How is the Presbyterian church counter cultural? (Part 4) - Rev Allister Lane
READING: EPHESIANS 4:1-16
Sermon on 25 July 2021
This month I’ve preached a series on being the Church. We’ve been reminded that the Church is ‘catholic’ (universal across the world and across time).
We are connected and we find belonging. This belonging we are part of is characterised by unity.
And unity is highlighted in today’s Bible reading that is part of the letter to the church in Ephesus. These Christians are instructed:
don’t focus on personal triumph, but focus on humility, gentleness, patience, “bearing with one another in love (v3)
I want to quickly summarise how the author highlights unity in three ways.
1. One-ness
We are a community of many people, but the emphases is on one-ness:
There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God (vv4-6)
one, one, one!
This unity isn’t just wishful thinking – it has already been achieved for us, through the cross of Christ – there is not longer any barrier (of significance) between us.
2. Peace
And this results in peace:
make every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (v3)
The truth is we are already held together by peace – that has been achieved by Christ. We have no good reason to be in conflict – all hostility now has an antidote; we have been reconciled to God and to one another.
3. Body
The third way the author highlights unity is to talk about being a Body. We heard this image last week, and it is considered further here:
as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love. (v16)
We find unity in body building!
One-ness and peace as a Body.
But (once again) we need to land this theological truth quickly…in case we remain floating above the ground and don’t see how it connects to our reality together as a church community here and now – today!
So I want say something about the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand, and why the Presbyterian Church is counter-cultural!
Remember: the Church is all those who are the adopted children of God – we are a catholic/universal Church. AND we live in different places, speak different languages and have various ways of being Church.
So, we have various denominational identities in the Church. One way is being organised together is Presbyterian.[1]
I want to say more about the great aspects of being Presbyterian, but first let me explain why the Presbyterian Church is counter-cultural. David Gushee (who visited St John’s a few years ago) says:
Jesus taught that participation in God’s reign requires the disciplined practices of a Christ-following countercultural community that obeys God in its inner communal life and by publicly engaging in works of love, justice, and protection of the dignity and sacred worth of human life.
Kingdom Ethics, p195
As a countercultural community, we don’t reflect the prevailing trends, fads and obsessions – we reflect the priorities of the Kingdom proclaimed in the Gospels by Jesus.
Three ways the Presbyterian Church is countercultural…
1. Not self-centred, but aware of belonging to God and others
This is very much the emphasis of today’s scripture reading, as we’ve examined already. We don’t focus on personal triumph, but focus on humility, gentleness, patience and love for others.
This kind of ‘belonging’ isn’t just a special kind of being nice. Belonging is sustained by the biblical understanding of:
2. Covenantal relationships
These are special relationships with mutual responsibilities intended to create and sustain community.
Covenant involves the freely given declaration of loyalty, ensuring stability and commitment. Covenants have a contractual dimension, but go beyond contracts in their fullness and gravity.
In the Old Testament we see that God gifts covenantal relationship with Israel. One other example of covenantal relationship is marriage. In the covenant of marriage, each person gives themselves to the other – and then they live in such ways so as to fulfil the promises made to the other.
Faithfulness to covenant relationships is a norm that applies both to God and others. It is how God relates to us, and what is expected in commitment to this kind of relationship.
In a world of so many exploitative relationships, covenantal relationships promote mutual flourishing.
3. Different relationship to wealth and materialism
Perhaps one of the great seductions for humanity continues to be wealth and materialism. We cultivate a faith that puts wealth and materialism into the right perspective. We do not glorify these, but glorify God the Creator of all things, who provides for us.
How do we do this…?
Each Sunday, as part of our collective worship, we make our Offering to God. By doing this we recognise the power wealth has, and offer back a portion of what we have in an honest response to God, who is the Lord of our lives.
Perhaps you feel like you are still learning how to do this! Actually, we are always learning ALL three –
our belonging,
living in covenantal relationships
and how to relate properly to wealth and materialism.
Can you see how being Presbyterian in New Zealand is countercultural? And are you wondering what are some of the great aspects of being Presbyterian…?
Here is what contributes to the Presbyterian essence:
Word and Sacrament form the core of our response to God’s grace, and is recognised as vital for re-membering who we are, and WHOSE we are
grace is promoted over discipline
leadership is ordained + lay (we don’t have a dominance of clergy; there is a mix of leadership in all decision-making parts of the Church – Session, Presbytery and the General Assembly - in the Presbyterian Church there is ‘some General Assembly required’!)
The last great thing about Presbyterianism I want to mention this morning is this.
We organise ourselves by committing to ways of being church that ensure no one person or group in the Church exerts too much control.
We prioritise listening to one another – giving everyone a voice.
This is not a belief in the philosophy of egalitarianism, but that together we better discern God’s will. This year the St John’s Session (group of elders) have made the discernment of God’s will our focus. We have committed to grow in spiritual leadership by exploring spiritual practices – personally and together.
These spiritual practices are…
Solitude and silence
Engaging the Scriptures
Prayer
Self-knowledge and self-examination
By developing these we become more able to listen to God, and one another. Because we believe God has given us one another to help hear God’s will.
I hope you see that this is something relevant for us all, and we look forward to sharing our discoveries with you all in due course, and inviting you to join us.
Next week I want us to identify where being in the Church takes us - what is our purpose? We will listen afresh to what Jesus teaches in Matthew’s Gospel – about salt, light (and good deeds.)
Amen.
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[1] To give an idea of what Presbyterians think of our way of being organised, here are the words used when someone makes a commitment to serve the church in the particular roles of Minister or elder, they have to: “acknowledge the Presbyterian government of this Church to be agreeable to the Word of God”.
I love the blend of confidence and humility in this statement. There is confidence in the Word of God, and humility that our way of being church is ‘agreeable’. Not ‘awesome’ or ‘the greatest’ …’agreeable’. Presbyterians don’t claim to be ‘better’ than other denominations.