Reading: Ephesians 3:1-9
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Fairmont, WV, Sunday 16th September, 2012
A printable PDF file can be found here
These are anxious days for our churches. Within our society are many voices suggesting religion has had it's day. Within our religious institutions divisions run as deeply as those in the realm of politics. The game keeps changing. The goalposts keep moving. To survive we are called to embrace change. And if there is one thing that makes congregations anxious... it's 'change!'
But the teaching of Jesus is not a message that allows for complacency. Such notions as 'Taking up a Cross' and 'Being Born Again' and 'Losing ourselves in order to find ourselves' easily become railroaded by more pressing concerns such as the credentials required for ordination, figuring out how we are going to meet the budget and true burning issues such as 'what color the sanctuary carpet should be'.
The letter Paul wrote to the Ephesians was written from a prison cell. Paul knew a thing or two about change. He was changed from being the one who had it all together, who knew 'who was who' and 'what was what' into a blind man struggling to find his way. On the Damascus Road, in an instant, he went beyond 'We've never done it this way before' and 'We tried this and it didn't work' and 'It doesn't matter where you are from, believe me, this won't work here!” When Paul writes about change he writes in capital letters.
One of the things I love about the change that came over Paul's life was that it was a change that left him completely out of his depth. A change that left him completely reliant on God and in total awe of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Ephesians 3:8 Paul writes 'Although I am less than the least of all the Lord's people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ”
In the transliteration given in Eugene Petersen’s 'The Message Bible' we read “When it came to presenting the Message to people who had no background in God's way, I was the least qualified of any of the available Christians. God saw to it that I was equipped, but you can be sure that it had nothing to do with my natural abilities. And so here I am, preaching and writing about things that are way over my head, the inexhaustible riches and generosity of Christ.” I adore the way Paul is pictured as saying 'Here I am Lord, preaching about things … way over my head... inexhaustible riches and generosity of Christ'
So, Elise, as you take the wheel of the good ship Fairmont, if there are moments when you feel completely overwhelmed and out of your depth and feel as though you are in way over your head, rejoice ...you've got a friend …. in Paul. If the challenge of these days, of the changing landscape of church and society, of these anxious times of change, seems completely overwhelming and you wonder how on earth all that stuff you learnt in seminary and in your last positions actually applies here, then take comfort from Paul who tells us, again from 'The Message' 'I was the least qualified of any of the available Christians. God saw to it that I was equipped, but you can be sure that it had nothing to do with my natural abilities.'
In these anxious days it is good to remember that our gospel is a mystery. Paul tells us that everything proceeds according to 'God's secret plan'. Though we may have some days when we question if God's plan really is the best one.... (actually I shouldn't say 'some days'... maybe it's more like 'most days' we question God's will...) it remains an essential tenant of our belief that we do actually believe that God is in control.
An old friend and West Virginian Baptist pastor in Fayetteville, Rev. Harry Fuller, used to regularly have his congregation participate in an affirmation of faith that was short, sharp and to the point. So please repeat after me;
'There is a God.' 'There is a God.'
'And it isn't me' 'And it isn't me'
If we can try in our ministries to remember that simple thing, it will prevent us from running into a whole lot of trouble. Our vision can be so limited. Though not physically confined like Paul, we can be imprisoned by all sorts of things. Our calling practically guarantees it. We are constantly bombarded with peoples needs, our church buildings needs, our denominations struggles, our emotional needs, our financial needs, our families needs, our spouses needs, not to mention our own struggle for time for sabbath and self.
God does not have these limitations. God's secret plan is superior to our plans. God's plan is not limited to us, to our congregations, to our denomination, to our town or even our nation. God's plan is already at work. We may not recognize it or perceive it or sense it. That's the thing about secrets! They are .. well... secretive. It takes a while to realize what's going on. It took Paul a while to get in on the secret.. Why should it be any different for us?
According to verse 6 the secret is something is like this. 'The mystery is that people who have never heard of God and those who have heard of him all their lives stand on the same ground before God. They get the same offer, same help, same promises in Christ Jesus. The Message is accessible and welcoming to everyone, across the board.'
This verse makes ministry a little easier to do. It reminds us that we don't have to bring God to anyone or introduce Jesus to anybody. The Spirit is already working with them. Our task is to get them to realize it. I say all, but “All' is of course the tricky bit. Tricky, but not impossible. With God nothing is impossible. God has a secret plan! Always has. We just don't always see it.
I never saw it when many many moons ago when I went to my first youth retreats at Cedar Lakes and Bluestone. This Presbytery still has a wonderful thing called 'youth council'. When I first experienced youth council there was this crazy red-haired teenager trying to teach a whole bunch of us these odd things called energizers. 'Star-Trekkin across the universe' 'Jump up liking your whipping a horse” “There's Klingons on the starboard bow” 'Make like you're shakin' off a Klingon.' Say what? You do realize I'm British don't you! That crazy red head was a younger (but maybe only slightly less crazy) version of Elise. And God had a secret plan.
Didn't see that plan when she went off to Marshall. Was excited to visit PROWL and reconnect with some of the kids I'd met at Youth Council. A few years later, beyond possibility I am invited on a retreat with Marshall students at Myrtle Beach . Who has left college by then, but is working down there and comes to visit? Elise. And so it goes. On a number of other occasions our lives have crossed paths. That's how it seems to be when you swim in the Presbyterian sea! People cross your path. You lose touch. You get back in touch. God's secret plan.
And now...look at this! Elise being installed as pastor here at this wonderful welcoming church of Fairmont, WV. With a wonderful partner in Ryan and three delightful children Kaylen Rose, Knox Levin and Terryn Alexander. Who knows? Here's hoping they may grow up and be as wonderfully gifted and crazy as she is! God's secret plan. Best sometimes just to stand back and say “Allright!”
'This is my life work' writes Paul in Ephesians 3:6: 'Helping people understand and respond to the Message. It came as a sheer gift to me, a real surprise, God handling all the details.' Best to let God handle all the details. Best to let God work it out. For sure ask questions and take time to wonder and ponder and even try to think it all through. But never lose sight of the mystery of God's love for us. The love that's always been there, but which we took a time to wake up to!
There are ways that we get to participate in the mystery. There are ways that the secret plan becomes clearer to us. We have our church communities. God works through community. Pastors can only take their congregations as far as their congregations will go with them. And, again, these are anxious days that call for change. Change can cause us to want to stick in the mud or recreate the past or a thousand other avoidance strategies, rather than launch into unknown waters.
We participate in the mystery through applying ourselves to the understanding of the Scriptures. This is something we do best in community, be it our local church, a study group, or even these days some kind of internet forum. We have our Confessions as a guide. We have have each other to bounce our thoughts off.
We participate in the mystery through prayer. Elise's life has been surrounded by prayer. She was baptized by her grandfather Rev. Robert C. Steele in the Philippi Presbyterian Church. She has a family that have prayed for her. When, as pastors, we look back over the years, we realize our whole lives have been lived against the backdrop of peoples prayers for us. Such is a humbling thought that moves us to faithfulness.
So I encourage you as a congregation to pray for your new pastor. You can support your church financially, that's always good! You can support your church with your presence. That too is very important. But you participate in the mystery, you appreciate God's secret plan, only when you give yourself in prayerful support of your pastor, your church and your churches ministries.
With your prayerful support Elise can apply herself to the task that Paul claimed was God's calling. 'My task is to bring out in the open and make plain what God, who created all this in the first place, has been doing in secret and behind the scenes all along.' (Ephesians 3:9) . Or as it reads in the NIV “To make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things.”
In these days of change and uncertainty the model of being 'Administrators of Mystery' may indeed be a wonderful one to describe the teaching elders task. We do not know what the future church will be like. But we trust that God knows and is working it out. God's Secret Plan.
Elise, I wish you every blessing for the future and thank you for this opportunity to be a part of this special day, in the life of this historically faithful congregation, in this wild and wonderful corner of God's creation.
Finally; Love God, love people and never stop applying yourself to the discovery of God's secret plan.
May you truly be an 'Administrator of Mystery'.
Amen!
Rev. Adrian J. Pratt B.D.
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