Body Building
Jill and I have been enjoying watching the Olympics. It is so humbling to see these athletes some as young as high school students and others in their thirties who have so thoroughly dedicated themselves to pursuing an Olympic medal that they have made countless sacrifices for many years. From being ruthless about their diet to moving away from home to being willing to endure a significant amount of physical pain as they work out for hours and hours a day athletes persevere through a great deal in pursuit of their goal of building their body so it is in peak condition to compete at the games. You can see the results of their efforts depending on what sport they do.
August 5, 2012
Ephesians 4:1-16, Body Building
Doug Scalise, Brewster Baptist Church
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The female gymnasts like Gabby Douglas are tiny but have ridiculous balance, flexibility, and explosion. The male gymnasts tend to be short but they have huge, Popeye-like biceps and shoulders. The swimmers like Michael Phelps and Missy Franklin have broad lat muscles in their back, the long distance runners like Galen Rupp tend to be very light and lean, while the sprinters usually have huge powerful legs. Except for the folks doing archery and perhaps some of the guys putting the shot, it doesn’t look like any of them have any body fat at all. It is enough to get you off the couch and outside or in the gym.
Closer to home we obviously have thousands of cyclists riding by the church this morning as part of the Pan Mass Challenge most of whom I’m sure have trained if they’re riding the entire 190 miles in two days. Paul Goodhue of BBC has ridden 3374 over the last many months to prepare to ride in the PMC. That is a lot of training, time, and energy and builds up your body.
In Ephesians 4, another Paul writes about a different kind of body building. The apostle Paul is encouraging us all to do our part in building up the body of Christ so it is strong, healthy, mature, and functioning the way it is intended. Listen to Ephesians 4:1-16, “I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body & one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God & Father of all, who is above all & through all & in all.
7 But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore it is said, “When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive; he gave gifts to his people.” 9 (When it says, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descendeda into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.) 11 The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. 14 We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. 15 But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.”
Athletes engage in certain behaviors in terms of nutrition, specific exercises, recovery, video study, visualization and other mental preparation to be at their best. In the same way, when Paul writes about building up the body of Christ, he begs us to do several things so we can “to lead a life worthy of the calling to which” we “have been called.” First he says such a life is marked by five things: Humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with one another in love, and
making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Let’s look at each of those briefly. Humility is modesty and respectfulness. Humility is not thinking less of yourself so much as it is thinking of yourself less. This is something Paul writes about repeatedly in his letters, we see it also in Romans 12:9-21 where he describes the marks of a true Christian which include these words relating to humility (Romans 12:16b-17), “Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are.”
Gentleness – is being kind or mild, having a gracious and honorable manner. The opposite of gentleness might be rough or abrasive.
Patience – is the ability to endure waiting, delay, or provocation without becoming annoyed or upset, or to persevere calmly when faced with difficulties. How are you doing so far? That is just three.
Bearing with one another in love (bear with is another way of saying be patient), the point here is how we are to bear with one another, we are to do so in love, as opposed to annoyance, hostility, or anger. The fifth part of leading a life worthy of the calling to which we have been called” is
Making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Olympic athletes must make every effort in order to be successful at their event. A number of them will drop to the track after competing because they are absolutely spent. How much effort do we make to maintain the unity of the Spirit? Paul says we’re not to make a half-hearted, occasional, once-in-a while effort, but we are to be making every effort. Again, it is not just what we do, as with bearing with one another, but how we do it, the former in love, and the latter in the bond of peace. Think about your behavior, conversations, even your emails this past week – how would you evaluate your own behavior just in these five marks of a worthy Christian life? How well have you lived them out? Where have you fallen short? If we as Christians sought diligently to do nothing else but to pursue these five virtues, attitudes, and behaviors with Christ’s help, we would grow significantly in our spiritual maturity and demonstrating the reality and vitality of our faith in Christ. All of these are important and necessary in our relationships with other people. If life in our families, work places or church were perfect there would be no need for humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with one another in love, and making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. The fact that Paul begs us to live a live marked by these things, as opposed to arrogance, abrasiveness, impatience, selfishness, and divisiveness tells us how important it is for us to strive for these things at all times.
After mentioning these attitudes and behaviors that are needed because of what may be different among us, Paul then focuses on what Christians have in common. In stressing the unity we have in the Spirit, Paul mentions the many “one’s” that hold us together as Christians. You might want to underline them in your Bible. “There is one body & one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God & Father of all, who is above all & through all & in all.” No matter how different we may be from another Christian, we are united by our participating in the body of Christ which is the church. By one Spirit who has been poured into our hearts individually and which, Paul writes to the Corinthians, dwells in us personally and in the church. We have one hope which rests in Jesus who is the Lord who has called us all to believe in and belong to him. We have one faith we believe, one baptism which we undergo to publicly profess our faith and confess our sins. We are united by the one God who is above, through, and in all of us. Those ties that bind us together must be stronger than any lesser ties that would pull us apart or divide us. Author Joni Eareckson Tada wrote, “Believers are never told to become one; we already are one and are expected to act like it.”
Paul goes on to say that each of us have been given grace and spiritual gifts in order to build up the body of Christ. To build up our physical body, we do certain exercises. We “exercise” our spiritual gifts by serving the Lord and others.
In service we use our gifts, “goods & strength in the active promotion of the good of others & the causes of God in our world.” Serving others helps to train us away from arrogance, possessiveness, envy, resentment, or covetousness. Jesus says clearly in Mark 10:42-42 that those who are great are to live as servants
When people of European descent were moving into the American west, the major means of transportation was the stagecoach. We’ve all seen them in movies. What you might not know is that the stagecoach had three different kinds of tickets – first class, second class, and third class. If you had a first-class ticket, you could remain seated during the entire trip no matter what happened. If the stagecoach got stuck in the mud, or had trouble making it up a steep hill, or even if a wheel fell off, you could remain seated if you had a first-class ticket.
If you had a second-class ticket you could also remain seated- until there was a problem. In case of a problem, second-class ticketholders would have to get off until the problem was resolved. You could stand off to one side and watch as other people worked. You didn’t have to get your hands dirty. But second-class ticketholders were not allowed to stay on board. When the stagecoach was unstuck, you could get back on board & take your seat.
If you had a third-class ticket, you would definitely have to get off if there was a problem because it was your responsibility to help solve the problem. You had to get out &/or push or help fix a broken wheel or whatever was needed because you only had a third-class ticket.
In the church, no one is holding a first or second-class ticket. We’re all traveling third-class. We’re all called to serve, to take responsibility, to help solve problems & to meet needs. One person contributing or failing to contribute can make a significant difference.
The goal in physical exercise is better health or the ability to play or compete in certain sports or activities we enjoy. Paul says the goal of our spiritual body building is that “we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.” We can tell our physical bodies are growing, maturing, or changing by measuring them or testing them. How do you know if you’re growing spiritually? How do you measure or assess that? Again, we can simply look at the things Paul mentioned earlier in these verses that I’ve talked about all ready and ask ourselves, how are we doing in the areas of humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. What would the judges give my performance this past week? How would my scores look if we stood on this platform at the end of the week and anxiously looked for the judges opinion of how we lived the life to which we’ve been called?
Each us, Paul concludes, can be and needs to be evaluating and determining what we can do to promote “the body’s growth in building itself up in love.” If what we’re doing or saying will not help to build the body up in love, we need to ask ourselves if we should really be doing or saying it. As one preacher from a former century (Richard Baxter) wrote, “In necessary things, unity; in doubtful things, liberty; in all things, charity.”
Prayer:
As Your people, we pray that your love will unite us into a fellowship of faith marked by humility, gentleness, patience, love and unity. Cleanse us of everything that would sap our strength for togetherness and remind us frequently of all that unites us one body, one Spirit, one hope,one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God & Father of all.
Unravel the knots in our spirits. Cleanse the error in our minds.
Free us from the bondage of our negative imaginations.
Break down the barriers that sometimes keep us apart.
Reveal to us new possibilities for service as we seek to grow and mature personally as followers of Jesus and as we seek to build up the body of Christ in love. Kindle within us the fires of your compassion so that we may not wait too long to learn to love.
In the name of our Lord, we pray.
Amen.