free of wrinkles anymore? Third, the triumphant image of the church prevailing with Jesus against hell itself breaks what many of us call the Millenial's 11th commandment. The Millenial's 11th commandment states, "Thou shalt be nice." If you break the Millenial's 11th commandment they cancel you, quit you, and in other cases will sick to reck your life, career, and family in the name of Social Justice. I am not saying all Millenials do this but those who do it, you know who you are. Last, wall the economic, personal, and emotional issues facing church leaders left them feeling like they were a late-night call-girl and not a precious bride.

I think due to this, churches since the mid-1980s have started to base their vision for the church in Corporate America. After all, the corporate vision offers quicker and better ROIs, return on investments. All we had to do was start seeing ourselves differently:

Pastor = CEO and Visionary.

Pastor's Study = President's Office.

Members = Consumers buying a religious service.

Church = A business seeking market shares.

Evangelism = Marketing strategies to create more consumers.

Commitment = Brand loyalty

I once heard it said, "All you have to do is change the word and then the word begins to change you." Pastors are not CEO's running a religious service industry. We are tasked with the well-being of souls. Pastors/Rabbis don't need offices to conduct business, we need studies where we reflect on God's Word and God's people. A study is a place the Pastor develops his biblical imagination and his shepherd's heart. This is not the way things should be. This is the way the country of death operates. But by and large, in most of America, this model has been adopted though there are still a few who refuse to fall into retreat from the frontlines of the biblical romantic vision.

Here is the real rub about the switch to the Corporate Model for the Church, it has not resulted in any real net gains. On the contrary, membership was is in massive decline before Covid-19. Post the pandemic with a vaccine in hand and the masses getting vaccinated most people say they are not coming back to church. Obviously, both previous insiders and outsiders do not think the church is a colony of heaven because ...

How often do you hear people banging at the door saying, "How do I get into the church?"

This requires serious attention. If the church is supposed to be God's best strategy on earth for experiencing his Kingdom, then it appears to be a failed strategy. And if the church is supposed to be a company of men and women charged with cleaning up the world's injustice, hatred, and hypocrisy, it hasn't happened.

So what's left? Do we abandon the very thing God refuses to abandon? I think that what is left is that we turn back to the Scriptures that we have left. We turn back and try to understand what this thing was all about and what it is supposed to be all about and then bravely and maybe even naively commit to it.

Paul's letter to the Ephesians provides us with just the right guide. Ephesians contains the revelation about the mystery of the church, the colony of heaven in the country of death. Remember Paul said, Ephesians 5:32 "This mystery is great." I think some deep currents and continuities sustain God's colony at all times and in all places.

In 1952, C.S. Lewis was responding in a letter to the threats facing the church in England and he described these deep currents and continuities as "Deep Church." Deep Church refers to our attitude of valuing and an act of reconnecting with the Scriptural vision of the church. A vision of the church that is romantic, idealistic, and perhaps nieve. A vision that can acknowledge that the church can be a place that is "good and terrible at the same time, that is eternally relevant but not culturally relevant, that can heal and able to hurt" because it is a place ultimately filled with tragically flawed people. When these tragically flawed people embrace what Lewis called Deep Church there is a deep current that changes from the inside out.

Paul's letter to the Ephesians is the place for us to dip our feet into these deep currents. Of all of Paul's letters, this is the only one that is not written ad hoc. What I mean is, Paul is not responding to any problem theologically or pastorally in this letter. In all of Paul's other letters, he is always responding to a problem. At Galatia, the problem is Judaistic legalism. At Corinth, complete congregational dysfunction amongst members. At Philippi, Judaizers, and members fighting with each other. At Colossae, people were turning to Gnosticism for the answers instead of the Gospel. At Thessalonica, people were quitting their jobs to sit around and wait for the Lord to return. And Philemon was struggling to understand what it meant to love his slave named Onesimus. All of his letters are a response to a problem except for this letter to the Ephesians.

I am not saying the Ephesians were the perfect congregation and had no problems. We know from the book of Revelation that the congregation in Ephesus abandoned its first love and had become cold with the truth. And, in 1 Corinthians Paul said he fought with "wild beasts" at Ephesus, no doubt a metaphor for people inside the church, not outside. And, his young disciple Timothy led the congregations at Ephesus and just a cursory read of 1 and 2 Timothy will tell you that there were plenty of problems. But, in this letter, to the Ephesians, none of that is on the table.

Ephesians is a picture of what the church could be if its rich Trinitarian roots were allowed to freely grow without hindrance.  The best commentary on Ephesians would be C.S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. In this book, the youngest sibling of four, Lucy, goes into a world of mystery and mythological creatures of great power. A world that is quiet and still, but it is a world in need of deliverance. It is a world that is always winter and never Christmas because a witch is withholding the celebration of celebrations. This is no snowy paradise, sin and corruption have taken over Narnia under the witch's rule. And, Lucy and her three other young siblings enter this world and hear Aslan's name (that is the call) and despite their insecurities, they become saviors and deliverers, destined to, alongside the mighty Aslan, pull Narnia from its eternal winter.

In Ephesians, the believer also enters into a world of mystery (1:9; 3:3f, 9; 5:32; 6:19) and are introduced to a world of creatures of great power and influence (1:21; 3:10; 6:12) and they must join with the mighty Jesus to make spiritual warfare, in spiritual armor against these powers (6:10-12) because our world is still in need of deliverance (5:6-11) and of delivers (4:7-11; 6:13-18; 1:7-10, esp. the "in Christ" language of Paul). And, just like the mighty Aslan must first rescue and reconcile Edumnd to his siblings, and Narnia before facing down the witch, so in Ephesians, we will discover that Jesus also must first reconcile us to one another before we can join him in his battle to deliver this world. And much like the Narnian saying, "once a king or queen of Narnia, always a king or queen of Narnia" so in Ephesians we will discover, "once a son or daughter of the kingdom of God, always a son or daughter of the kingdom of God."

Paul, an apostle of the Messiah Jesus by the will of God, to the holy ones who are at Ephesus and who are believers in the Messiah Jesus... - Ephesians 1:1

I have said to you before that theology, in most of the New Testament, also has a geography. In other words, theology is always entering into the world we live and work and play. The world of the Ephesians had a highly structure religious and economic geography. The Temple of Artemis stood on a high hill and cast its shadow over the city. It was a shrine to goddess Artemis who could grant pleasures and passions and even change the fate of a person. Fate was a big idea in Ephesus and in the ancient world. Fate controlled everything. You ever heard the phrase, "That bullet had that person's name on it?" Well, that is fatalism and fatalism leaves humans without choice and makes God cold and sterile. Artemis offered an escape from fate through magic and ritual. And the people were buying it until the Gospel came to town and offered something even better than magic. The Gospel, Paul preached said:

Everything God does involves me (Election).

Everything I do is significant to God (Covenant).

This means you don't need magic to control fate because the God who raised Jesus from the dead did not create a fatalistic universe. God involves me in his plans and what I do is significant to that plan. The Gospel says that we are important, persons of consequence so what happens to us matters to God, and what we do matters to God. This message was so powerful that it says in Acts 19:18-19 that at Ephesus

Acts 19:18–19 HCSB

And many who had become believers came confessing and disclosing their practices, while many of those who had practiced magic collected their books and burned them in front of everyone. So they calculated their value and found it to be 50,000 pieces of silver.

This number is amazing. 50,000 pieces of silver represent 50,000 days of wages!!! That is the equivalent of one person burning up 136 years of wages.

You may be tempted to think, that has nothing to do with me. Great for them that they did that but I live in Houston and we don't have a Temple to Artemis problem. Right, we have a Temple to Oil and Gas problem. People in Houston, Texas live under the mighty shadow of Skyscrapers that are dedicated to our patron saints of Oil and Gas. Our city trembles when anything happens to Oil and Gas revenues. Our city rejoices when prices at the pump go up. Could you imagine tomorrow if everyone walked out of their corporate Oil and Gas businesses and burned up their Stock Certificates and books on Oil and Gas management and leadership for the sake of the Gospel? Just remember, the countryside of death is not always a hostile temple but it does always seek to control our lives.

Paul, an apostle of the Messiah Jesus by the will of God, to the holy ones who are at Ephesus and who are believers in the Messiah Jesus... - Ephesians 1:1

Paul is an unlikely guide into this mystery. He calls himself an apostle. For a long time, I thought the word apostle had its origins in the Hebrew word "Shaliach." This is a word that was used about 200 years after Paul to describe a person sent out with a temporary authority and message. But on closer inspection, I realized this Hebrew word does not come close to Paul's usage of the word that has a long-term authority and permanent message. 

The word "apostle" is best located in its Greek origin. The word initially emerged out of the maritime sea-faring world. Apostle was the word used to describe a sea-faring vessel carrying cargo to a specific destination by a person with great authority. Like modern-day sea vessels that fly the flag of the ship's origin come under the protection and rules of that nation, so was the Apostle. Paul was the Messiah's ship, his vessel, sent out carrying the precious cargo of the revelation of the Gospel of Jesus. He was tasked with taking this cargo to as many Gentile city ports as humanly possible. There was no end to where he could go and there was never a moment when the Messiah's flag was not waving over him. And this was "by God's will." Paul did not contrive this, did not ask for it, was not looking for it, but God "involved Paul" (elected) and Paul responded (covenant).

In Ephesians, we see a Paul who humbles himself more than he humbles himself in any of his other letters. In 1 Corinthians 15:9, he says that he is the "least of all the Apostles"

1 Corinthians 15:9 HCSB

For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

but in Ephesians, we see that Paul does not just humble himself to other leaders but to all the saints when he says in Ephesians 3:8

Ephesians 3:8 HCSB

This grace was given to me—the least of all the saints—to proclaim to the Gentiles the incalculable riches of the Messiah,

It is said of Shakespeare that he so negated himself out of his characters in his plays that we know nothing about Shakespeare from any of the plays or characters. Paul wanted to be nothing so the Messiah would be the someone everyone would see.  It goes without saying that Paul was not trying to create a Brand Image out of his name like Joel Osteen, nor brand loyalty around his model of ministry like Andy Stanley but was trying to negate himself so the Messiah Jesus could be seen and adored. Edmund, in Lewis's Narnia books, reminds me of Paul. A traitor and murderer who after being reconciled to his brothers and sisters sees himself as the least of the group. His only goal in life, to glorify Jesus (Aslan) and to assist God's people.

Paul, an apostle of the Messiah Jesus by the will of God, to the holy ones who are at Ephesus and who are believers in the Messiah Jesus... - Ephesians 1:1

Paul is writing to God's Spirit-empowered Jesus believers at Ephesus. Paul calls them holy ones or your translation might say "saints." This is a very old Jewish word, Kadosh, that gets a whole new meaning after the giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost/Shavuot. Kadosh used to mean, in the Hebrew Bible, something or someone who came in contact with the divine. A cup, a tent, an altar, could be holy/Kadosh because it had an encounter with God. And if you did not respect God's holiness then you could be struck dead like Uzzah, the son of Abinadab, when he carelessly reached to steady the Ark on the Cart (1 Sam 7:1; 2 Sam 6:7). It was not the touching per se that was the problem but that he was just the son of Abinadab who temporarily housed the ark and he was not a Levitical priest. He was not part of the holy ones consecrated for this task and God would not break loyalty with his priesthood even to steady the Ark on the Cart.

After the giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, no longer is a holy one someone appointed by the Law or something that comes in contact with the divine. A holy one is someone who is filled and empowered by God's Holy Spirit. Those holy ones are prophetic people because the Spirit dwells deep inside of them and speaks the deep mysteries of Messiah to their born-again spirit (1 Cor 2:10-16).

And, they are also called believers in the Messiah Jesus. Some translations mistaking translate this greek πιστός (pistos) adjective as "faithful." However, in this specific context and usage the word refers to someone whose internal belief structure is shaped by and oriented towards a person, in this case, Jesus the Messiah. These holy ones at Ephesus remained constant in their belief about Jesus despite others falling away or cultural challenges or boredom or lack of relevancy. Belief in Jesus had to do with what he did and not what they could do.

Though they are holy ones and have a deep belief structure in Jesus, they are still people who need a blessing.  There is an old Latin saying, "Lex orandi, lex credendi" and it means, "true faith is a matter of sincere prayer." Prayer is everywhere in this letter. The whole letter could be almost read as one long prayer and a prayer request. Paul knows that no matter the state of a believer, good or bad times, highs or lows, we need to always be in prayer and seek God's best for each other.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord, Messiah Jesus. - Ephesians 1:2

Paul blesses them with God's best: grace and peace. Grace is God's unconditional love towards us and peace is what happens when sin is subdued by God's love and power. And this is not something that Paul can originate from himself, the grace and peace don't come through Paul. It can never come through human agency. Grace and peace come through God our Father. A title for God used only 15 times in the Hebrew Bible but over 260 in the New Testament and is Paul's favorite way of referring to God. Not God "My father" and not God, "the Father of the Jews only" but "God our Father." God embraces all who embrace his Son Jesus the Lord and Messiah. I will spend more time developing these titles in messages to come.

While we might be tempted to think the Ephesians are extraordinary we should not. These titles did not go to the creme of the crop. None at Ephesus were the wisest, richest, nor noblest. They were embarrassingly ordinary people, with ordinary lives, mundane problems whom God involved in His plan and who played a significant part in that plan. They are you and me, as long as you and I can see ourselves as ordinary sinners who also need grace and peace.

I want to be a guide for you through Ephesians. I want to teach Ephesians on Paul's terms. A letter that was not responding to a problem but was probing what it could look like if our feet were shod in this deep Trinitarian soil. And, I hope, that I can refresh your imagination with Paul's words about the church, the colony of God's making. I sincerely hope that we can avoid the pitfalls of the past and run from the American business model of the church to become the Bride whose voice unites with the Spirit and whose heart is ravished by her King, Lord, Messiah Jesus.

Maybe I could tempt you to re-imagine the church the way I imagine it from William Stephen's poem Anectode of the Jar.

I placed a jar in Tennessee,   

And round it was, upon a hill.   

It made the slovenly wilderness   

Surround that hill.

The wilderness rose up to it,

And sprawled around, no longer wild.   

The jar was round upon the ground   

And tall and of a port in air.

It took dominion everywhere.   

The jar was gray and bare.

It did not give of bird or bush,   

Like nothing else in Tennessee.

We may not look like much anymore just a "gray and bare" jar set up on a hill. It may look like the wilderness is trying to press upon us but it will not prevail and nor will we give of bird or bush. And I do believe, God's colony, the church is like nothing in Tennessee, or in this world.

I want to live this way, the Jesus way. And I want to do it together with you.