Post-Assembly Lectionary

"To Him Be Glory In The Church"
(Ephesians 3:21)

This is a lectionary (a schedule of scripture readings for worship and preaching) intended to bring the joy, hope, and teachings of the 2007 General Assembly home to First Christian Church of Lawrenceville, Georgia. The lectionary is based on a continuous reading of Ephesians, with stories about Jesus and his first disciples to help demonstrate Paul's ecclesiology in that letter. A Psalm can be added to each set to round out the liturgy with prayer and praise.

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Week One: Something to Eat

Ephesians 1: The letter opens with an audacious statement of the church's glorious existence in the mind of God. We are "destined for adoption" into God's family, and God has "lavished on us" the "riches of his grace." We alone have been informed concerning "the mystery of his will," and we are "destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things." We are marked with the "seal of the Holy Spirit." We are really something!

Discipleship theme: Matthew 14:13-21, the feeding of the 5,000. "You give them something to eat!"

General Assembly tie-in: Rev. Watkins and the entire program of preaching urged us toward the confidence that is ours as the body of Christ. "Choose life," we were told, and we remembered that through his followers Jesus can turn scant provisions into an abundant feast.

Week Two: Break Down the Walls

Ephesians 2: The writer reminds us that human divisions mean nothing in light of God's grace. God has brought all of us near, bringing peace to our lives and producing peace among us. We are built together into a holy temple, God's dwelling place. There is no room for division in God's house or in God's family.

Discipleship theme: Acts 10:1 - 11:3, Peter baptizes Cornelius (the Gentile).

General Assembly tie-in: Unity in God's church is a fundamental Disciples ethic. The Christian Church was founded on this idea 200 years ago, and it remains an emphasis in our church life today. The openness of our communion table is a gift to many, even as other churches do not reciprocate. We continue to support general-level ministries that are working to tear down dividing walls and restore the unity that God wishes for God's people, and at the local level we practice that unity in a variety of ways. The stories about families that cannot take communion together that were shared at GA are familiar to many in our congregations, and we can celebrate together the incremental progress being made in the name of unity in Christ.

Week Three: Rich Variety

Ephesians 3: The writer finally reveals the mystery he has alluded to: "that is, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus…" (3:6). There is therefore no place for exclusion or even distinction in the body of Christ, if we want to be servants of this gospel (3:7), this good news that God has shared. The church is meant to be out in front, welcoming and extending hospitality: "so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known…" (3:10). We know the secret (the mystery), but far from making us feel sectarian (we know and you don't!), it makes us want to welcome everyone in.

Discipleship theme: Acts 6:1-7, the Hellenists vs. the Hebrews. The church has dealt with ethnic and cultural divisions for its entire history!

General Assembly tie-in: The church continues to wrestle with matters of welcome and inclusion. We have a pro-reconciliation/anti-racism ministry that struggles to find funding, but still has work to do. We passed "sense of the assembly" resolutions concerning immigration and our new neighbors; and we welcomed in hundreds of new Disciples congregations that are ethnically, culturally, and linguistically different from our own. We sang, prayed, read scripture, and passed the peace in languages other than English. We felt our humility grow and our hearts swell as we realized that God's dream for us is coming true, whether we like it or not! Praise God! Will God grant the same to LFCC? Let us hope so!

Week Four: Equipping the Saints

Ephesians 4:1-24: The writer has the sense that the Christian community will face (is facing) terrific opposition for its beliefs and practices, and that education is key to standing against it. Count all the references to "learn," "teach," "mind," and "think" in this section. There is an urgent need for mental preparation for the spiritual struggles we face.

Discipleship theme: Mark 9:14-28, the failed exorcism. "This kind comes out only by prayer." Had they prepared sufficiently for the demon that was ready to kick their fannies? OR the Gethsemane garden, where Jesus prayed but the disciples dozed, their desire to do something not matched by their readiness to actually do it. AND Acts 2:42, the dedication of those early disciples to the apostles' teaching and prayer.

General Assembly tie-in: We passed a resolution to commit ourselves to the theological education and spiritual nurture of all age groups in the church, not just little kids. We instructed the GMP to find money for discernment processes, so that we are not forced to vote on matters that we have not spent sufficient time studying and praying about. (LFCC has also been committed to longer "discernment" processes to arrive at better decision-making.) Where Paul exhorts the Ephesians to "grow up" (Eph. 4:15), we as a denomination in our infancy hear him exhorting us to do the same.

Week Five: Members of One Another

Ephesians 4:25 - 5:5: Paul introduces a section of ethical exhortations that appear to be matters of personal morality. But they are really community ethics, the things that are required for community health. Even the instruction not to steal is for the sake of the community: "so as to have something to share with the needy" (Eph. 4:28). Especially the instructions about how to speak to and about one another are our instructions for how to love each other through the challenges of conflict and confusion. These instructions presume a doctrine of sin - it's astounding how antisocial we can be if left to our own devices! But the Holy Spirit in us helps curb our self-interest so that we may act for the good of the community.

Discipleship theme: Mark 9:33-41, "Who's the greatest?" The disciples jockey for position amongst themselves, and they tattle on people who do not appear to be "with" them.

General Assembly tie-in: The Christian Church practices a kind of truth-telling (Eph. 4:25) that does not exclude or condemn those who disagree. It is a Holy Spirit-inspired practice for people to come to microphones to express heartfelt disagreement, but to finish the day as siblings in Christ. I simply want to describe the process at GA for discussing difficult matters, as a model for how our congregations can address hard topics and still love each other.

Week Six: In the End, We Sing

Ephesians 5:6-20: Here the contrasts between right and wrong seem stark: light and darkness, the exposure of "unfruitful works of darkness," living as wise people in a dark age. But at the same time, there is an acknowledgement that we must "Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord" (5:10). It's not always clear, and good people of good conscience may reasonably disagree. At the end of this passage, which concludes several chapters about unity in Christ, we are instructed to…what? To worship together, to sing, making melody and giving thanks (5:19-20).

Discipleship theme: Luke 19:37-46, where those who worship are those who know Jesus, and those who don't worship are furious at him, having no idea who he really is; and where the temple is being misused for purposes other than worship, and therefore Jesus cannot be welcome there.

General Assembly tie-in: We had at least two very difficult sense-of-the-assembly resolutions at GA this year: concerning the war in Iraq and the use of torture by Americans. During our time of discernment, our frank expressions of anguished disagreement, the parliamentary procedure got very complicated. During one such extended session, as the moderator struggled to say exactly the right words to lead us to the next step, someone began to sing "Amazing Grace," and the assembly joined in. The tension was lifted, at least somewhat, as we remembered that at the end of the day, we would all worship together - one Lord, one baptism, one church. And so we did. This, again, is a model for our congregations.

Week Seven: Will You Marry Me?

Ephesians 5:21 - 6:9: The household code is hard to deal with, because we have let go of patriarchy and slavery (for the most part) as being outside of God's eternal will for us. But let us not miss Paul's beautiful words here concerning Christ and the church: the church is married to Christ, caught up in an eternal covenant of love and fidelity and even romance. There ought to be, therefore, daily expression of our belonging to him, with all the love and loyalty that marriage requires. There is, therefore, an expectation that Jesus' life is a life we share as his spouse - we're in it together.

Discipleship theme: John 20:19-22, Jesus breathes his own breath (Holy Spirit) into his followers. AND for a statement of Jesus' own purpose, Luke 4:14-21, "I came to bring good news to the poor."

General Assembly tie-in: We Disciples of Christ continue in the work of Christ because we are so deeply committed to him that we can't imagine doing anything else. (Can we?) Jim Wallis' sermon challenged us to measure all our "ministries" against Jesus' own statement of purpose in Luke 4. If what we preach and do is not "good news to the poor," then is it really Christ's ministry at all?

Week Eight: Finally...

Ephesians 6:10-24: The picture that is drawn here is a picture of the church, not as a place of comfort and rest but rather as a place of challenge, a place for girding up one's loins for the difficult work of discipleship. There are references to struggle, and exhortations to "be strong" and "stand up!" I think of the half-time locker room speech of a football coach. Half-time is not the game - the game is out on the field, one half played last week, and second half coming in the week ahead. Get your pads on! Get your helmet on! Let's go! Grrrr! (I can almost imagine the pastor slapping the fannies of each church member as they go out the door after church!)

Discipleship theme: Luke 4:1-15, the temptation of Jesus, which was brutally difficult but for which he was exquisitely prepared, muscular in his refutation of evil. AND Jesus' own words to his disciples concerning their own readiness to follow him: Luke 9:18-24, for example, where they/we are instructed to "take up a cross" and follow him on the path of faith.

General Assembly tie-in: The GA felt very "Ephesians 6" to me, as I felt encouraged to stand up and be strong and get ready for the work that God has set before us. It is challenging to think about issues bigger than which color of paper the bulletin should be printed on - in the local church, our "discipleship" often comes down to decisions that are that small. But the GA lifted our heads to see the bigger issues facing the church - for example, the marginalization of mainline Protestants, the shrinking of our churches, our loss of power in the culture, our financial difficulties and the necessity of downsizing, even while the world is crying out for more ministry, more humble service, more meeting of needs. Our local churches are very pastoral, most of the time, with people coming in to be refreshed and comforted. But as Lance said concerning this passage in Ephesians 6, "There are things we are called to do and be in the world for which the preparation, of necessity, feels more like strapping on armor than like getting a massage."