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The Essentials of Ministry

The Letter to the Ephesians was John Calvin's favorite book in the New Testament. While that may not mean much to the average Christian, it usually gets the attention of some lifelong Presbyterians. I drop John Calvin's name occasionally as a way of encouraging members of our denomination to read this important book of the Bible, to understand its purpose and receive its relevance for us today.

Ephesians was apparently a circular letter sent from one to another of the seven churches that the Apostle Paul had founded in Asia. It took its name from the most prominent of the cities to which it was addressed---Ephesus, a center for oriental mystery religions. The temple of the great goddess Artemis in Ephesus attracted so many worshipers laden with offerings that it became, in practice, the central bank of Asia. You may recall the story in Acts 19 where Paul got into considerable trouble in Ephesus upon being accused of hurting the business of those who made silver shrines of Artemis. The artisans whose income depended on selling these trinkets instigated a riot in the public amphitheater. The town clerk saved Paul and restored order by asserting that the religious, political and economic status quo was perfectly safe. Then as now, that is often the real issue behind supposed religious debates---the attempt to protect the societal status quo.

A History of Conflict

The Letter to the Ephesians was addressed to churches in a time of social disintegration. Traditional values seemed threatened and it appeared that the church might be torn apart by competing claims to the truth and cries for justice. The writer of Ephesians was addressing a situation in the early church that is amazingly similar to what we are experiencing in the Presbyterian church and the wider community today. We are often divided over what kind of behavior is appropriate for Presbyterians. Paul experienced that problem in its most extreme form.

In the earliest days of the Christian movement, to be a Christian one first had to become a Jew and keep all of the Mosaic law. Then Peter, and later Paul, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, discovered that Gentiles, people like you and me, could become Christians. We, non-Jews, could become Christians without first becoming Jews and following all the detailed rules of the Mosaic law. Imagine what a traumatic change it was to give up so much of what people had associated with being properly religious. That meant anyone could be allowed into the church.

I once spent a sabbatical at the Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Relations in Collegeville, Minnesota. One of the other residents at the Institute was a Lutheran theologian who had been kicked out of his professorship at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis when the ultraconservative leadership of the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church purged everyone who wasn't toeing their line. He was fortunate to get a job at Luther Northwest in St. Paul and he told me about attending his first faculty Christmas party. The rest of the faculty was singing Christmas carols in Norwegian, so he began to sing "Silent Night" in German. The general reaction was summed up in one partygoer's response: "There goes the neighborhood!"

Of course, the conflicts between German and Norwegian Lutherans are nothing compared to the struggle between Jews and Gentiles in the early Church. Consider the struggles between the Israelis and the Palestinians today. The inclusion of Gentiles led to fragmentation in the church. Gentile Christians boasted of their independence from the law. They were modern people and they were intolerant of the more traditional Jewish-Christian comrades. They felt the freedom to experiment with new, modern forms of religion. Some of them even combined elements of the oriental mystery religions with their Christian faith. Paul needed to remind these new Christians of the roots of the Christian faith in the Old Testament biblical tradition. At the same time, there was no way that Paul would retreat from his commitment to allow Gentiles membership in the Christian church without keeping the whole Jewish law. This was a new situation and it demanded a new kind of acceptance.

It is hard for us to recognize that God may be doing something new. We need the reminder of Isaiah 43:19, where God is depicted as saying: "I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?" It is our responsibility to perceive the new that God will do. So Paul took hold of the situation in his time by pointing to three essentials for ministry-an essential attitude, an essential belief and an essential perspective.

An Essential Attitude

Simply put, Paul's idea of an essential attitude for ministry is an attitude of humility. Paul, presumably writing from prison in Rome, implores his readers in Ephesians 4:1, "I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called."

The noun "called" or "calling" is never plural in scripture. There is one calling or vocation for all Christians. We are called to be children of God, disciples of Jesus Christ and, by the Holy Spirit, light and leaven in the world. Whatever diverse tasks we believe we are called to in the church, this calling is what we have in common. All members of the church are called to ministry. Whatever diverse spiritual gifts we have been given, they are to be used in fulfilling this common calling.

Paul then offers direction for the conduct that will implement our calling. In Ephesians 4:2, Paul urges us to act "with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love." In his commentary on Ephesians, John Calvin wrote "When Paul descends to particulars, he puts humility first. He does this because he was about to speak of unity; and humility is the first step to reach it." There can be no unity in the church unless all of us put the common good before our particular cause. Humility is our essential attitude.

An Essential Belief

In Ephesians 4:3, Paul writes that we are to make every effort to "maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." We do not create unity or peace---Jesus Christ is our peace. Christ's death on the cross broke down the wall of hostility that separated Jew from Greek. He created one new humanity from peoples that were implacably opposed to one another. Our task is to maintain the unity that the Spirit of Christ has already attained.

How do we maintain unity and peace in the church? Paul's answer in Ephesians is that the church is unified by a common belief. That belief is contained in the creeds of the church. In Ephesians 4:4--6, Paul outlines a creedal affirmation probably used to prepare new converts for baptism. Paul declares "There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord (Jesus Christ), one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all."

For Paul, our common belief is in a simple Trinitarian creed. It is the reverse of our usual order. Paul directs us to the Spirit, then Jesus Christ and, finally, God. Paul is clear and we should be clear that what we hold in common is that which pertains to our salvation. We need to know and be committed to the one God in three persons as Paul makes clear in his creedal statement. The things that we all have to believe should be central and few.

An Essential Perspective

In Ephesians 4:13 Paul says, "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." That "until" indicates that we still have work to do to maintain the unity of the church. We do not possess all the truth now. There is more growth to come in the future.

It is sobering to remember that for more than 150 years, good, intelligent and devout Presbyterian Christians justified slavery and segregation on the basis of the Bible. We were wrong---dangerously and damagingly wrong. We are grateful now that the church changed its mind and that African Americans and women can participate in the full life and leadership of the church. It is possible that we just might be wrong again in our misguided attempts to exclude those who are different from ourselves.

Paul is concerned for the truth, but notice, however, that he couples the truth with love---speaking the truth in love. Truth and love are inseparable if we are to grow into maturity in Christ.

I grew up in a small denomination, the United Presbyterian Church in North America. It was formed in 1858 by the merger of two fractious little denominations of Scots-Irish immigrants. One of those predecessor denominations had as its motto "The truth of God." The motto of the other denomination was "Forbearance in love." So, not very imaginatively, but quite usefully, they combined the two mottoes and I grew up in a denomination that had as its motto, "The truth of God, forbearance in love."

I think that is what Paul is saying and what we need to hear. Truth and love must always go together. Paul speaks of the church as a body that must be joined and knit together. How does that happen? The apostle says that as each part is working properly, it promotes the body's growth in building itself up in love. Or in the words of John Calvin, "Without the rule of love, the church is not built, but dispersed."

-- Confessions of a Conservative Evangelical. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1974.
-- Presbyterian Creeds: A Guide to The Book of Confessions. Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox Press, 1992.
-- Reading the Bible and the Confessions: The Presbyterian Way. Louisville, Ky.: Geneva Press, 1999.
-- Scripture in the Westminster Confession: A Problem of Historical Interpretation for American Presbyterianism.Grand Rapids: W.B. Eerdmans, 1967.

Rogers, Jack and Don McKim. The Authority and Interpretation of the Bible: An Historical Approach. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1979.

Jack Rogers is the moderator of the 213th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

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