Cross Fit
Ephesians 4:1-16
I
therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of
the calling to which you have been called, 2with
all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another
in love, 3making every effort to maintain the unity of the
Spirit in the bond of peace. 4There is one body and one Spirit, just as you
were called to the one hope of your calling, 5one
Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6one God and Father of all, who is above all and
through all and in all. 7But each of us was given grace according to the
measure of Christ’s gift. 8Therefore it is said, “When he ascended on
high he made captivity itself a captive; he gave gifts to his
people.” 9(When it says, “He ascended,” what does it
mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth?
10He who descended is the same one who ascended
far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.) 11The
gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some
evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12to
equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of
Christ, 13until all of us come to the unity of the faith
and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of
the full stature of Christ. 14We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro
and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by
their craftiness in deceitful scheming. 15But
speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who
is the head, into Christ, 16from whom the whole body, joined and knit
together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is
working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up
in love. Ephesians 4:1-16
Recently a number of my friends
have gotten involved in something called Crossfit. Crossfit is the new
fitness craze that is sweeping the nation. Rather than the kind of
exercises most of us are used to which concentrate on one part of the
body (such as stomach crunches and leg lifts), Crossfit’s exercise
emphasize total body movement. The
idea is that the best way to get fit is to work the entire body rather
than just the parts. And
the end result, I assume, is that you have a body that looks more like
Arnold Schwarzenegger or
Angelia Jolie than Popeye, with his abnormally large biceps, or Olive
Oyl, whose obviously never saw the inside of a gym!
In today’s scripture, Paul is
calling on us to get involved in a spiritual version of Crossfit. In his words to the church in
Ephesus, he begs them to exercise their spiritual gifts in such a way
that the entire body of Christ is developed in so that they may lead a
life worthy of their calling.
Have you ever thought about what it
means to lead a life worthy of our calling as Christians? What kind of life is worthy of
Christ’s calling us out of the world and into his marvelous light,
as one of our contemporary songs puts it? What kind of life is fit for
the sacrifice Christ made for us on the cross? What is a crossfit life?
Christians have grappled with this
question almost since day 1. For
some, a crossfit life is a life defined by following certain rules on
how to dress, what to eat, and how to worship. For others a crossfit life is a
life defined by what they don’t do:
the sins they avoid, the people they don’t hang out with, and
the secular (or worldly) events they don’t participate in. Those groups existed in the
early days of the church and they exist today. And before we come down too
hard on them for their legalism, I would like to suggest that they
have something important to tell us about living a life fitting of our
calling. They remind us
that we should not take our Christianity lightly and that our lives
must in some way show our desire to be worthy of a calling that takes
us beyond ourselves!
We are of such value to God that he
sent his son for us! We
are of such value to Jesus that he went to the cross for our sake. And we are of such value to the
Holy Spirit, that the Spirit chooses to dwell within us and among us. And despite our sins, despite
our unworthiness, and despite our brokenness, God has called us
here—to be God’s people! And
for that calling, we should all be grateful—very grateful and our
lives should show it!
Now I realize that most of you did not grow up
Methodist. So perhaps you don’t know that John Wesley, who started
the Methodist movement, never meant to start a new denomination.
Wesley was an Anglican priest in England, who, along with his brother,
Charles, gathered a group of men together to grow in their devotion
and service to Jesus Christ. They met daily for bible study, prayer
and service. They went to
the prisons. They fed the hungry. And they held each other accountable
for their lifestyles. They
asked tough questions of each other, such as “In what ways were you
most tempted this week?,” “Do you desire to be told of your
faults?,” and “Do you desire to be told of ALL your faults?” As a result, many people
thought they were religious fanatics and gave them such derogatory
names as “Bible Moths,” “Sacramentarians” (because they
emphasized Holy Communion), and the name that stuck “Methodists,”
because they were so methodical about their discipleship!
So John Wesley would be shocked by how much like
non-Christians most Methodists appear!
He would be appalled by how little we study our bibles, by how
casual we are about worship attendance, and especially by how
Methodists are often accused of doing whatever they want as long as
they love Jesus! He would
want to know what happened to the movement that began when a group of
men gathered out of gratitude for what God had done for them to seek
to live a crossfit life together.
A crossfit life—not doing what you please—is what Methodism
was all about!
A few years back there was a wonderful Italian
film called “Life is Beautiful,” a comedy about a man and his son
who are taken to a German concentration camp. When the movie won the Academy
Award for Best Foreign Film, Roberto Benigni, who co-wrote,
directed and starred in the movie, shocked everyone by climbing over
the backs of the seats of the auditorium and then applauding and
thanking the audience. When,
a bit later in the evening he won the Academy Award for best actor, he
continued his gush of gratitude finally announcing that he had “used
up all his English.” Later
when he was asked why he reacted so dramatically and immoderately, he
responded “It's a sign of mediocrity when you demonstrate gratitude
with moderation.”
When you are given a great gift,
when you are called to something so obviously beyond yourself, you
should be immoderately thankful.
Christians should not be moderate in their response to God. Our lives should show our
gratitude as we pour out our lives in response to Christ’s pouring
out his life for us.
And make no mistake, others are
watching us to see how much it matters to us that we say we believe in
Jesus!
Lately there have been a number of
studies of young adults and their attitudes toward religion and to the
church. And what the
studies have found is startling. The
good news is the young adults are very open to Jesus. The bad news is they don’t
see any connection between Jesus and the church. Young adults committed to
Christ are leaving the church because they don’t see the connection
between the things Jesus did and said and the priorities of most
Christians. Consistently,
they tell researchers that Jesus is great, but the church . . . well
it is hypocritical, judgmental, political, more concerned with itself
and its survival than with the needs of the world . . . and that’s
just the beginning of their list of complaints.
In other words, they have looked
at us and determined that we do not lead a crossfit life.
As a result, there are many voices
begging us-the church—the Body of Christ—to live a life worthy of
our calling—a life lived together in service to our one Lord. A life characterized by a
community that is humble, gentle, patient, loving, unified, and
peaceful. A community of
individuals who chose to come together to worship and serve the one
Lord and who bring their gifts, their talents, and their resources to
make a difference in the world for Jesus Christ.
If you want to get a
feel for what a community that lives a life worthy of its calling
would look like, read the book of Acts.
In the second chapter, we read, “All who believed were together and had all things
in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute
the proceeds to all, as any had need.
Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple,
they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous
hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And
day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.” (2:44-47) And in the fourth chapter: “Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart
and soul.” (4:32) Then there is my favorite
description of the early church, found in the 17th chapter
of Acts when those opposed to the church shout, “These people who have been turning the world upside down
have come here also!” (17:6)
If only we
lived a life so immoderately committed to Christ and to the world he
loves that the community around us would shout “These people—these
Methodists at New Life—have been turning the world upside down!” Oh to live a life that
worthy—a life that is only possible through the grace of Christ and
the power of the Holy Spirit! Oh
to live a life beyond ourselves—a life that is so large that we need
each other to live it!
As I’ve
mentioned before, this summer we are going to work together to discern
God’s vision for New Life. Together
we will seek to discover why God called us here to this congregation
and in this community and how God would like us to make a difference
in Grant for the kingdom. However,
a vision statement means little or nothing if we do not work together. We have to work together to
ensure that each one of us is working properly in order for the body
as a whole to be effective. We
have to work together to ensure we are crossfit!
This past
week, I had the privilege of attending part of the Festival of
Homiletics in Atlanta. On Monday night, Bishop Desmond Tutu spoke to
us. Now I can’t begin to
tell you how overwhelming it was to be in the presence of a man who
truly did help turn the world upside down! Yet, my first impression was of
how little he was. This
great man was simply a little black man in a purple cassock. Then he
began to speak. And he began by thanking Christians in the United
States for our part in overturning apartheid. But the thing I will
remember most happened at the end of his address when he reminded us
that we are the Body of Christ for the feeding of the world.
How true! Just as the bread is blessed,
broken, and given to us so we too are called to be blessed, broken and
given to the world!!! Just
as we are feed by the bread and the wine so too we are called to feed
a world that is hungry for spiritual and physical food! We are the body of Christ.
Then he
reached his arms out and said, “Go!
Be what you were created to be!”
Today you
have the opportunity to go and be what you were created to be! In just
a moment, the ushers will hand out our “Living Beyond Yourself”
brochure and we will give you a few moments as the band plays to
complete it. Then you will be invited to come forward and place it on
the altar as your commitment to Christ to live beyond yourself in
service to God and to God’s world through the ministries of this
congregation. If we are
going to turn this world upside down for Christ, we will need each one
of you—your gifts, your talents and your abilities. God created you and God called
you here. So now, Go! Be what you were created to be! Live beyond yourself. Be immoderately grateful. Live a crossfit life! So we can turn the world upside
down for Christ!
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