| Jesus and the End-Time The Church and the End-Time A Plan for the Fullness of Time |
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed union Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. He destined us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace which he lavished upon us. For he has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.As far as the church is concerned, there is only one story. The plot of the story is God's plan for the fullness of time. God is the storyteller. It is not incidental that this grand name for the story, a plan for the fullness of time, occurs in Paul's discussion of the Church. If there is only one story, then God is not presenting a smorgasbord of stories in which you get to pick the story you like best. It is cynical and shallow to suppose that the "Great religions of the world" are all essentially telling the same story, are at least stories of similar significance. There are flashes of truth in each, certainly, but their views of the ultimate meaning of things vary widely from one to another. As narrow as it may seem, there is only one plan for the fullness of time-therefore, one story. The key character in the story is Jesus. In the birth of Jesus, the Gospel affirms, the power of the universe was concentrated until it lived and breathed in a newborn Jewish baby. The events in the life of that baby are the most oft-told tales in the world. Well and good-but if you stop there, all you have is myth. It is no good telling the story of Jesus unless you tell the whole story. As far as the Bible is concerned, as far as the Church is concerned, the story continued. It still continues. The story of the Church is not a new story, but the continuation of the story of Jesus. That is how Luke saw it when he continued his story in the book of Acts. And that is how Paul saw it when he applied such glorious words to the Church in his letter to the Ephesians. Let me illustrate what I mean about having a myth if you do not hear the whole story. When I was fourteen, I went through the small village where we lived selling Christmas cards. I called upon a young neighbor woman of whom I was a little afraid because she had scolded me a few months before. (I had pushed her son into the mud. He was pestering me for some reason or other, but I was bigger than he was, so she had a point." She had a sharp tongue. She never went to church or even, as I recall, sent her children to Sunday school. SO I didn't know how she would receive me. To my surprise, she ordered cards. Further, she specified religious cards, because, she said, that was the real meaning of Christmas. I was astonished-and grateful for the sale. But as I reflect on it now, I cannot but conclude that the woman's position was impossible. She believed in a religious Christmas, but she did not believe in the Church, at least in any participative way. What she had was a mythical Christmas-the angels, shepherds, virgin, star, and infant were elements in a god-story cut off from the present moment, possessing reality only in its own environment but bearing no relation to persons and events in our time. Such a Christmas is beautiful-and that's all. If you have the whole story, on the other hand, Christmas and all that issues from it are part of history - of our own history. The Church is continuous with it. WE are part of the same story; and there is nothing mythical about a story when you are part of it yourself. If you are really going to accept Christmas or anything else that attracts you in the Gospel, you are going to have to accept the Church. For nothing integral to the story can be separated out of the church. It is the continuation of the story. "For he has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth." The Church is not the goal God has in mind: That is "to unite all things in him." But he is saying that the Church is the medium through which God's plan is revealed. "He has made known to us." The Church in the end-time-that is to say, the present time-bears responsibility on earth for being what Paul calls a little later in the chapter "the body of Christ." As such it does not stand apart from God's plan for the fullness of time. God has so designed his plan that the Church is integral to it. This is, in the best sense of the term, a high view of the Church.1 And no wonder: the same focus of divine attention that was once on Bethlehem and Calvary is now on your congregation and mine. Look at the words Paul uses to describe us. We are blessed and chosen and destined in love. The cross of Christ is that which incorporates us into the story. It is divine action, not divine decree, that does it. "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace which he lavished upon us." The Church receives the effects of Christ's redemption, not because Christ died only for the Church but because the Church is composed of those who have opened their hearts to receive them. SO the Church, not the world, becomes part of the story. They understand it well enough to participate in it. A modern parable of what I mean was once on the old television series "Father Knows Best." Father has two gifts for his son on the occasion of his graduation from high school-one a car, the other an heirloom watch. The boy is tipped off about the watch but not about the car, and he is furious. He wants a car badly and cares nothing for "Grandpa's old watch." IN his bad temper he picks a quarrel with the school authorities and becomes determined to boycott the commencement ceremonies. Then he has a change of heart, decides to go through with it and receives the watch with grace. He still doesn't know about the car, but as he takes the watch the meaning of what is happening dawns on him. The watch becomes important and the car unimportant. "It's funny how things change," he says, and Father replies, "Things don't change, Bud. People change." People change. Like Bud, they change in relationship to other people and grow. In receiving they understand and become participants. Christians receive-they understand and become participants in God's plan for the fullness of time. If this were a matter of hearing and believing only, we would not necessarily be participants. We are to "live for the praise of his glory," to focus the attention of the world on God just as he has focused his attention on us; just because we are supposed to do it is no reason to suppose that we will. Every religion has exalted goals and is full of good advice on how to fulfill them. Generally, the advice is more often given than taken. We must not confuse God's plan with religious advice. The Gospel is not good advice; it is good news. "In him you also, who have heard the word of truth, the gospel of you salvation, and have believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, which is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory." We enter into the story because we have been sealed with the Spirit. A seal in those days meant what it means today-the contents have not been tampered with. It is a guarantee of our salvation, of our identity as God's children and heirs. We are in by no act of our own, and we are kept by no faithfulness of our own. God does both for us. Paul is not speaking here about whether or not a Christian has the freedom to "drop out" of his relationship to God and the Church; that is another matter. The issue here is that we are part of the story entirely because of what God has done and guaranteed. So the Church continues the story-not because we are faithful, certainly not because we are "good," but simply because we are God's. WE are the people of the end-time because no one else has been designated. So let us be the people of the end-time. The time is as short as ever; the plan is running its course. 1 Austin Farrer, discussing his predecessors among the "High Churchmen" in the Church of England, had this to say: These were not men who wanted to make the Church high (whatever that may be supposed to mean)-they were men who took a high view of the Church. They valued it for what it was, as being divine, and they called upon their fellow-churchmen to exercise their privileges and to honour their inheritance. They could not accept the position of a sect or party without denying everything they stood for.Austin Ferrar, The End of Man, Eerdman's, 1974, p. 154. » Next Page — The Reward of the Church » Table of Contents » Home |