Does Jesus Twitter?

Reflections
July 19, 2009

There is a saying that when we talk to God it is considered prayer, however, when we find God talking to us we are considered addled. I can say with some confidence that most mature people of faith have a few stories to tell around these issues. In Ephesians, the Apostle Paul is dealing with new believers who are receiving a great deal of spiritual information all at once, and not all of it from reliable sources.

Paul set out first to remind the community at Ephesus that they started out not knowing God, and it is only through the way of Jesus that their minds and hearts have been opened to another possible way to live. The phrasing he uses is almost poetic, “Remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise... but now you who were once far off have been brought near by his love. So then you are no longer strangers or aliens, but citizens along with the saints and also members of the household of God..” vv 11-12, 118-19

There was a great deal of consideration and argument over who belonged in the Christian community; on who was in and more importantly who was out. Determination of those belonging was at that time left to those who worshiped legalism wherein the many laws of Judaism were used as a matrix for the early followers of Jesus as the Christian tradition was emerging. Another common pattern in the early Church was for believers to attempt to carry their Native religious practices into the early Christian Church. Their validation was often said to come from the leading of the spirit. In Ephesus Paul is dealing with such an issue. The people believed they understood the word of God and the way of Jesus better than Paul and the early Church leaders, and Paul seeks to set them straight. Because Paul has first hand experience with answered prayer along with an active understanding of what Holy dialogue sounds and feels like his hope is to get the good people to listen a bit more before they speak. To we who live in a time of instant text messaging, and know first hand the power of the blog, this can seem a bit humorous.

Dr. Joey K. McDonald
First United Methodist Church
4832 Tujunga Avenue, North Hollywood, CA 91601