Contrast Society

The back end of Ephesians chapter 4 starts a train of thought that has been set up for us in the previous chapters. As a people called to mission there is to be something noticeable about our community. It can't simply look like the Gentile life with a Christian veneer (v17), that would not be worthy of our calling (v1).

So its our lifestyle choices (e.g. pension fund allocation), and a whole lot more. There's a whole new way of thinking to take on board here.

But before we reach for the 'bullet-list' button on this blogging tool to create a list of cans & can'ts, lets remember what Paul is on about and why.

The point is that God is calling people to be a contrast-society (Lohfink, 'Jesus and Community' is helpful here). Not withdrawing from society but staying within it while maintaining the contrast. This maintains the trajectory we saw earlier, being holy and blameless from way back in 1:4. This is going to affect the way we relate to each other (we will return to this in the future), our diligence, what we do and what we say.

The point is, as in 5:1 to be imitators of God, living a life of love. And of course that continues this trajectory of mission once again, since God is a God of mission, not just a holy club.

Clean up your act

How many of you have checked your pension funds recently?

No, not to depress yourself about how poorly they are performing (that seems 'guaranteed' these days!), but to see what ethical investment options are available.

It came to my mind since one of my myriad pension providers sent their annual ethical investment newsletter. They also annually survey, to see what the ethical issues really our in our minds, not just what they think they should be. Sounds quite good practice really.

Many of us with pensions in a portfolio of funds have flexibility to move our pot of gold around between different funds. We should use that luxury to favour ethical investments where we can, or at least take the option seriously.

To not do this is surely another example of talking about loving our neighbour, but not actually doing anything about it. Okay we probably can't be completely clean with our money (just about everything is tainted, it would seem), but maybe there are steps we can take, as part of 'living a life worthy of your calling'.

Newbigin Article

This article from Community Mission (formerly Shaftesbury Society) is (in my opinion) very, very good pulling out salient points from Newbigin's works.

I suggest reading the full article, but the two salient points are:

1. A proper confidence in the gospel - as the 'event' of Jesus Christ that is inherently social and political as well as just being individual. This is a movement of God in society we are talking here, not just a proposition for people's personal beliefs.
2. The doctrine of election - echoing the 'people for a purpose' seen in the trajectory in Ephesians I have been harping on about recently.

To say more would detract from the original article, except to point to the concluding paragraph:

... the missionary task lies at the very heart and purpose of what it means to be Church

Resourcing for Mission

Interesting isn't it, that in Eph 4:11 Paul gives a list of gifted-roles from God's empowerment and enabling for the church. Does the list convey any order, or is it randomly and arbitrarily ordered?

Well you can argue that as much as you like. Many commentators at least start with the foundational aspects of apostles and then prophets, with Eph 2:20 providing good support for the argument. Thing is, if you follow the logic of that implied order then you are led to conclude that pastors & teachers are at the bottom of the list.

So if such an ordering was Paul's intention, then it would seem by today's church standards that he holds a minority viewpoint!

Looking across the church in the UK, at staff positions, vacancy lists and team profiles (both with stipends and volunteer), one might be forgiven for thinking that the prevailing consensus is that the priority order is the other way round. And thats even before you factor in bishops and their free-church equivalents.

Just food for thought ...