A Temple Growing
Last Sunday, Kate Miller preached on Ephesians 2:11-22, with special attention on verses 19-22. (You can listen to that sermon here!) I especially appreciated her pointing us to Paul’s strange image of a Temple that “grows.” The Temple where God dwells now is not one that is made, constructed with bricks like in Jerusalem, or extravagant hangings like way back in Exodus, but a Temple that grows as we, who are God’s handiwork, God’s building materials, grow into the people God has made us to be.
This is such an important reality for Paul: that we are created to participate in God’s work of renewal and restoration, that our lives are perfectly made to reflect God’s purposes in the world. It comes up time and again in Ephesians. Indeed, though the images are different, the theme is much the same for this week’s passage, Ephesians 3:1-13. Paul is determined to help us know that we, the church, the Body of Christ are made to bear witness to who and how God is. In many ways, that’s a Temple’s most important function: showing the world what this particular god is about. That’s what the community called in the name of Jesus, and empowered by the Holy Spirit is meant to do.
And Kate is absolutely right, when she says that our Christian vocation is to participate in God’s creative revelation. But how do we do that? And how do we know what our part is in the growing of God’s Temple? There might be as many answers to that question as there are people to answer it. But there are some things that have been tested by generations of Jesus followers, and proven to lead us in a fruitful direction. Here are a few suggestions:
Contemplative prayer practices. These are spiritual disciplines that help us tune into God’s voice, and grow us in awareness of God’s guidance. Here are three that you can try. (Spiritual Formation Cards) Consistent spiritual disciplines help us to grow in discernment of what God has created us and called us to do. And as importantly, what not to do! Not every good thing is ours to do.
Spiritual direction. Spiritual direction is different than therapy or counselling, though there are similarities. It is more like companionship with a wise spiritual friend. The goal is not so much to solve a problem, but to grow in faithful self awareness. If you are feeling in a rut, or unsure of how God might be calling you, perhaps seeking out a spiritual director would be a fruitful pursuit.
Draw on the wisdom of others. We don’t need to be in formal spiritual direction to benefit from other wise voices. I’m a reader, so I tend to recommend books. But I’m sure there are podcasts or video series out there that can be useful. If you are unsure, don’t hesitate to ask! (aaron@uhill.net is the easiest way to get ahold of me.) In the meantime, here are two books (among countless possibilities):
Courage & Calling: Embracing Your God-Given Potential, by Gordon T. Smith
Garden City: Work, Rest, and the Art of Being Human, by John Mark Comer
Spiritual Gifts Inventory. This can be useful for those who like a more data based approach to things. A Spiritual Gifts Inventory is a series of questions designed to help individuals figure out where their particular God-given gifts are most visible, and where they are called to serve. Here’s one version: SPI
Regardless of how we discern God’s call on our lives, perhaps the most important thing—where we must start—is knowing that we are, in fact, called by God, “created for good works” (Eph 2:10). St. Peter’s invitation is for all of us: “Come to him, a living stone…and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:4-5)
Thoughts for a New Season
It all begins with an idea.
On Sunday, October 5, we began a series that will take us to the end of the Christian year. Between now and Reign of Christ Sunday, we’ll be spending time in Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians. As I said in my sermon, this is coming out of a sense of call and purpose that I have felt recently. A few things have been percolating, and I want to share them with you. There are three “events” and two realities that are behind what I want to do together.
Three Events
The first was Kate telling me that she’s on the lookout for congregations to profile for VST’s publication, Perspectives. She’s been asked to find congregations who are doing interesting things that are worth highlighting and imitating. Which got me thinking about what we do, about our gifts and how we use them—what does faithfulness for U Hill look like as a community? What do we have to share with the wider Church?
The second thing was a sudden and significant desire for a “thicker” Christian community in my own life. One of the realities of life at U Hill is that we are largely a commuter church, very few of us live right in the neighbourhood—some of us travel a long way to get to Sunday worship. We also often have people who are with us for a season, who move on to the next thing when their time at UBC is done. These are not necessarily weaknesses, but they do affect our sense of connection with one another, especially outside of our regular services. I’m wondering how the time we do have together can be leveraged to increase our sense of connection with one another, and how we might integrate other opportunities to engage with each other as we grow in Christian faith and practice.
The third thing comes out of a recent Ministry & Personnel meeting. I have let the team know that I would like to take a sabbatical in Spring/Summer of 2027 (In the United Church, ordered ministry personnel are eligible for a three-month sabbatical after every five years of continual service in one congregation). I’ve asked for that time in particular because I expect to be finishing up my PhD dissertation then. With that in view, we began to talk about increasing ministry capacity within the congregation, and leaning into the significant capacity that we already have, so that some of the coverage for that time can happen internally.
Two Realities
One reality is more of an interesting practice in Jewish tradition. At a traditional bar mitzvah, part of the rite is that the young person will preach, because every Jewish adult is expected to be able to say something meaningful about torah. As the person moves from childhood to the beginnings of adulthood they are expected to be witnesses of their faith. It is my assessment that in many expressions of church, having professional clergy has diminished the expectation that every baptized Christian is someone called to shed light on the Christian story, in scripture and in practice. Not that there is no need for trained leadership in the Church, but the professionalization of ministry has had a detrimental effect on the Church’s witness in the world. As Rev. Dr. Ed Searcy put it, the clergy are ministers among ministers.
The other reality is the fact that there are nowhere near enough people pursuing a call to ordered ministry in the United Church of Canada to fill the pulpits that are already vacant, let alone the those currently served by people who are nearing retirement. It will become increasingly difficult to call ordained clergy in the future. And if something were to happen to me, or God were to call me to some other ministry (which, let me be clear, is not happening at the moment—I hope to be here a long time yet), there could be a long stretch before a new minister could be called. This is simply the reality that we are facing as a denomination, and at some point it will affect most United Church congregations across the country. Congregations that will thrive into the future will be the ones in which all the members have a deep sense of investment in each other’s Christian formation and witness.
All of these things incline me to lean more into what we’re already good at, and to invite us to go a deeper together. We already have things that keep us coming back for more—some of us pass lots of other churches to come to U Hill. We are already good at including a variety of voices and practices in our services. We already have a high degree of biblical literacy and understanding. We are a multi-generational congregation, which is increasingly unusual in the UCC. Our online option means that we have ways of expanding our gifts and resources beyond in-person gatherings. I dare say, we have gifts we haven’t even experienced yet. We have a lot to be grateful for and enthusiastic about.
And, as I said on Sunday, I want to get a little more granular, a little more intentional about the ways in which we work together for the sake of what God wants to do in and through U Hill in the coming season. In the coming weeks, I’ll be sharing more of my thoughts and invitations here, so that we can be in conversation together. If you have thoughts or responses, please don’t hesitate to email me directly (aaron@uhill.net). I’m eager to see what the Holy Spirit wants to do in and through us, as we follow Jesus together.