This weeks sermon

I usually try to open with a joke, but over the past few sermons I have given, I have talked about my awesome style way to much to make yet another joke about it, and other than that, I really got nothing, so I won’t open with a joke today.

Over the past few weeks we have been walking through the book of Ephesians. For the first for weeks we learned in whom our Identity was found, and then over the last two weeks we began to learn what that means. We went from Christ to Corpse, and then from Christ to Community, and now we will continue with from Christ to Calling.

Before we move to the text for today, we should put it in context. We are reading a letter written by Paul to the Ephesians. Paul began the church there, and then moved on to plant other churches. And the state of the Church at Ephesus has been deteriorating ever since. Paul eventually sends Timothy, a man who is like a son to him, to straighten out the mess. The general push of the letter so far has been, as I already said, the Ephesians Identity in Christ. He has been telling them what it truly means to be a Christian. It is not just going to a worship service once a week. Paul is giving the Ephesians some amazing truths. He has said that we are predestined in love, that we are fellow heirs with Christ, that we have immeasurable power through God’s Holy Spirit, that we are given a rich inheritance from God, that we have been raised from death to life, and that the old patterns of the world that used to define us no longer have any sway.

With all this already said, then, Paul goes on to Ephesians 3. Turn with me to your programs:

1For this reason I, Paul a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles— 2assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you, 3 how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. 4 When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. 6This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

We are going to look at this section in two parts. I will call this the first part, and the next part the second part. In this first part we are dealing with the first six verses of Ephesians 3. Now, I admit that the first few verses seem a bit convoluted- and they are. Part of the reason for this is that we are reading a translation from Greek to English. Regardless of what translation we use, it is still a translation, and as such can be kind of sloppy at times. We also need to remember that the Greek text has no punctuation. In fact, there are not even spaces between the words. This is where the art of translation comes in, but this is also where the greatest discrepancies can be found as well. After reading and re-reading this section over and over for the past few weeks, as well as reading multiple translations, I feel confident that we can read verses 2-5 as an aside. If Paul were writing for a modern English audience he most likely would have put parentheses around these verses.

So then the paragraph could be rearranged to read like this: I, Paul, the guy in prison, proclaim the mystery of the Gospel to you. And the mystery is that there is no longer Jew and Gentile. Gentiles are part of the same redemption that the Jews are privy to. You know that I am telling the truth because you have heard of my testimony and know me. This mystery was no known to our ancestors, but know is being revealed to God’s Prophets and Apostles.

Now I will admit that I am taking some liberties, and definitely don’t look to what I just said as Scripture, but that is the general push of the first six verses of chapter 3 of the book of Ephesians. Now all that in and of itself is a full sermon series, but we have already covered a lot of what has been said over the past few weeks, so I am going to deal very lightly with the text here.

What is important here is that Paul has credentials to speak about the faith, and then the truth he speaks. The truth is that there is no longer a dividing wall between humanity, that in Christ all are equal. All are called by God and given the same faith to cry out to him. There is no special place based on race. All who are in Christ are fellow heirs and part of the same body.

But we covered that last week, which is why I am not spending a lot of time on it today. The sermon for today has to do with the remainder of the text. The second part, if you will. Turn back with me to your programs. We read

7 Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace, which was given me by the working of his power. 8To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things, 10so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. 11This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him. 13So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.

The second half of this section of Ephesians has to do with calling.

Paul says of this gospel he was made a minister. And what Gospel is this? The one he has been talking about. It is the Gospel that assures us of our salvation, raises us from the dead, and destroys walls of hatred. What Paul is saying here, which he says many other places is that he was made an Apostle to the Gentiles- he didn’t chose it, it chose him. This is closer to our modern sensibilities than we think at first. One of our favorite story lines is the reluctant hero, who in the words of Shakespeare has greatness thrust upon them. We love to see the average person perform extraordinary tasks because the situation demands it of them. This is the plot of the greatest movie ever made, “Braveheart”, right. William Wallace just wanted to live free in a quite village in Scotland with his wife, but his wife is killed and he then leads his country to freedom. Although he didn’t know it at first, he was called to be the leader of a revolution. This is the plot of the “Die Hards”, “Star Wars”, and even found in the Giant Alien Brain episode of Futurama.

And this is also the story of Paul. He was a Pharisee who in his early days would not so much as cross the shadow of a Gentile. His salvation was in his own holiness and legalism. He helped kill Christians in Jerusalem, and then sets his eye of the church in Damascus. On the road he is struck down and blinded by Christ, who asks him why he is persecuting the Church. Paul then gets to Damascus, although severely disabled, and sent to a Christian, Ananias, who heals him. Paul then wants to go to work for the church, but, rightly or wrongly, no one trusts him. He gets taken in by this crazy Jesus follower named Barnabus. Barnabus wants to set Paul loose and let him work for the church for some insane reason. Barnabus goes to Antioch and sees all these Gentiles coming to Christ, and is fired up. He leaves and decides to find Paul, who is in Tarsus at the time, and takes him back to Antioch. Paul gets to guest preach at a synagogue, and instead of the usual sermon, talks about Jesus. Some Jews believe, and others want to stone him, so Paul and Barnabus are forced to flee in the middle of the night. But this first missions experience set Paul on fire, and he decided to become a life long missionary because of it. The Apostles are fine with this since they still have their fears, and don’t want him hanging around Israel, and so Paul begins his job of missionary to the Gentiles.

Now this story doesn’t seem very much like a calling at first. It is not like Paul converted to Christianity and instantly knew that he needed to go. But what did happen is that circumstances and experiences moved Paul forward to a place where it was obvious what God had called him to do. The case could be made that this is only because Paul was called to ministry. And if we just looked at Paul’s life, you would have an argument.

It was fairly obvious to me that I should become a Pastor of some kind. Recently I feel more of a call to church planting, and hopefully, God willing, I will be a biblically faithful Mega Church Pastor with even more awesome shirts to wear, shirts that I can only dream about now, shirts that, unless I was a Mega Church pastor would tell the world that I am that guy, shirts that… anyway, back to the sermon.

But not all of us have a clear call, or at least we don’t think we do. I would bet that as Paul stayed in Tarsus, a recent convert to Christianity, an outcast- because he betrayed his Pharisee family, and wasn’t accepted by his Christian family yet- he wondered what his calling was too. I can see him asking God, if he wasn’t meant to be a Pharisee, what was he meant to be. Does this sound familiar to anyone in the room?

But notice that just because Paul wasn’t sure for a time what his calling was, doesn’t mean he didn’t have one. He actually had an extremely important calling. It is the same for us.

And this idea of calling doesn’t start in the New Testament. It is actually one of the first things God does. To get to the roots of calling, we need to go all the way back to Genesis 2. We pick up the story of creation in a Garden that God has created for this new creature he will call man. He forms him from the dust of the ground and steps down from heaven to breathe into him the neshema, or breathe of life. He then, in a move that is straight out of cartoons, picks man up, and places him in the Garden. God then causes all the plants he had previously created to sprout up with in the confines of this garden. And then what? Does God say, just enjoy what I have done? No. He gives Adam a job. We read in Genesis 2:15

15The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

Adam was called to be a gardener. And it was a holy calling. But then Adam screws the whole thing up by not shepherding his wife properly, who gets deceived and eats of some forbidden fruit. God gets mad, asks Adam what happened, at which point, like a petulant child, he blames everybody but himself. God then tells him that part of the punishment for his sins would be that, in Genesis 3:17-19

17And to Adam he said,

"Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
'You shall not eat of it,'

cursed is the ground because of you;

in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
18thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
19By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return."

So then work becomes toil. What was mean to be fun and relaxing becomes hard and stressful. What God designed to be good, we twisted into something terrible. But the idea of Calling was not killed. Later we read about Abraham being called. Moses was called to lead God’s people to the Promised Land. Now there was brokenness involved and failure, but he was called nonetheless. Later we read God telling Moses that Joshua should succeed him. God tells Joshua that he had been called to finish Moses work. After Joshua we have Judge after Judge arising when God calls and restoring Israel. After this we read of God appointing Saul as king, and later David. David was a sheep herder with no experience in International Relations and didn’t even have an Economic Stimulus Package, but God uses him anyway. He calls David to be Israel’s king, and, wouldn’t you know it, all of David’s experience as a shepherd culminates in his kingship. He is able to kill a giant because he had to defend against lions and bears in the past.

Later we have a period of Prophets. These were men who God gives a message, a vision to, and then tells them to relate it to their country men. God calls each of them. It is fairly obvious as a calling, since each one of them was killed, and you would have to be either called or crazy to want a job that leaves you friendless, penniless, and thankless.

And then we have Jesus, who in a very real way called each one of his Apostles. And nothing of their past was wasted.

The calling, which began in Adam, continues to Paul, and is still given to us today. It may not be as easy to figure out, and there may be periods of wondering, but that doesn’t disprove its existence. The difference between our calling and Adams is one of function, not form. What I mean by that it we are not necessarily given a directive from God in a picked-up-and-placed-in-a-garden- and-handed –a-rake kind of way (although we may), but that doesn’t mean we don’t have a holy calling.

We are told that there is one body many parts. Paul, in the last few verses even refers to the church as a body and us as its members. We are told in other Epistles that we have gifts given to us individually, and for the community, or body. We are also told that these gifts are divvied out by God himself. God decides who is a hand and who is an eye. It is not us. There are many reasons for this, not the least of which is that I we were all to chose which part of he body to be, I don’t know anyone who would pick armpit, or that spot between your feet that gets all the gunk in it, but these parts are of absolute value. Without and armpit, where would the arm attach? God, being bigger than our selfish desires, knows this, and so creates many parts so that they all may function properly.

Now, you may object and think that the gifts are Spiritual gifts; they have nothing to do with vocation. And on some level that’s true, but on another, it is far off. How is the church to function with no money? It can’t right. So someone needs to make money to pay the pastor. And if you are the one working to pay the pastor, and you don’t have the spiritual gift of administration, you will not be a secretary very long. God didn’t create you to be a secretary. But he did create you to be something, and our gifts may be able to direct you to where that is.

Notice though, how Paul came to have the calling he did. He says back in verse 7 he was made a minister according to God’s grace. It was not because he was so great- it was because of Grace. Paul knows first, that he has a calling, and second, that it, like everything else, was a gift of Grace.

Now for a while, this is something that I struggled with. When I came to Umass, I felt like I was the new cool Christian (I know, there is really no such thing, but I thought then there was). I had just come off from a Bible study I was leading at my High School, as well as being, I thought, the most valuable staffer at a Christian camp. I thought back then, that I was called to be a pastor; however, I thought it was because of how great I was. I thought that God needed me, sort of. Now, on some level, I knew he didn’t need me, per se, but, on the other hand, who else was he going to use? Those other kids? I was much better than them.

I was in fact so important, that I didn’t need to follow all the rules that other Christians had to follow. My pride, like so many before me, led to my destruction though. I ended up in a downward spiral that would last for years, and leave me scarred, in debt, and utterly broken. Which, in some way, was a good thing, because I finally understood this grace that is spoken of so much in the Bible.

Paul kind of shares my story, a little. At some point in his life he was converted to religion. He did all the Bible studies he could, answered all the questions right, did all the right rituals, thought he was the new cool Pharisee. He was, in his own words, a Pharisee among Pharisees. And at some point his pride caused him to fall. He thought that his way was so right Jesus couldn’t possibly be the Messiah. And a man who worked so hard at trying to be holy before God, misses his opportunity to actually be holy, and instead goes about persecuting Christians. And God strikes him down. And Paul repents and converts. And Paul becomes humble.

Paul knew who he was, a murderous blasphemer who should have not been blinded by Jesus, but destroyed by him instead.

But instead of being destroyed, God, in his Grace, saves Paul, and more than this, gives him a calling. And he doesn’t give Paul a calling that is totally foreign to him. God doesn’t say I will now make you a Shoe Salesman, (not that there is anything wrong with shoe salesman) but instead gives Paul a calling that is inline with everything Paul had been working for. God uses Paul’s knowledge of Scripture, as well as his racist past. Paul can teach the Bible, because he knows it. He can reach across cultures because it is part of his redemption. He can tell others to tear down their walls, because he has had to tear down his own.

This is my story too. I felt called to be a pastor, but fell due to pride. However, I am preaching to you right now. What happened? I became humble- don’t laugh, that’s not a joke. Seriously though, God used my passions and desires, he used my past and my experiences, and by his grace I am able to do what I always felt called to do.

The greater principle here is that of redemption. God redeemed Paul’s life. That means he is saved yes, but it also means that everything else can be different too. God’s plan isn’t that we are saved, but still have to live will all our junk and skeletons until we die and go to heaven. God’s plan is redemption. In a very real sense, it is for right now. Two sermons ago we learned that God redeems our lives, last week we were told that God redeems our community, and now, we are learning that God also redeems our calling. Though Paul was the least of the saints, he was given, called, by grace, the privilege to preach to the gentiles. God redeemed him then. Paul was redeemed from death, redeemed from racism, and redeemed in vocation.

And God does the same for us. Though work became toil, God’s plan had always been to redeem that through Jesus Christ. God has a calling for you. He can redeem your past. By his grace you may truly live the life he has for you. You may have no clue what your calling is right now, that does not matter. You may not be able to see how God will use your past, that too, does not matter. He will.

Before I joined staff here, I could not see how God would make me a pastor. My resume doesn’t exactly shine in the personal purity department. I struggled with what I was to do. I got a job at Mullins Center, worked hard, and thought maybe that was what I had to do my whole life. I couldn’t see working for the church. But God had different plans, and the desire I had stored up in my heart he made come true.

And more than this, my past has been used. I have been able to minister to people with drinking problems. I was able to hang out with Umass kids. I was in a fraternity in college, and I drove it into the ground. I took us from an official chapter with 30 members to having only 4 in one semester. Part of the reason for this is that I just pledged drinkers like myself, and more than half of them flunked out the next semester. They were great guys, but we drank more than went to class, and it is awfully tough to get through college if you don’t attend. But even this has been redeemed.

Recently I was asked to speak at the Greek Leadership Conference at Umass. I was asked to talk about how I ruined my fraternity as well as what I have learned since. And since then, I have been asked to come and speak at a Fraternity and Sorority about alcohol abuse and leadership principles. I wouldn’t be able to do this if I didn’t live the life I did, but more importantly, I wouldn’t be able to do this if God had not extended his grace, and not only redeemed my soul, but my life.

That is not to say that work isn’t hard. Sometimes it is the hardest thing I have ever done, but it doesn’t have to be toil. The days that it is hard, I can cry out to God and ask him for strength. Instead of looking as work as an end, namely to make money, I can now look at it as a means to worship God. I no longer need to find meaning in a job, because my meaning is in Jesus- work is just another way to express it.

We as Christians can accept this redemption and work differently than the world. We can do what our boss asks, even if it is stupid, because we can submit to him as unto the Lord. We can work hard, not to make ourselves look good, but to make our supervisor look good, and to make the Christ in us look good.

I know I talk about Mullins Center a lot, but it is the last lay job I’ve had, so just bear with me for one more story. Before I left, I worked for this great guy named Spen. Now Spen, although a great guy, was a little OCD. Everything on his desk had to be in exactly the same spot as it always was, or he couldn’t do his work. So, obviously, we would routinely mess with his desk. That’s not the story though.

See, because he was OCD, he wanted things done his way. Sometimes his way was good, sometimes, me and my crew thought his way was less than good. Sometimes it may have even added work onto us. If I was not redeemed, and my job not redeemed with me, I may have just done things my way behind his back. Now I am not perfect, and sometimes I did this, but for the most part I tried to honor him. I would defend him to my crew, do as he asked, and even try to anticipate his next wish. Why? To make his life easier, to give him grace, to show him Christ. And although the other guys complained and toiled at the task at hand, I just needed to work. This is how our work can be redeemed.

And then I got to take a position of work that was more of a calling. I get to wake up daily and do what I have been created to do.

This is not to say I don’t wake up some days and wish I could go back to bed. I don’t think Paul was always happy about not being able to sleep in either (I just assume everyone likes sleeping in as much as I do, even the Apostles, ‘cause why wouldn’t you). But when I really think about it, I wouldn’t want to do anything else besides what I am doing. If I were to win a billion dollars today- which if you believe my email from the deposed king of Nigeria, I have just waiting for me in an off shore account- I would be doing exactly what I am doing now. Well, I shouldn’t say exactly. I would pay someone to mow my lawn, and clean my house, but vocationally, I would still want to work for a church and plant my own someday. I would still think about how I could do some art to bring a different face to worship, and I still would feel the most alive when I am up here speaking. And it is the same for Paul.

He starts off this chapter reminding the Ephesians that he is a prisoner, and he ends this section telling them not to worry about it. He says:

13So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.

Don’t loose heart. It is okay that I am suffering. If I had a billion dollars, I would still be in a Roman jail awaiting execution. How can Paul say this? It is his calling. In Acts 10, the moment of Paul’s conversion we read:

10Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, "Ananias." And he said, "Here I am, Lord." 11And the Lord said to him, "Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, 12and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight." 13But Ananias answered, "Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. 14And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name." 15But the Lord said to him, "Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. 16For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name." 17So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit." 18And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized; 19and taking food, he was strengthened.

Paul’s suffering was part of his calling, and Paul knew it. How can Paul be so nonchalant about it? Look at Paul’s life. First, he is redeemed. He no longer needs to be a slave to sin. Next, he no longer has to hate. After that, he gets to plant multiple churches. He is the liaison between the Gentiles and the Jews. He gets to see many become Christian, watching them cast off the chains that he still remembers. He watches person after person become redeemed by Christ, and move from death to life. He then watches these disciples faithfully pass on the message of Jesus, and watches the churches he started grow and flourish. He then gets to shepherd them, becoming their spiritual authority. And finally, he writes about half of the New Testament. And the price for all this- prison and death. Not so bad.

I mean we are all going to die anyway, and if God is in charge, you’re going to die when he wants you to, and not a minute earlier, so there is no need to fear death. Paul gets this, embraces his calling, and so can tell the Church at Ephesus, look, its no big deal. This is part of the calling, and I have accepted it. More than that, I have been born for this very purpose. I would have it no other way.

Don’t mishear me, not all of us are called to die for Jesus. Don’t get scarred. That is not what I am saying. I am saying though, that if it is in your calling, when it is time, you wouldn’t have it any other way. I am saying that each one of us does have a calling. I am saying that this work can be redeemed from toil. We can have redeemed work lives, just like we can have redeemed though lives, redeemed relationships, redeemed anything.

This salvation that Jesus offers us is for the right now, and is a salvation from, not just death, but from our former life. By accepting Christ, we not only get into heaven, we join the Kingdom of God here on Earth- and our lives can look completely different, can be completely different.

If you are sitting here today and wondering what this life is for, or what you are supposed to do with the rest of your years, I tell you, you have a purpose. God has created you for a calling. It may not seem obvious to you right now what that is, but you have one nonetheless. When Paul was in Tarsus, he had no idea that he was to be the Apostle to the Gentiles- but he was. When Paul listened to Jesus call and found a man called Ananias he had no idea that he would write parts of the Bible. And when Paul went to Antioch with Barnabas he had no idea that he was going to plant some of the first churches the world had known, but he was.

The common strand flowing through all of Paul’s converted life was that he never stood still. He didn’t always know what his next move should be, so he would move in a direction until he was told not to. If he had sat in Tarsus and never went to Antioch, would he have ever caught the bug for missions? But he was obedient, and faithful, and open to what God was doing in both his life and the lives around him, and because of that he, not only starts a church in Ephesus, but later writes them a letter explaining the mysteries of the Christian faith, and we still read it today.

If you don’t know what your calling is, move. Pray, ask God to direct you. Examine yourself, find out what you are good at, and what you love to do. What would you do for a living if you had a billion dollars? Get into community, ask them what they see in you. They often see things in you that you can’t see for yourself. Start living a redeemed life at work, at home, in community. And most importantly- move. God works through our movement. That is not to say that sometimes we are not called to be still, but even then we know by moving. Follow Barnabus to Antioch. Don’t stay in Tarsus until you figure out what your calling is, that is not how it works.

If you are here and you are not a Christian, hear the new life Jesus is calling YOU towards. His promise is not just of a room in the clouds, but of a new life right now. The barriers between you and God can be broken down, the walls you have erected between yourself and others can fall to the ground, and the toil of life can become a joyous calling. You can have the life God originally created you to live, if you would only accept it.

I’m not saying it is going to be all sunshine and roses. I have tough days and depressed days, and days when I don’t want to follow this Jesus guy, but even then, it is infinitely better than what I had before. I no longer need to feel purposeless, since He has given me purpose. I no longer need to feel isolated and alone, since He has given me His church. I no longer need to hold onto resentments since He has forgiven me. I no longer need to toil since He has given me a calling.

You too can have this redeemed life that Paul is talking about, that I am talking about. It is by grace. It is a free gift of God. You can’t earn it. You can’t work for it. You can’t buy it. It is free. And it is yours if you want it.

If you are here and you are a follower of Jesus, I implore you as I did in my last sermon, to accept this abundant life that we are given. Stop living defeated. Now, the last time I said that, it had to do with the sin that hangs so close to us, and this time I say it about everything. Stop living defeated at work. Stop living defeated with no work. Cling to God and ask him to reveal the calling he has for you. He created you for a purpose, and part of that purpose is a job. It is meant to be fun. It is meant to be worship. Stop complaining at work, and instead work as unto the Lord. Stop being lazy, and work twice as hard as the world. Stop sitting in Tarsus and follow someone to Antioch. Stop lying down in defeat and start moving.

The worship band is going to come up and start playing, and I encourage you to use this time to search. Search yourself, search God, search the Scripture. Repent of just trying to toil through life, and come before God asking to work. He has created you for so much more. He has created you with a calling.