Yesterday, in the senior adult Bible class, we were hacking on Ephesians 3 a little bit. Such a dense piece of scripture!
The section describes Paul’s identity in some interesting ways, and one of those in particular caught my attention. Paul is a steward of God’s grace, particularly God’s grace to the gentiles. As he proclaims the mystery which he has received, he is acting not just as a conduit for God’s message, but a manager, a caretaker of the grace of God. He stewards that grace in relationship to the Gentiles freely, but also with skill and wisdom.
That responsibility, the stewardship of grace to the Gentiles, was a very concrete concept for Paul. It is as a steward, charged with a responsibility of grace, that he interacts with Gentiles who have names and faces. They aren’t just a general race, but the actual persons he knew, love, and with whom he struggled. they are the people who would gather in house churches in particular cities like Corinth, Philippi, or Ephesus. These weren’t mythical cities, but actual particular locations, with streets and buildings, noises and smells. And to the people in those cities, Paul understood himself to be bound by a sacred charge to demonstrate, declare, and dispense the grace of God.
Most of us who understand ourselves to be disciples of Jesus understand that we have a role in passing on God’s grace to others. It is critical, though, that we move from that understanding, with it’s nameless faceless “others“, towards understanding that we have been charged with extending grace to specific, particular people. We can easily think of ourselves as “stewards” of God grace, but the important questions to ask is, “I am a steward of God’s grace to __________?”
I am most plugged into God’s call for my life when I have some names and faces to go with that question. The further away I get from being able to be specific, the closer I get to understanding it as a general “others”, the further I move from real engagement with God’s mission.
Think about it. Pray about it. Meditate on it. Scan facebook, drive around your city and look around, look through your cell phone’s address book, but start getting your head around this critical question:
Who is the flesh and blood embodiment of your mission to extend God’s grace to the world?
Excellent. God places each of us on a path and there are specific people on that path. It is easy to miss the “others” in our life if we are not even looking for them to begin with. We are starting something with our Life Transformation Groups (a group of 2-3 meeting once a week) here in Arequipa. Each of us writes down 5 names of people in our specific walk that need to be reconciled to Christ. That person’s name is not taken off of the prayer list until they are brought to Christ. I love how your challenge in this post is to get specific. It really is the only way it works.
Thanks for the comment, Megan! If what we think of our spiritual life remains only a vague and ambiguous sentiment, then it seems kind of gnostic to me!