During last week’s N.T. Wright Summer Intensive, some 518 ministers and fellow believers gathered in our Sanctuary from around the world to think deeply through Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. We were led by one of the world’s foremost Pauline scholars, the Reverend Dr. Tom Wright. As our pastor likes to say, Christian scholarship today either agrees with Tom Wright or reacts against him; in Christian scholarship today, no one ignores Tom Wright.
During four days of intense study through Ephesians we learned, as Dr. Wright often repeated, that “the church is the small working model of God’s new creation to come.” Right now, in the present, our church’s life together lived in worship and witness through the Spirit that fills us is the advance sign for the world of God’s glory that shall fill the earth as the waters cover the seas. As the present model for God’s new creation to come, we are indeed at the living edge of God’s transformation of all things in Messiah Jesus. This means that South Main’s worship and witness not only exhibit new creation to come, we also form a buttress against the principalities and powers of this sinful world that are passing away. Though these powers are defeated by Jesus’ cross and resurrection, they rage in a last gasp and grasp at their stronghold against God’s purposes. The church, then, is called to worship and witness for God’s glorious presence against these powers. In so doing, we become part of the Messiah’s continued work. The good news is that Messiah Jesus has already won the victory over sin and death! Therefore, the church is called to hold the ground of new creation already won in the cross and resurrection. Our witness, then, on the leading edge of God’s new creation, is to live together in a manner that reflects our genuine humanness in Messiah Jesus. Such genuine humanness, mirroring Jesus Himself, is marked by kindness, peace, self-sacrificial love, and above all, grace. These surprising virtues are themselves the armor that buttresses us against the principalities and powers of sin and evil, and they are the positive witness of the fullness of God’s presence within us and the world, toward the day when all things are made new.
This incredible, cosmic vision of God’s plan in Messiah Jesus is extraordinary good news. But, don’t just take my word for it. Hear what several South Main Bible Study teachers took from this study:
Robert Ketchand
I was struck by two thoughts from the conference: the Old Testament was a rich source for Paul’s thinking about the Messiah Christ, and the promises of God are less about getting to Heaven and more about the service of the church on Earth.
Andrea Hoxie
While listening to Dr. Wright this week, I thought about how the word "church" is taken for granted and abused, and that if we were really sincere about "Jesus is Lord," how different our approach to everything would be. What if Paul’s letter to the Ephesians had been taken in proper context with regard to slavery? What if slavery had not been turned into the decimation and oppression of entire cultures and communities based on race and skin color? What if those with socio-economic power had acquiesced to the power of the Holy Spirit? Today’s Church would look far differently, and so would the world. The good news is that it is not too late to turn the church into what God intended it to be. We can start that right now.
Mike Shirl
What caught me as most significant this past week is the Church, and each church, stands at the dramatic and dangerous intersection of heaven and earth. It is like each member singing the same song in their unique voice and being heard to the benefit of some person in need right at the intersection of heaven and earth. The cross is both a symbol of and reality of where God meets each of us: in that place where heaven and earth meet—the cross of love and grace.
Toni Richerson
Dr. Wright presented an extravagant and thoughtfully prepared communication of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. Wright’s cultivating style of sowing and watering God’s truth and encouragement is a blessing indeed.
JoAnn Hopper
The study of Ephesians has provided for me a new meaning for the church and broadened my understanding of the work of the Church and what God expects of its members. I also felt the significance of Dr. Wright’s emphasis on Paul’s expectation of diversity in the Church.
Sam Law
Dr. Wright’s lessons on Ephesians 5:21 and following made the greatest impact on me. Paul's teaching on Christian marriage as a model of the New Creation was a new idea to me. Mutual submission in all areas of our Christian lives was also a new idea. I also liked his terminology of "Messiah people." It was very interesting and engaging; I hope he can come again in 2025.
Angela Spoede
I thought I had read and understood Ephesians before this week. Going through it with Dr. Wright really reminded me all over again of the beauty and complexity of Scripture. One thing I’m taking away from this study is a new commitment to praying Ephesians for my children and family—that God would give them the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, that they would live lives worthy of the calling they have received, and that they would learn to put on the full armor of God. Seeing the fullness of God’s plan for His people in Ephesians brought home to me the importance of living and speaking these truths into my own little corner of the model of new creation, my family.
Linda Brupbacher
Dr. Wright’s ideas on Ephesians which resonated with me:
- God's plan is that someday heaven and earth will come together (the new creation), and that the Church is a small working model of new creation. Therefore, it is one place and way that heaven and earth come together.
- When you fight fire with fire, fire wins.
- God’s wrath means that in this life you reap what you sow.
