Introduction

This talk was given at St. Peter’s Church on 18 May 2025. Revd. Mark Fletcher explores God’s wisdom church, examining how the church embodies divine wisdom through community, resilience, and understanding that surpasses human knowledge. Discover how God’s plan for humanity unfolds through the church as His wisdom for the world.

Joni Mitchell once said, you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. And there’s truth there isn’t there? That we have this human tendency to fail to appreciate what we have while we have it. And I think it’s a tendency which makes us unhappy and unsatisfied. We are always wanting what we don’t have, and so we fail to appreciate what we do.

That’s true in life. It’s one of the driving forces of our consumer economy. But how much more true is that when it comes to the things that God has done for us? And there is this regular theme in scripture. Don’t forget what God has done for you. Remember his works. Tell the story and tell it again and celebrate it so that you do not forget.

So in that lovely reading, in this epistle to the Ephesians, Paul is praying for the church. He’s praying for this church in Ephesus, but by extension he’s praying for us. And it’s very interesting to see the way he prays. ‘Cause he has this conviction that the church is the very wisdom of God for the world. That you are here, not simply for yourself, but that this is God’s plan for humanity.

It is a high calling, but let’s dig into what he is saying about church. I’ve got three things. Three things that are who we are and what we are here for. The first is that church is a new kind of community. So the world can be a very lonely place. We are increasingly disconnected from one another. And families and extended communities have been breaking down for many years and the old ways of relating to one another are being lost. And the individualism that has replaced it simply hasn’t worked for us.

It gives us this freedom to define ourselves, and yet we are less sure of who we are. More anxious, less able to know who we can rely on or what our lives are for. And I think there’s a growing realization that community is essential for human beings and this is the wisdom of God and that church was his idea.

To give us a place which grants us a new belonging, a new identity. Verse 14 says, for this reason, I kneel before the father, through whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. Isn’t that a lovely picture that what this is is family? A place of relationships and of care and of mutual respect.

A place where we find dignity in relationship to one another. Where we sit alongside people who may be very different to us and yet we are brothers and sisters. It’s a church full of people who are not necessarily the people that we would choose, and yet that’s part of the wisdom of God. This rich and diverse community is there to help us find our place in the world.

But of course, that doesn’t just happen. That what Paul says is that comes from knowing that God is our father, because that’s the thing which takes people from being strangers to being brothers and sisters. Remember that part of the Lord’s Prayer where we pray: Our Father. It’s not an individual prayer, it’s a family prayer, and every time you pray that you’re praying alongside your brothers and sisters here and around the world.

One other detail, by the way. I’m struck that Paul talks about kneeling before the father. And the individualism, which so marks our world, I think, is deeply rooted in our pride. And discovering our place in God’s family does mean humbling ourselves. It’s why it can feel difficult sometimes. And of course, community isn’t easy.

But the wisdom of God is that by these relationships we are shaped and remade in his image. The wisdom of God is that this rich and diverse new community breaks down the divisions between us and helps us to find our place in his kingdom. So church is a new kind of community. Church also grants us a new resilience.

So I remember as a teenager going to church, not that regularly, but I would go and I went often for the simple reason that I knew that I would feel better when I went to church. Now it’s not a very sophisticated reason. But neither is it wrong. It was true. I did feel better when I went to church, and I’m sure you’ve had that experience too, of coming out of church, feeling better equipped to face the week ahead with a fresh perspective, a lightness of spirit being inspired and encouraged.

So verse 16, Paul writes, I pray that out of his glorious riches, he may strengthen you with power through his spirit in your inner being. I love that picture of a kind of increased inner strength, like a sort of spiritual core crunch exercise. Life can be very hard. We are often blown and buffeted by the storms of life and practicing faith and being part of church is like a core strengthening exercise. That as we learn to root ourselves in God and to be part of his people, we discover a quiet assurance that comes from knowing that we belong and that we are loved. I like the picture of a young tree. When a tree is first growing, it’s lacking in strength and it can be easily bent or even broken. But each year as it puts on rings, it grows in strength until it becomes incredibly strong and resilient.

And we can count the rings of our Christian life and see the way that we have grown stronger and more resilient. The way that the storms no longer affect us in the way that they once did. As we root ourselves in God and in His Word, as we are persistent in prayer, as we seek wisdom from His word and from one another, so we build that new resilience. One other picture from that as well is I’m struck that we weren’t meant to do this alone. A tree on its own, on a hillside might be a very beautiful thing, but it will always be vulnerable to the storms, whereas a tree that grows in a forest will be surrounded by the strength of others.

And when the storms come, they stand against it together. You were not made to live this life and to live out your faith alone. That this community is the wisdom of God to help you discover a resilience to face everything that life has to throw at you. Church is a place where we learn to rely on each other.

To learn wisdom. It gives us a new resilience. So it’s a new kind of community. It grants us a new resilience. And finally, it offers us a new understanding. Verse 17. I pray that you might have power to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge.

Knowledge is such a great thing. Kofi Annan once said, knowledge is power, information is liberation. Education is the premise of progress. And that’s true. And church has always been a place that celebrates knowledge. Throughout history and around the world, churches educate and help people to become literate and it liberates them with truth.

I think that there was something really transformative for me when I took my faith and my theology seriously, and that helped me to make sense of life, which up till that point, had just seemed deeply confusing. Good theology sets you free. However, knowledge is not enough. We live in a society that prides itself in its knowledge and yet seems to understand so little of the things that make life worth living. And the most important things in life are, in fact, beyond the scope of our knowledge. God does not show up under a microscope. Love is more important than we begin to understand. As Paul said in verse 19, we need to know this love, which surpasses knowledge. And so church has a vital job to do. We are here to teach the very wisdom of God. To help each other, to know that love, which surpasses knowledge, to share together that wisdom, which is tried and tested throughout the centuries.

To speak of truth and to speak of grace. And so we take our teaching and our preaching seriously. We take our study of scripture and our discussion seriously. We’re inspired by one another, that through the Holy Spirit we might grow in wisdom and stature and knowledge and grace, and know this love, which surpasses knowledge.

What we are here for is to build a community that displays the very wisdom of God, that shows the love of God for this world. It is a high calling, and of course we will fall short of that often. But perhaps even in our weakness, we display the very goodness of God and that requires each of us to play our part in this.

Each of us has a role to play. Each of us has gifts that we can’t do this without given by God. That we are called to live lives of faith and service and love for one another, to be the support that each other needs. To be the wisdom and the friend that each other needs. To be brothers and sisters. But if that sounds like a lot and it is, remember that it ultimately isn’t us doing it.

As verse 20 says. Now to him, who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to his power, that is at work within us. You see, that’s what God is doing. He is at work here. In this church and in churches around the world, through people like you and me. God is at work in all of this and within each of us.

And so remember with thankfulness what God has done and celebrate what God is doing. Tell the story again and again. And remember that what God has for us here, the very wisdom of God, is that he is building, a community of grace and truth, to display his wisdom to the world. Verse 21. To him, be glory. In the church and in Christ throughout all generations, forever and ever.

Can I get an amen? Amen.