ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
June 8, 2023
I’m preaching on a portion of Ephesians 3 this Sunday, so yesterday and today, I am looking at some of the earlier verses from that chapter. In vs. 7, we read: “Of this gospel I have become a servant according to the gift of God’s grace that was given to me by the working of his power.” The word servant, sometimes translated as slave, can be a bit of a troubling term in light of American history or even the ongoing trafficking of human beings today. I tend to use words like follower, disciple, advocate, champion or one seeking to embody the Gospel. I know none of those terms give the same love of “all in,” but they allow for this faith-thing to be truly a free choice.
Whatever term you feel called to use, it is inescapably tied to the “gift of God’s grace that was given” to you, to me, and to all the world. However you understand your unique expression of the Gospel of grace, I’m pretty sure it needs to reflect that grace. Please don’t hear that as an expectation of perfection, but if our claim of faith is not clearly put on display in our daily lives, then we probably need to pause and ask ourselves some hard questions. Grace is God’s merciful kindness or limitless love, yet the church is currently finding itself struggling with its ability to put forth a kindness that has any sort of mercy or a love that isn’t anything but highly limited. You can meet some very kind people, yet are kind only to those deemed deserving. Or people who speak lavishly about love until they find themselves uncomfortable because someone does not fit a very limited definition of love-ability.
I know there are times when I do not deserve mercy, and many times when I have acted in a way that made it challenging for others to love me. Yet my faith points to a God who did not, even for a moment, chose anything but grace. And I am doubly thankful for a church that has, on multiple occasions, enfleshed God’s grace in its interaction with me.
Your mercy and love, O God, have never fallen short of what I was needing in my lowest moments. May your generosity inspire me to honor with every aspect of my life the gift of your grace. Amen.
