Leawood, Kansas, United States - The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection Daily Guide grow. pray. study. for Tuesday, 22 July 2014 "The Body of Christ"

Leawood, Kansas, United States - The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection Daily Guide grow. pray. study. for Tuesday, 22 July 2014  "The Body of Christ"
Daily Scripture:  Ephesians 4: To Be Mature
1-3 In light of all this, here’s what I want you to do. While I’m locked up here, a prisoner for the Master, I want you to get out there and walk—better yet, run!—on the road God called you to travel. I don’t want any of you sitting around on your hands. I don’t want anyone strolling off, down some path that goes nowhere. And mark that you do this with humility and discipline—not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love, alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences.
4-6 You were all called to travel on the same road and in the same direction, so stay together, both outwardly and inwardly. You have one Master, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who rules over all, works through all, and is present in all. Everything you are and think and do is permeated with Oneness.
7-13 But that doesn’t mean you should all look and speak and act the same. Out of the generosity of Christ, each of us is given his own gift. The text for this is,
He climbed the high mountain,
He captured the enemy and seized the booty,
He handed it all out in gifts to the people.
Is it not true that the One who climbed up also climbed down, down to the valley of earth? And the One who climbed down is the One who climbed back up, up to highest heaven. He handed out gifts above and below, filled heaven with his gifts, filled earth with his gifts. He handed out gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist, and pastor-teacher to train Christ’s followers in skilled servant work, working within Christ’s body, the church, until we’re all moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God’s Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ.
14-16 No prolonged infancies among us, please. We’ll not tolerate babes in the woods, small children who are an easy mark for impostors. God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love.
Reflection Questions:
The first part of this passage named the things all Christians hold in common. These are the foundation for God's new community—a community united, despite its members' many differences, by their loyalty to the same God. The second part of the passage showed how those differences become a source of strength to the community when we place them under Christ's lordship, and use them in accordance with his creative purposes.
At Resurrection, we say our purpose is "To build a Christian community where non-religious and nominally religious people are becoming deeply committed Christians." How well does this fit with the broad Christian "purpose statement" in Ephesians 4:1-6? How can taking in the message of those verses help us to live out our purpose?
Scholar N. T. Wright said of the last part of today's reading, "The point of some people having special roles is so that every single Christian, and the church as a whole, may be equipped for their work of service." In what ways are you using your gifts and talents to fully live into all that you can be in Christ, and advance Christ's work of service in the world? (If you'd like help learning how to do that, check out www.cor.org/spiritualgifts.)
Today's Prayer:
Lord, keep me growing toward maturity in you. Help me sink the roots of my faith ever more deeply into your eternal wisdom, and to use my gifts in ways that serve your kingdom. Amen.
Insight from Brandon Gregory
Brandon Gregory is a volunteer for the worship and missions teams at Church of the Resurrection. He helps lead worship at the Vibe, West, and Downtown services, and is involved with the Malawi missions team at home.
Early on in life, I received some unsolicited wedding advice: Marry someone as much like you as you can. Hobbies are a given, but temperament, dispositions, patterns of thought–look for someone that matches up with you as closely as possible.
Before that really soaks in, I’ll tell you I am very stubborn and obstinate, so I did the exact opposite of this (as I often do with unsolicited advice). My wife and I share many hobbies and values, but we’re also very different from each other. One of us is logical and the other is emotional. One of us is extraverted and one is introverted. We’re on opposite ends of the political spectrum. We speak different love languages. One of us has a natural inclination toward justice and one toward mercy. One of us is a detailed, logistical thinker and the other is an abstract, creative thinker.
I won’t lie–there are days when I see what that unsolicited advice-giver was talking about. There are days I wish I didn’t have to explain why something was important to me. There are days I just don’t think to meet her needs. There’s conflict that arises out of those differences, and sometimes those differences can be hard for us to really comprehend. So, yes, there is a benefit to picking someone just like you: it’s easier. There’s less conflict. There’s less explaining and more having needs met.
But, as anyone who knows us would attest (and as you can probably see from the number of adjectives in the paragraph above), both of us together are an amazing team. When we act as one, we are a force to be reckoned with. When there’s a project and both of us get involved, things are probably going to go really well. Together, my wife and I are stronger because of our differences. As a parenting unit, we are stronger. As project leaders, we are stronger. And both of us, individually, are growing stronger.
In short, the easy path in picking our relationships is not the path to the most good.
Now, this is a fairly easy pill to swallow with romantic relationships; but with faith relationships, it’s a whole different story. It’s not uncommon for people to leave a church if they find the people there are not of a like mind. We should be more passionate worshippers, or we should be more strategic helpers. We should prioritize justice, or we should prioritize mercy. We should love everyone unconditionally, or we should be quick to call out sin when we see it. Yes, there’s some crossover, but it’s very easy to find ourselves drawn to people who reinforce our God-given natural inclinations and stay away from those who don’t. In time, this isolation can make those differences seem like an impossible chasm to cross, and we can fall into the trap of claiming that God is more behind us than those other people.
But it’s our differences, as one body, that make us stronger. God created people that worship with emotion and passion as well as people who worship in quiet contemplation and tradition. God created people with hearts for mercy as well as people with minds for justice. And, yes, God created both liberals and conservatives, and he gave them minds and hearts to draw them to causes championed by their chosen side. The body of Christ is incomplete without each of these pieces.
If you have a heart for helping those in need, be quick to include those you may see as uncaring or overly harsh. The truest measure of a merciful person is not how they treat those they view as in need, but how they treat those they feel are unwilling to extend the same courtesy. You may find that they offer some perspective in how to help those people that you couldn’t have arrived at on your own.
If you have a heart for calling out sin wherever you see it, be quick to include things you and your peers struggle with. Calling out sin in others is meaningless if you believe you have nothing big to work on yourself. God had plenty to say about pride, complacency, gluttony, and a lot of other things that hit a lot closer to home. You may find that you need those who extend mercy generously a lot more than you thought you would.
There are dozens of examples here, but the point is that we need the people we disagree with, and so does God. Repairing those relationships is the mark of true spiritual maturity, and it’s something all churches could probably use more of. God created those differences not to separate us, but to make us stronger. So the next time you disagree with someone, thank God. The world would be incomplete without that person.
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