Preaching text: Ephesians 5:22-29
I wanted to switch things up a little bit in terms of the Scripture for tonight. There are two verses in Ephesians chapter 5 that speak of Christ’s relationship with the Church in terms of marriage. The first you heard; it’s about obedience. But I want to tell you the second and it’s just 3 verses later: “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” I like this verse better, because it’s about love. God’s love for his people never wavers, never falters. Our obedience to God on the other hand, well that’s a bit more sketchy. I’ll be getting into that in a few minutes.
First off though, I did jokingly promise this is where we’d end up. When I first entered the pulpit for these Lenten services, I joked about how I was a Lutheran preaching preaching on a Lutheran hymn and that we’d get to the Methodists eventually. Well, I’m a man of my word and here we are looking over a hymn written partly by a member of the Wesley family. The tune is written by Samuel Wesley, grandson of Charles Wesley who was brother to John Wesley. And they were the founders of the Methodist tradition of Christianity.
In many ways, we’re in the same place. This is a in many ways a Reformation hymn; in the sense that it was written in a time of reformation and by people who are seeking to reform the Church from its errors. And that is evident from the first words of the lyrics: “The church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ, her Lord.” Why write such a line if the author did not believe that the Church had strayed from that obvious truth? That other things had replaced Jesus as the foundation of the Church.
I suppose I could go into the history of the Church during that period in time, but the simple truth is there is always something competing to become the Church’s new foundation. We just love to replace Jesus with all sorts of things. One hundred fifty or so years after this hymn was written and we’re still guilty of things its lyrics accuse us.
My friends, I’ve just about seen it all. I grew up in a church that was always fighting over something. This family hated that family, so they fought. I saw people yell at the pastor in the middle of worship. I watched my youth leader get raked over the coals publically by a Sunday School teacher who didn’t like her. We chewed through five pastors in 20 years. Constant turnover. Constant chaos. Constant conflict.
And I’ve heard stories of worse. A church that split over an argument of whether to make the carpet in the sanctuary blue or red. Does any of that sound like a place where Christ is the foundation?
But there are more insidious ways we undermine Christ as well. Less obvious than these examples, but just as destructive and disobedient (Told you I’d get back to that.) Like when we come to church to feel good about ourselves, about how right our theology is, and how wrong those people over there are. When we come and we pray for God to make us rich or successful that all those TV preachers say we will be if we’re just faithful. These are insidious because they seem like they’re about Jesus.
I can guarantee you people guilty of these talk about God and Jesus all the time, but he’s always a means to an end. Never the end all and be all of who they are.
In the end, all these sins are the same. They’re all about us. We make it all about us. What we want. What we desire. What we think. What we deserve. What we’ve earned. How important we are. And so forth. Jesus is nowhere to be found. You can say his name all you want, but that doesn’t make it about him. It’s still about us.
I did my study to become a pastor in Philadelphia. As part of my training, I had the opportunity to visit a number of a churches across the city to get a feel for the difference expressions of the Church. One of the churches I visited was this big black Pentecostal church that sits on the site of the old Connie Mack stadium. Huge place, but I remember very clearly the sermon that was preached that Sunday. Pastor gets up and amidst all the hooping and hollerin’ that marks a typical Pentecostal service, he starts preaching that “It’s all about Jesus.” It ain’t about us. It ain’t about what we want. It ain’t about how we feel. It ain’t about how right we are. It’s about Jesus. It’s ALWAYS about Jesus.
I could have preached that sermon, but as a white Lutheran I don’t dare try to copy what that man did that day. But he was right. It’s about Jesus. The hymn says as much and yet we keep trying to make it about us.
So what does the church look like when it IS about Jesus? Well, that’s one of the reasons I wanted to switch up the Scripture. It becomes about love. What did Jesus do here on Earth? He loved people. He healed the sick. Preached good news to the poor. Made the lame to walk. Fed the hungry. And invited everyone he encountered into the kingdom. A Church that focuses on Jesus does what he does. For him, it was all about them. All about other people, not himself. So too is the Church that has him as its true foundation.
It’s not about us. It’s about Jesus. And Jesus makes it about them. And the hymn reflects that . Verse two. “Elect from every nation.” How does that happen if we’re not out there, serving, loving, telling, healing, feeding, like Jesus did? Like Jesus did himself? We are partners with him in saving the world. Not that our work does the actual saving (that was Jesus on the cross), but our work brings those he loves to him.
Some years ago, I remember reading about a couple who had gotten married. And instead of a traditional wedding reception, the two of them went with their entire ensemble to a soup kitchen and fed and served the homeless therein. It made for quite a sight. The bride in her white dress and veil, the groom in his suit, both of them scooping out the mashed potatoes for a bunch of people in desperate need.
(Pastor's note: I had some of the details wrong in my remembering of the story. But here's the link to what really happened. Still remarkable.)
That, my friends, is the Church. Christ and his bride serving a world of desperate need, side by side, bringing the Gospel to the people. That’s what it looks like when Jesus is our true foundation. Amen.
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