Two Services Based on Ephesians and James

These two services are based on the full texts of the letters of Ephesians and James, providing worshipers an opportunity to hear, dwell in, and reflect on God’s Word to each of us. This echoes the way the early church would have experienced these words—prayerfully listening as the letter was read aloud. In planning these services, we let the Scripture guide the order, pausing for praise, prayer, and reflection where the text suggests.

Our church has recently adopted this format for our monthly evening services, but it is adaptable to a variety of contexts. The Scripture and responses may be read by the pastor or worship leader, or shared by several members of the congregation. Any of the suggested hymns could be replaced by a choral anthem, instrumental music, or another appropriate congregational song.

“All Things Coming to a Head”: An Introduction to Ephesians

Paul writes this letter to the group of growing Christians at the church in Ephesus somewhere around a.d. 60. They are living out this message of the good news but doing so with threat of persecution and with many questions.

Paul reminds them—and us—that God is up to very big things in this world. The overarching theme of this book comes in verses 9–10 of the first chapter: “[God] made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.”

To bring all things. God is doing something through Christ that involves all things. This is what brings God pleasure. The action here is described as God bringing unity to all things. God takes pleasure and delight in bringing unity to all things.

Paul’s original Greek words mean “to bring things together under one head.” Other ways of putting it are to sum up, to gather up, to recapitulate, or to bring to a head.

Usually when we hear things have “come to a head” it is not a good thing. Some definitions of that phrase include reaching a point of intensity at which action must be taken—or, more specifically, to reach a stage in a difficult situation when someone takes a strong action to deal with it. So, for instance, we might say this about North Korean military/missile activity and threats. It feels as if things are coming to a head. It is rare to think of this phrase in positive terms, but that is the case in Ephesians. It is God’s delight to bring everything together under the headship of Jesus Christ.

Rob Bell’s book What is the Bible? (HarperCollins, 2017) says that what’s happening here in Ephesians is that God is retelling everything. When we look at the world we might notice a whole lot of broken parts lying scattered all over the place. Well, it brings God pleasure to bring it all back together in unity in Christ. But do we really believe that everything is brought back together in unity? All of it? All of history? Everything every human has ever done? Why does Paul use the word “all”? Why does he include heaven and earth? Why didn’t he put some boundaries on it? Why didn’t he say religious things, or Jewish things, or redeemed things, or good things that deserve it? Why is he so blatantly inclusive? Why is he so clear and insistent that nothing is left out of this coming to a head in Christ?

Because what we hear in Ephesians is what is hinted at by the prophets, fulfilled in the gospels, and echoed throughout the New Testament. God is all about restoring, reconciling, and renewing. He is persistent in putting everything back together again as they should be, as Bell describes: “Your broken heart? All things. Poverty? All things. Abuse? All things. Racism? All things. Fractured relationship? All things. All things. All things. All things. All things. All things” (43–44).

God is retelling and restoring, bringing all things under the head of Jesus Christ. That includes you and me and the fractured parts of our lives. And it is not just that this is what the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are doing in the world and in us. We are participants in this very urgent work. The church plays a vital role in this massive redemptive work. You’ll hear a lot about the church in this little letter, most notably in the fourth chapter, but it is always in light of this larger story of redemption that the church finds significance and purpose.

King Jesus has as his hands and feet his agents within the present world, the church. In Ephesians Paul tells us it is “[Jesus’] body, the fullness of the one who fills all.” As N. T. Wright says, “If only the church would realize this and act accordingly!” (Paul for Everyone: The Prison Letters: Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004).

—Pastor Christian Pederse

“Faith and Works, Hand in Glove”: An Introduction to James

In Matthew 22 Jesus is asked, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” You likely know that Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

In teaching, you might often hear the love of God described as a vertical (up and down) relationship and the love of neighbor as a horizontal (back and forth) relationship. They are different things that require different postures and different habits. They are distinct but can never be separated or segregated. This is where James comes in. His emphasis is strongly on the horizontal, on the love of the other, on neighborliness. It is for this reason that James is very popular among many Christians, including many of us. He is a very practical theologian—you don’t have to talk or think too hard about what he is saying. Doing it is another matter, and most of us will always feel the thrust of challenge in what he says.

If you read Paul’s short New Testament letters, you read a lot about the vertical relationship between God and human beings. You get in-depth discussions about the person and work of Jesus Christ. But you have none of that in James. For James faith means being and staying engaged in the affairs of the world. He makes two core points.

First, fellow followers of Jesus are to be careful not to be caught in or stained by the assumptions and practices of the world. That is the world order of Rome. So there are lists of things to be avoided—anger or unbridled speech, for example. You can’t compartmentalize—one day speaking and praising God and another day cursing others. There are many behaviors to avoid, and ways of life that lead to death. Stay away.

Second, “pure religion” is to care for those who are widows and orphans. In James’s time, widows and orphans are those who are forgotten or at risk in their society. The poor in Rome lived in rickety tenements that often caught fire or collapsed. Running water was hard to come by. We still have this category of orphans and widows today. In the twenty-first century this now includes the LGBT community, racial and ethnic minorities, immigrants, people with disabilities (including emotional challenges), and people of other religions. The church must always wrestle with extending grace to anyone and everyone. James doesn’t answer the specific questions we now ask. But James does remind us that gospel love, in the form of inclusion and addressing inequities, has to be extended to all people in society. You can’t ignore the needs of “these things” or “those people,” and yet we do all of this in a very holy/distinct manner.

James presents us with a gospel wisdom. Wisdom in the Bible is defined as skillful living. James reminds us of the tension of living as Christians in the world but not of the world, a tension you’ll always navigate this side of heaven. You can stay out of the affairs of the world and be a “holier than thou” type. You can be active in the world but lose your distinctiveness—as Jesus called it, being “salt [that] loses its saltiness.” Struggling to be holy and loving between these extremes is the call of faithfulness.

James strongly emphasizes doing the Word. The ancient understanding of hearing and listening is synonymous with obeying. In other words, you can’t just hear and say, “Sure, okay.” James says “even the demons believe” there is one God (James 2:19). They hear, and they believe, but the knowledge doesn’t shape their lives. It is an active and open defiance to the truth.

By definition, faith has to find action. Here is a wonderful paraphrase of James 2:18 from The Message: “I can already hear one of you agreeing by saying, ‘Sounds good. You take care of the faith department, I’ll handle the works department.’ Not so fast. You can no more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove.”

As you hear James today, “gospel wisdom” is a helpful phrase. James is giving a lot of application. He isn’t preaching what you must do to get in with God’s good graces. He is preaching what to do once you’ve been given grace—how grace continues. May we hear God’s word today and not merely listen, but do what it says and live well in the gospel.

—Pastor Christian Pedersen