Ephesians 3:1-21: the innovative church

I have been pretty slack about posting over the last week to ten days.  Truth be told, for some reason I could never find the motivation to write.  I am sure you were all just about to die of anticipation waiting for my next post, and no doubt some of you were about to wear out the refresh button on your browsers.  (If you couldn't just feel the sarcasm in that last sentence, you don't know me very well.)

But alas, now I am feeling energized and up to the task of trying to put into written words what we have been exploring at church over the past few weeks.  Indeed, it was a good exercise for me to review the last few weeks and remind myself what it is we have learned.  Believe it or not, the sermons start to run together even in the preacher's mind.  

As I was looking back at Ephesians 3, which we covered a few weeks ago, I was reminded of this whole concept of mystery that plays such a big role in Ephesians.  Specifically, the mystery as Paul reveals it to us, "that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel."  In our day of multiculturalism, where our own country is referred to as "the melting pot", I am not sure we fully grasp how ground-breaking a concept this was at the time of the early church, and even how great-breaking a concept it continues to be.  

During my long stretch of unemployment, I remember watching this show on the History Channel (shocking I know), about the space shuttle.  Specifically, it was about all the different pieces of equipment that they use to service and maintain the space shuttle.  One of those pieces of equipment is extremely unique.  In fact, it is the only vehicle of its type ever created.  You see, they prep the space shuttle for launch in a different area than where the shuttle actually lifts off.  The problem with that is, how do you move a shuttle that is standing up with huge booster rockets strapped to it from the area where it is prepared, to the area where it is launched?  That's where this unique vehicle comes into play.  This vehicle, which is actually a huge platform with wheels, drives from the prep area to the launch pad with the shuttle standing on top of it.  The one mile trek is so tedious that it actually takes around twelve hours for the shuttle to make the trip.  You may be asking, why this random digression to talk about the space shuttle and some random platform with wheels?  Well, I brought it up to prove the point that when you are doing something new (traveling to space), inevitably you are going to have to invent new things to help you along the way.  

I know this to be true because Paul and other ancient Christians do the same thing in Ephesians 3 and elsewhere when they use the Greek word syssomos, which means "members of the same body".  Interestingly enough, this is a word used only by the early Christians, as it was invented specifically to describe what happens when Gentiles enter the church.  Even the church's spiritual heritage as it is found in the people of Israel failed to offer a pattern for the merging of Jew and Gentile.  While Judaism had its proselytes, there were still a few things that only those born into the people of Israel were allowed to participate in.  Yes proselytes were Jews, but they would never be as fully a part of Israel as those who were born into Jewish families.  That's why this idea of Jew and Gentile being members of the same body was such a revolutionary concept.  Participation was no longer based on the blood coursing through your veins, but rather on a shared allegiance to and faith in Jesus Christ.  It was such a new concept that they had to create new language to describe it.  Do we ever think of the church as innovative and groundbreaking like we see it in Ephesians, or do we get wrapped up in history and tradition, finding comfort in having things the way they have always been? 
I would love to say that we as the church today fully understand what it is Paul is telling us in Ephesians 3.  However, it would be hard to argue that point given the fact that Sundays are the most segregated time of the week.  There are reasons for that rooted in history, some tragic and some understandable; but those reasons don't change the fact that our churches are anything but examples of a gospel open to all people, of all colors, nationalities, genders, and languages.  If the power of the gospel to effect reconciliation and re-creation isn't displayed in our churches, how can we ever hope for it to be displayed in our world?