“The Heresy of Grace”
Ephesians 3
Allen Huff
Jonesborough Presbyterian Church
(Revised - 5/2/16, for a community worship service)
In my opinion, Ephesians 3 provides a window into the very
heart and soul of Christian spirituality.
Paul regularly
writes to Gentiles who, for countless generations, have been treated as less
than human by the Jewish community – at least by the theologically severe Pharisees.
Having assumed the role of protectors of Abrahamic tradition, Pharisees
consider themselves the gatekeepers of religious purity. And having codified
not only laws and doctrines, but specific prejudices and fears, they have
reduced the world to Jews and non-Jews
Into that culture
of black-and-white, right-and-wrong, us-and-them, an iconoclastic, Galilean
rabbi has lived in such a way as to reveal the full promise of God’s covenant
with Abram.
“The Lord
said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house
to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will
bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will
bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you
all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’” (Gen
12:1-3)
Pharisaic Judaism claims the first part
of that covenant while largely ignoring the second part. After Constantine, the
Christian church develops the same spiritual pathology. So, in many ways, over
the last 1700 years, the church has lived as curse as often as it has (as we have) we have lived as blessing. The
late British missionary, teacher, and author, Lesslie Newbigin, was fond of
saying that the “greatest heresy…in monotheism results from taking the first
half of God’s call to Abraham…and neglecting or rejecting the second half.”1
It is ironic: When followers of Jesus have tried to live as he lived, offering
help, forgiveness, community, and hope without rigid preconditions, Pharisaic
Christianity, being hostile and clannish, declares such efforts unbiblical,
even heretical.
Throughout his letter to the Ephesians, Paul embraces the
second half of that seminal covenant. He declares that God is Mystery, and that
all life – everywhere and for all time – comes from, belongs to, and returns to
God.
“With all wisdom and insight,” Paul writes in Ephesians 1, God
“has made known to us the mystery of his will…a plan for the fullness of time,
to gather up all things in him,
things in heaven and things on earth.”
Ephesians 3 continues this affirmation. Listen for God’s
Word to you and to God’s church.
Ephesians 3 - NRSV
1This
is the reason that I Paul am a prisoner for Christ Jesus for the sake of you
Gentiles— 2for surely you have already heard of the commission of
God’s grace that was given me for you, 3and how the mystery was made
known to me by revelation, as I wrote above in a few words, 4a
reading of which will enable you to perceive my understanding of the mystery of
Christ. 5In former generations this mystery was not made known to
humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the
Spirit: 6that is, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of
the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
7Of
this gospel I have become a servant according to the gift of God’s grace that
was given me by the working of his power. 8Although I am the very
least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles
the news of the boundless riches of Christ, 9and to make everyone
see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all
things; 10so 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. 11This was in accordance with the eternal purpose that he
has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12in whom we have access
to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him. 13I pray
therefore that you may not lose heart over my sufferings for you; they are your
glory.
14For
this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15from whom every
family in heaven and on earth takes its name. 16I pray that,
according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened
in your inner being with power through his Spirit, 17and that Christ
may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in
love. 18I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all
the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19and
to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled
with all the fullness of God.
20Now
to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far
more than all we can ask or imagine, 21to him be glory in the church
and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
“The plan of the mystery hidden for
ages in God.” Paul also calls it “the eternal purpose…carried out in Christ,”
and “the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge.” This well-planned mystery
gives “every family in heaven and on earth…its name.”
Do you hear the echoes of God’s
promise to Abram? “I
will bless you, and make your name great, so that…in you all the families of
the earth shall be blessed.”
Abram packs up his family and his
belongings. He gets a new name, Abraham. He begins a new family, Israel. In his
wanderings, belongings are replaced
by belonging. He is “rooted and
grounded in love,” a Love that “surpasses knowledge,” and “dwells in his heart
by faith.”
The Cloud
of Unknowing is a timeless, spiritual classic. It is a letter written by an
anonymous, 14th-century mentor to a novice just beginning his monastic
journey. Toward the beginning of the book, the author offers this foundational,
if confusing teaching: “Lift up your heart to God, with a humble impulse of
love; and have [God] as your aim, not any of his goods…labor in it until you
experience the desire. For when you first begin to undertake it, all that you
find is a darkness, a sort of cloud of unknowing…This darkness and cloud is
always between you and your God, no matter what you do, and it prevents you
from seeing him by the light of understanding in your reason…So set yourself to
rest in this darkness as long as you can…For if you are to see…or to experience
[God] at all…it must always be in this cloud and in this darkness.”2
Whoever said
God is all sweetness and light – bless his heart.
Abram enters
the dark, unknowing cloud of Love by going,
though he has no idea what or where.
Moses, a fugitive felon, enters it
by confronting Pharaoh and demanding the release of Pharaoh’s entire Hebrew
labor force.
Isaiah describes the Cloud of Unknowing as the landscape of a
God whose “thoughts and ways” are incomprehensible to humankind.
Jesus embodies the cloud by giving human
expression to those incomprehensible thoughts and ways. He fearlessly demonstrates
the “breadth and length and height and depth” of the perfect Love and the heretical
grace of God. Paul calls it “scandal of the cross.”
We cannot
create the Cloud of Unknowing. We
simply enter it by faith.
Almost a year ago now, nine
senseless deaths in a Charleston church cast us into the dark mystery. How have
we responded? Some states removed Confederate flags from public buildings. Many
individuals have flown the stars and bars all the more because of that. Still,
the wider body, wisely choosing critical reflection over biased nostalgia, has
said, ‘We remove this symbol to museums, to places of interpretive remembrance.’
Whether this was a good step into the
cloud remains to be seen.
Few lawmakers are willing to risk
their lives on the slippery slope of gun control. And maybe stricter laws would
help. Maybe not.
Here’s the thing: The lowering of
flags and the passing of laws are outward, symbolic actions. Societies that
experience progress, growth, and healing usually have some bold and hopeful
core who enters the Cloud of Unknowing
on behalf of the whole. They wade into the darkness. They – and We are part of They – so, we entrust ourselves to the mysterious workings of Love,
where visible acts reflect invisible, spiritual transformation. Only Love and
Gratitude can transform outward action into sacramental
living. Until then, our responses to violence and fear will likely remain
superficial – bruises rather than scars.
It seems to me
that the Church’s role on earth is to
re-present the sacramental life of Christ for
the earth. When “rooted and grounded in love,” the Church exists not for its
own sake, but so that in us “all
the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
It was a blistering
hot day when the Confederate flag came down over the South Carolina state
capitol. Celebrants and protestors alike wearied in the heat. At one point, an
elderly white gentleman wearing a black t-shirt with a swastika emblazoned on
the front began to show signs of dangerous heat exhaustion. A black police
officer – in fact, the head of the SC Department of Public Safety – saw the
man’s distress. He immediately held the man upright and led him up the 40 or so
stairs to the capitol. Inside, the black officer situated the white man comfortably
in an air-conditioned room and left him in the care of a black EMT.
A snapshot of the officer helping the
withering, neo-Nazi protestor got posted on the internet and seen around the
world.
The officer,
Leroy Smith, “said he was taken aback by the worldwide attention but hoped the
image would help society move past the recent spasms of hate and violence…Asked
why he thinks the photo has had such resonance, he gave a simple answer: Love.
‘I think
that’s the greatest thing in the world,’ he said, ‘love. And that’s why so many
people were moved by it.’”3
“Rulers and
authorities” can fight their wars, raise and lower their flags, enact and
repeal their laws. And you and I, we simply cannot afford to find solace in
clannish religion. We can no longer serve as drones of hostility and fear. We
who live, and move, and have our being in the Household of God must be rooted
and grounded in the Love of Christ which surpasses all knowing – and all
ignorance.
When abiding in grateful, fearless Love,
even our most personal actions become sacramental acts of community.
They are acts of the transforming,
heretical grace through which God is choosing, and blessing “all the families of the earth.”
1Brian D. McLaren, A Generous Orthodoxy, Zondervan,
Grand Rapids, MI, 2004. Pp.120-121.
2The Cloud of Unknowing, Author Unknown, Paulist Press, Ed., James Walsh,
1981. Pp. 119-121.
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