every joint (Eph 4:11-16)

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Psalm 119 (read as much as you can - enjoy!); Ephesians 4:11-16


Actually, I hope you'll read all of Psalm 119 and just let the attitude and spirit of the psalmist wash over you. I also suggest that some time during the week you take some extra time to meditate on God and his word. This is one of the underlying purposes of observing, or remembering, the Sabbath. I think I'm going to base much of next Wednesday night on Psalm 119, so let's look at Ephesians.


Paul has just finished a a rather dramatic plea calling for us to "make every effort" to maintain the unity of the Spirit, for there is
one body
one Spirit
one hope
one Lord
one faith
one baptism
one God and Father of all

He says that "grace was given to each one of us" (v. 7) and some of the gifts Christ gave when he ascended were the ministry / leader gifts of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers whose role it is to equip the saints for the building up of the body of Christ -
UNTIL we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God.

Similar to the "now and not yet" tension with regard to the kingdom, there is such when the Scriptures use the image of the body of Christ. "Maintain the unity"... "there is one body" and yet gifts are given and we are to work for and until we attain the unity.

It seems this unity is maturity and fullness, it is stability and wholeness, it is protection and strength.

"Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love." (vs. 15-16)

This whole chapter so far, while casting a beautiful vision of what the church is and is to be, is all about "one another" (v. 2), "each one of us" (v. 7), "we all" (v. 13), "every joint" and "each part" (v. 16).

I have shared recently of my interest and intrigue with this term, "joint," that Paul uses here (and in Colossians 2:19) saying that the body can only grow when they are in place and working properly. A joint is a place in the body where some members come together (not all of them). And when those particular members come together in that particular way, in that particular place, for their particular purpose and giftedness, the body works properly and is built up.

Again, we need each other. We are responsible to and for each other. And within the whole, God has so designed Christ's Body that there are some people that you are created and gifted to be connected to. And of course most of our bones are actually in more than one joint (if I can push the metaphor!!). How are your joints? Do you need some spiritual glucosamine chondroitin? Do you need some exercise? or a hot bath?

I may be really pushing it now, but one more grace note: While Jesus' bones were not broken, the prophetic Psalm 22, speaking of Christ's passion, says "all my bones are out of joint" (v.14). Could it be that Jesus even in his the very joints of his body bore our disunity, our disconnectedness, all that undermines true fellowship and walking together in the journey of discipleship? We know he bore the hostility and division and separation in his body, and in the shedding of his blood (Ephesian 2:13-16), but let me suggest he even bore it in his skeletal system, in his joints. And in his resurrection he is whole, the power of the Spirit not just restoring his body but renewing it to a whole new order of life.

Come Holy Spirit, give us grace to use the grace we've been given; to be faithful to the relationships you have called us to or may be calling us into; that together we might become more and more like you, being your body - your continuing, transforming presence in your world.