ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
December 27, 2025
One of the significant failures of Christianity (some of us would say it was an intentional process) was making faith all about “me and Jesus.” Don’t get me wrong. Faith is very much about having a relationship, but a relationship that is transformative and enlightening. Ultimately, this relationship calls the individual to join God in the fulfillment of God’s dream for this world. But in a lot of Christian circles, they double down on “personal savior” language at the expense of any sort of personal responsibility. Remember, almost every single time the Apostle Paul used the word “you” in one of his letters, it was a plural you. In ancient Greek, there is both a single and plural you, and though many would like to make it a private affair, that is to ignore that Paul was not only writing to different communities, but he believed in the power of community.
In Ephesians 3, Paul was writing about the grace of God at work, “so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places” (3:10). He goes on to say, “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name (3:14-15). In the ancient world, people were required to pay homage at the Emperor’s Cult, which included bending a knee to the Roman Emperor. Paul was not inviting people to split their allegiance. Instead, he was making it very clear that Rome had absolutely no authority as compared to the Father, from whom every family and heaven and earth takes its name. At a time when the powers and principalities are using the structures of Christianity and the name of Jesus to do the absolutely opposite of the things Jesus taught, it is necessary for the church to become a single body that speaks clearly the story of Jesus that begins with a stable. As Mary stood near the newborn child, I imagine that she sang part of her Magnificat as a sort of lullaby, including how the arrogant would be scattered and the powerful brought down from their high places; the selfish would find themselves feeling empty; and this would occur as the poor and hungry and marginalized among them were being lifted up and fed (Luke 1:51-53). The very things that undermine what the powers and principalities were seeking to do.
It’s almost as if Jesus heard his mother singing those words, because when he steps onto the stage as an adult and made his first public proclamation, at least according to Luke’s Gospel, he announced how he had been anointed to bring good news to the poor and to proclaim release to the captives. He went on to talk about the blind regaining sight and the oppressed being liberated (Luke 4:18-19). And then he left the synagogue and began to live it, but not alone. He immediately surrounded himself with disciples, the people he would teach, and they would later hear him say that they would do even greater works than he had done (John 14:12). As a pastor, I want everyone to feel as if they know Jesus, and can speak of having a relationship with the Living Christ. But if it is a true relationship, and assuming it is a relationship with the Living Christ, then it will be more than just a “me and Jesus” kind of faith.
There is a world needing your message, Loving Lord, O Living Christ, and I ask for you to dwell more deeply within me so that I do not forget who you are and what you need me to do with my life. There are those perpetrating a fraud in your name, a sort of smoke screen to veil a callous suffering brought upon the innocent, vulnerable, and those too often marginalized—the very people you came to embrace and liberate. Bind us together for the good work to which you are calling us. Amen.
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